Question about the Ward effect in Silverymoon

[Amazing Mumford]

Question about a campaign in Silverymoon, referencing specifically Silver Marches-- Silverymoon has a Ward, much like a Mythal. The Ward has Prevailing spells/effects, described as "applying continuously". What exactly does this mean, especially for the antipathy effect? The usual target for antipathy is a location or object, does this mean that all of the Warded area of Silverymoon is under this effect, or does this mean this effect only applies to the certain individuals the Ward "obeys"? I would assume the latter, but that would in effect change the target for antipathy to creature rather than object... There is an NPC in the city with an imp familiar, I would think that if the Ward applied to the whole area of Silverymoon then that imp wouldn't be able to be there...

 

[FoxWander]

From the description in Silver Marches it seems like your first choice was correct- that all of the Warded area of Silverymoon is under the effect. It says prevailing effects work like the spells hallow and unhallow. Those two spells say that a spell fixed to them "lasts for one year and functions throughout the entire site, regardless of the normal duration and area or effect." The Wards make prevailing spells effectively permanent and they cover the entire area.

So that imp familiar either: 1) made it's will save and is thus able to enter the warded area but incredibly uncomfortable, per the antipathy spell, or B) somehow bypasses the antipathy effect due to its connection with its master (it being considered "part of" its master). However, assuming your talking about Xara, as neither of those two effects are mentioned, I'm going to guess what's actually going on is the unwritten 3rd option- an author wanted to create an interesting evil NPC and forgot how the wards would effect the familiar. Which implies the also unwritten suggested coarse of action to whistle innocently and ignore the rules conflict.

 

[Amazing Mumford]

I'm going to guess what's actually going on is the unwritten 3rd option- an author wanted to create an interesting evil NPC and forgot how the wards would effect the familiar. Which implies the also unwritten suggested coarse of action to whistle innocently and ignore the rules conflict.

Yeah, like that's never happened before!

One point though, Ed Greenwood was a co-author of the book, and he is usually a fan of continuity, so that's why I'm not sure how this effect works. Obviously, the spells arointed by the Ward just don't work, no matter who casts them. (unless you have a ward token). And also very obviously, the vanguard spells are listed as "available to ward initiates", so those attuned to the Ward can make use of them. The prevailing effects still confound me-- one listed in particular, detect scrying, has a note that says "all creatures within the ward gain the benefits". Does this imply that, for the other prevailing effects, all creatures in the Ward don't gain the benefits?? If that's not the case, then every citizen/individual in Silverymoon would automatically purge invisible things and be protected from evil and negative energy? It doesn't seem like that's the case, because only the one prevailing effect specifically says it applies to all creatures in the Ward....

How do other folks out there read this??

 

[freyar]

Well, from reading Ed's replies to questions at Candlekeep, he knows editorial mistakes creep into books (he doesn't write all of the books he's a co-author of) and isn't averse to a little bit of ret-conning to make things consistent. I'd just say that Xara managed to get a hold of a duraph token for the imp.

I think the bit about detect scrying is just that the spell is centered on the caster (in 3.5; I can't get to an online 3.0 SRD right now, and it's a 3.0 book), so they wanted to clarify that everyone could detect scrying. Invisibility purge blocks anything from being invisible, protection from evil works normally, etc. Of course, as DM, you can always say that there's some kind of token to get around some of those effects, too.