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Hello!
I'm having some trouble parsing the wording for Circle of Protection into something that makes sense to me.
wording (lifted from archives of nethys http://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=38)
You ward a creature and those nearby against a specified alignment. Choose chaotic, evil, good, or lawful; this spell gains the opposing trait. Creatures in the area gain a +1 status bonus to AC against attacks by creatures of the chosen alignment and to saves against effects from such creatures. This bonus increases to +3 against effects from such creatures that directly control the target and attacks made by summoned creatures of the chosen alignment. Summoned creatures of the chosen alignment can't willingly enter the area without succeeding at a Will save; repeated attempts use the first save result.
My question is about this sentence: This bonus increases to +3 against effects from such creatures that directly control the target and attacks made by summoned creatures of the chosen alignment.
Who is the target? Is it the enemy or the allies in my aura? I get the "attacks made by summoned creatures of the chosen alignment" part. Thanks in advance.
"effects from such creatures that directly control the target"
So the target is determined by that effect. If a creature of the chosen alignment has an ability like a Dominate spell, which directly controls the target of that effect, then creatures inside of your circle of protection would have the +3 Status bonus to saves against that dominating effect. You aren't trying to parse a target of the circle of protection.
I'm having some trouble parsing the wording for Circle of Protection into something that makes sense to me.
Well, let's see if we can help. I'm just going to go through the entire spell text since it will be easier for me that way.
You ward a creature and those nearby against a specified alignment. Choose chaotic, evil, good, or lawful; this spell gains the opposing trait.
Starts out simple enough.
Also, from the header of the spell, the range is 'touch' and the target is any creature (usually an ally). So you don't have to see, or be aware of, or overcome resistance of the enemies that you are trying to protect against. The target is the ally, or yourself, that you are putting the spell on.
Creatures in the area gain a +1 status bonus to AC against attacks by creatures of the chosen alignment and to saves against effects from such creatures.
Awesome. +1 status bonus to AC and saves. But only against all creatures (friend or enemy) that are of the alignment chosen when the spell was cast.
This bonus increases to +3 against effects from such creatures that directly control the target
These are the mind-control spells that Hammerjack was talking about. The bonus to saves against those spells is +3 instead of the +1 normally.
and attacks made by summoned creatures of the chosen alignment.
So if those affected creatures that would normally get the +1 bonus are summoned creatures, the bonus increases to +3 against those creatures instead.
Summoned creatures of the chosen alignment can't willingly enter the area without succeeding at a Will save;
So those summoned creatures also can't enter the spell's area of effect around the targeted creature without the Will save.
repeated attempts use the first save result.
And they can't keep trying. If they fail the Will save once, they continue to fail against it.
It isn't mentioned, but if the targeted creature moves and moves the area of effect and the enemy creatures end up in the area as a result, they don't have to leave it.
My question is about this sentence: This bonus increases to +3 against effects from such creatures that directly control the target and attacks made by summoned creatures of the chosen alignment.
Who is the target? Is it the enemy or the allies in my aura? I get the "attacks made by summoned creatures of the chosen alignment" part. Thanks in advance.
Hopefully that answers your questions about the specific circumstances that cause the bonus to increase to +3. Summoned creatures and mind-control spells. Or similar effects.
And the target is one ally. There are other creatures that are also affected by the spell. All of the creatures in the area gain the protection. The protection effect happens against all attacks and spells coming from creatures of the selected alignment whether they are inside that area or not.
And I agree. After carefully reading through that spell myself, it is definitely not an easy one to catch all of the details of.
Maybe a complex example to help catch all of these various cases and scenarios.
You are a Bard. Your friend is a Barbarian. You encounter a Witch and a Wizard that attack you.
You hope that some of these enemies have Evil alignment, so you cast Circle of Protection and choose Evil to protect against. You target your Barbarian friend.
At this point, both you and the Barbarian are inside the spell's area of effect.
The Witch happens to only have Neutral alignment instead of Evil, so when the Witch casts a spell or attacks, the Circle of Protection will not have any effect. No change to the AC or save bonus for the target of spells or attacks from the Witch.
The Wizard does have Evil alignment. So when the Wizard casts Electric Arc on you both, you will get a +1 bonus to the save against it.
If the Witch casts Command, the Circle of Protection would still not provide any benefit. Because the Witch doesn't have Evil alignment (the alignment chosen when the spell was cast).
If the Wizard casts Dominate, the Circle of Protection would give a +3 bonus to the save against it. Because the Wizard casting the spell is Evil and the spell is trying to directly control one of you.
If the Witch casts Summon Animal and summons a badger with neutral alignment, the Circle of Protection won't have any effect on that badger's attacks either. Because the Circle of Protection only protecting against Evil creatures.
If the Wizard summons a Vermelek that has Evil alignment, the Circle of Protection will give a +3 bonus to attacks and other effects that the summoned Vermelek makes instead of only the +1 that it gives to attacks from the Wizard. Also the Vermelek won't be able to come inside the 10 foot emanation area of the spell without making a Will save.
If the Witch instead summoned the Vermelek, the Circle of Protection would still give the +3 bonus against its attacks and prevent it from entering the area. All that the spell is concerned about is that the creature causing the attack is Evil and is a summoned creature. It doesn't matter who summoned it.
And finally, if the Barbarian charges forward to attack and leaves you behind, you are no longer in the area of the Circle of Protection spell since you are more than 10 feet away from the Barbarian who is the target of the spell. At that point, the Evil Wizard and the summoned Evil creatures can attack you normally.
As for the meaning of 'effects ... that directly control the target', I read that as spells or similar effects that give specific actions that the target has to take. So things like Command or Dominate would qualify.
Spells that give strong incentive to do something don't qualify. So spells like Heat Metal wouldn't get the increase bonus.
Spells that physically force the target around also don't qualify. This would be spells like Gust of Wind or Hydraulic Push.
Spells that prevent a creature from doing anything, or from doing it as effectively also don't qualify. This would include spells like Slow or Entangle.
And finally, spells that apply conditions wouldn't qualify either. So the Fear spell can cause the Fleeing condition on a critical failure, the spell is still only indirectly controlling the target. The spell applies the Fleeing condition, and the Fleeing condition is what is controlling the affected character.