PFS Standard Invoke the Crimson Oath


Rules Discussion


Hello, I have a question about the Invoke the Crimson Oath spell.

Quote:
You can convert all the physical damage from this spell into positive damage against all undead creatures in the area.

If there are living creature in the area of the spell, does they take the physical damage or postive damage ?

Basic Fortitude save :
Critical Success You take no damage from the spell, hazard, or effect that caused you to attempt the save.
Success You take half the listed damage from the effect.
Failure You take the full damage listed from the effect.
Critical Failure You take double the listed damage from the effect plus specialization effect from the weapon
Is it right ?

Thanks for your future answer.


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Living creatures would still take the physical damage, even if you choose to convert it to positive against undead.

That quoted line doesn't say to convert the physical damage to positive. (full stop). it only applies to undead in the area.

Liberty's Edge

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I read it as no more physical damage to anyone but positive damage against all undead. So, unclear to me now.

Grand Lodge

I read it the same way as Raven Black.

IE You convert (all physical damage from this spell) into (positive damage against undead).

To mean the other it would have be be worded:
You convert all physical damage against undead into positive damage.

Sczarni

That's a tough one. Is it:

[convert] [all the physical damage] [into] [positive damage against all undead]

Or

[against all undead] [convert] [all the physical damage] [into] [positive damage]

Very different effects.

The first reading is how the spell is presented. The second requires some word play.

Oh, English.


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You convert physical to positive "against all undead creatures" so non-undead creatures are affected by the spell normally.


Quote:
when you gain this feat, you become trained in divine spell attacks and spell DCs. Your key spellcasting ability for these spells is Charisma.

Crimson oath devotion :

Quote:
You become an expert in divine spell attacks and spell DCs.

Is it possible to become master or legendary in divine spell attacks and spell DCs regardless source for the proficiency ?

The prerequisites for reclaimant plea is : ability to cast divine spells.

Does a focus spell as invoke the crimson oath match to the prerequisites "abilty to cast divine spells" ?

Quote:
You can select this feat a third time at 18th level, gaining either a third spell from the list above, death ward, flame strike, or sunburst, which you can cast once per day; additionally, all three spells from this feat heighten to 7th level, and you become a master of divine spell attacks and spell DCs.

Does the master proficiency apply itself on "invoke the crimson oath" spell ?

Liberty's Edge

1) Yes, your base class doesn't need to be able to cast spells to gain spellcasting proficiency from other sources, like archetypes, though you won't be getting legendary spellcasting proficiency from anything other than being a full actual spellcaster.

2) Invoke the Crimson Oath says it's a divine spell, so it counts as being able to cast divine spells. If Reclaimant Plea needed something more specific, it would probably say something like "ability to cast divine spells from spell slots."

3) Since it's a divine spell, the DC for it is calculated using your divine spell proficiency, which can be increased by feats like Reclaimant Plea.


So a witch with divine spells from fervor patron function although the character uses his/her Intelligence modifier for theses spells ?

Horizon Hunters

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Yes, Divine is not by default a Wisdom based tradition. None of the traditions are default anything.

Sorcerers, Summoners, and Oracles use Cha
Witches use Int
Clerics use Wis

It's the same for other traditions too

For Arcane:
Cha - Sorcerer, Summoner
Int - Magus, Witch, Wizard
Wis - None

For Occult:
Cha - Bard, Psychic, Sorcerer, Summoner
Int - Psychic, Witch
Wis - None

For Primal:
Cha - Sorcerer, Summoner
Int - Witch
Wis - Druid


Quote:
You deal normal melee damage for your weapon, including all appropriate bonuses, penalties, modifiers, and properties, to each creature in the spell’s area; they must each attempt a basic Fortitude save.

If the weapon has the grapple trait, is it possible to grapple opponents with the crimson oath spell ?


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No


Quote:
You must be wielding a melee weapon

Is it possible to use unarmed attacks to use invoke crimson oath ?

For example, with medusa's wrath, it's possible to use melee weapon with monastic weapon feat, is it right ?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Waldham wrote:
Quote:
You must be wielding a melee weapon
Is it possible to use unarmed attacks to use invoke crimson oath ?

No. Unarmed attacks are not weapons.

Quote:
For example, with medusa's wrath, it's possible to use melee weapon with monastic weapon feat, is it right ?

Yes, but this doesn't imply anything about Invoke The Crimson Oath. That's the specific rule of Monastic Weaponry applying to monk abilities. So not an example, but a totally unrelated question.


Quote:
You deal normal melee damage for your weapon, including all appropriate bonuses, penalties, modifiers, and properties, to each creature in the spell’s area; they must each attempt a basic Fortitude save.

What means properties above ?


With Nonlethal Takedown feat and using Invoke crimson oath, the undead is taking positive damage and the other living creatures is taking non lethal physical damage, is it right ?


Waldham wrote:
Quote:
You deal normal melee damage for your weapon, including all appropriate bonuses, penalties, modifiers, and properties, to each creature in the spell’s area; they must each attempt a basic Fortitude save.
What means properties above ?

Silver for example. If you were using a silver weapon, it would still add the silver property to the damage.

Waldham wrote:
With Nonlethal Takedown feat and using Invoke crimson oath, the undead is taking positive damage and the other living creatures is taking non lethal physical damage, is it right ?

Positive is a damage type that all of the damage types normally done by the attack would be converted to. So if the weapon normally does piercing damage, it would instead be dealing positive damage to the undead. If a weapon does slashing damage and has a Flaming rune, it would normally be dealing slashing damage and fire damage. Both of those would be converted to Positive damage.

Nonlethal is a trait of the attack, not a damage type. So it would not be converted or removed by Invoke the Crimson Oath.

So if you use Nonlethal Takedown to add the Nonlethal trait to the Invoke the Crimson Oath attack, all of the living and undead creatures would be taking nonlethal damage. The damage type of the living creatures would be nonlethal weapon damage, and the undead would be taking nonlethal positive damage.


Nonlethal Takedown :

Quote:
You prefer to use nonlethal means against living opponents, [u]but the weapons you carry are lethal enough to destroy undead[/u]. You don't take the normal –2 circumstance penalty when attacking nonlethally with a weapon that lacks the nonlethal trait.

If you looked above the underlined sentence, it's lethal for undead, no ?

For example, death drinking is a weapon property rune. Does it apply with crimson oath ?


Unfortunately, the forums here don't support underline. I can see the tags though, so I know what you are looking at.

Waldham wrote:
If you looked above the underlined sentence, it's lethal for undead, no ?

Most weapons do deal lethal damage to undead. That is basically the point of that entire sentence (not just the underlined part).

Your character is in a dilemma. You fight undead and want to kill them, and need very dangerous and lethal weapons to do it - like swords, axes, and flails. But you also run into living enemies too and would prefer to not kill them with your very dangerous undead-destroying weapons. But you also can't afford to carry around extra weapons with the nonlethal trait to use on living enemies. So instead you have learned techniques to use your very lethal undead-killing weapons in a gentle way so that they don't actually kill your living targets.

None of that changes how the mechanics of the nonlethal trait works.

Waldham wrote:
For example, death drinking is a weapon property rune. Does it apply with crimson oath ?

Deathdrinking rune already does positive damage to undead. So Invoke the Crimson Oath doesn't need to convert it. And still, if you make your attack nonlethal, the damage that the Deathdrinking rune does is also nonlethal.


Now, with all of that wording analysis out of the way - there is the player enjoyment aspect to consider too.

If a player is facing a group of undead and living targets intermixed and wants to use Invoke the Crimson Oath to AoE damage all of them, and wants to do the nonlethal damage to the living, and knows that undead are sometimes immune to nonlethal damage (though not always) - then it may be good to houserule that it does work that way despite what the feat and trait interactions say.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

As a small note, undead being immune to nonlethal is somewhere between "incredibly rare" and "nonexistent".

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