Spell Questions - Entropic Grasp

[Cellion]

Hi All! I'm coming in with a complicated set of questions around one very strangely written spell...

Starfinder CRB wrote:

Entropic Grasp T3

School transmutation
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch

Targets one nonmagical manufactured object (or the volume of the object within a 3-ft.-radius of the touched point) or one manufactured creature touched each round
Duration see text
Saving Throw Fortitude negates (object); Spell Resistance no

Any unattended, manufactured (built from component parts, including metal, wood, plastic, glass, and so on) item you touch crumbles into dust, rust, and decay. If the item is so large that it can’t fit within a 3-foot radius, a 3-foot-radius volume of the material is destroyed. This is an instantaneous effect.

You can employ entropic grasp in combat by making a melee attack against your opponent’s EAC. If you hit, you instantaneously reduce a manufactured armor’s KAC and EAC bonus by 3 (to a minimum of a +0 bonus). Damaged armor can be repaired using the Engineering skill; with a successful check, the armor’s armor bonuses are restored to their original values. Against a manufactured creature (generally constructs, but not undead), this attack instead deals 6d12 damage.

Weapons and equipment in use by an opponent are more difficult to affect with this spell. You attempt a sunder combat maneuver against the item. If successful, you deal 6d6 damage to the weapon or item.

Used in combat, this spell lasts 1 round per level, and you can make one melee attack each round on future rounds as a standard action. The target can attempt a save to negate each melee attack, but success does not end the spell.

Casting this spell doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity.

Has anyone used this spell? If so, have you thought about any of the following questions and worked out reasonable answers for them?:

A starship is a very large manufactured object. An automatic door in a building is also a large manufactured object. When do these objects count as being attended? As written, this spell seems to be able to vaporize any secure door of any hardness, punching a 3ft radius hole in it.

What is the Engineering skill check to restore a damaged armor? How long does it take and what are the DCs?

When making a sunder maneuver using this spell, do you add bonuses for Improved Combat Maneuver to your attack roll?

Does damage from the sunder maneuver bypass hardness? (As written no, but this means it has a good chance of having no effect at higher levels)

How does this spell have a different duration if cast in combat? For example: if during combat I want to vaporize the space station's airlock door, why does that only use up one round vs. using up the whole spell if I want to do that out of combat?

Does the part about "the target can attempt a save to negate each melee attack" apply to the attack vs. manufactured creatures? What about the attack vs. an opponent's armor to reduce its AC? What about the sunder maneuver? I'm not clear if its intended to apply to all of these or not based on the wording.

Does the "nonmagical" target restriction apply to attempts to sunder or reduce AC?

[breithauptclan]

I haven't actually used the spell. But here are my thoughts reading through the spell text quoted:

1) Plot. Talk with the GM. It could be that security doors should be treated as attended (they are attending themselves? dunno). If it is going to break the story, it is good to know that to begin with.

2) The rules for crafting items has the DCs for crafting and repairing as well as how long it takes.

3) I would think you would add your bonuses from feats when making a combat maneuver using the spell.

4)

Quote:

You can employ entropic grasp in combat by making a melee attack against your opponent’s EAC.

Quote:

Used in combat, this spell lasts 1 round per level

If you are attacking a person's equipment with it, it lasts one round per level. And it only damages their equipment rather than vaporizing 113 cubic feet of material.

Using it out of combat and completely vaporizing large blocks of stuff is one chunk per casting.

5) I think that characters will make saving throws against spells in behalf of the equipment that they are using. But that may just be a holdover in thinking from previous editions of D&D/Pathfinder. And yes, manufactured creatures would also be making their own saving throws against the spell each time they are affected by it.

6) Technically, with the way that the target rule line is written; no, only a non-creature object needs to be non-magical. A magical constructed creature would still be a valid target.

[Metaphysician]

A third level spell is a fairly hefty investment. Note that you have to be at least 7th level to cast Entropic Grasp. Also, picking this spell means not picking other spells, when your spell selection is relatively finite.

Therefore, I don't really see a problem with it allowing you to blow a hole in most barriers that are less than three feet thick. If something really needs to be secure, than the GM can always just say that the walls are more than three feet thick, and/or important portions are shielded with force effects. Otherwise, its no different than any other case where a spell lets you bypass certain encounters. Teleport, Charm Person, and Summon _____ also let you bypass various kinds of encounters.