Solid Fog 3.5

[MykulFrost]

And another one. Solid Fog states:

"The vapors prevent effective ranged weapon attacks (except for magic rays and the like)."

Now this would seem to indicate both ranged attacks going 'in' and 'out'. Which is fine.

The questions(s) are:

1) Is this because of the 'solidness' of the fog, because it does slow movement, or the 'obscuring of vision' from the fog?

and

2) How would this affect things such as siege engine attacks?

[Segev]

And another one. Solid Fog states:

"The vapors prevent effective ranged weapon attacks (except for magic rays and the like)."

Now this would seem to indicate both ranged attacks going 'in' and 'out'. Which is fine.

The questions(s) are:

1) Is this because of the 'solidness' of the fog, because it does slow movement, or the 'obscuring of vision' from the fog?

and

2) How would this affect things such as siege engine attacks?

It's the "solidness," because regular fog shares the obscuring vision aspect and doesn't absolutely prevent them. Also, rays wouldn't be an exception if it were just a vision problem.

Siege engines are not excluded from the preventative by the RAW, but your DM may rule otherwise. The "solidness" does slow movement of even colossal creatures, though, so maybe it should slow siege engine projectiles to the point they just fall gently to the ground, as well. As the RAW say that the spell would do.

[MykulFrost]

It's the "solidness," because regular fog shares the obscuring vision aspect and doesn't absolutely prevent them. Also, rays wouldn't be an exception if it were just a vision problem.

Siege engines are not excluded from the preventative by the RAW, but your DM may rule otherwise. The "solidness" does slow movement of even colossal creatures, though, so maybe it should slow siege engine projectiles to the point they just fall gently to the ground, as well. As the RAW say that the spell would do.

Funny thing is, I am the DM. I'm just dealing with min/maxing power gamers. But I figured this was going to be the answer. Thanks for the help.

[Segev]

Funny thing is, I am the DM. I'm just dealing with min/maxing power gamers. But I figured this was going to be the answer. Thanks for the help.

Ah, advise for the DM, then, is this: be consistent whichever way you rule. I like to figure out what the in-game "thing" is that's happening for rulings that I feel are questionable. If you want siege engines to work, then let them, but warn the players (because the wizard should know the limits of his own spell) and then remember that they may use this against you in the future. If you do let solid fog stop siege engines, remember that as the DM, you have the ability to cast it with your NPCs, too.

[Fouredged Sword]

Keep in mind that a strong wind still disperses it in a round. The gust of wind spell is an emanation from a person. It is on the table of things that can be cast on an object and made permanent.

This means that an archer with a bow that is enchanted with gust of wind and permanency constantly has a line of wind extending from the end of his bow, allowing him to blow away fog spells.

It's also a great way for an archer to keep small or medium creatures at bay.

[Segev]

Keep in mind that a strong wind still disperses it in a round. The gust of wind spell is an emanation from a person. It is on the table of things that can be cast on an object and made permanent.

This means that an archer with a bow that is enchanted with gust of wind and permanency constantly has a line of wind extending from the end of his bow, allowing him to blow away fog spells.

It's also a great way for an archer to keep small or medium creatures at bay.

And the perfect opportunity for a bard to provide blow-by-bow commentary.

[Fizban]

Keep in mind that a strong wind still disperses it in a round. The gust of wind spell is an emanation from a person. It is on the table of things that can be cast on an object and made permanent.

That's object or area, and Gust of Wind is an area, which emanates from you, not an object. So once you get past the spell not lasting long enough to cast Permanency on it, the wind follows you around forever, blowing in a fixed direction that never turns because it has no parameters for turning it, unlike most emanation spells that are actually meant to last more than one round. In short, it's pretty clear that Permanent Gust of Wind is meant to be a terrain feature like the other stuff on the table, and whoever put it there didn't pay any attention to the rules of either Gust of Wind or Permanency when they did it.

Actually, since the table already restricts the list of spells to objects and areas, the header's phrasing of "cast upon objects or areas only and rendered permanent," implies that an area spell is cast upon an area, only affecting the area it was cast upon- or in short, since it does explicitly work on Gust of Wind, this phrasing can override Gust of Wind's emanation (which is completely superfluous btw). It can be Permanency'd, which functions only on an area, therefore the spell ends up permanent on an area. I think it's most probable that the "emanation" thing just got carried over in the translation from previous editions and the implications were missed, but it could be someone phrased Permanency that way specifically to fix that part of the problem (while missing the duration problem).

[Segev]

That's object or area, and Gust of Wind is an area, which emanates from you, not an object. So once you get past the spell not lasting long enough to cast Permanency on it, the wind follows you around forever, blowing in a fixed direction that never turns because it has no parameters for turning it, unlike most emanation spells that are actually meant to last more than one round. In short, it's pretty clear that Permanent Gust of Wind is meant to be a terrain feature like the other stuff on the table, and whoever put it there didn't pay any attention to the rules of either Gust of Wind or Permanency when they did it.

Actually, since the table already restricts the list of spells to objects and areas, the header's phrasing of "cast upon objects or areas only and rendered permanent," implies that an area spell is cast upon an area, only affecting the area it was cast upon- or in short, since it does explicitly work on Gust of Wind, this phrasing can override Gust of Wind's emanation (which is completely superfluous btw). It can be Permanency'd, which functions only on an area, therefore the spell ends up permanent on an area. I think it's most probable that the "emanation" thing just got carried over in the translation from previous editions and the implications were missed, but it could be someone phrased Permanency that way specifically to fix that part of the problem (while missing the duration problem).

Well, put it on an area inside a bag of holding, perhaps?

Or just spend 48,000 gp to make a continuous/use activated level 2 at-will spell on that bow.

[Thurbane]

To the OP:

1.) As others have said, it's due to the consistency of the fog.

2.) Again, as stated, RAW - it blocks ranged siege engine attacks. Spells like Wind Wall specifically call them out as an exception, which Solid Fog does not.

On to the side conversation: I can't foresee Solid Fog being so prevalent that a dedicated archer needs a defense against it.

Wind Fan is right there in core. Assuming you are coming across the spell, 1/day is probably going to be sufficient (more, but you risk wrecking it). Pretty sure there's other non-custom item options as well. An arcane archer, for instance, could easily grab an Eternal Wand. Enemies spamming it just seems unlikely to me.

I mean, the archer could dip DFA for the Scalding Gust invocation if magical fog was a major campaign feature.

I guess the appeal of Permanent GoW is not requiring an action to activate it. Although I would be concerned that if you somehow get a permanent effect, you might be taking -4 to all of your attack rolls anyhow:

Any creature, regardless of size, takes a -4 penalty on ranged attacks and Listen checks in the area of a gust of wind.