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Familiars and Spiritual weapon, Turrets and Tentacles, some have HP some do not, why?
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<blockquote data-quote="rmcoen" data-source="post: 8501202" data-attributes="member: 6692404"><p>It's a good question, though. My answer, for my game, comes down to the way I describe things, and the questions players ask. I go to a certain level of trouble to describe the effect of attacks against resistances, immunities, and "non-interactions". For example, a nonmagical weapon doing 0 damage to an incorporeal target (say, a wraith) might get described as "the weapon passes through the creature's form, disrupting it as if pushing a mist, but then the creature reforms unchanged"; the same weapon, magical, might end with "... but then the creature reforms... you can tell it is a little less distinct/solid" (i.e. some damage, partially resisted). A <em>ghost touch</em> weapon in the same circumstance would instead be "Your weapon slams into the creature's misty form as solidly as if striking flesh, and it visibly recoils from the unexpected impact!"</p><p></p><p>All three of those weapons, "attacking" a <em>spiritual weapon</em>, would be "your weapon passes through the 'weapon' like passing through an image - there is no visible change to the 'weapon', no effect whatsoever."</p><p></p><p>If there's no caster nearby clearly directing the <em>weapon</em>, then I might expect my players to ask some questions about the effect - probably something as direct as "is this a spell effect? can I harm it? do recognize it?", which might result in "make an INT/Arcana check", or might be "Bromnum (the cleric IMC), you realize that this is clearly a <em>spiritual weapon</em>, but you know there is usually a cleric nearby controlling it, and you don't see one!"</p><p></p><p>[In another campaign, we keep running into the same monster we've previously killed (and burned its corpse), and it is clearly the same thing we initially defeated. After the third "repeat", I finally went "wait! maybe that medallion we took is its phylactery? Maybe it's reforming near us like a lich?" The DM called for an Arcana check... too bad I'm a Sorc without training in that skill! A result of "10" ended with "Well, each time you've heard it approaching, from the stairs or the hallway..." So I might have figured it out, and we should destroy the medallion, or I might be wrong, but I don't know enough about magic to tell...]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rmcoen, post: 8501202, member: 6692404"] It's a good question, though. My answer, for my game, comes down to the way I describe things, and the questions players ask. I go to a certain level of trouble to describe the effect of attacks against resistances, immunities, and "non-interactions". For example, a nonmagical weapon doing 0 damage to an incorporeal target (say, a wraith) might get described as "the weapon passes through the creature's form, disrupting it as if pushing a mist, but then the creature reforms unchanged"; the same weapon, magical, might end with "... but then the creature reforms... you can tell it is a little less distinct/solid" (i.e. some damage, partially resisted). A [I]ghost touch[/I] weapon in the same circumstance would instead be "Your weapon slams into the creature's misty form as solidly as if striking flesh, and it visibly recoils from the unexpected impact!" All three of those weapons, "attacking" a [I]spiritual weapon[/I], would be "your weapon passes through the 'weapon' like passing through an image - there is no visible change to the 'weapon', no effect whatsoever." If there's no caster nearby clearly directing the [I]weapon[/I], then I might expect my players to ask some questions about the effect - probably something as direct as "is this a spell effect? can I harm it? do recognize it?", which might result in "make an INT/Arcana check", or might be "Bromnum (the cleric IMC), you realize that this is clearly a [I]spiritual weapon[/I], but you know there is usually a cleric nearby controlling it, and you don't see one!" [In another campaign, we keep running into the same monster we've previously killed (and burned its corpse), and it is clearly the same thing we initially defeated. After the third "repeat", I finally went "wait! maybe that medallion we took is its phylactery? Maybe it's reforming near us like a lich?" The DM called for an Arcana check... too bad I'm a Sorc without training in that skill! A result of "10" ended with "Well, each time you've heard it approaching, from the stairs or the hallway..." So I might have figured it out, and we should destroy the medallion, or I might be wrong, but I don't know enough about magic to tell...] [/QUOTE]
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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
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Familiars and Spiritual weapon, Turrets and Tentacles, some have HP some do not, why?
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