Spirit Medium clarification

[jimmifett]

Took a quick look at Spirit Medium...
Obviously these are previews, but i'll point out a few things incase they haven't been caught yet to clear up confusion and bring more in line with 4e:

Speak with Spirit should be a Close Burst 1 instead of Melee 1.

Unfinished Business should have the Conjuration keyword, and I presume that the effect would be better worded as:

Effect: Choose a creature that was killed or destroyed this
encounter within three miles of your current location. It must still be at 0 hit points or fewer. You Conjure the spirt of that creature in a square within the burst. The creature attacks with one of its at-will attacks as if it were alive. You choose the power it uses and any decisions for the power, such as targeting or forced movement. The creature gains a +2
power bonus to its attack rolls for this attack, and it deals full​

damage to insubstantial targets. After the attack, the conjured spirit is removed from play.

 

[dangerous jack]

within three miles of your current location


I had been wondering about this caveat. Since it also stipulates that the creature must have died this encounter, should I read into it that some encounters in Zeitgeist will cover more than 3 miles?

 

[Morrus]

within three miles of your current location


I had been wondering about this caveat. Since it also stipulates that the creature must have died this encounter, should I read into it that some encounters in Zeitgeist will cover more than 3 miles?

 

[RangerWickett]

Took a quick look at Spirit Medium...
Obviously these are previews, but i'll point out a few things incase they haven't been caught yet to clear up confusion and bring more in line with 4e:

Speak with Spirit should be a Close Burst 1 instead of Melee 1.

Unfinished Business should have the Conjuration keyword, and I presume that the effect would be better worded as:

Effect: Choose a creature that was killed or destroyed this
encounter within three miles of your current location. It must still be at 0 hit points or fewer. You Conjure the spirt of that creature in a square within the burst. The creature attacks with one of its at-will attacks as if it were alive. You choose the power it uses and any decisions for the power, such as targeting or forced movement. The creature gains a +2
power bonus to its attack rolls for this attack, and it deals full​

damage to insubstantial targets. After the attack, the conjured spirit is removed from play.

Why would it being a conjuration keyword matter? It doesn't sit around long enough to interact with anything.

 

[jimmifett]

Why would it being a conjuration keyword matter? It doesn't sit around long enough to interact with anything.

Well, you're conjuring something from ethereal wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff to begin with.

Conjurations match the intent of this power as conjurations usually summon spirit companions or other ghostly things in DnD proper.

A conjuration (generally) wouldn't be attackable by an immediate interrupt.

It occupies no squares.

It doesn't affect the terrain, so it couldn't affect physical traps but could do something like move through a forcefield.

Take flaming sphere as an exmaple. It's a conjuration, has an attack, and has specific exceptions to normal conjuration rules to allow it to occupy a space, move, and persist longer than the use of the power. Remove the space, movement, and persist exceptions and you have "Unfinished Business".

Further using flaming sphere as an example, it should probably be a Ranged 10 power instead of Close burst 10, as that would allow an immediate interupt against the caster, under the presumtion that it would take a particular amount of time and concetration whispering to briefly lure back the spirit of the dead (standard action), versus a quick whisper (minor action).

 

[jimmifett]

Totally tongue in cheek :
So, if someone died 2.9 miles back of the current position of the train, they would be ok to summon.

Does this mean that spirits are bound in relation to objects of large gravitation? The rotation of a world as well as it's revolution around it's star, in addition to the star system's vector across space, would quickly move a given fixed cosmological point past 3 miles in short order.

It's official, gravity affects ghosts after all!

 

[Morrus]

Totally tongue in cheek :
So, if someone died 2.9 miles back of the current position of the train, they would be ok to summon.

Does this mean that spirits are bound in relation to objects of large gravitation? The rotation of a world as well as it's revolution around it's star, in addition to the star system's vector across space, would quickly move a given fixed cosmological point past 3 miles in short order.

It's official, gravity affects ghosts after all!

What's the difference between "3 miles" and "10 squares"?

 

[jimmifett]

What's the difference between "3 miles" and "10 squares"?

15,790 feet

The order of the wording of the power was just a tiny bit confuzzling in trying to get it's intent across.

 

[Colmarr]

I don't personally see a problem with it being a melee power, just as there are a few cleric (and paladin IIRC) healing powers that have a melee range. The only difference I can see is that I can think of a few way to increase the range of a close burst, but none to increase the range of a melee 1 power.

The 3 mile stipulation is a little strange at first, until you realise that it applies to where the creature was killed, not where the corpse currently lies. If the bandit's body lies on a moving train, sooner or later it will travel more than 3 miles and the power will become unavailable.

It is a very corner-case stipulation though, as I can't really see it coming up that often. Unless the hypothetical train is travelling at more than 180 mph, a bandit killed in the first round of combat could be the target of unfinished business for at least the next 9 rounds, by which time the combat is almost certainly over.

Ironically, the 3-mile limitation seems more applicable to the Speak with Spirit power, but I imagine the concept was "you can talk to a spirit any time. Making it re-animate and attack someone is a little harder".

Edit: Oh, and Morrus, I'd XP you for your 1000-word reply but I need to spread...

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I think the issue with Speak With Spirits is that its listed as melee, but the target line says "One creature in burst." It would be fine power either as a burst or melee, but these two things should agree.

With Unfinished Business, the flavor makes it sound conjuration-y, but the mechanics of it does not support it being a conjuration, so I think no keyword is needed.