Casting Touch Spells

[sam500]

A party member in a game today cast light on an assassin's armour so he could not get away and hide after mudering someone we were supposed to protect. She provoked an AoO since it's a touch spell and took damage.
Should the spell have been allowed to go off? It allows no saving throw and no spell resistance and effectively completely prevented the 9th level assassin from escaping our 7th level party at night time and all she had to do was a take a bit of damage.
I'm confused.
Cheers,
Sam

 

[Li Shenron]

Worn objects receive a saving throw.

Also when struck for damage while casting, a Concentration check is required not to waste the spell (but Casting on the Defensive helps).

 

[Darklone]

Assuming Li's things have been taken care of:
Well. If she hit with the touch attack, that's fine. The assassin should look for a better touch AC

It's harder with people casting light on crossbow bolts who claim that the bolt sticks in the creature.

 

[irdeggman]

Depends on the situation.

You can: cast and touch and then move; cast, move and then touch; or move, cast and then touch all in the same round.

Casting a spell in a threatened square provokes an AoO (which as previously pointed out) requires a concentration check to prevent losing the spell.

Making an unarmed touch attack also provokes an AoO but unless the caster dies from the AoO the touch attack can still be attempted.

Since Light does no damage you are not considered armed when delivering the touch attack.

Hope that helps.

 

[pallandrome]

The above is why I usually rule that incoming archery fire doesn't score any "direct hits" unless it actually dropped the NPC into the negs.

As to the OP, first off it is always important to remember that players will nearly always foul your well laid plans. Aside from that, Li and Darklone are right. The armor gets a will saving throw, at the characters bonus, the caster would have had to succeed at a concentration check, and the caster would have had to hit the assassins touch AC. Also note that it can be dispelled by pretty much any darkness spell in the game (which an assassin has plenty of reason to keep handy). If she gets through ALL of that, then sure, I say they catch the bastard.

 

[Tiberius]

Worn objects receive a saving throw.

Not in this case:

Light
Evocation [Light]
Level: Brd 0, Clr 0, Drd 0, Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Object touched
Duration: 10 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

So it was a good plan by the PCs. They should probably cast defensively next time to avoid the AoO, but there appears to be no problem with Lighting an assassin's armor.

'Course, the assassin could just cast Darkness (I think), if it was prepared for the day.

 

[irdeggman]

Almost everyone seems to have missed this:

Touch Spells in Combat: Many spells have a range of touch. To use these spells, you cast the spell and then touch the subject, either in the same round or any time later. In the same round that you cast the spell, you may also touch (or attempt to touch) the target. You may take your move before casting the spell, after touching the target, or between casting the spell and touching the target. You can automatically touch one friend or use the spell on yourself, but to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll.

So like I stated earlier it depends on how it is executed.

There will be an AoO generated in the round, but there may be no concentration check required (even without casting defensively).

 

[Darklone]

Agreed. Tiberius is right as well about no saving throw:

SRD saving throw section: That would have been in the Saving throw entry if it would have gotten a save.

(object)

The spell can be cast on objects, which receive saving throws only if they are magical or if they are attended (held, worn, grasped, or the like) by a creature resisting the spell, in which case the object uses the creature’s saving throw bonus unless its own bonus is greater. (This notation does not mean that a spell can be cast only on objects. Some spells of this sort can be cast on creatures or objects.) A magic item’s saving throw bonuses are each equal to 2 + one-half the item’s caster level.

 

[Grenouillebleue]

She provoked an AoO since it's a touch spell and took damage.

Touch spells don't provoke AoO.

 

[sam500]

so what's the final verdict?
It seems silly to totally confound a 9th level assassin with a first level spell by just accepting some damage from the touch attack. There must have been a typo or something where Saving throw should be harmless (will negates) or something right?

I guess I'll have to "ask the sage" if this is the case.