Morphic Reach and Mage Slayer

[longhairmathgeek]

These two seem to put one in a strange situation.

Morphic Reach is the 3rd level ability from the Warshaper PrC in Complete Warior... quickly:

"A warshaper can suddenly stretch... limbs... giving it 5 more feet of reach than the creature it's emulating... warshapers don't appear to have a longer reach until they actually use it."

Mage Slayer is a feat in the complete arcane. Quickly:

"Spellcasters you threaten may not cast defensively... but they are aware they cannot cast defensively while being threatened by a character with this feat."

So what happens when a wizard is 10 feet away from a medium warshaper with apparent reach of 5 feet (but an actual reach of 10 feet)? Does he know he is threatened, and thusly cannot cast defensively? Or does he think he can cast defensively as normal, but in fact he cannot? Or does he have a mysterious awareness that he can't cast defensively, with no explanation whatsoever?

 

[Sejs]

Personally, I'd say the mage wouldn't be aware of his inability to cast defensivly until he sees the warshaper use his morphic reach ability at least once. Not necessarily against him, mind you - just sees it being used.

So the warshaper could get the drop on the mage who is assuming they can't reach that far. However, once the mage catches wise, then the mage slayer feat should function as normal.

 

[Thanee]

The Warshaper obviously has to use the Morphic Reach to apply the Mage Slayer feat before the spellcaster begins casting, afterwards it has no effect. The Mage Slayer could, however, make a sudden AoO with the Morphic Reach ability, unless the spellcaster was casting on the defensive, of course. The Mage Slayer feat cannot be used retroactively here, the spellcaster is already casting on the defensive, it's too late to stop that.


Mage Slayer is a very bad feat, anyways. Extremely poor mechanics that really make very little sense. They should just have changed it into allowing AoO even on a spell cast on the defensive, that would have been much better.

Bye
Thanee