Simple (I hope) ? about Prot From Evil

[Otterscrubber]

Well this does indeed illustrate some of the reasons why 3.5 came out. Sorry I failed to notice the 3.0 icon with this thread. But if someone else went all the way back to 1st Ed. to justify their opinion I don't see any harm in moving forward to 3.5 to justify mine. I do not have access to 3.0 SRD, is it still around?

Anyhoo, it would seem to me the spirit of this spell is to PROTECT, as such if there is any ambiguity I would err on the side of protecting the caster. It clearly protects vs. attacks. Question is: Is that the "attack action" or any harmful attack/effect made by an opponent. If someone cast a fireball at me I would certainly consider myself being attacked. I would go so far as to say if an enemy does anything that forces you to make a saving throw and/or take HP, ability or level damage then you are under attack. This is not stated anywhere and is my opinion, but I think it works well as a guideline for when to raise shields. It does not say "attack action" from the previous posts with the 3.0 spell description I am assuming that is the exact wording. Unclear for sure. I say he still gets the bonus to save vs. the blade barrier.

 

[travathian]

In agreement with Otter over the whole going back to first edition vs going forward with 3.5, the 3.5 SRD is freely available on WotC website, I encourage anyone with these types of questions to give it a quick check to see if the wording is better for a given spell/skill/feat/concept. I realize the question regarded 3.0, but its just plain silly to go back two whole MAJOR revisions, spanning how many years, 15?, than to go forward half a revision of two years.

Also, by attack, how do you know they mean the literal 'attack' action and not being hostile and trying to kill the target?

(OT is a spell that requires an 'attack' roll an attack or a spell? If its an attack then they get the +2, but they wouldn't get SR because spells can't attack?!?)

 

[LordAO]

I believe the save bonus would apply. "Both these bonuses apply against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures." The balde barrier is an effect created by an evil creature, so the bonus would apply.

Remember that the spell gives a resistance bonus to saves, and will not stack with any other restiance bonuses the character may have from a cloak of resistance or another spell.

 

[Rel]

I think that pretty well settles it, guys. Thanks.

For the record, I had neither the 3.0 SRD, nor the 3.5 SRD (which we don't use anyway) available to me at the time of the game. I did go back and check the 3.0 SRD (there's a link in the SRD thread at the top of the forum) after the fact but it didn't clear things up. I made the call that the bonus did not apply and it wound up causing the character some damage that forced him to back off and heal a round sooner than he would have liked. But nobody got killed and the bad guy still got slain.

I did say when I made my ruling that I was not certain of it and that I'd check on it and let them know the correct answer. I was wrong and I'll make it up to the player with a Fate Chip for next game.