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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6007457" data-attributes="member: 42582">Yes. Gnolls are stereotypical pack animals - that is, savage in packs and cowards alone.I could pose the same question in relation to a dwarf: if it travels through time to the modern world, and chows down some plutonium, is it immune to the toxic effect? I don't think the D&Dnext rules are intended to model these sorts of extreme cases. (Anymore than, for example, it models combat between two ants, or two housecats.)In addition, one could always rule that Cthulhu does not impose the "frightened" condition, but some more mindblasting effect to which hobgoblins are not immune.Commander is pretty clear: the hobgoblin captain gives commands, which help the other hobgoblins in their fighting.Armour Piercing is also pretty clear. Normally, a hit vs AC 10 would hit the armour but not penetrate it; while a hit vs the target's actual AC would not only hit the armour but penetrate it. (Roger Musson discussed this in an early number of White Dwarf, in an article called How to Lose Hit Points and Survive, but I doubt that he was the first to notice it.) The minotaur is so tough that all its attacks penetrate armour to some extent: hence the descriptor "armour piercing", and the minimum damage on any hit vs AC 10.If you wanted to make action resolution more complex, you could make the minotaur's minimum target number AC 10 + DEX component of the target's AC. Given that comparatively few PCs with a high DEX component to AC are going to be trading blows with a minotaur, the designers may have though that the extra complexity was not worth the effort.The reason the halfling couldn't have done it earlier is presumably because (as others have posted upthread) it takes time and effort. The halfing is mustering his/her resolve. What does it look like? Pick your favourite scene from LotR - maybe Merry deciding to stab the Nazgul, or Pippin deciding to pledge fealty to Denethor.The simpe answer, surely, is Yes, it really does. Maybe it's an idiosyncracy of halfling psychological processes.Surely here, of all places, the "it's magic" explanation will do! Some spells admit of being reduced to ritual formulae. Others don't. Why? Well, once you have a general theory of how magic works, you can add on the epicycles to explain how some admit of ritualisation and others don't.Because it's part of the spell effect. Maybe the spell requires speaking very few words, or only a very simple hand gesture, or maybe it has a haste effect built into it.Again, "it's magic" seems like it might be enough here.Mightn't part of the answer that what makes Radiant Lance minor rather than 2nd level is precisely that more time is spent casting it: you can do it repeatedly, provided you say the full rites and make all the right gesticulations every time.</blockquote>

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