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Building a Heavens Oracle (Ancient Lorekeeper) for a RotRL run and I have a few questions about how some of this works. First off, the text of the rules in question:
Awesome Display: Your phantasmagoric displays accurately model the mysteries of the night sky, dumbfounding all who behold them. Each creature affected by your illusion (pattern) spells is treated as if its total number of Hit Dice were equal to its number of Hit Dice minus your Charisma modifier.
It seems pretty straightforward until the seemingly unnecessary insertion of the term 'total number of Hit Dice'. Let's say that I take the spell Loathsome Veil as one of my bonus spells via Ancient Lorekeeper...
Loathsome Veil: This spell creates a transparent veil of shifting, multicolored strands of light that form into endlessly varied and alien patterns. One side of the veil, chosen by you at the time of casting, is harmless. The other side twists and turns into impossible shapes, affecting any creature with 60 feet who views the veil. The veil affects a maximum of 24 Hit Dice of creatures. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first. Among creatures with equal HD, those who are closest to the spell are affected first. The effect is according to the creature’s HD.
4 HD or fewer: The creature is nauseated while it can see the veil, nauseated for 1d4 rounds after it last saw the veil, then sickened for 2d4 rounds after it last saw the veil.
8 HD or fewer: The creature is nauseated for 1d4 rounds, sickened while it can see the veil, then sickened for 1d4 rounds after it last saw the veil.
A successful saving throw ignores all effects of the veil. Sightless creatures are not affected by loathsome veil. Affected creatures can avert or close their eyes to avoid seeing the veil, similar to avoiding a gaze attack.
So, as a for instance, when an Oracle with a 20 Charisma (+5 mod) casts this spell where it would potentially affect 24 creatures of 6 HD each, the following questions:
How many of those creatures would the spell affect? All 24, since 6 HD minus the Oracles CHA mod (+5) equals 1, and 24 x 1 equals 24 HD? Or would it just affect the 4 closest with Awesome Display only being considered when determining what type of effect the spell has?
What would be the actual effect? Would it be the entry for 4 HD or fewer since 6 HD minus the Oracles CHA mod (+5) equals 1? Or would it be the entry for 8 HD or fewer with Awesome Display only being considered when determining the number of creatures affected by the spell?
Finally, a question specific to Loathsome Veil itself - the effect is described as follows:
"transparent pattern 40 ft. long, 20 ft. high"
Can that pattern be shaped, as a wall, or is it more like a single sheet? Could I, for instance, make a circle around me (effectively a circle with a 2 square/10' radius with me inside of it)? Does the Veil have to be vertical? Could I lay it along a ceiling or floor, or in the open sky, for example? Does it have a 'thickness', i.e. would it run along the edge of a square or would it be considered to fill a square along its length?
Finally, does the veil create any sort of cover or concealment? Can those standing on the 'good' side of the veil see through to those on the other side without impairment and, regardless of whether they make their saving throws, can those on the bad side see through it without difficulty as well?
Thanks in advance for any insight.
unless it has the (S) bit next to the shape i think it is, it's not shapeable
As for the other bit, I would certainly rule that each creature's hit dice were treated as [their hit dice - your CHA mod] for the purposes of how many creatures your Veil can affect.
Which means, in your given example, I do in fact believe you can affect all 24 creatures, and nauseate all of them if they fail their saves.
I do recall that option being talked about as really powerful, so it probably does work that way
unless it has the (S) bit next to the shape i think it is, it's not shapeable
That makes sense, but does it need to be anchored and does it need to be vertical in orientation?? Can it be suspended in the air, for instance, or along a floor?