Adjudicating Spells

Magical Adjustments to the Attack Roll

As presented in the section on Combat, certain spells such as curse, prayer, and protection from evil adjust the chance “to hit” of either the attack or the defender or both. Such changes must be made to the Armor Class of the defender, not to the to-hit dice result.

More Advice of Special Types of Magic

Bringing Back the Dead

Certain spells will bring the dead back to life. In order for the magic to work, the body of the person must be whole, or otherwise missing parts will still be missing when the person is brought back to life (the use of powerful magic, such as wish-type magic, may be allowed by the DM to create a whole body from a fragment). Also, the resurrected person must make a special saving throw to survive the ordeal (see Constitution) and will possibly be weaker. Furthermore, creatures with a Constitution score have a limit on the number of times they may be brought back from the dead. Certain creatures have spirits instead of souls (such as elves or half-orcs), and cannot be raised or resurrected, but may be brought back using reincarnate or wish. Note that newly made undead, excluding skeletons, which fall within the days (or years) of being dead limit are affected by raise dead/resurrection spells cast upon them. The effect of the spell is to cause them to become alive, providing their Constitution survival check succeeds; otherwise, they are simply dead.

Charm

A charmed creature’s or person’s priorities are changed as regards the spell caster, but the charmed one’s basic personality and alignment are not. The spell is not “enslave person” (or mammal). A request that a charmee make itself defenseless or that he/she/it be required to give up a valued item or cast a valuable spell or use a charge on a valued item (especially against the charmee’s former associates or allies) could allow an immediate saving throw to see if the charm is thrown off. In like manner, a charmed figure will not necessarily tell everything he/she/it knows or draw maps of entire areas. A charmed figure can refuse a request, if such refusal is in character and will not directly cause harm to the charmer. Also, a charm spell does not substantially alter the charmee’s feelings toward the charmer’s friends and allies. The charmed person or creature will not react well to the charmer’s allies making suggestions like ”Ask him this question...” The charmee is oriented toward friendship and acceptance of the charmer, but this does not mean that he/she/it will put up with verbal or physical abuse from the charmer‘s associates.

It is also needful to point out that these spells do not suddenly empower the caster, or his or her associated characters, with any special means of communications. If the caster is unable to convey to the charmed creature his or her instructions, then the creature will simply refrain from harming the spell caster, and the others in the area, if any, will still be subject to its attentions, hostile or otherwise.

If damage is inflicted on the charmee at the same time (round) as the spell is cast, then the saving throw is made at +1 for each 1 point of damage so inflicted. Naturally, this assumes damage is inflicted by members of the spell caster’s party.

Some monsters have charm powers that are more powerful than those of the various charm spells and operate under special rules. [See the Monster Manual]

Death Magic

This type of magic encompasses death rays, finger of death spells or effects, the death spell, and other magicks which will kill a victim [outright] which fails its saving throw.

Polymorph

[Ed. These spells have been updated in this work based upon research and interpretation for the campaign.]

Advice on using Illusions and Phantasms

An [1.25] phantasm is a purely visual effect; an illusion is a complete version, with sound, smells, and so forth. Thus, whenever the ability to “create illusions” is mentioned (cf. rakshasa, for one), it means the full scale type. These definitions are implied by the game system as a whole.

Every time an illusion is used, it results in a judgment call by the DM. Every use is in a different situation, with different creatures, of different things, and it’s impossible to give rules to cover everything. The DM’s decision is final, but should be consistent with previous rulings.

If an illusion is used to duplicate an “attack spell” effect, it should have little or no effect. (See Illusory Damage below.)

If there’s anything odd about the illusion, allow saving throws for disbelief, and the DM will allot bonuses as appropriate. The contrary should apply: if the illusion is very normal or of an expected thing, the referee may completely disallow the attempt at disbelief. (See Disbelieving Illusions below.)

A creature can either believe completely or disbelieve completely, and disbelieving uses a whole round of action. Furthermore, if a creature tries to disbelieve a real thing, the victim forfeits all saving throws to which he or she would normally be entitled.

When an illusion is touched, it is dispelled (with two exceptions; see below). A “touch” means the touch of a living creature, or clothing thereon. A sword or pole being used to touch the floor or wall ahead will not dispel hallucinatory terrain, for example, but the touch of a character’s boot, glove, or whatnot will certainly do so. The two exceptions to this are (1.) if the illusion is permanent, and (2.) if it’s being controlled at the time by the concentration of the spell caster.

Concentration

Once a spell caster has chosen the effect or “topic” of the illusion, he or she can’t change it around substantially. After the spell caster chooses the illusion, they’re stuck with it. The spell caster is permitted to cause it to react appropriately to stimuli, having the dragon roar when “hit” by real missile fire, look frosty after a cone of cold hits it, and so forth.

Illusory Damage

Illusory damage is real enough that a character can die from it, if believed. The illusionist spells shadow magic and demi-shadow magic are specifically designed to duplicate magic-user spell effects. Given these spells as the upper boundary of power for illusory damage (not withstanding higher level spells such as alter reality), it is reasonable for the referee to rule that lower order illusions such as spectral force or phantasmal force top out at 1d2 damage per caster level even if believed. Given phantasmal force has no audial effect, it is most likely relegated to open pits or other features not expected to produce sound. One exception to these general rules is the mixing of illusory and “real” magic in the proper sequence. If a fireball explodes amidst an oncoming horde of goblins, killing many, a spectral force of a fireball occurring shortly thereafter would almost certainly be believed as a “real” one, having similar effects.

Disbelieving Illusions

Non-player reactions to illusions can be determined by the DM or decided randomly modified by circumstances and creature intelligence. Player Characters or NPCs under player control never use random determination, the player will decide whether disbelief is being attempted. As an active attempt, the saving throw is actioned in combat similar to the use of a special ability (using an action for the round although it is a fast one at 1 segment).

Situation Categories. The following categories are recommended for evaluating situations for disbelief:

Information recommending disbelief. When an associate calls out that an illusion is present, only an idiot would fail to try to disbelieve the illusion. The same goes for creatures who know they face an illusionist.

1. Strong Suspicion. Here the circumstances are such that even a creature of low intelligence might not believe its eyes. The illusion of the dragon turtle on dry land falls in this category, as would an illusion of a pit that appears from nowhere in full view of its potential victim.
2. Suspicion. A situation belongs in this category if, of all the possible explanations for what the creature sees, an illusion is the most probable explanation. In answering this question, be sure to remember that the number of possible explanations is limited by the knowledge of the creature; an isolated caveman might not even know what an illusion is. An example of a suspicious illusion is one of a pit that appears out of the sight of the victim but in a place it knew to be solid only a round ago.
3. Doubt. Here an illusion is one explanation, but other equally probable explanations for the image exist. When a monster appears out of thin air, it might have been summoned by a monster summoning spell, or it might be an illusion; without additional information, these alternatives are equally likely to the victim.
4. Neutrality. This is the default category for illusions neither expected nor unexpected under the circumstances. An illusion is a possibility, but some other explanation is more likely. If a wise and wary troll came across a pit in a place it seldom visits, it would most likely conclude that some worthless dwarves had dug it there. An illusion of a crew of archers leading the way for the party (not seen to appear out of nowhere) is perfectly neutral and non-suspicious.
5. Expected Image. Here the circumstances actually support the victim’s belief in the illusion. In other words, the victim sees something it expects to see, and the possibility of an illusion hardly ever crosses its mind.

It will be up to the DM to assess the situation each time an illusion is used. Once a situation’s category has been selected the table below should be used to determine the victim’s percent chance of successfully attempting to disbelieve the illusion:

* Non-Intelligent Creatures. A non-intelligent creature might enjoy immunity from illusions under this system, since arguably such creatures have no mind which can be affected by the spell. On the other hand, one might say that an illusion simple enough to have meaning to a non-intelligent creature, like a raging fire (thermal effect) to a black pudding, could be used against such a creature. In such a case the non-intelligent creature should be treated as creatures of animal or semi-intelligence.