Simple RAW Thread for 3.5 #36: The Triple Dozen

[sreservoir]

Q 673a

Someone deals damage under the effects of the Merciful weapon ability and also Dragonfire Inspiration. Is the added energy damage nonlethal?

Q 673b

If energy damage is converted into nonlethal damage in general (and not like, a spell with Nonlethal Substitution) still of its original energy type?

Q 673c

If Nonlethal Substitution (BoED 44) is applied to Blizzard (Frostburn 89), what type is the damage dealt?

[Gurgeh]

A672, disagreement: This will still provoke; you are still standing up from a prone position, and the Prone Attack feat does not include any statement that you do not provoke. The SRD says that free actions rarely provoke attacks of opportunity, but "rarely" is not the same as "never"; the statement is a generalisation, rather than a concrete property of free actions.

The example table of free actions has an explicit column for whether or not a free action provokes an attack of opportunity, and while all of the examples given have the answer of "no", one of them has a specific case where the answer is actually "yes". Being a free action does not prevent an action from provoking.

[Venger]

A 673 No

Q 673a

Someone deals damage under the effects of the Merciful weapon ability and also Dragonfire Inspiration. Is the added energy damage nonlethal?

Q 673b

If energy damage is converted into nonlethal damage in general (and not like, a spell with Nonlethal Substitution) still of its original energy type?

Q 673c

If Nonlethal Substitution (BoED 44) is applied to Blizzard (Frostburn 89), what type is the damage dealt?

(This is question 674)
A 674a Yes
A 674b It depends on the text of the specific effect. I know of no way to do this. What specifically are you doing.
A 674c Nonlethal untyped.

[sreservoir]

A 674b It depends on the text of the specific effect. I know of no way to do this. What specifically are you doing.

Q 674d

Specific elaboration on the Merciful + DFI case: is the added damage "nonlethal fire damage"? Commonsensically, it can easily just still be fire damage but add the resulting damage to nonlethal instead of subtracting it from hp, since those mechanics are pretty orthogonal, of course, but is nonlethal energy damage normally a thing? Blizzard inflicts it, of course, but it could well be an isolated incident of accidentally inventing new mechanics by putting words together in a way that seems reasonable—they've done it before with e.g. Mitigate Suffering—seeing as environmental (cold/heat) dangers infamously deal "nonlethal damage" with no explicit energy type, and Nonlethal Substitution, the one mechanic I can find that explicitly converts energy damage to nonlethal, makes the affected spell "deal nonlethal damage instead of energy damage". It certainly seems like a lot of the system treats nonlethal as a quasi-energy type, exclusive with fire/cold/&c. as a damage type.

I don't expect particularly conclusive resolution to this one (but if there is one, it's probably a trivial one-line citation).

Q 675

A 15 HD incarnate with 18 Con (+4 bonus) has expanded soulmeld capacity +2 as a class feature and the Expanded Soulmeld Capacity feat, which adds up to a 3 (HD) + 2 (class feature) + 1 (feat) = 6 essentia capacity limit (for one particular soulmeld), except that the Expanded Soulmeld Capacity feat limits the selected soulmeld's essentia capacity to your Con bonus. What's the selected soulmeld's essentia capacity?

[Venger]

A674d Yes, it's nonlethal fire damage.

Nonlethal energy damage is very rare. Aside from blizzard and the frostburn weather fx, the only other instance I can think of is the winter mask, which deals "nonlethal cold damage," which, while not being provable re-RAW, I strongly suspect was a mistake.

A 675 Effects are always applied in the most beneficial order to you depending on what is convenient at the time. Simply apply esc (feat) first, capping the essentia at 4. Then apply esc (class feature) after it, nudging you up to 6. Your capacity is 6 (assuming you've actually got enough essentia.)

[St Fan]

Q 676

If a wizard has cast spells recently, the drain on her resources reduces her capacity to prepare new spells. When she prepares spells for the coming day, all the spells she has cast within the last 8 hours count against her daily limit.

The "count against her daily limit" part means, I guess, that the related spell slots must be left emptied.

What if, however, the spell slots have been emptied in the last 8 hours by an action other than strictly "casting" them?

A) For example, if a Spellthief has stolen a few spells from the Wizard's mind?

B) Or, if a Mage of the Arcane Order repay her Spellpool Debt during this timeframe?

Can those spell slots be filled up anew when preparing spells for the day since, technically, those spells weren't "cast"?

[Venger]

A 676a No
A 676b No

If the slots are gone, it doesn't matter whether you cast them or not. If you sac'd them to power ur-priests spell siphon, if you got bonked with someone using energy drain, whatever. They count against the limit.