Things you can do while casting a full round spell.

[JacktheRabbit]

DM made a ruling today and would like opinions. Party of foes fighting a creature that is casting a full round action spell. While casting the spell one of the players moved past the creature. The creature has natural weapons and the DM ruled that the creature was able to make an Attack of Opportunty on the passing character without losing the full round spell being cast.

Ever player at the table completely disagreed but the DM was firm that nowhere in the rules does it say you cannot AOO while casting a full round spell.

In this he is technically right but after doing more checking I found this:

Casting Time
Most spells have a casting time of 1 standard action.
Others take 1 round or more, while a few require only a
free action.
A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action.
It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn
in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act
normally after the spell is completed.
A spell that takes 1 minute to cast comes into effect just
before your turn 1 minute later (and for each of those 10
rounds, you are casting a spell as a full-round action, just
as noted above for 1-round casting times). These actions
must be consecutive.

The line about acting normally AFTER the spell is complete tells me that things like AOO cannot be made unless the caster wants to ruin their own spell.

Opinions?

 

[kitsune9]

DM made a ruling today and would like opinions. Party of foes fighting a creature that is casting a full round action spell. While casting the spell one of the players moved past the creature. The creature has natural weapons and the DM ruled that the creature was able to make an Attack of Opportunty on the passing character without losing the full round spell being cast.

Ever player at the table completely disagreed but the DM was firm that nowhere in the rules does it say you cannot AOO while casting a full round spell.

In this he is technically right but after doing more checking I found this:

Casting Time
Most spells have a casting time of 1 standard action.
Others take 1 round or more, while a few require only a
free action.
A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action.
It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn
in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act
normally after the spell is completed.
A spell that takes 1 minute to cast comes into effect just
before your turn 1 minute later (and for each of those 10
rounds, you are casting a spell as a full-round action, just
as noted above for 1-round casting times). These actions
must be consecutive.

The line about acting normally AFTER the spell is complete tells me that things like AOO cannot be made unless the caster wants to ruin their own spell.

Opinions?

Well, I looked through the SRD and couldn't find anything to back up your player's viewpoint though I do agree with it. The key word is that when you concentrate on casting a spell, you don't threaten, so AoO's are impossible; however if your DM wants to run that way, remember two can play the same game, remember to arm your spell casters with a melee weapon.

 

[GreyVulpine]

Rules Compendium, page 133 states -

"ATTACKS OF OPPORTUNITY
Casting a spell that takes 1 standard action or longer to cast
provokes attacks of opportunity. You provoke attacks of
opportunity only when you begin casting the spell, even
though you might continue casting for longer. If you take
damage from an attack of opportunity, you must succeed on
a Concentration check (DC 10 + points of damage taken +
spell level) or lose the spell.
When casting a spell, you don’t threaten any squares around
you, so you can’t make attacks of opportunity."

Edit:
which is also backed up by the SRD here

"When you begin a spell that takes 1 round or longer to cast, you must continue the invocations, gestures, and concentration from one round to just before your turn in the next round (at least). If you lose concentration after starting the spell and before it is complete, you lose the spell.

You only provoke attacks of opportunity when you begin casting a spell, even though you might continue casting for at least one full round. While casting a spell, you don’t threaten any squares around you."

-GV

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Rules Compendium, page 133 states -

"ATTACKS OF OPPORTUNITY
Casting a spell that takes 1 standard action or longer to cast
provokes attacks of opportunity. You provoke attacks of
opportunity only when you begin casting the spell, even
though you might continue casting for longer. If you take
damage from an attack of opportunity, you must succeed on
a Concentration check (DC 10 + points of damage taken +
spell level) or lose the spell.
When casting a spell, you don’t threaten any squares around
you, so you can’t make attacks of opportunity."

-GV

Where is this from?

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Well, I looked through the SRD and couldn't find anything to back up your player's viewpoint though I do agree with it. The key word is that when you concentrate on casting a spell, you don't threaten, so AoO's are impossible; however if your DM wants to run that way, remember two can play the same game, remember to arm your spell casters with a melee weapon.

I find nowhere that specifically says you do not threaten when casting a spell. We are using Pathfinder, but I cannot find in 3.5 either.

The point I was making is that is says normal character action does not resume until spell casting is complete. As far as I am concerned making an AOO is part of normal character action and thus not allowed while casting a full round spell.

 

[GreyVulpine]

Where is this from?

The Rules Compendium is a sourcebook by WoTC, released in October 2007.

-GV

 

[JacktheRabbit]

The Rules Compendium is a sourcebook by WoTC, released in October 2007.

-GV

Thanks. I took a few years off from gaming and this was one of the books I did not know about. Unfortunately we are playing Pathfinder so not sure he will consider that book.

 

[GreyVulpine]

If you check above, I made an edit to my post, pointing to the SRD link which says the exact same thing.

-GV

 

[Thanee]

The caster can hope that noone hits him (as an immediate action, once per round) and make Concentration checks, if someone does (as often as necessary). That's about it.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Infiniti2000]

Party of foes fighting a creature that is casting a full round action spell.

Note that there's a full-round action casting time in addition to what you probably mean, one round. The full-round action spell is over on the turn that it's cast. An example of this would be a sorcerer spell that metamagic applies to. What you probably only mean to use, though, is something like summon monster (1 round).

In any case, GreyVulpine provided the correct answer.