Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kiri Sittori 09-17-04, 12:25 PM	1. This first question is for attack-roll (crittable) spells. Kassi, having run out of non-lethal options for dealing with a certain enemy, busts out a Disintegrate spell. Attack roll: Natural 20. (Crit threat.) Confirm roll: Natural 20. The question is this: is this second 20 an Auto-Kill Threat, or just a crit? (Or, perhaps, would a house-rule work that allows this to be a treble-damage threat?) 2. Can such spells crit monsters (or "Fortified" characters) that have immunity to critical hits? (The logic, and the rules, could really go either way.) 3. This question is specifically on Disintegrate. Let's suppose that the "certain enemy" that ate Kassi's critical-hit Disintegrate, fails that Fort save, and still survives the 213 damage that I roll. BUT, the enemy natural-ones his Massive Damage Save. Does the victim leave behind a corpse, or a pile of dust? 4. The description of Wish includes a feature that allows a character to instantly create a magic item: the cost for this is the 5000 for wish, plus twice the EXP-to-craft cost of the item. -Does this feature work with *items* that grant wishes (such as a Luck Blade,) and if so, how? -If the wishes are granted by a critter (such as an Efreeti or a Noble Djinn,) does this feature work? If so, in this case, under what conditions and/or limits?
tarkin 09-17-04, 01:28 PM	1) Natural 20 doubles damage for spells. That is it. If the spell does not have damage that is doublable, it gets no effect. You still get the save, and the save still acts the same way. There is no official rule at all for what happens when you roll two 20s in a roll. If you are using a House Rule, it shuold be applied the same way to the spell as it is to a weapon, so it should not affect a savingthrow at all. 2) The rules are clear, they can not go either way. Creatures immune to criticals are immune to all criticals, including spell criticals. However items that "activate" on a crit (Example: "Flaming Burst weapons"), still activate, even when used against a creature immune to criticals. This rule does nothing for the "Distingration" example. 3) He leaves behind the same thing that you get when you disintegrate a halfling with 1 hit point left who made his saves. Dust. 4a) Yes, but the cost for an item with a wish always exceeds the cost of a wish itself. The Luck Blade has INCORRECT information, and has been errated. 4b) Yes it does, but creatures with "wish" abilities have been officially errated to indicate that they pay XP when casting a wish, with the 1/year being an additional limitation on top of the XP cost. The DM determines if they have the XP to spend, just as they determine if it has been 1 day or 10 years since they last used a Wish ability.
Sacrusha 09-17-04, 01:37 PM	1. Some people house rule that you can get multiple criticals if your confirmation roll is also a threat. Some people also house rule that a double 20 followed by a critical confirmation roll is an autokill. But the official rule is that a double 20 is simply a confirmed normal critical hit, regardless of armor class (but concealment can still negate it). 2. If a creature is immune to critical hits it is immune to critical hits. The only exception is if an effect explicitely states that it ignores the critical hit immunity of certain creatures. If a spell or weapon states that a special effect triggers on a critical hit, additional to the damage multiplication, then that effect works on creatures immune to critical hits, unless stated otherwise. (ex: Mace of Smiting) 3. Flavor, DM decision. But per the RAW it does not turn to dust, because it was not reduced to 0 hp. "Any creature reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by this spell is entirely disintegrated, leaving behind only a trace of fine dust." 4. a) Yes, it does work and it does work normally, as with any other item. Notice that they calculated the gp/xp cost for the luck blade completely wrong, ie not according to the rules (but even with that wrong cost you pay more than 15,000xp to get 3 "free" wishes). The ring of three wishes is priced correctly, and it costs the creator 5,000 xp per wish that it holds. b) The special abilities of creatures are always subject to the DM, but if the DM allows it, an Djinn may wish you an awesome item. There are other ways to abuse a Djinn's wishes, like Gate, and they work really well. At least they would, if there wouldn't be those lightnings which seem to randomly strike those who pull them off more often than others (about twice a minute), even if there isn't any sign of a storm.
Kiri Sittori 09-17-04, 01:51 PM	3) He leaves behind the same thing that you get when you disintegrate a halfling with 1 hit point left who made his saves. Dust. 4a) Yes, but the cost for an item with a wish always exceeds the cost of a wish itself. The Luck Blade has INCORRECT information, and has been errated. To the first... I was talking about this: Nexen, Ftr18 with Insane Constitution: 256hp. Kassi, Necro15 with 60d6 of Critical Disintegrate: 213hp of damage. Nexen now has 43hp, and must make his MDS (from taking >49 damage.) Natural 1. (By the RAW, he wasn't reduced to -10 hp by the spell, but by the system shock which followed it.) Body, or no? (RAW would seem to suggest that a body would remain.) And to the other: I'm aware of that massive error. What I meant to ask is this: If I use a wish from a luck blade, can I (and by what rule) use that wish to create a magic item?
Sacrusha 09-17-04, 02:07 PM	If I use a wish from a luck blade, can I (and by what rule) use that wish to create a magic item?Depends, there are two ways: The SRD says: In addition, some items cast or replicate spells with costly material components or with XP components. For these items, the market price equals the base price plus an extra price for the spell component costs. Each XP in the component costs adds 5 gp to the market price. -> 5,000xp have been paid for the spell. One way is to say it cannot have any effect that requires more xp because there are not enough xp available to power it. The other way is to substract any additional xp cost from the creature that activates the item.
Kheldren 09-18-04, 03:36 AM	To the first... I was talking about this: Nexen, Ftr18 with Insane Constitution: 256hp. Kassi, Necro15 with 60d6 of Critical Disintegrate: 213hp of damage. Nexen now has 43hp, and must make his MDS (from taking >49 damage.) Natural 1. (By the RAW, he wasn't reduced to -10 hp by the spell, but by the system shock which followed it.) Body, or no? (RAW would seem to suggest that a body would remain.) I would rule that you have about 1/6th of a body. The failed save rather suggests that the disintergrate worked on enough of him to kill him. If you want to be picky and rule that hp proportions are not a good guide as most hp are dodging blows etc (so they just wear you down) then a body with a hole in it. Personally I think the story/dramatic effect of describing that all that is left is a pair of boots with bits of legs sticking out the top is worth it. :)
Kiri Sittori 09-18-04, 09:42 AM	I would rule that you have about 1/6th of a body. The failed save rather suggests that the disintergrate worked on enough of him to kill him. If you want to be picky and rule that hp proportions are not a good guide as most hp are dodging blows etc (so they just wear you down) then a body with a hole in it. Personally I think the story/dramatic effect of describing that all that is left is a pair of boots with bits of legs sticking out the top is worth it. :) And all too appropriate... especially if you knew anything about Nexen and his player. I think I'll run with this way. :P