glitterdust and multi-headed creatures

[Raezeman]

Question is pretty obvious: what happens when you catch a multiheaded creature in a glitterdust spell? Is it a will save per head, with only those heads that failed blinded, or is it one will save and all heads blinded if failed.
For example, my players will encounter a hydra pretty soon, and if i now the sorcerer of my group, he will cast glitterdust on it. Do i give it a while save per head, or just one and completely blinded?

[eggynack]

It's just one and done, as creatures who fail are made blind, without any provision for extra heads given. It helps this position that, even with multiple heads, the hydra only possesses one will.

[Dimers]

If you and your players trust each other, you can just say, "I'll roll a d3/d4/d6 and that's how many heads are affected." Makes the creature a little more interesting, doesn't take long to adjudicate.

[torrasque666]

If I remember correctly, glitterdust is a 10- foot area. A hydra is huge-sized, and takes up a 20 feet area. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to rule that he roll a d(heads) to see how many are effected. After all, those heads, while guaranteed to be SOMEWHERE in that 20ft area, are not all guaranteed to be within 10 feet of each other.

[Psyren]

Their Blind-Fight feat gives you a reasonable enough approximation of the sensory issues having some number of heads blinded and some not might cause them. If you find that too restrictive, allow them to roll their miss chance an extra time to see if they hit.

[weckar]

Glitterdust affects a creature, not a head. Being magical, you could hit its toes and still reasonably blind it.

[torrasque666]

A cloud of golden particles covers everyone and everything in the area, causing creatures to become blinded (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#blinded) and visibly outlining invisible (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#invisible) things for the duration of the spell. All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades.

A hydra is larger than the area of effect though, so reasonably it is not entirely covered. Against your usual creature, there's only one head which everything aims for. even on creatures of huge or bigger the head is still targeted by the caster and thus would be covered.

[Zanos]

A hydra is larger than the area of effect though, so reasonably it is not entirely covered. Against your usual creature, there's only one head which everything aims for. even on creatures of huge or bigger the head is still targeted by the caster and thus would be covered.
You don't have to cover a creature with a fireball to do full damage to it.

[torrasque666]

True, but fireball doesn't say
A cloud of golden particles covers everyone and everything in the area, causing creatures to become blinded (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#blinded) and visibly outlining invisible (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#invisible) things for the duration of the spell. All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades.

If the head isn't in the area, it isn't covered.

[weckar]

True, but fireball doesn't say
(...)
If the head isn't in the area, it isn't covered.

A strict rules reading tells us that, well....

A cloud of golden particles covers everyone and everything in the area, causing creatures [IN THAT AREA] to become blinded and visibly outlining invisible things for the duration of the spell. All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades.
.... that little omission there makes it that the head doesn't NEED to be covered. Frankly, it doesn't tell us at all what creatures are affected. Are all creatures in existence affected? Maybe just the ones not covered in the dust? Any creature SEEING the dust? (that last one is actually a pretty plausible reading)

[torrasque666]

True, but Rules as Written also allow for the dysfunctions as noted in the several Rules Dysfunctions threads and thus while advising a PLAYER on what to do is the only reasonable response, when advising a DM, who has the ability to Interpret the rules, we can use RAI.

As it seems, we are advising a DM.

[Mellack]

The hydra as a whole is affected, not just the heads. Notice the area is creatures and objects, not parts of creatures. There is no special targeting rule for glitterdust, nor does it have any special rules for creatures with different numbers of eyes. It never even says it has anything to do with their sensory organs. If the creature is in the area, and fails it's save, it is blinded. Perhaps the dust spreads over anything it touches, like some sort of oozy film. It contacts even the tail of the hydra, and spreads up over the whole thing.

[Zanos]

True, but Rules as Written also allow for the dysfunctions as noted in the several Rules Dysfunctions threads and thus while advising a PLAYER on what to do is the only reasonable response, when advising a DM, who has the ability to Interpret the rules, we can use RAI.

As it seems, we are advising a DM.
There's nothing to interpret. Being in a spells area is a binary condition; you either are or aren't.

[weckar]

There's nothing to interpret. Being in a spells area is a binary condition; you either are or aren't. Fact is that it does not state that the creatures affected have to be in the area, just that that's the area dusted. If you say that this ruling is ridiculous, there is precedent for this with illusions and Divination spells, at the least.