Strange Rules Questions

[TheUser]

1. Do Half-Elves and Half-Orcs count as both Humans and Elves/Orcs respectively? I didn't see any mention of it in the PHB but I remember it being mentioned somewhere, it just might have been a prior edition.

2. If a medium or larger creature is polymorphed into a small/tiny creature and then gets an Otiluke's Resilient sphere cast upon it, does it get smushed if the polymorph ends (Otiluke's Trash Compactor) or does the sphere resize itself?

3. Does passive Investigation (mentioned only once during the Observant Feat) count towards ones own ability to identify illusion spells? Like if a Diguise self had a DC of 15 and a character with 17 passive investigation walks by do they immediately notice something's a miss?

[PhantasyPen]

1. Do Half-Elves and Half-Orcs count as both Humans and Elves/Orcs respectively? I didn't see any mention of it in the PHB but I remember it being mentioned somewhere, it just might have been a prior edition.

2. If a medium or larger creature is polymorphed into a small/tiny creature and then gets an Otiluke's Resilient sphere cast upon it, does it get smushed if the polymorph ends (Otiluke's Trash Compactor) or does the sphere resize itself?

3. Does passive Investigation (mentioned only once during the Observant Feat) count towards ones own ability to identify illusion spells? Like if a Diguise self had a DC of 15 and a character with 17 passive investigation walks by do they immediately notice something's a miss?

1: In 3.5 this was yes as far as I know

2: Doesn't the sphere have a set size? Or am I thinking of forcecage?

3: I believe the purposed of most illusions is that you need to actively search for/interact with them, so no? But ask your DM on this one for sure.

[Tanarii]

3. Does passive Investigation (mentioned only once during the Observant Feat) count towards ones own ability to identify illusion spells? Like if a Diguise self had a DC of 15 and a character with 17 passive investigation walks by do they immediately notice something's a miss?Gonna go with generally speaking, no on this one. Because those spells specifically say they take an action.

But passive is there for when a check needs to be secret. Or the player is doing something repeatedly, but not the same thing repeatedly (which would be the automatic success rule). So there's still room for the DM to use it anyway.

If you were specifically Investigating for illusions as you traveled down a corridor, it'd make sense for the DM to use passive score. If you specifically investigate something out of combat, but don't specify you're checking if it's an illusion, and the DM needs to make a secret check, it'd be appropriate to use passive in that case too.

Remember, the word "passive" in Passive checks doesn't mean passive on the part of the PC. It means the player doesn't roll a die. Per definition of what a Passive Check is in the PHB.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Gonna go with generally speaking, no on this one. Because those spells specifically say they take an action.

But passive is there for when a check needs to be secret. Or the player is doing something repeatedly, but not the same thing repeatedly (which would be the automatic success rule). So there's still room for the DM to use it anyway.

If you were specifically Investigating for illusions as you traveled down a corridor, it'd make sense for the DM to use passive score. If you specifically investigate something out of combat, but don't specify you're checking if it's an illusion, and the DM needs to make a secret check, it'd be appropriate to use passive in that case too.

Remember, the word "passive" in Passive checks doesn't mean passive on the part of the PC. It means the player doesn't roll a die. Per definition of what a Passive Check is in the PHB.

I agree with this.

For the other two, the first one only comes up in relation to racial feats, race-specific subclasses and a handful of magic items. I'd rule no - a half-elf is too different from an elf or a human. Check out the moonblade in the DMG. It specifies "attunement by an elf or half-elf". It wouldn't do that if half-elves were supposed to count as elves.

Otiluke's resilient sphere specifies that it is "just large enough to contain the creature". I'd interpret that as implying 'if the creature changes size, the sphere changes to match'; it's not meant to be a damage-dealing spell.