Is protection from alignment a single spell or 4 separate spells?

[RoboEmperor]

I was under the impression that it was 1 spell, but someone in our group claims otherwise, and my 10minutes of googling found nothing.

His argument was very persuasive, but just to be sure, I'm asking here :)

[PaucaTerrorem]

The alignment is chosen upon the casting of the spell.

[eggynack]

They are four separate spells, which can not be converted to each other to any extent (unless you have some specific ability that would allow you to do that, of course). There's no real argument otherwise. The spells are listed separately in the book, and have no mention of the ability to convert one to another, or prepare a central "protection from alignment" spell. This is unlike the case of something like resist energy, which is very much a single spell with five modes.

[MilesTiden]

Nope, going by the SRD it's 4 different spells. Protection from Chaos (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/protectionFromChaos.htm), Evil (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/protectionFromEvil.htm), Good (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/protectionFromGood.htm), and Law (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/protectionFromLaw.htm).

[RoboEmperor]

The alignment is chosen upon the casting of the spell.

Do you have any source to back this up? Otherwise the other two guys on this thread win :)

[Kelb_Panthera]

While they are 4 separate spells, their function is so very similar that it wouldn't hurt anything for a DM to simply roll them altogether into one spell where you choose the alignment affected at the time of casting.

[Ashtagon]

The way its written up in the SRD suggests protection from $alignment and magic circle against $alignment are both four different spells. Conversely, resist $energy is a single spell by SRD.

If you allow d20 Modern material, magic circle (d20 UA) is a single spell.

Personally, I reverse that distinction, making protection from $alignment one spell (which only works relative to your own deity; I have generally removed alignment from my games), and resists $energy is one spell per energy type.

[RoboEmperor]

Alright, seems like it's almost unanimous. Thanks.

[Andezzar]

You may have confused it with Neverwinter Nights (2). Those games made the protection spells one spell with selectable alignment.

[RoboEmperor]

You may have confused it with Neverwinter Nights (2). Those games made the protection spells one spell with selectable alignment.

Yeah it was. It was first how I got into d&d.

[Andezzar]

While the games claim they use D&D (3.0 and 3.5 respectively) there are some significant changes to the rules. The protection spells are one, the removal of material components, Power attack being set to a -3, the introduction of Improved Power Attack and the need for feats to disarm, trip and feint are the ones that immediately come to my mind.

[RoboEmperor]

You can create a list of hundreds of things they do differently. I was gonna post a list of 20 things right now but it involved a bit of profanity, so I deleted it.

But yeah, I got into 3.5 because I wanted more of those games. Mainly the minion stuff.

[Chronos]

Here's a proof that they can't be the same spell: Some casters have access to some but not all of them. Paladins, for instance, have Protection from Chaos and Protection from Evil, but not Protection from Good or Protection from Law. Now, it makes sense that a paladin would never want to cast Protection from Good, but one can imagine situations where one might want Protection from Law: A LE villain with LN lackeys, maybe. But that's too bad, they can't cast it.