Q. If a wizard casts a stone skin spell on himself, then is struck in
melee while casting another spell, is the second spell disrupted or is
the wizard able to maintain concentration because the stone skin's
protection negates damage?
A. The second spell is disrupted, as a successful hit ruins a spell in
progress (Player 's Handbook, page 85). Note that a successful attack,
not damage, is the critical factor here. Game logic assumes that even
a non-damaging hit can disrupt concentration. It's tough to keep your
mind focused on something as complex as a spell when someone's using
your head for batting practice, even if the blows aren't hurting you.
Many kinds of non-damaging hits can disrupt spell-casting: a hand
clamped over the mouth, an arm-lock, or just being knocked down.
However, damage always breaks concentration. If, for example, a
spell-caster takes damage from a fireball or breath weapon, any spell
in progress is lost even if the caster made his saving throw and took
only half damage. These distinctions also are important to game
balance. Spell-casters are intended to be vulnerable to physical
attacks during spell-casting, and their opponents must be given a
chance to anticipate the spell and disrupt it before it goes off.
Spell-casters can't get around this limitation by using spells such as
stone skin. Likewise, spell-casting monsters that are immune to normal
weapons (such as liches and vampires with character abilities) can
have their spells ruined by any successful attacker. Some DMs even
allow "attack" bonuses when characters make attacks specifically to
disrupt a spell. The reasoning here is that a non-damaging jostle or
cross block is easier to make than a potentially lethal blow. While
this sort of ruling tends to be an equalizer when the target
spell-caster is a high-level evil patriarch with an armour class in
the negative numbers, it can be unreasonably tough on a 1st-level
wizard with AC 10. Apply such bonuses carefully, if at all. I suggest
that bonuses be limited to +4 or less, and you might consider applying
them to the target's armour class rather than to the "to hit" roll. If
you use the armour class adjustment method, do not allow an armour
class to be adjusted to worse than 10.
Q. Will the damage inflicted from round to round by a Melf's acid
arrow spell prevent spell-casting?
A. Yes. Damage makes the concentration required for spell-casting
impossible. This is one thing that makes Melf's acid arrow a useful
spell. However, the acid can be washed off before the duration
expires.
Q. How are infra-vision and ultra-vision supposed to work? Do they
work like infra-red goggles that detect heat, or like "starlight"
optics that simply gather large amounts of light?
A. Strictly speaking, infravision is the ability to "see" infra-red
light or heat. The exact game effects of infra-vision depend on the
rules your DM is using; see pages 118 and 119 of the Dungeon Master's
Guide for the rules governing this kind of vision. Ultra-vision is a
bit harder to describe, but generally it is considered to be quite a
bit like "starlight" optics. Creatures with ultra-vision have eyes
that can gather large amounts of-light and can also detect ultraviolet
light and use it to enhance the available normal light. Ultra-vision
generally is useful only outdoors at night.
Q. What happened to psionic abilities? I seem to remember reading
something about an upcoming psionic rules supplement.
A. A new rule book, The Complete Psionicist is due in early 1991, This
book will feature a boatload of new psionic abilities, a detailed
combat system, a new psionicist character class, and other goodies.
Q. How many attacks would a specialist with a two-weapon fighting
style (from The Complete Fighter's Handbook) get each round?
A. The specialist gets the one or more attacks each round with the
weapon in his "good" hand; this varies with his class, level, and
weapon specialization. The specialist gets one attack each round with
the weapon in his "off" hand, regardless of level, class, or
specialization. Game logic assumes that no one is coordinated enough
to launch multiple attacks with each hand; there is a limit to how
much activity a person's brain can direct in a single round of melee.
Game balance also requires such a limitation, as warriors are not
intended to be walking blade barriers.
Q. Specialization in the two-weapon fighting style from The Complete
Fighter's Handbook reduces the penalty for attacking with two weapons.
Can the specialist further reduce the penalty to nothing if he has a
high dexterity score?
A. Yes. The rules on page 96 of the PHB apply to the character, except
where modified on page 64 of The Complete Fighter's Handbook. Note
that high dexterity scores cannot turn the penalty into a bonus, no
matter which rules you are using.
Q. How many punches can a character throw in one melee round? Does
fist fighting require a weapon proficiency?
A. This is entirely up to the DM. Contrary to popular belief, fist
fighting is not universal and was unknown in several pre-gunpowder
cultures; American Indians, for example, generally resorted to
wrestling in unarmed combat, so DMs have great latitude here. I
suggest allowing any character to make one attack on the
punching/wrestling table (PHB, page 91; or DMG, page 59) without
penalty each round. Since the punching/wrestling table allows for
single-blow knock-outs, I suggest that this kind of combat be treated
as a special case that falls outside the normal weapons rules.
However, fist fighting and wrestling can be treated just like any
other weapons that require proficiencies. If this is the case, the
proficiency should be available to any character class. If a character
spends a weapon proficiency on punching, he should get the extra melee
attacks listed on Table 15, PHB, page 26, if he is a high level
warrior. Punching specialists would use Table 35, PHB, page 52.) Any
character (under any punching system) attacking with both fists would
use the attacking with two-weapons rule (PHB, page 96). Note that
wrestling generally requires two hands.
Q. The punching/wrestling table allows for results on an attack roll
of 1. Don't 1s always miss?
A. A roll of 1 always misses in normal combat. However, punching and
wrestling are not normal combat, and 1s can hit. This is an exception
to the general rule.
Q. Is it acceptable for a character to wish for special abilities,
such as thieving or spell-casting abilities? If granted, would these
abilities be permanent or temporary? Would such a wish turn the
character into something that had the desired power?
A. This is entirely up to the DM. You've listed a couple of reasonable
approaches to the problem. If wishes are fairly rare in the campaign,
and the DM feels that the need is justified, a special ability such as
lock picking might be granted for a limited time, say as much as a
month (but more likely a few turns or hours). If wishes are true
rarities or if the DM really approves of high-powered player
characters, it's fine to make the ability permanent, but I suggest
that the ability be low powered, about one-third to one-half of what
the average player character in the campaign might have. It's also a
good idea to make the level of power fixed, not subject to improvement
though experience. It certainly is acceptable to twist such wishes by
changing the character into some creature that has the desired
ability; such changes might be permanent or temporary. It also is fine
to have a creature possessing the desired ability appear and serve the
character for a short time. "Sage Advice" has discussed wishes before;
check out this column in issues #133 and #162 for general information.
Q. What armour class do the various Bigby's Hand spells have?
A. Each "hand" has AC 0, in either version of the AD&D game.
Q. How can a necklace of adaptation allow a character to exist in
airless space? Wouldn't a character in a vacuum just explode?
A. In a fantasy game, being thrust into a vacuum does not necessarily
cause catastrophic decompression. The AD&D Spelljammer rules, for
example, assume that anything in space carries its own atmosphere. In
any case, the necklace has the power to sustain the character in
airless space for as much as seven days. What happens to the character
at seven days plus one second is up to the DM.
Q. Can a wizard with a Zagyg's spell component case (from the
Unearthed Arcana tome) pull components for non-wizard spells from it?
A. The wizard can get the components for any spell he knows from the
case. If he is a multi- or dual-classed character, he can get
non-wizard spell components. If the wizard does not know a certain
spell, he cannot "think of" the proper components and cannot get them
from the case.
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