Chill Touch

[Infiniti2000]

Apparently only if you quicken the chill touch. Then you get at least 2, perhaps more for a high BAB. Which, I suppose you will have if you can quicken the spell (even the metamagic rod is expensive and not legitmately obtainable at low-level).

 

[ChefOrc]

Chill touch

Hmmm ... not exactly an everyday scenario, nor a particularly effective option. Chill touch looks like a spell that was accidentally designed without the "you can't hold the charge" rule ...

 

[sdt]

I respectfully disagree, the spell seems to indicate that you can use it multiple times. Compare it to Shocking Grasp and it would fall far short unless you could use it 1/level.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I respectfully disagree, the spell seems to indicate that you can use it multiple times. Compare it to Shocking Grasp and it would fall far short unless you could use it 1/level.

I agree the spell would suck and it clearly seems to be against the intent, but I'd have to say that that's the way the rule is written. I dunno if this was another unforeseen change due to 3.5 or not. Note that the same limitation applies to multi-touch spells against allies (e.g. water breathing). You can touch up to 6 friendly character per round as a full-round action. But, nothing allows you to take a full-round action in addition to the standard action for the spell. So, you can cast water breathing on, say, yourself, but you cannot hold the charge (multi-touch spell) to use it next round on 6 allies.

 

[B4cchus]

Not so much a pun as a bon mot.

owww, the French.. the Horror!

 

[Hypersmurf]

... the 'freebie' as part of casting the spell.

And there's the point that leaps out at me.

With Chill Touch, you can only touch one creature as part of the Cast a Spell action. You can, subsequently, touch other creatures, but are these subsequent touches "part of the spell"?

Compare this to, say, Teleport, where you and other touched creatures are transported when casting finishes. Obviously, anyone you transport must be touched as "part of the spell", since after the spell is over, you're not there to touch anyone else.

Can 'as part of the spell' be interpreted to mean 'as part of the Cast a Spell action', and does doing so remove the perceived problem with Chill Touch, and touching six friends as a full round action, etc?

-Hyp.

 

[Jack Simth]

Compare this to, say, Teleport, where you and other touched creatures are transported when casting finishes. Obviously, anyone you transport must be touched as "part of the spell", since after the spell is over, you're not there to touch anyone else.

Methinks Teleport is a very special case of a touch effect, and not particularly useful for debating - reading the text block, it would seem that the caster need only touch one person personally, but that one person can be touching others:

This spell instantly transports you to a designated destination, which may be as distant as 100 miles per caster level. Interplanar travel is not possible. You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn’t exceed your maximum load. You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature (carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load) or its equivalent (see below) per three caster levels. A Large creature counts as two Medium creatures, a Huge creature counts as two Large creatures, and so forth. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you. As with all spells where the range is personal and the target is you, you need not make a saving throw, nor is spell resistance applicable to you. Only objects held or in use (attended) by another person receive saving throws and spell resistance.

(Emphasis added)
So you can make a chain of people, with the caster touching only the first, the first touching the caster and second, second touching first and third, et cetera, and still have everyone teleport, with the caster only ever having touched one other as part of the spell... as I'm reading it (which may be badly, admittedly), it's a special case of a touch spell, and not really useful for counterexamples as to how many get touched as part of a spell....

 

[Hypersmurf]

Methinks Teleport is a very special case of a touch effect...

It's interesting to compare the Target lines of Teleport and Plane Shift...

As well as Chill Touch and Teleport, the following spells are worthy of glancing over:

Hide From Animals
Hide From Undead
Pass Without Trace
Protection From Spells
Status
Water Breathing
Water Walk
Wind Walk

and

Astral Projection
Dimension Door
Etherealness
Shadow Walk
Transport Via Plants
Word of Recall

-Hyp.

 

[entr0py]

The only way Chill Touch stays balanced with other spells of its level, is if it stays "charged up" for 1 round per level. Otherwise its significantly underpowered when compared to Shocking Grasp.

 

[Camarath]

IMO "Some touch spells allow you to touch multiple targets as part of the spell." clearly indicates that if the spells says you may touch a number of targets you may do so as part of the spell's effect. I believe that this is a specific exception to the Full Attack rule. I think it is clear that any attack preformed as "part of the spell" does not require you to preform an additional Attack or Full Attack actions to make specified attacks.

If you must use an additional actions to make attacks granted by spells then the Violent Thrust option of Telekinesis (for example) does not allow one to make any attacks under normal (non-metamagic/non-choker caster) circumstances. Since the spell energy is spent in the same same round as the "1 standard action" casting time one does not have any additional actions to spend on making the attack granted by the spell.

"Violent Thrust: Alternatively, the spell energy can be spent in a single round. You can hurl one object or creature per caster level (maximum 15) that are within range and all within 10 feet of each other toward any target within 10 feet per level of all the objects. You can hurl up to a total weight of 25 pounds per caster level (maximum 375 pounds at 15th level).
You must succeed on attack rolls (one per creature or object thrown) to hit the target with the items, using your base attack bonus + your Intelligence modifier (if a wizard) or Charisma modifier (if a sorcerer). Weapons cause standard damage (with no Strength bonus; note that arrows or bolts deal damage as daggers of their size when used in this manner). Other objects cause damage ranging from 1 point per 25 pounds (for less dangerous objects) to 1d6 points of damage per 25 pounds (for hard, dense objects)."