Horrid Wilting

[catsclaw227]

BTW, What does Darkness do to a Lantern Archon?

 

[Nail]

Is this set-up for a joke? Okay, I'll bite: "I dunno, what does darkness do to a Lantern Archon?"

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Is this set-up for a joke? Okay, I'll bite: "I dunno, what does darkness do to a Lantern Archon?"

Apparently, it really freaks them out.

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

 

[Staffan]

It also hits a much larger area and does nonelemental damage, does that help? Oh, and it is a fort save, so no evasion (although more things have a high fort save than a high reflex save in my experience).

It helps a little, but not enough to make up for FIVE levels. It also has some disadvantages, such as not affecting non-living creatures.

A d6/level Horrid Wilting might make a good 5th or 6th level spell.

 

[catsclaw227]

Is this set-up for a joke? Okay, I'll bite: "I dunno, what does darkness do to a Lantern Archon?"

I wish it was a joke -- but this thread made me think about all the "unique situations" and DM judgement calls for spells. Using common sense isn't always just a question of Physics, and yet we rely upon it as DMs to make appropriate calls during the game.

Oh.... and the Order of the Stick entry is hilarious. Was that from today??? And if it was, dang that's coincidental!

Catsclaw

 

[RigaMortus]

I think it should. I think it is silly, but it should still work. Here is my reasoning. It specifically mentions that it affects water elementals differently. If it affected fire elementals differently (as in, not at all) then I think it would have mentioned that as well. I would play that HW works fine until some errata comes out that changes it.

 

[TheGogmagog]

Here's my 2cents:

I don't think it would work. I'm not convinced that they are living. Even with the text scion posted on the first page

—Unlike most other living creatures, an elemental does not have a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. When an elemental is slain, no soul is set loose. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don’t work on an elemental. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection, to restore it to life."

For the intent argument, I suspect that they meant living as acting thinking, not in the game term living.
Actually there is no game term living, so that leaves it up to interpretation. I would group living: aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humonoid, magical beast, monstous humanoid, ooze, outsider, plant, vermin. Not living: Construct, Elemental, Undead. Water elementals being the exception worth noting. It's hard to believe with spells that have targer living creature it's not defined, I must be missing it while I fall asleep and write this.

The last argument is a bit of childish semantics, but they specify how it is different from other living creatures, but don't specify that it is a living creatures or suseptable to spells which affect living creatures. Not really a good argument, if someone can find a game clarification of living creatures, I wouldn't try to defend this last point.

 

[Elephant]

No, but what does bother me are the random gamers online that I'm in discussions with who don't know a joke when they see one, and instead reply with some snooty remark...happens much too often

Huh. You must run a humorless game.

Three things:

First, it wasn't a "snooty" remark. Sorry if it seemed that way.
Second, your reply didn't strike me as a joke. Your tone of thought didn't translate well to text.
Third, I don't appreciate the "snootiness" inherent in your remark. I'm inclined to respond rather more strongly, but I'm restraining myself for the sake of Erik's Grandma.

 

[Oryan77]

I'm inclined to respond rather more strongly, but I'm restraining myself for the sake of Erik's Grandma.

Duly noted & no hard feelings.

 

[Murazor]

While maybe not the most logical of things, I'd have a Horrid Wilting do damage to a Fire Elemental. My reasoning for this would be that not allowing a Horrid Wilting to do damage would be mostly equivalent to saying that the Fire Subtype is enough to prevent damage from a HW. Clearly this is not the case, and thus a Fire Elemental can be affected.

On a related note, I'm glad they *finally* introduced a damage type for Horrid Wilting, dessication damage, even though they put it in Sandstorm. By introducing some other spells (and appropriate defenses against) with dessication damage it no longer feels like such an awkward fit.