Calidarien
First Post
While getting involved in several threads debating the nuances of Divine Challenge, I hadn't seen anyone appeal to Customer Service, so I asked them myself. In brief, the radiant damage can occur on multiple turns, there may be some subtlety with readied actions that trigger radiant damage, and the whole "Invisible Paladin" thread boils down to DM discretion. See comments afterwards.
Question:
Response (from Cody):
Question 1: It was already majority opinion, but it's nice to have a clear-cut response.
Question 2: I was trying to ask whether readied actions, which ostensibly occur after the start of the paladin's turn, would be grouped with the previous paladin-turn-to-paladin-turn interval or the next turn-to-turn interval in terms of doling out radiant damage. Assuming that Cody did not get confused by my question, his response seems to say that a readied action would be grouped with the previous turn-to-turn interval.
Question 3: The "Invisible Paladin" thread seemed to be pretty split between the "technical aspects of targeting" camp and the "intent" camp (with me in the latter), so I guess it's appropriate that Customer Service leaves it up to the DM.
Let the debating recommence!
Question:
I have several questions about the paladin class feature Divine Challenge.
1. The part regarding radiant damage, especially the clause "before the start of your next turn", is confusing. Does the target incur radiant damage for qualifying attacks for multiple turns (i.e. every turn that the paladin maintains the challenge) or only for the single turn immediately following the initiation of the challenge?
2. Assume that the target has readied an attack on a third party (someone other than the paladin) that is triggered if the paladin moves on the paladin's turn. Note that this readied attack could thus occur before the paladin has maintained the marked condition by engaging the target.
(a) Does the target suffer the radiant damage?
(b) Does this mean that on the target's next turn (which should now come immediately before the paladin's next turn), the target can attack a third party without taking radiant damage because it has already been triggered?
3) Consider the situation where the target cannot actually target the paladin (e.g. the target is blind or the paladin is invisible), so it targets a square, fully intending to try to hit the paladin. Does the target suffer radiant damage if:
(a) the target happens to guess the right square to target and attack?
(b) the target guesses the wrong square and attacks empty air?
(c) the target guesses the wrong square and attacks a third party?
Response (from Cody):
I'll answer your questions in order:
1. The marked foe takes damage once each turn if it makes an attack that doesn't include the paladin as long as the mark is maintained.
2. a. If the paladin has challenged the target before triggering the readied action, the target will take the radiant damage. The challenge only goes down if the paladin hasn't attacked or moved adjacent by the end of his turn.
b. On the target's next turn, immediately before the paladin, if it attacks someone else, it will take the damage. The previous damage would count for the previous round.
3. This will be entirely up to your DM to decide, whether the sincere attempt to attack the paladin is enough.
Good gaming!
Question 1: It was already majority opinion, but it's nice to have a clear-cut response.
Question 2: I was trying to ask whether readied actions, which ostensibly occur after the start of the paladin's turn, would be grouped with the previous paladin-turn-to-paladin-turn interval or the next turn-to-turn interval in terms of doling out radiant damage. Assuming that Cody did not get confused by my question, his response seems to say that a readied action would be grouped with the previous turn-to-turn interval.
Question 3: The "Invisible Paladin" thread seemed to be pretty split between the "technical aspects of targeting" camp and the "intent" camp (with me in the latter), so I guess it's appropriate that Customer Service leaves it up to the DM.
Let the debating recommence!