Bad wording


Necromancer Class Discussion


We have a potential problem caused by the wording in Create Thrall. Create Thrall states that “you can have up to one thrall created by this spell make a melee unarmed Strike using your spell attack modifier for the attack roll” but this directly goes against the thrall trait which states “ They can’t take actions”. Now I and probably most people understand what the intent of this is but it creates a classic RAW vs RAI situation. Better wording for creat Thrall would be “you can make a melee unarmed strike with one of the thralls created by this spell using your spell attack modifier for the attack roll”. This wording makes it clear it’s not the thrall taking the action but instead the necromancer. This wording or something similar will help eliminate some potential problems and unnecessary confusion


That won't help much since there's plenty of other abilities that make thralls take actions usually a Stride.

The wording change needs to happen in the Thrall trait to something like "can't take actions unless one of your abilities makes them take said actions".


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tytalan wrote:
We have a potential problem caused by the wording in Create Thrall. Create Thrall states that “you can have up to one thrall created by this spell make a melee unarmed Strike using your spell attack modifier for the attack roll” but this directly goes against the thrall trait which states “ They can’t take actions”. Now I and probably most people understand what the intent of this is but it creates a classic RAW vs RAI situation. Better wording for creat Thrall would be “you can make a melee unarmed strike with one of the thralls created by this spell using your spell attack modifier for the attack roll”. This wording makes it clear it’s not the thrall taking the action but instead the necromancer. This wording or something similar will help eliminate some potential problems and unnecessary confusion

IMO the Create Thrall spell description falls under hood of more specific rule than trait that is more general rule that acts over many other things that uses or interact wit this trait. So IMO there's no real wording problem.

Specific Overrides General - Source Player Core pg. 399 2.0 wrote:
A core principle of Pathfinder is that specific rules override general ones. If two rules conflict, the more specific one takes precedence. If there's still ambiguity, the GM determines which rule to use. For example, the rules state that when attacking a concealed creature, you must attempt a DC 5 flat check to determine if you hit. Flat checks don't benefit from modifiers, bonuses, or penalties, but an ability that's specifically designed to overcome concealment might override and alter this. While some special rules may also state the normal rules to provide context, you should always default to the general rules presented in this chapter, even if effects don't specifically say to.

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