Questions of the Spell kind

[not_me]

A few spell-related questions, if I may.

1 - Domain Spells (for a cleric) cannot be spontaneously cast as cure spells, correct?

2 - Any spontaneously cast cure spells (again from cleric) cannot be metamagiced on the fly, also correct?

3 - Does the Find the Path spell effectively make trapped dungeons pointless, given that it gives the straight GPS path to get there, and also somehow lets the cleric know all passwords, tripwires, traps, etc?

4 - Can an alarm spell detect invisible creatures/people?

5 - Is Azuth's Spell Shield just a bit insanely SR-ing?

6 - Greater Teleport: if someone said "I live in village X, its in those mountains over there", could Greater Teleport figure it out enough to go there?

I just know there are more questions I'm forgetting.

Thanks all,

not_me

 

[Pax]

1: correct; PHB v3.5, page 32, bottom right corner.

2: incorrect. They can be metamagicked, but doing so causes their casting to require a full-round action. PHB v3.5 page 88, middle of the right-hand column.

3: just because the cleric knows how a trap will be triggered, and where it is, doesn't mean he can get past it. If the trap is triggered by opening a door - and you have to open the door to get past ... well, the cleric better have a rogue friend handy who can disable the trap. Also note, you have to be able to name a specific LOCATION, and "the BBEG's throne room" isn't sufficient. See the spell description, PHB v3.5 page 230, for details.

4: yes, it can. It doesn't pinpoint their location, just that they've tripped the alarm.

5: it should have the same SR cap that is applied to the PHB single-target version of the spell - 37, at caster level 25.

6: If the person who lived in that village, yes. If not, then probably STILL yes; the wizard would ask for a description of the village square - which way the mountain slope faces, where the nearest stream is, what the buldings look like, etc. You need a visualisation of the target location, not exact distance-and-direction, nor map coordinates.

 

[not_me]

Much thanks for the reply! A slight follow-up...

2 - whoops, dunno how I missed that

3 - so by saying specific location, you'd need to have a general idea what the room looks like, or that its in the centre of the complex, or the like? If it's the latter, that may not be too hard to determine. How about "to the other end of this theives run"?

Also, the spell tells you the right word to bypass a glyph of warding. If there is a similar way to bypass a trap, would the spell also tell you that?

6 - that's what I thought; it seemed pretty open-ended so long as you had a good idea where it was/description.


not_me

 

[Pax]

3 - If you knew the room was at the center of the complex you're in, then yes, thats houdl be sufficient. But be careful, the spell is probably quite LITERAL about what "center" means.

If the complex is an evil temple, and you want to be guided to "the primary Altar of this temple", that should probably work. If, however, you ask to be guided to "the high priest of this temple" - nope. Nor "the high priest's treasure". "The temple vaults" might work - but no guarantees the treasure is STORED int eh vaults (they could keep old furniture down there, instead ...).

Regarding the bypassing of traps - sure, it'd tell you "to disable the trap on the door, use the lever hidden in the locked secret compartment at the base of the left-hand statue". It's up to the cleric to figure out how to use the lever, without the required key. ^_^

 

[Li Shenron]

1 - Domain Spells (for a cleric) cannot be spontaneously cast as cure spells, correct?

Correct, they must be prepared, and in the domain slot only.

2 - Any spontaneously cast cure spells (again from cleric) cannot be metamagiced on the fly, also correct?

Not really, they CAN be metamagicked on the fly. Only price is casting time increased to a full-round action (or more if you apply more metamagic feats at the same time, or if the spell casting time is already longer).

3 - Does the Find the Path spell effectively make trapped dungeons pointless, given that it gives the straight GPS path to get there, and also somehow lets the cleric know all passwords, tripwires, traps, etc?

It doesn't make traps pointless. It is quite debatable, but IMHO it allow to automatically sense the presence of a trap, and possibly give a hint about how to pass beyond it in the best way, but it doesn't let you automatically succeed any reflex saving throw against traps for example. For example, if the trap is a hidden pit door, it tells you exactly where it is: therefore if it is in the centre of a room you automatically know how to walk around it, but if it is the whole room floor which collapse it doesn't let you pass with no harm. And definitely it doesn't give you any clue how to disarm the trap.

It can however IMHO let you know of secret doors, and eventually provide magic words to open them if any, but again it wouldn't let you automatically succeed an open lock check or a strength check to force the door open if needed.

Also there are 2 other important limitations about this spell. First, it gives you the SHORTEST route, and not the SAFEST . Second, it works only on locales and not objects/creatures. This is again debatable: you cannot use it to reach the BBEG, but can you use it to reach the BBEG's chamber? I am not sure, probably yes, but of course the BBEG may not be there (this rule makes the spell work only on immovable places). In general, the spell is much more useful when you are trying to get OUT of somewhere rather than in .

4 - Can an alarm spell detect invisible creatures/people?

IMHO yes it can. After all, normal darkness doesn't fool the spell, so why should invisibility? As a rule of thumb, I'd say that ethereal or incorporeal creatures may bypass the spell (but I am not very sure about the latter).

5 - Is Azuth's Spell Shield just a bit insanely SR-ing?

Don't remember now, but isn't it only available through the Spell domain? In which case only a few would know this spells, and could cast it very few times per day.

6 - Greater Teleport: if someone said "I live in village X, its in those mountains over there", could Greater Teleport figure it out enough to go there?

The required "reliable description" of the place is kind of subject to DM's adjudication. The name of the village (unless there are more with the same name) and approximate locations are in my opinion enough.