Effects (I think?) in 3.5

[SLB]

Hey all,

I must confess, I am still struggling with trying to figure out how to use all the new things available in the updated 3.5 ruleset. I'll start with one question and perhaps that will trigger the lightbulb.

I would like a player to have a flaming longsword. So, the sword should do damage of 1d8 slashing and 1d6 flaming.

Against a Fire Giant, the damage should be rolled, the d8 should damage the fire giant, but the d6 should be ignored due to fire resistance.

How, with the new ruleset, does the player have this work. Based on all the documentation it seems like it should be possible.

Thanks for your help!

[SLB]

Perhaps this isn't possible for a player then? It seems to work for NPCs, as the Fire Giant damage is divided this way for boulder throwing (IIRC).

[Leonal]

AFAIK you cannot do this just in one weapon from the action tab. You'd need to create a separate entry (e.g. a spell class called special or similar) for the flaming damage.

[Aristotle]

Interesting. I've been so invested in getting an adventure together for first level characters that I never considered testing that. I think I just assumed that extra damage dice would be implemented since it's a pretty common magical upgrade.

You can just set up the extra damage on a duplicate of the weapon. Make sure to indicate what type of damage it is. Then you could choose to not roll the die against creature it shouldn't affect, or you could rely on DR and Immune conditions set on a target to appropriately limit the damage.

[KhybersGhost]

Is there anywhere that has a pretty comprehensive list of available effect commands to implement? (Ie. Attack is ATK: +/-# etc etc)

[Phystus]

There's some coverage in the user's manual, here, though it could use a lot more examples.

Hope that helps. If you come up with something in particular you need help with, just shout.

~P

[KhybersGhost]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I was hoping someone had compiled a list of the commands already. I'll look through individual spells to find some different modifiers

[Trenloe]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I was hoping someone had compiled a list of the commands already. I'll look through individual spells to find some different modifiers

Follow the link provided by Phystus and then click on the "Label: Conditions" and "Label: Modifiers" link that are now displayed in the bottom left under "Reference" -> "Effects". These sections show examples and lists of what can be used.

[KhybersGhost]

Awesome. Thanks to both of you.

[Phystus]

Glad to help.

Since I've been decrying the lack of examples, I decided to do something about it and provide a few that my group uses. It took a bit of tweaking before we got some of these to work properly and not apply themselves when it wasn't appropriate.

We're still learning about effects too, so if anyone has corrections, or other, better examples they can share, please chime in!

Spell effects:

Note that for these, I have an initial field that simply identifies the source of the effect. That's just so I'm not left wondering where that exta +2 came from... These are set up on the character sheets.

Prayer Ally;ATK:1 luck;DMG: 1 luck,melee ranged;SAVE:1 luck;
Prayer Enemy;ATK: -1 luck;DMG: -1 luck, melee ranged;SAVE: -1 luck; (both of these are defined on the Prayer spell)
Haste;ATK: 1;AC: 1 dodge;SAVE: 1, reflex;
Bull's Strength;STR: 4 enhancement;
Shield of Faith;AC: 2, deflection;

It's really important to specify the damage range (melee, ranged) in damage modifiers unless you want them to apply to spell damage as well. Also, if you specify bonus type (luck, morale, enhancement, etc.) the ruleset will properly handle stacking for you.

Other effects
Besides the effects attached to spells, there's the effects window on the desktop. I use that for common conditions (I've got all of them from the conditions list on mine), as well as common potions, and such things as power attack. Here's some examples.

Cat's Grace Potion;DEX: 4 enhancement; (duration 3 minutes or 30 rounds)
Power Attack -2;ATK: -2;DMG: 2 (duration 1 round)
Power Attack -2 2-Handed;ATK: -2;DMG: 4 (duration 1 round)
Spider Climb Potion;SKILL:20,,climb,; (duration 30 minutes or 300 rounds)
Charging;ATK:2;AC: -2; (duration 1 round)
Blinded (duration 0 rounds - I'll reset it when it's applied)
Entangled (duration 0 rounds as above)

Note that the last two are conditions defined in the ruleset, they will apply modifiers automatically as well.

Pseudo-spells
Some class abilities are handy to set up as a separate spellcasting class on the action tab of the character sheet. For example, our party's bard set up a 'bardic music' class with a couple 1st level spells, Inspire Competence and Inspire Courage. She has other musical abilities, but these were the ones that seemed to lend themselves to effects. She has the effects set up as follows:
Inspire Competence;SKILL: 2 competence;
Inspire Courage;ATK: 2 morale;DMG: 2 morale, melee;DMG: 2 morale, ranged;

Similarly, our rogue has a "spell" set up for his sneak attack damage (damage 1d6/2 CL).

It might be useful for fighters to place their most popular power attacks here, too, though I haven't tried it.

My group has found the effects to be extremely helpful in speeding up game play and keeping track of all the combat modifiers. I hope these examples let you unlock their power too.

~P