[PF] How does this magic item work?

[Barstro]

I just received an item in Serpent's Skull.

CL 9th
Cast Scare 1/day

Scare
EFFECT
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets one living creature per three levels, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart
Duration 1 round/level or 1 round; see text for cause fear
Saving Throw Will partial; Spell Resistance yes

DESCRIPTION
This spell functions like cause fear, except that it causes all targeted creatures of less than 6 HD to become frightened.

Cause Fear
EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one living creature with 5 or fewer HD
Duration 1d4 rounds or 1 round; see text
Saving Throw Will partial; Spell Resistance yes

DESCRIPTION
The affected creature becomes frightened. If the subject succeeds on a Will save, it is shaken for 1 round. Creatures with 6 or more HD are immune to this effect. Cause fear counters and dispels remove fear.

My interpretation;
Scare is cast as a Level 9 spell, so up to three creatures can be targeted.
Those creatures can be of any HD
If any creature is 1-5HD, there is no save, it is automatically frightened for 1 round/level
Any creature with 6+ HD gets a saving throw (Will) to be only shaken for 1 round

What is the saving throw?

From SRD
Magic items produce spells or spell-like effects. For a saving throw against a spell or spell-like effect from a magic item, the DC is 10 + the level of the spell or effect + the ability modifier of the minimum ability score needed to cast that level of spell.

If CL trumps the above rule;
19 (10+[CL of 9])

Otherwise
13 (10+[Spell Level 2]+[Int of 12 (+1)])

Or is it something else?

[Kudaku]

I'm not entirely certain if I understand your question, but I believe you're asking what the save DC of the item is when you cast Scare.

You quoted the relevant text from PFSRD, which should make it clear --> the DC is 10 + level of the spell (2) + the ability score modifier minimum to cast the spell (12, so +1). The DC for the spell's will save is 13.

The caster level of the item is 9, so it can target up to three targets. If a target fails the will save, he is frightened for 9 rounds.

Edit: Reread your post, think I understand your question better now. The PFSRD quote refers to the spell's level, not the caster level. Caster Level does not influence spell save DCs.

[TuggyNE]

Kudaku is correct.


My interpretation;
Scare is cast as a Level 9 spell, so up to three creatures can be targeted.
Those creatures can be of any HD
If any creature is 1-5HD, there is no save, it is automatically frightened for 1 round/level
Any creature with 6+ HD gets a saving throw (Will) to be only shaken for 1 round

Targeted creatures, unfortunately, are still limited to 6 HD; scare gives you exactly three things: a higher spell level and thus a higher DC, multi-targeting capability ("causes all targeted creatures"), and a longer duration on a failed save (1 round/level instead of 1d4 rounds).

It does not remove the HD cap or otherwise affect the limitations of cause fear.

[Barstro]

Thanks for the responses

Ignore the rest. While I still think I'm correct on the grammatical construction of the spell, that interpretation would make it too powerful for a level 2 spell. But I also think that the "actual" way the spell works is too weak for a level 2 spell. By the time you get to use it on more than one target, you stop encountering those targets.

It's like being allowed to eat all the raw cookie dough you want, but not being able to do so until you are 50.


The PFSRD quote refers to the spell's level, not the caster level. Caster Level does not influence spell save DCs.

And that's part of my confusion. If the caster level is 9, then I thought that it might mean that saves are based on a caster of level 9.


It does not remove the HD cap or otherwise affect the limitations of cause fear.

Here's why I thought differently. Is there anything (errata or other discussion) you can point me to that explains why I'm wrong?

Taking Scare alone
Target is 1 creature for every three levels (No HD restriction)
If there is a HD restriction, it should have been added to the spell description
Any creature with fewer than 6 HD is automatically frightened

But why does it cross-reference Cause Fear?
If it really acted just like Cause Fear, the description could have been "Mass Cause Fear, this is the same as Cause Fear, but affects up to X creatures, with 5 or fewer HD". However, it does not do that. It provides a different description and different type of target.

I don't disagree with your statement, as it is the other interpretation I came up with as well (and is why I asked the question), but I also do not see any language that goes against my initial interpretation. Quite frankly, if your interpretation is correct, I fail to see why this spell exists. By the time someone can effect more than two creatures, the person will never run into creatures with such low HD.

[TuggyNE]

Thanks for the responses

Ignore the rest. While I still think I'm correct on the grammatical construction of the spell, that interpretation would make it too powerful for a level 2 spell. But I also think that the "actual" way the spell works is too weak for a level 2 spell. By the time you get to use it on more than one target, you stop encountering those targets.

That's more a problem of unfortunate encounter design than anything else; the intent early in 3.x was for encounters of substantially lower EL than APL to be reasonably common, and also for a number of equal-EL encounters to be made up of a number of weaker enemies, as many as a dozen or more. In such cases, scare might reasonably be useful from time to time as far as level 14 (16 6-HD CR 6 enemies is an EL 14 encounter).

A lot of modules ignore that, for various reasons, so a lot of DMs follow their lead in skipping the recommended proportions. In turn, this makes AoE spells less valuable and single-target spells and charging more unbalanced.