Simple RAW Thread for 3.5 #36: The Triple Dozen

[Khedrac]

Q 270

The Sylph entry in MM2 says "A sylph can cast arcane spells as a sorcerer. Caster level = sylph’s Hit Dice + 4".

Does this mean only it's CL increases by HD, or does it's effective Sorcerer level (spells known, access to higher level spells) increase?

A 270 The Sylph's "spells known" are given as for a 7th level Sorcerer (3.0 rules hence not 3.5 numbers) so the 3HD Sylph is a 7th Sorcerer. Based on this I think we can only conclude that yes the Sylph's casting advances with its hit dice for spells known and per day not just caster level.

Note: updating the casting to 3.5 is one of the changes to make for the Sylph conversion.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Q271: Do SLAs count as "spellcasting" for the purposes of Craft (Alchemy)? Specifically, I want to use factotum levels to allow me to craft alchemical items, because apparently only spellcasters are capable of mixing chemicals together.

According to here, SLAs can be used as prerequisite for crafting items. There isn't any other specifics about what items, so Alchemy should work as well.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

According to here, SLAs can be used as prerequisite for crafting items. There isn't any other specifics about what items, so Alchemy should work as well.

Ah. Well, that helped me find the rule in question, and the rule it quotes (found here under "Prerequisites," I surmise) is specifically for magic items, but I suppose that's as close as can be found, in Core, at least. But thanks. That does help.

[Thurbane]

Q 273

The Corrupt Arcane Studies feat (Ghostwalk) has an adverse effect where you can suffer from nightmares (Wis save to avoid). If you fail, your ability to regain spells is disrupted for 24 hours.

Would not needing to sleep provide immunity to these nightmares? The Tomb-Born Vitality feat (LM) means you no longer need to sleep.

Would a combo of these feats work to avoid the nightmares caused by Corrupt Arcane Studies?

[King of Nowhere]

Q274: A called piece of armor will teleport on you on call. Can you use that to bring other small objects with the armor? if you have a small item attached to that piece of armor - in a pocket, or sewn to it, whatever - will you get the small item too?
Is there even anything supporting either interpretation in the rules, or I am free to make my own call?

[H_H_F_F]

Q 275

Would variant ("deadly hunter") druids from unearthed arcana lose their AC bonus, favored enemy, etcetera if they become ex druids? Would druidic avengers lose their rage, or their faster movenent speed?

[Troacctid]

Q274: A called piece of armor will teleport on you on call. Can you use that to bring other small objects with the armor? if you have a small item attached to that piece of armor - in a pocket, or sewn to it, whatever - will you get the small item too?
Is there even anything supporting either interpretation in the rules, or I am free to make my own call?

DM discretion.

Q 275

Would variant ("deadly hunter") druids from unearthed arcana lose their AC bonus, favored enemy, etcetera if they become ex druids? Would druidic avengers lose their rage, or their faster movenent speed?

Yes.

[King of Nowhere]

Q276: when you are using a spell with a duration of "concentration", you cannot cast another spell while maintaining it. it's written explicitly.
but, is there some way to cast a spell while concentrating on another? A feat, an item, an obscure ACF or prestige class?

A bit outside the scope of the thread, but assuming the answer to the above is no, is there some particular reason to disallow an homebrew feat that would let one cast quickened spells while maintaining concentration on another spell?

[Elves]

A 276
finding the center, 8th level wu jen spell

[Khedrac]

A 276 additional
Guide Magic - 10th level Spirit Shaman class ability

There are probably others.

[St Fan]

A 276 additionally additional

Indeed, there is also sonorous hum (from the Spell Compendium), 3rd-level spell for Clerics and Wizards (2nd level for Bards). Must be cast before the spell needing concentration.

[St Fan]

Q 277

Is feinting a purely visual trick? Does an opponent who can't see and is using blind-fighting immune to a feinting attempt?

[H_H_F_F]

Q 278

Can undead lose XP due to the loss of a familiar? Is the penalty due to the loss of a familiar an "effect"?

Edit:

Q 279

Can you overrun while running?

[NinjaTBB]

Q 280

Are the Poison save DCs for a wild shaped druid generally worse than the base creature?

For sake of argument assume a Human Druid who wild shapes into a Huge Viper Snake.

A viper snake has a poisonous bite... The save DC varies by the snake's size... The save DCs are Constitution-based...

Huge	Fort DC 14

Poison (Ex): ...The Fortitude save DC against a poison attack is equal to 10 + 1 / 2 poisoning creature's racial HD + poisoning creature's Con modifier...

Racial Hit Dice: ...Hit Dice gained from taking class levels are not racial Hit Dice...

Alternate Form ...Except as described elsewhere, the creature retains all other game statistics of its original form, including (but not necessarily limited to) HD...

These four pieces combined lead me to believe that upon wild shaping the DC of the Poison ability would drop to 11 as the druid would not have the 6 racial HD of the huge viper.

[Xeni]

Q 277

Is feinting a purely visual trick? Does an opponent who can't see and is using blind-fighting immune to a feinting attempt?

A 277

Nowhere in the description of feinting does it say so, thus by RAW a lack of vision does not make one immune to feint.

[St Fan]

Q 281

Spells that have diametrically opposed effects are often said to "counter and dispel" each other, but how does that work exactly?

If a subject who received an enlarge person spell is targeted by a reduce person, does he immediately revert to his true size, or does he need to fail the saving throw first?

[Vaern]

Q 281

Spells that have diametrically opposed effects are often said to "counter and dispel" each other, but how does that work exactly?

If a subject who received an enlarge person spell is targeted by a reduce person, does he immediately revert to his true size, or does he need to fail the saving throw first?

A 281

As far as countering goes, one spell can be used to counterspell the other. Normally a caster can only attempt to counterspell if he happens to have the same spell prepared, but a caster who happens to have reduce person available to cast can use that to counterspell enlarge person rather than having to have enlarge person himself.

As for dispelling opposite effects, it's a bit less clear. The rules for spells with opposite effects simply say that all bonuses, penalties, or changes accrue in the order that they apply, and mention that some spells negate or counter each other as noted in their descriptions. In the case of diametrically opposed spells I would guess that both spells remain active as other spells with opposing effects do, but you just say that their effects apply in an equal-and-opposite manner and fully negate each other rather than counting up all of the individual bonuses, penalties, and changes and keeping the difference.
In this case, the subject would be entitled to a fortitude save and would have to fail to be affected by reduce person and reverted to his original size. Furthermore, since a creature can't benefit from multiple instances of the same spell, the creature would be unable to benefit from additional castings of either spell by the durations of both spells remain in effect.

It's also worth noting that the definition of "dispel" per the PHB glossary is to negate, suppress, or remove an effect, and notes that the key word usually refers to the dispel magic spell but that other forms of dispelling are possible. Having the effects remain active with their bonuses and penalties fully negating each other is a technically valid form of dispelling. I might recommend opening a separate thread for discussion, though, as some might instead rule that casting reduce person on someone with an active enlarge person effect would invoke a dispel check (d20 + your CL vs. DC 11 + CL of the opposing spell's effect) to dispel enlarge person per standard dispel magic rules which would not allow for a saving throw and also wouldn't be an unreasonable ruling.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Q 278

Can undead lose XP due to the loss of a familiar? Is the penalty due to the loss of a familiar an "effect"?

Edit:

Q 279

Can you overrun while running?

A 278
Everything is an effect. So yeah, undead are immune to familiar loss.

A 279
Well, you theoretically could, since a Run is a move. But generally you don't have a standard action to spare in that case.

[Zombulian]

Q 282

Somehow I can’t find the answer to this.
For an effect’s duration, on the round that it ends, when does it end?
Say you cast a spell that dazed an enemy for 1 round. Is the duration over when it’s your turn again? The beginning of your turn? The end of your turn? The beginning of the enemy’s turn?

[Debatra]

A 282

The beginning of the turn of the creature that caused the effect. (Or that initiative count if said creature is no longer in initiative/has had their count changed.)

[Troacctid]

Here's the citation for 282. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/act...theCombatRound

[InvisibleBison]

Q 283
Is it possible for a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 to take class levels, or do you need to have at least 3 Int to do so?

[Venger]

A 283 You must have an int of 3 or higher to take class levels.

If you begin play as a normally playable race, such as a human and stack on templates that would lower your int to 2 or below, it is automatically raised to 3 by the time you are finished.

If you are looking at playing a creature like a dog with int 1 or 2, it is not suitable to take class levels until its int becomes 3 or higher somehow, such as having the awaken spell cast on it.

[Arael666]

Q284

Are spells with the sonic descriptor that deal damage (sonic or not) considered sonic attacks?

[Thurbane]

A 283 clarification

Is there a specific citation for this? I mean, to me it makes sense, and would be RAI, but is there a hard rule on Int 3 or more is required to take class levels?

This is what I could find:

A half-orc’s starting Intelligence score is always at least 3. If this adjustment would lower the character’s score to 1 or 2, his score is nevertheless 3.

An animal has an Intelligence score of 1 or 2. A creature of humanlike intelligence has a score of at least 3.

This line is included in the entries of creatures suitable for use as player characters or as cohorts (usually creatures with Intelligence scores of at least 3 and possessing opposable thumbs).

This entry is a modifier to the base creature’s level adjustment. Any level adjustment is meaningless unless the creature retains a high enough Intelligence (minimum 3) to gain class levels after applying the template.

I guess that last one is the most informative.

Is there any I''ve missed that more directly address this?

[Venger]

A 284 Yes.

A 283 clarification

I am not aware of one. If I were, I would have cited it. I looked in the sections on chargen in the phb and dmg (some of the non-ogl stuff not on the srd) and didn't find anything useful aside from the citations you have helpfully provided.

In addition to the points you've raised, while I know sample characters are not good citations to prove RAW or even RAI matters, the complete absence (to my knowledge) of any monster with class levels in an encounter or monster book seems to back up the fact that horses or dogs cannot take class levels.

[Elves]

A 284 Contention
The sonic attacks entry is for special attacks, which are "either extraordinary, spell-like, or supernatural in nature", not for actual spells. Because an SLA imitates the spell, it therefore wouldn't apply to them either.

[Thurbane]

Q 285

A Mechanatrix (FF p.137) has the Electricity Healing quality, part of which says "The mechanatrix gets no saving throw against electricity effects."

Does this mean if a Mechanatrix was hit by an Orb of Electricity spell, it would get no save and automatically be entangled if it was wearing metal armor?

[Xeni]

Q 285

A Mechanatrix (FF p.137) has the Electricity Healing quality, part of which says "The mechanatrix gets no saving throw against electricity effects."

Does this mean if a Mechanatrix was hit by an Orb of Electricity spell, it would get no save and automatically be entangled if it was wearing metal armor?

A 285

well, thats a bit tricky.

the mechanatrix entry clearly says that "Mechanatrixes are not only immune to electricity, but they are actually healed by it." which clearly demonstrates that the mechanatrix has electricity immunity with the additional features of healing from and failing all saves from Elec effects. i suspect from a RAI standpoint this was so they would not accidentally attempt to save against an elec spell from an unknown souce that would have otherwise helped them.

Then on page 48 of the rules compenduim it states that "A creature that has immunity to energy is never harmed
by that energy." which would imply that even if if fails its save against a harmful effect from an electricity spell that effect is still negated by the immunity. So by my interpretation of RAW I would say no, it would not be entangled. however I would be open to hearing another interpretation on this.

[Venger]

A 284 Contention
The sonic attacks entry is for special attacks, which are "either extraordinary, spell-like, or supernatural in nature", not for actual spells. Because an SLA imitates the spell, it therefore wouldn't apply to them either.

While you are correct, I gathered based on context that Arael666 wanted to know if say, the sound lance spell counted as a "sonic attack" to determine whether it dealt extra damage to a creature who had vulnerability to "sonic attacks," since I could not think of any other reason to ask this question. Things are have sonic immunity, like the destruchan are similarly immune to both, so while the distinction between the two exists, I can't think of a case where it makes much difference.