are supernatural abilities spells


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There's precious few FAQs later than Jan 14, 2018. None that did follow this date address this. I think Paizo was already focused on PF2 to the exclusion of reviewing earlier work on PF1 noticeably before this date.


That's what I figured when I checked the FAQ list and saw nothing, but I figured I might have missed something.


I guess I might as well ask anyway in case my specific question on the "are supernatural abilities spells" is at least moderately different than the original spark:

In a Monster's Special Abilities, does a supernatural ability that works "as per the spell" but also says "can be resisted with a Will Save" alert someone to the ability, giving them the "vague hostile tingle" as if they had saved from a non-obvious spell.

The specific ability in question is Rakshasa's Detect Thoughts. It functions as the spell of the same name, but is not a "spell", it's just a thing they are virtually always doing (except for when they are expecting the 28+ Int wizard to drop by). If they are always using it to read people's minds, and with a rather low will save of 18, a lot of people around them will begin to get frequent twitchy, hostile feelings if it actually alerts people when they save. Normally supernatural abilities don't alert people to them when they save (see Witch hexes), but how does that interact with "as per the spell"?

Either way, I think even a weak Rakshasa could just bluff away the sensation as nothing or at least not coming from something they did, but I think my contention/distaste is also to do with how the "vague" feeling one gets from saving from a spell is either a meaningless rule or functionally a radar for social monsters like a Rakshasa. Would be nice to know if I even need to care about trying to solve the second part.


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Since it says as per the spell, I would say yes, they get the vague hostile tingle if they saved. Rakshasa are careful crafty creatures. Spamming their abilities until it sticks because it's undetectable is a good way to get your players to feel like they lack agency. Which is what the alternative pretty much amounts to.

A Rakshasa will likely do things to obfuscate anyone figuring them out so being in a crowd, drugging their target, or getting their target drunk are all methods they might employ to get the info they seek.


My contention is the tingling effect is a rule that applies to spells as a whole, not a particular spell. Same way if you have a metamagic feat, something that applies to spells and only a spells, you can't use it on a supernatural ability even if it duplicates a spell.


They are magic, but not spells. I base this on Spell Resistance, which does not apply to Supernatural abilities. The Feat Arcane Energy allows you to convert spell power to a supernatural rays that does an untyped damage (arcane). Note it even says "convert". These are not subject to spell resistance. But, they do not work in an anti-magic field.

Thus a supernatural ability is NOT a spell, but IS magic.

My two cents!

Arcane Blast
You can convert any spell into an attack.

Prerequisites: Arcane spellcaster, caster level 10th.

Benefit: As a standard action, you can sacrifice a prepared spell or unused spell slot of 1st level or higher and transform it into a ray, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. This attack deals 2d6 points of damage plus an additional 1d6 points of damage for every level of the spell or spell slot you sacrificed. 0-level spells may not be sacrificed in this manner.

This is a supernatural ability.

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