Q's on: Psionics, Combat, Spell Like Ability, and Search

[Leopold]

Ok folks this happened in my game and as DM I ruled on some stuff and want some clarity on some issues i was wondering if you fine people could help me clear up?


1. Rogue searches for traps, finds one, stops search picks lock, opens chest, trap goes off. They say search finds all traps under the DC, I rule "Search for a trap you find said trap, search again for multiple". Which of us is right?

2. Can you use spell like abilities while stunned or helpless? Mind flayer wants to plane shift out of combat but a spell causes him to become helpless. Can psionics or SA abilities cause while helpless?

3. Does SA's draw AoO? I believe they do and we agreed they do just curious if we are right.

4. Hardness and Hit points on items? Anyone know how many HP's and hardness a chest has?


5. Psionic power Mind Wipe (nasty ability) blows away 5 levels of a creature. The DC is set ridiculously high as that D20 role+psions mod soar it in the mid 30's almost everytime. What's a good defense or stopping power for it?

6. Can you use a SA and say grab or touch someone. Example: Mindflayer grabs helpless target or touches them, activates Plane shift, does it happen or is the process of grabbing negate his use of SA that round?


I will probably have more but thanks in advance.

 

[Alchemist]

I'll have a kick at a couple of these.

Ok folks this happened in my game and as DM I ruled on some stuff and want some clarity on some issues i was wondering if you fine people could help me clear up?


1. Rogue searches for traps, finds one, stops search picks lock, opens chest, trap goes off. They say search finds all traps under the DC, I rule "Search for a trap you find said trap, search again for multiple". Which of us is right?

I think this a judgement call, but I think when one searches an area or item they turn up everything of interest that falls under his check. If that second trap had been too well hidden for his result, He would have tripped it. In fact, I did just that to my players just yesterday.

4. Hardness and Hit points on items? Anyone know how many HP's and hardness a chest has?

See pg. 166 of your PhB. Table 9-11.

Edit: Formatting errors.

 

[Leopold]

looked everywhere for those hardness rules! thanks!

 

[Silverglass]

Ok folks this happened in my game and as DM I ruled on some stuff and want some clarity on some issues i was wondering if you fine people could help me clear up?

2. Can you use spell like abilities while stunned or helpless? Mind flayer wants to plane shift out of combat but a spell causes him to become helpless. Can psionics or SA abilities cause while helpless?

3. Does SA's draw AoO? I believe they do and we agreed they do just curious if we are right.

6. Can you use a SA and say grab or touch someone. Example: Mindflayer grabs helpless target or touches them, activates Plane shift, does it happen or is the process of grabbing negate his use of SA that round?


I will probably have more but thanks in advance.

2. Spell-like abilites need an action to use, therefore you could not use one while stunned (as you cannot take actions), with helpless I would say it depends on the reason for being helpless. If you are paralysed you are helpless but the description of paralysis specifically says "He may take purely mental actions, such as casting a spell with no components" so psionics and SA's with no somatic component would be ok. If the target were held, sleeping or unconcious then no they couldn't. If in doubt check the spells description.

3. Yes the use of spell like abilites attracts an AoO (see the table at the start of the SRD Abilities and Conditions section).

6. Yes and No, if the SA is a Touch spell then you can cast and touch in the same round, if it's not then you wouldn't be able to. SA's operate under the same way as the Spells other than the components. As Plane shift is a Touch spell you can do this " You may take your move before casting the spell, after touching the target, or between casting the spell and touching the target." from Touch Spells in Combat in the Combat chapter of the SRD and PHB.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Ok folks this happened in my game and as DM I ruled on some stuff and want some clarity on some issues i was wondering if you fine people could help me clear up?

2. Can you use spell like abilities while stunned or helpless? Mind flayer wants to plane shift out of combat but a spell causes him to become helpless. Can psionics or SA abilities cause while helpless?

You can use them while helpless, but not while stunned. Unless you have a Mindscapes feat, of course.

3. Does SA's draw AoO? I believe they do and we agreed they do just curious if we are right.

SA? It depends.

Sneak attack? No.
Spell-like ability? Yes.
Psionic power? Yes.
Supernatural ability? No.
Ranged attack (trumps all): Yes.

5. Psionic power Mind Wipe (nasty ability) blows away 5 levels of a creature. The DC is set ridiculously high as that D20 role+psions mod soar it in the mid 30's almost everytime. What's a good defense or stopping power for it?

I'd like to see what point buy you're using... you might also want to nerf Psionic Focus to match Spell Focus 3.5.

In any event, anything that prevents you from taking negative levels should save you.

6. Can you use a SA and say grab or touch someone. Example: Mindflayer grabs helpless target or touches them, activates Plane shift, does it happen or is the process of grabbing negate his use of SA that round?

Grappling is a standard action, so if plane shifting. He needs to grapple on round one and plane shift on round two.

 

[Dinkeldog]

5. Psionic power Mind Wipe (nasty ability) blows away 5 levels of a creature. The DC is set ridiculously high as that D20 role+psions mod soar it in the mid 30's almost everytime. What's a good defense or stopping power for it?

I'm not seeing the DC set so high, for some reason. 4th level power, so d20 ~ 11 + 4 + modifier, so you're only in mid 30s if your stat modifier is +20.

Regardless, if you define Mindwipe to be mind-affecting (which it probably should be, but isn't labeled explicitly as), then the Mindscapes version of Intellect Fortress (and therefore Tower of Iron Will) will protect against it. I would probably do something similar with a schismed mind. You affect one half or the other, but not both.

 

[green slime]

I'm not seeing the DC set so high, for some reason. 4th level power, so d20 ~ 11 + 4 + modifier, so you're only in mid 30s if your stat modifier is +20.

Regardless, if you define Mindwipe to be mind-affecting (which it probably should be, but isn't labeled explicitly as), then the Mindscapes version of Intellect Fortress (and therefore Tower of Iron Will) will protect against it. I would probably do something similar with a schismed mind. You affect one half or the other, but not both.

The psionic ability to set DCs with a die roll is particularly devastating. There are several items that allow psions to boost their DCs as well. So if the psion uses a +1 DC boosting item, +4 for Greater Psionic Focus, +5 Stat mod, +4 for power level = DC 1d20+14, which means the DC is 30+ on a roll of 16 or above. or 25% of the time. 25% of the time it is 19 or lower.

 

[green slime]

1. Rogue searches for traps, finds one, stops search picks lock, opens chest, trap goes off. They say search finds all traps under the DC, I rule "Search for a trap you find said trap, search again for multiple". Which of us is right?

Well you are the Dm so of course you were right! The down side to this would be that from now on, they are going to be searching for multiple traps each and every time. Which will get tedious in the long term.

So it may just be better to stick to other solutions: increase the DC to find a multiple-layered complex trap, that has a lower DC for some of its parts. Give Make the Search roll required to discover the whole trap lower, and explain the set-up so it isn't missunderstood.

2. Can you use spell like abilities while stunned or helpless? Mind flayer wants to plane shift out of combat but a spell causes him to become helpless. Can psionics or SA abilities cause while helpless?

You cannot take any actions while stunned. There are various degrees of "helpless" (such as held, paralyzed, sleeping, bound, unconscious) You may take purely mental actions, while held, paralyzed, or bound. This is not very clear in either the hold person description, or the "helpless" description, but may be inferred from the Condition Summary about Paralyzed (3.5 DMG pg 301).

Manifesting a power is a purely mental action, and can be done while held, bound, paralyzed, or inside an ectoplasmic cocoon. Brain lock effectively shuts down this ability.

The 3.5 DMG describes psionics on page 297, and in the Monster Manual, page 313, stating that they are spell-like abilities that a creature generates from the power of its mind alone. How this differs from spell-like abilities is left unanswered. It seems more flavour than anything else.

However the MM description of spell-like abilities indicates that these are without components; therefore they too are mental actions, and can be undertaken while held.

3. Does SA's draw AoO? I believe they do and we agreed they do just curious if we are right.

Read page 315 in the MM.

4. Hardness and Hit points on items? Anyone know how many HP's and hardness a chest has?

You got this already.

5. Psionic power Mind Wipe (nasty ability) blows away 5 levels of a creature. The DC is set ridiculously high as that D20 role+psions mod soar it in the mid 30's almost everytime. What's a good defense or stopping power for it?

Anything that would function against Enervate.

6. Can you use a SA and say grab or touch someone. Example: Mindflayer grabs helpless target or touches them, activates Plane shift, does it happen or is the process of grabbing negate his use of SA that round?

You must still take a standard action to use your spell-like ability. So not all in one round, unless you are using 3.0 haste or similar.

I will probably have more but thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]

Not a prob!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

If you're having trouble with the save DCs, try these:

1) Use the static DC variant. (The variable DC ability doesn't actually boost the save DC, but it does lead to the occasional super-high or super-low DC.)

You're the DM, and the variant is there. Change it to whatever makes you feel comfortable.

2) Ban the Psionatrix items, or at least raise their costs (to prevent easy item crafting). They don't seem relevant in a 3.5 climate. Nerf Psionic Focus as well to 3.5 status.

Be sure to fix Animal Affinity to be an enhancement bonus - this is a particular sore point among psi-fans (that is, they're asking for a nerf, and it seems to me something has to be nearly an emergency for gamers to seek a nerf).

I don't see how Mindwipe is broken - unlike Enervation, it allows a save. In other words, a psion cannot reduce his opponent's save without forcing a save first.

 

[Spatula]

Regardless, if you define Mindwipe to be mind-affecting (which it probably should be, but isn't labeled explicitly as),

Aren't all Telepathy powers defined as mind-affecting? I think this is mentioned in the description of the Telepathy discipline in the Psionics chapter of the PsiHB.