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So, playing a game and our mighty party is composed of:
A level three Human Brawler,
A level three Half-Elf Rogue,
A level three Human Wizard,
A level three Human Fighter,
And a level three Half-Orc Oracle.
Jumping to the middle of the story: Party baits a murderous band of orcs that had been harassing travelers in to fighting. After a preemptive bless, and then opening with bane, the oracle uses sanctuary on himself, intending to heal the party with channel energy on the next round. But the orcs had been suffering from a case of lousy rolls for the entire fight, and it didn't end before they did.
So on the third round, with the entire party still at full health, he starts casting light on the orcs with the reasoning that "its dark out, if the orcs run it will be hard for the rest of the party to finish curb-stomping them." In the end, nobody ever actually bothered swinging at the oracle, they were too busy worrying about the cleaving, power attacking, nodachi fighter that was criting like it was his b-day.
That got me wondering though, does making your enemies glow in the dark with a cantrip end sanctuary?
You can't use Light that way. The target of the Light spell must be a touched object, and creatures are not objects. Also, you can only have one Light spell active at any one time, so even if you targeted an object worn by an Orc, you couldn't do that to multiple Orcs.
As to the more general question, Sanctuary says that "[t]he subject cannot attack without breaking the spell but may use nonattack spells or otherwise act." The CRB defines attacking spells fairly broadly.
Attacks: Some spell descriptions refer to attacking. All offensive combat actions, even those that don't damage opponents, are considered attacks. Attempts to channel energy count as attacks if it would harm any creatures in the area. All spells that opponents resist with saving throws, that deal damage, or that otherwise harm or hamper subjects are attacks. Spells that summon monsters or other allies are not attacks because the spells themselves don't harm anyone. So there are a lot of spells that qualify as attack spells, and would violate the conditions of Sanctuary even though they don't deal damage.
Gisher wrote: You can't use Light that way. The target of the Light spell must be a touched object, and creatures are not objects. Also, you can only have one Light spell active at any one time, so even if you targeted an object worn by an Orc, you couldn't do that to multiple Orcs.
As to the more general question, Sanctuary says that "[t]he subject cannot attack without breaking the spell but may use nonattack spells or otherwise act." The CRB defines attacking spells fairly broadly.
Attacks: Some spell descriptions refer to attacking. All offensive combat actions, even those that don't damage opponents, are considered attacks. Attempts to channel energy count as attacks if it would harm any creatures in the area. All spells that opponents resist with saving throws, that deal damage, or that otherwise harm or hamper subjects are attacks. Spells that summon monsters or other allies are not attacks because the spells themselves don't harm anyone. So there are a lot of spells that qualify as attack spells, and would violate the conditions of Sanctuary even though they don't deal damage.
Thank you for reminding me about the limit on light.
Are you arguing for it breaking sanctuary? or against it?
Anyways, light has no save, isn't affected by SR, and doesn't exactly harm/hamper a foe. That said, I dont usually see it used on a hostile guy's gear as a "death is busy right now but will be with you in a moment" spell either.
If the spell requires an attack roll; its an attack.
To 'touch' the creature's armor or equipment in combat would require an attack roll.
Also:
Quote: You can only have one light spell active at any one time. If you cast this spell while another casting is still in effect, the previous casting is dispelled. So you couldn't have affected more than one object on the orcs.
Light used on an opponent (in this case, an attended object held by an opponent) is an attack. For one thing, it would require a touch attack. You can only touch willing targets without a roll.
Bob Bob Bob wrote: Light used on an opponent (in this case, an attended object held by an opponent) is an attack. For one thing, it would require a touch attack. You can only touch willing targets without a roll. Though if they ID the spell with spellcraft, they could choose to be willing, and allow the spell to affect them without an attack roll.
Gisher wrote: You can't use Light that way. The target of the Light spell must be a touched object, and creatures are not objects. Also, you can only have one Light spell active at any one time, so even if you targeted an object worn by an Orc, you couldn't do that to multiple Orcs. Don't forget that the Light Spell doesn't generate "bright light" only "normal Light." So it doesn't affect the Orc's Light Sensitivity (Ex), since that only applies in areas of Bright light and within an area subject to the Daylight spell.
That said, there is a way to make the Light spell into a pretty annoying AoE debuff. The Solar Spell metamagic feat makes the Light spell pretty aggressive against certain opponents.
You all have a point, thank you for your help and time.
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