D&D 3.x Multiple Spell Effects (3.5)

[andargor]

Yes. The web spell will entangle only creatures who are in the area when the spell is cast. Creatures who later move into the area of effect, say to attack or assist others, do not themselves become entangled.

That's an interesting interpretation. IOC, you become caught in the Web if you enter the area with strands.

Web creates a many-layered mass of strong, sticky strands. These strands trap those caught in them.

Maybe you are basing your interpretation on this line?

Attacking a creature in a web won’t cause you to become entangled.

We interpret this as attacking a creature on the edge of the Web, not moving into it.

Andargor

 

[GakToid]

That's an interesting interpretation. IOC, you become caught in the Web if you enter the area with strands.

Maybe you are basing your interpretation on this line?

That would make sense, however:

Web

Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect: Webs in a 20-ft.-radius spread
Duration: 10 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: Reflex negates; see text
Spell Resistance: No

Anyone in the effect’s area when the spell is cast must make a Reflex save. If this save succeeds, the creature is entangled, but not prevented from moving, though moving is more difficult than normal for being entangled (see below). If the save fails, the creature is entangled and can’t move from its space, but can break loose by spending 1 round and making a DC 20 Strength check or a DC 25 Escape Artist check.

Bolded the relevant part.

-Gak Toid

 

[AuraSeer]

Unlike a 3.5 wall of force or blade barrier, a planar spiderweb is not magically restricted to vertical. A spider can shape or place the web however it likes, within the limits of its brain power; it can be vertical, horizontal, sloped north-northeast at a 47º up angle, whatever. All that matters is whether a character comes in contact with it, which will be quite clear in virtually every game situation.

Think about the 3.0 version of blade barrier. The barrier is and always has been planar, but in 3.0 you could lay it down on the horizontal, effectively turning it into an area effect. This was changed in 3.5 only because it made the spell unbalancingly powerful, not because of some philosophical objection to horizontal planes.

Regarding large creatures: you're correct that the web hit points are listed per section, but that only applies when someone attacks the web to do damage. Multiple squares do not increase the DC of a break or escape attempt, and I explained above why I think only one check should be needed.

Now if that ogre were unable to free himself for some reason, and his friends wanted to cut him free with their weapons, then the number of webbing squares would be important. When you're hacking away at every individual strand, cutting 4x the number of strands will take 4x as much effort.

 

[GakToid]

Regarding large creatures: you're correct that the web hit points are listed per section, but that only applies when someone attacks the web to do damage. Multiple squares do not increase the DC of a break or escape attempt, and I explained above why I think only one check should be needed.

Now if that ogre were unable to free himself for some reason, and his friends wanted to cut him free with their weapons, then the number of webbing squares would be important. When you're hacking away at every individual strand, cutting 4x the number of strands will take 4x as much effort.

So, if you want to use escape artist or a strength check you only need to succeed once.

But if you use a weapon it's four times as hard to get free.

Odd.

-Gak Toid

 

[Saeviomagy]

Just a point:

Web has the line
effect: webs in a 20ft radius spread.

So if you cast web at an area twice over (or overlap two areas of web), then the effects do not stack, and you treat it the same as a single web. Similarly, I'd expect that by the RAW, someone already in the area of a web would not need to make a reflex save when a second web is placed on the area.

Grease, however, has no such line - it's got a 'targets' section.

OTOH, the general rules for combining magical effects states that for the same effect more than once with differing strengths, for the same effect with differing results, or one effect makes another irrelevant, that the most recent spell works. Since 'grease' covers stuff with grease, I'd say that this falls under "one effect makes another irrelevant" - the area is either covered with grease, or not. One save, one set of checks for movement etc.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Wouldn't that last example require you to use a lowercase letter O for the orc?

[color="#dddddd"]
       #
  ┌────.─┐
  │.....[color=magenta]s[/color]│
  │...#..[color="#cc5050"]■[/color]
  │..."..│
# │.[color=yellow]o[/color]."..│
##[color="#cc5050"]∩[/color]..."..│
  │...#..│
  └──────┘
[/color]

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Grease, however, has no such line - it's got a 'targets' section.

...?

"Target or Area: One object or a 10-ft. square"

-Hyp.

 

[Saeviomagy]

...?

"Target or Area: One object or a 10-ft. square"

-Hyp.

My point being, it doesn't have an effects line. Web certainly has an 'effect', and two such 'effect's which overlap are no different to a single web.

Grease has no effects line, so it could be argued that somehow it's different to the web spell. My arguement would be that despite not having an 'effect' line, it still generates an effect, and if that effect is in a place twice over, it still only occurs once.

 

[The Souljourner]

The ogre should get one save to stay standing up. Just because he's straddling two different grease spells doesn't mean it's any more difficult for him to stand up than if he walked through the middle of one. The same amount of grease is under his feet. Forcing him to make two saves is silly.

-The Souljourner

 

[apsuman]

The ogre should get one save to stay standing up. Just because he's straddling two different grease spells doesn't mean it's any more difficult for him to stand up than if he walked through the middle of one. The same amount of grease is under his feet. Forcing him to make two saves is silly.

-The Souljourner

IMHO, if the orge walked through one cloudkill spell and into another cloudkill spell in the same round, he would suffer the effects twice.

So, if the orge walks through one patch of GREASE and into another patch of GREASE he would have to save twice.

I contend that based upon the diagram, with one foot in one patch of grease and one foot in another patch of grease then he would need two saves. Now for simplicity sake if you want to consider that the orge has one single point that determines where he is on a gridded map and thus has one save that is fine. However, if the players are smart enought (or the orge dumb enough) to move from the left side of the hallway to the right side of the hallway then he would have to make a new save just as if he were stepping from dry ground onto the greased path on the right side of the hallway.