A stupid question on protection from evil...

[SteveC]

Hi everyone!
With a thread name like "a stupid question" I mean that I believe to about 99.9% certainty that I know the answer to this one, but I'm going to ask in anyway.

With a protection from evil spell (or a protection from X spell in general) as long as you do not attack a summoned creature, they are prohibited from bodily contact with you. The only defense to this seems to be spell resistance. Is that correct? The spell is listed as "save: will (harmless) so I am assuming there's no other saving throw involved.

Further, once you fail spell resistance, can you attempt the action again, or are you simply stuck? That's one I am not as certain about, but I'm assuming that you can attempt an action multiple times. Hopefully that's not as stupid a question...

Your answers are eagerly awaited...


--Steve

 

[Hypersmurf]

The only defense to this seems to be spell resistance. Is that correct? The spell is listed as "save: will (harmless) so I am assuming there's no other saving throw involved.

Right. The Will save is if someone decides they don't want to let you cast the protection on them, not for someone attacking you if you're protected.

Further, once you fail spell resistance, can you attempt the action again, or are you simply stuck? That's one I am not as certain about, but I'm assuming that you can attempt an action multiple times.

It's an interesting one, because PfE seems to be an exception to the way SR normally works.

Targeted Spells: Spell resistance applies if the spell is targeted at the creature.

PfE is a targeted spell, but it's not targeted at the attacker, so SR should have no effect. The spell states that it does, though, so it's an exception. It seems to behave more like an effect spell for this purpose.

Effect Spells: Spell resistance can protect a creature from a spell that’s already been cast. Check spell resistance when the creature is first affected by the spell.

Check spell resistance only once for any particular casting of a spell or use of a spell-like ability. If spell resistance fails the first time, it fails each time the creature encounters that same casting of the spell. Likewise, if the spell resistance succeeds the first time, it always succeeds. If the creature has voluntarily lowered its spell resistance and is then subjected to a spell, the creature still has a single chance to resist that spell later, when its spell resistance is up.

If we consider PfE to be acting as an effect spell, your answer is there - one SR check. If SR succeeds, the creature can ignore the can't-touch prohibition for the full duration. If SR fails, the spell beats them every time.

-Hyp.

 

[LordBOB]

yet another question for PFE

It says that it keeps evil creatures out. It also says in the Spell discription that you can cast it so that it keeps the evil inside the " bubble" Am i going crazy or does this seem AWESOME!!!


If it can actually do this and anyone actually has done this than would you mind to plz share how it happened and how it worked.

 

[Hypersmurf]

It says that it keeps evil creatures out.

Only if they're Summoned.

It also says in the Spell discription that you can cast it so that it keeps the evil inside the " bubble".

Only if they're Called.

-Hyp.

 

[TheGogmagog]

It says that it keeps evil creatures out. It also says in the Spell discription that you can cast it so that it keeps the evil inside the " bubble" Am i going crazy or does this seem AWESOME!!!

Forgive me for working from memory, but I believe it states this version must have silver dust drawn into a magic rune which becomes the containment circle. I would rule that the silver symbol would take a minute or more to draw, and the protection from alignment spell would be cast just before the summoning spell.

I might entertain the idea of capturing a summoned creature using this, but you would need to hold him while you draw the symbol, or trick him into it without breaking the circle. But assuming hype's right (always a safe bet), the spell technically prohibits that.

Edit: changed extraplanar to summoned in the last paragraph. I thought PTE worked on any extraplanar.

 

[SteveC]

Right. The Will save is if someone decides they don't want to let you cast the protection on them, not for someone attacking you if you're protected.



It's an interesting one, because PfE seems to be an exception to the way SR normally works.

Targeted Spells: Spell resistance applies if the spell is targeted at the creature.

PfE is a targeted spell, but it's not targeted at the attacker, so SR should have no effect. The spell states that it does, though, so it's an exception. It seems to behave more like an effect spell for this purpose.

Effect Spells: Spell resistance can protect a creature from a spell that’s already been cast. Check spell resistance when the creature is first affected by the spell.

Check spell resistance only once for any particular casting of a spell or use of a spell-like ability. If spell resistance fails the first time, it fails each time the creature encounters that same casting of the spell. Likewise, if the spell resistance succeeds the first time, it always succeeds. If the creature has voluntarily lowered its spell resistance and is then subjected to a spell, the creature still has a single chance to resist that spell later, when its spell resistance is up.

If we consider PfE to be acting as an effect spell, your answer is there - one SR check. If SR succeeds, the creature can ignore the can't-touch prohibition for the full duration. If SR fails, the spell beats them every time.

-Hyp.

Thanks HS! It's pretty much what I thought, but sometimes when an entire adventure hangs on one rules call, you want to be sure.

--Steve