Disintergrate and Undead

[tarcil]

Greetings

Have a good question. Disintergrate is a fortitude save, but undead do not need to make fortitude saves. Does this mean that disintergrate is pretty useless vs. that pesky vampire that dominated the fighters in the party?

Tarcil

 

[hong]

Undead don't have to make Fort saves, unless the save is due to an effect that specifically works on objects. Disintegrate is one such effect.

 

[Gromm]

Which means undead are more or less screwed since they have really crappy Fort saves.

 

[hong]

Which means undead are more or less screwed since they have really crappy Fort saves.

Given that they can also be blasted out of existence by any punk cleric with twice their HD, this is probably the least of their worries.

 

[James McMurray]

Not to mention that disintigrate also destroys gear as well. Any undead with cool toys that gets disintigrated is a blow to the party's possible wealth.

 

[Tiberius]

Not to mention that disintigrate also destroys gear as well. Any undead with cool toys that gets disintigrated is a blow to the party's possible wealth.

No it doesn't. From the SRD:

A thin, green ray springs from the character's pointing finger, causing the creature or object it strikes to glow and vanish, leaving behind only a trace of fine dust. The character must make a successful ranged touch attack to hit. Up to a 10-foot cube of nonliving matter is affected, so the spell disintegrates only part of any very large object or structure targeted. The ray affects even magical matter or energy of a magical nature, such as Bigby’s forceful hand or a wall of force, but not a globe of invulnerability or an antimagic field. A creature or object that makes a successful Fortitude save is only partially affected. It takes 5d6 points of damage instead of disintegrating. Only the first creature or object struck can be affected (that is, the ray affects only one target per casting).

Nowhere in the spell description is the destruction of gear mentioned as the side effect of the disintegration of a creature.

-Tiberius

 

[SpikeyFreak]

Only the first creature or object struck can be affected (that is, the ray affects only one target per casting).

That line makes me think that it does affect everything on the target.

Otherwise it wouldn't be a ranged touch attack, because touch attacks mean that you can hit its shield/armor/parry and still affect it, and if it only disentegrated the thing it hit, it wouldn't affect the creature using the shield/armor/parry, just the item it hit.

Did that make any sense at all?

--Confusing Spikey

 

[Mr.Binx]

From the D&D 3rd. Ed. FAQ:
Q: If a character fails her saving throw against a disintegrate
spell, are all her items disintegrated with her?

A: No. When a character fails a saving throw against a spell or
other magical attack, all her items survive unless the spell or
attack description says otherwise or the character rolls a natural
1 on the save. If the character rolled a natural 1 on the save, one
item the character wore or carried is affected by the spell or
attack. (See Table 10–1 in the Player’s Handbook and the
accompanying text for details.) The exposed item must make
its own saving throw against the spell or attack.