More killer spell combos

[ForceUser]

Grease is also great to cast on an ally who is being grappled. It grants a bonus to his Escape Artist checks for the duration of the spell.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Grease is awesome!

A group I was in once used it to smack the ghoulies off an evil High priest.

My fighter was taking on the EHP's guard, and the party spellcaster greased the ramp upon which the EHP stood.

One failed Dex check later, the EHP falls, slides down the ramp, coming to rest at the base of the ramp (still in the area of effect of the spell!) right next to my PC...who had Combat Reflexes. His AoO was a near-maxed out crit, as was the sneak attack the Rogue did in the next round. A few Magic Missiles finished him off.

Surrender of the flunkies soon followed.

 

[paranoid]

Delay Death from the Mini's Handbook and Summon Monster (dire warthog).

Since the warthog continues to act even at negative hp and Delay Death ignores the -10 death point you end up with a monster that just won't die.

No, thank won't work.

A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower

So that Ferocity ability of summoned (Dire) boars (you did mean boars, didn't you?) is pretty superfluous.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Ahem. Old trick in our playbook now, but I haven't seen it mentioned yet.

Solid Fog + Cloudkill.

Game Over.

How so? Cloudkill MOVES away from the caster.

So the cloudkill is giving you one or maybe two rounds of damage.

As to arguements that a cloudkill would be contained within a forcecage - The big problem is that the cloud generated by cloudkill doesn't move: The point of origin of the spell moves, and then you figure out the effects of the spell for that round.

Now - I cast cloudkill then forcecage. Next round the point of origin of the cloudkill moves outside the forcecage.

Or does it? Forcewall says that spells cannot pass through it. But if the point of origin of the spell is suddenly 10ft further away from you, did the point of origin pass through it?

Is the point of origin destroyed by the collision with the wall?

If the point of origin passes through something that blocks line of effect, do we then re-evaluate the line of effect and have the spell wink out? What exactly is the effect of an involuntary violation of:
"You must have a clear line of effect to any target that you cast a spell on or to any space in which you wish to create an effect. You must have a clear line of effect to the point of origin of any spell you cast."

Who knows.

My personal preference is that the cloudkill spell doesn't pass through a wall and attack creatures on the other side, nor does it simply stop moving upon impact with a solid object - I choose to have it wink out if it does so. Primarily because it stops most of the given combos.

 

[Plane Sailing]

As to arguements that a cloudkill would be contained within a forcecage - The big problem is that the cloud generated by cloudkill doesn't move: The point of origin of the spell moves, and then you figure out the effects of the spell for that round.

That seems a strange and counterintuitive way of working the spell. The simple reading of it (and surely the intention) is that it conjures up the cloud of real poison gas which then drifts away from you.

Otherwise what do you expect happens when it runs into a wall? You'll have a nightmare adjudicating all kinds of situations if you follow on this track, I'm sure.

 

[Grishnak]

Slime wave & Confusion/hold person = either a person stuck in the wave taking con damage or someone who has the potential to keep passing through it. (I know it bloody killed me that way ggrrrrr)

 

[Gaiden]

This was one of the changes which annoyed me in 3.5e for a couple of reasons.

Firstly it spoilt the best guaranteed counter to silence spell

Secondly it introduces the 'spell omniscience' problem (or perhaps it should be the 'spell freshness' problem) where the globe is able to suppress a mirror image spell that was cast more recently than the globe but can't suppress a mirror image that was cast longer ago. Is the globe inherently ageist, or does it just respect it's elders lots?

I can't be sure without my books handy but I've got a feeling that the PHB still has an example of its use which confuses this issue too. The SRD doesn't have any such example so I might be remembering that wrong

CHeers

This would probably be considered a house rule, but I interpreted the "spells already cast" part to be those cast within the area of effect of the globe at the time of casting. Thus personal buff spells, and the like do not go away. However, a spell, even if cast before the globe, if cast outside of the AoE disappears when it enters. This may be completelly incorrect according to the spell descriptor but seems to make the most sense in terms of the spirit of the text and spell as a whole.

 

[Coredump]

No, you take damage when the spell comes into effect, and when you pass through the barrier. If you're just standing there, and don't actually pass through the barrier, you only take damage the when it first appears.

When the Hold wears off, and you pass through in one direction or the other, then you'll take a second lot of damage.

-Hyp.

I disagree on two fronts. Logic, and RAW

First Logic: (yes, I know that it is a game, and that logic does not always play a part. But I feel that when it can, it should)
You have a spell that makes tons of blades of force that whirl around so much, and are so dangerous, that if you just try and walk/run/dive through them, you will take (lets say) 10d6 damage. Ouch.
But if you walk right into them, and stand right where they are whirling around, and just hang out for many many rounds, lets say 30 rounds, 3 minutes, and then continue walking out. You will take the *same damage*
Now, that just doesn't sound right. Most things try and have a hook into logic, even if tenuous.

Second, RAW: The rules do not state "when you pass through" as you wrote. they state "Any creature passing through the wall takes 1d6 points of damage" So it is not when you have done something. It is while you are doing something.
To have passed through is a decreet moment in time, it only happens once. To be passing through, can take quite awhile.

Lets say it was a 100'x100' room of fire. And the text said "anyone passing through the room takes 10d6 damage. Would you really rule that stopping in the middle and tieing your shoe, and doing some light stretching would not add to the damage? After the first round, are they still passing through? sure are, more damage.

Now, an argument can be made that being held means you are no longer 'passing through' and are thus no affected. But that is really a tenuous attempt at semantics, and even that does not hold up well.

Lets take the same room, and now it says, "for every round moving through the room, you take 10d6 damage". If one of the characters stops, and stands still, do they stop taking damage?


.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Lets take the same room, and now it says, "for every round moving through the room, you take 10d6 damage". If one of the characters stops, and stands still, do they stop taking damage?

If the intention is that they continue to take damage, the room is badly worded.

It should say something like "Each round, creatures in the room take 10d6 damage".

To distinguish it from something that - through super-friction, for example - only causes damage to creatures that move.

-Hyp.

 

[Saeviomagy]

That seems a strange and counterintuitive way of working the spell. The simple reading of it (and surely the intention) is that it conjures up the cloud of real poison gas which then drifts away from you.

And stops working when it hits a wall, just like a lightning bolt, or whatever. Oh, and incidentally, it can be stopped (or partially stopped) with a dispel magic, which says to me that it's not a real toxic fog cloud that moves - it's a spell, that moves, that generates a toxic fog cloud.

Otherwise what do you expect happens when it runs into a wall? You'll have a nightmare adjudicating all kinds of situations if you follow on this track, I'm sure.

Nope. It stops. The point of origin hits the wall and then ceases to exist and the spell stops.

In my personal opinion: the spell isn't written to be contained with a target in a fishbowl - it's simply too good for that. I also don't like spells to be cast through walls. The reasonable solution is to stop the spell when the POI would travel through something which blocks line of effect.