Touch of Idiocy question

[Ranger5]

As stated in the SRD, the spell Touch of Idiocy does the following:

"With a touch, you reduce the target’s mental faculties. Your successful melee touch attack applies a 1d6 penalty to the target’s Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores."

My question is do you roll 1d6 for each ability score or do you roll 1d6 once and apply it to all three ability scores?

 

[hong]

I roll separately.

 

[Ranger5]

I roll separately.

That's what I was thinking too. Makes more sense to me. Does anyone do it the other way? And if so why?

 

[ARandomGod]

That's what I was thinking too. Makes more sense to me. Does anyone do it the other way? And if so why?

I roll once. I never even considered rolling seperately. It's simpler is the why... plus I never considered that you might do it seperately.

 

[Crothian]

I roll seperately, but I also roll seperately for fireball damage, and cures as well.

 

[the Jester]

I've yet to see anyone use this spell, but I think I would roll separately, similar to poisons or diseases that do 1d4 str and 1d4 dex.

I roll seperately, but I also roll seperately for fireball damage, and cures as well.

I think that's a different case. I'd argue that touch of idiocy has multiple effects on a single target while fireball has one effect on multiple targets.

 

[Crothian]

ya, but in each case it requires more then one die, so I roll more then one die.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

ya, but in each case it requires more then one die, so I roll more then one die.

Err... Do you mean, for a fireball that does 6d6 damage you roll 6 dice and apply that total to all within the fireball rather than rolling 1d6 and multiplying by 6?

I think Jester was under the impression that you meant, if there are 4 orcs caught in a given fireball, you'd roll 6d6 and apply damage for the first orc, roll 6d6 damage separately and apply damage for the second, etc.

 

[dcollins]

"With a touch, you reduce the target’s mental faculties. Your successful melee touch attack applies a 1d6 penalty to the target’s Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores."

My reading would be one single roll because it refers to a single "penalty". If it had said "penalties" or "penalty to each of the target's Int, Wis, and Cha" I would think otherwise.

 

[KarinsDad]

My reading would be one single roll because it refers to a single "penalty". If it had said "penalties" or "penalty to each of the target's Int, Wis, and Cha" I would think otherwise.

Ditto. That's how the spell reads.

It's also more entertaining at the table that way.

You roll a one, everyone groans.

You roll a six, everyone cheers.