Shadow Evoking A Resiliant Sphere

[The Spectrum Rider]

So our sorcerer cast Shadow Evocation to create/simulate/cast/whatever Otiluke's Resilinat Sphere on an opponent. Said opponent failed, first, his Will save against the Shadow Evocation, then, his Reflex save against ORS, so as far as he's concerned he's stuck in a sphere. But a fairly *protective* sphere....

But how about other characters? Do they get a Will save against the Shadow Evocation? If an archer makes this Will save, can he pepper the trapped opponent with arrows? Could a spellcaster who disbelieves the effect cast a Fireball or Lightning Bolt into it? And so on.

The sorcerer only recently picked up Shadow Evocation, and he's making brilliant use of it - and I (the DM) have no objection. I like it when my players get creative. But there seems to be some leftover questions about the side effects of the spell, when some people believe and some don't. Any ideas?

The Spectrum Rider

 

[Otterscrubber]

Well your opponent in your example failed all relevant saving throws so he is definitely trapped. For your other 2 examples we should take them separately. An archer firing into a RS that was created using shadow magic will probably hit its target as the arrow is the only thing coming in contact with it. Items always make their saving throws to disbeleive. It is however partly real and still has a 20% (or whatever % based on the level of shadow evocation you have) to affect the arrow normally based on the spell's description.

As far as a caster throwing a fireball and it getting through, that is a bit trickier. I suppose you would treat it the same as the arrow since the fireball it different than the caster and is for all intents and purposes an object (actually an effect, but its still not alive and should not be fooled by the illusion aspect). I'm not sure if you would treat spell effects that way, but I can't think of anything in the rules that would say otherwise.

Hope this helps.

 

[Particle_Man]

And if an arrow or fireball got through, and you opponent made a spellcraft check to determine the spell (the one being imitated), then he might have "incontrovertible proof" that the spell is mere shadow.

 

[Kershek]

The sorcerer only recently picked up Shadow Evocation, and he's making brilliant use of it - and I (the DM) have no objection.

So how has he used Shadow Evocation so far? My wizard got it recently as well and I'm always open to suggestions So far I've only used it for Explosive Cascade (Magic of Faerun) since we were battling vampires and mummies.

 

[Saeviomagy]

And if an arrow or fireball got through, and you opponent made a spellcraft check to determine the spell (the one being imitated), then he might have "incontrovertible proof" that the spell is mere shadow.

I doubt that would change anything - the spell is enough real, and the target's mind fooled sufficiently, that the spell works on him for it's duration.

Otherwise shadow evocations become even less useful than they currently are - as soon as one person makes their save, everyone does.

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

So how has he used Shadow Evocation so far? My wizard got it recently as well and I'm always open to suggestions So far I've only used it for Explosive Cascade (Magic of Faerun) since we were battling vampires and mummies.

He does a great job of choosing the right spell for the opponent: Fireball for the frost giants, Ice Storm for the salamanders, Shatter when faced with hitherto unknown beasties with a mirror-like appearance and powers. This may not sound like much, but he's never beena DM, and some of those spells (Ice Storm, for example) have never come up in the game before, so I've been impressed with his apt choices.

The other night a mirror-blob of unknown capabilities turned itself into a duplicate of the party's most physically powerful member (a centaur fighter/ranger) while absorbing the character into an extradimensional space within its body. (You could see the centaur in a foggy window-like area in the monster's torso, sturggling uselessly to get out). Mirror-centaur joined the other bad guys in attacking the party. The party had no idea whether harming the mirror-centaur would harm their friend, but in the meantime it was doing a lot of damage. That was when the sorcerer whipped out the Shadow Evocation-Otiluke's Resiliant Sphere: "Let's set this problem aside while we deal with our more obvious enemies." I've never seen anyone cast ORS before; I thought it was great.

The Spectrum Rider