Can the Statue transformation be "readied" against attacks?
I realise that the effect is a free action, but could it be used against , let's say an aop,changing just at the point of attack?
"You perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally".
You can only change state when it is your turn. So yes, if you used a Ready action, you could declare that you were readying the transformation, with a trigger of "I am attacked".
Can the statue form protect you from other effects like fire (in statue form) which such an object would obviously be immune to?
Well, you say "obviously immune", but by the rules, even stone isn't immune to fire damage.
"Objects take half damage from acid, fire, and lightning attacks. Divide damage by 2 before applying the hardness."
So if you feel you can treat a person in
Statue form as an object, and they sustain a 24-point
Fireball, then we divide this by 2 for 12, subtract 8 for hardness, and end up dealing 4 points of damage to the character.
The fact that in
Statue form, one does have a hardness score does argue the case for treating them as an object. (Wow... I always thought being treated as an object was a
bad thing... go figure.)
But I'd also note the Earth Elementals, for example, take full damage from fire.
Does it make you immune to petrification from spell's or gaze , since you can transform out of statue/petrified form at will?
I think it would depend on the particular attack.
A
Flesh to Stone spell, in my opinion, would fail, because the spell states that only creatures made out of flesh are affected.
A cockatrice turns to stone any creature it touches. The argument here - since we're calling a
Statue an object, can it be a creature at the same time?
A medusa or a basilisk has no qualifications. "Turns to stone permanently." Since
Statue specifically states that you can still see, and since the description of "petrified" states that you have no access to senses, I think you can still be affected by a Petrifying Gaze while a
Statue. You go from a seeing, temporary statue, to a blind, permanent statue.
Personally, I think the
Statue spell needs a little bit more description to make any of this clear, though.
And thank's to Hypersmurf for answering my previous post,your onyx is in the mail.
I hope you put a return address on it. For some reason, mail addressed to "Hypersmurf, New Zealand" never reaches me
-Hyp.
