Grimoire

{{Page |text={{Infobox answerpage }}
 * image = fcsidebar-3-grimoire.jpg
 * update = 2013.01.14

Do Command spells make the target act immediately (without taking an action), or on their next initiative count?
In most cases a character acts when he can act (i.e. his current or next Initiative Count). I could see some situations where I'd rule otherwise, however.

Priests only gain spells from Paths, correct? Do caster levels from other classes affect their Paths?
It's important to note that while you can have Priests who provide healing and whatnot, they function very differently from the D&D Cleric. Since they are not arcance casters, they do not have the Spellcasting skill and they do not learn or cast spells. That is why they have paths, which sometimes grant spells. Since Priests gain paths which sometimes grant spells, they need Caster Levels to make those spells work. It conveniently makes them better spellcasters should they later choose to pursue arcane spellcasting, but it's mainly there to increase the power of the magic they get through Paths. This is further illuminated at the very beginning of Chapter 3 (Divine Casters).

===Am I missing something with the Levitate spell? The caster can move a hostile target an arbitrary distance vertically out of combat, then once combat is over, dismiss the spell. This sounds like save or die to me, hardly "harmless."===

To be a little cheeky, it's not actually the spell that kills you... it's the fall afterwards. But Levitate does actually have combat applications which can be used to nullify an enemy without ranged attacks. However, moving that character requires 1 half action, and can only be done once per round &mdash; so it's putting the caster at a disadvantage (and, incidentally, preventing him from casting other full-round spells). Also note the target character can propel himself at 1/2 speed along a surface &mdash; so he can move himself back down, or to a outcropping or chandalier he can grab onto, or whatever. If the a character with 30 ft speed really wants to get down, he can spend both his half actions moving at 1/2 speed to get down, meaning he will move a net of 10 ft. close to the ground (so long as he has something to grab on to). There's enough ways for a levitated character to make his way down that we don't see a particular problem with it.

===Does someone with the undead type gain the restoration to their wounds from "cause wounds" the way a normal person benefits from "cure wounds" even though as written, Cure Wounds seems to grant auto-crits unagainst undead and Cause Wounds only heald their vitality?===

Yes. The authorial intent here is to make each spell function as the other when cast on undead characters. The simplest solution is just to have cause wounds function as cure wounds when targeting undead characters and vice versa. Cause wounds I, when cast on an undead character, heals either 10 vitality or 1 wounds.

===The spell Tinker I says "you manipulate the inner workings of a construct, repairing or inflicting 1d8 damage + 1 per Casting Level". Does it repair your choice of damage track or is it split akin to a first aid check?===

The Tinker series will be seeing a bit of revision in Spellbound. You can expect the construct end of those spells to wind up working like the Cure/Cause Wounds line.

After you gain access to the Spellcasting skill, can you put points into it when taking non-Caster levels?
Yes, because the class ability is making it available to you, effectively like an Origin skill. If Spellcasting were a Class Skill, you would not be able to take ranks when in another class.

Does Divine Favor's 1/3 level attack and damage bonus apply to spells?
That seems fair. Damage is damage, but per the RAW this applies to damage rolls (so a spell that inflicts exactly 10 damage might not be affected, depending on the GM's interpretation)

Is it possible to use something akin to "Called Shot" with targeted spells?
I would leave this to GM call. Personally, I would say no &mdash; magic can be TREMENDOUSLY powerful compared to weapons and the tools of other characters have access too, and unlike D&D classically has we are not interested in magic becoming the way to be better than everyone at everything. Your mage might have to use his sword if he wants to hamstring an enemy

===Anti-Magic Field II is enduring, but wouldn't it cancel out the permanency spell? Also, if you can only cast Anti-Magic Field on yourself, that makes me even more curious who on god's green earth would ever want to make Anti-Magic Field II permanent?===

I actually think of this as a feature, as I'd let a caster say "no" to anyone casting Permanency on one of his Anti-Magic Fields. As for the latter, anyone who wants to be largely immune to magic effects for a while?

===If you spend a skill point on spellcasting at a time of your choosing using the I can swim feat, do you also immediately get a spell of your choosing? If so, it would seem to make it a very tempting option for high Int mages...===

Depends entirely on how acquiring spells works in your campaign.

If a character is wearing armor and casts Disguise Self, does the disguise penalty of that armor apply?
No. The spell causes "possessions" to change as well, and then it is a "Disguise result" not a bonus.

===With the Magic Stone spell, it only says "You transmute up to 3 pebbles into magic hurled ammunition, each inflicting a different type of damage". Where is the rest of the description? What does this spell actually do? What exactly is "magical hurled ammunition"? What are the three different types of damage?===

It doesn't need more. "Magic" = largely descriptive, though potentially triggering a wide variety of game effects, both printed and via GM interpretation; "Hurled" = can be thrown; "Ammunition" = can be used in various borderline weapons in the Hurled category (those that may not always be viewed by folks as "hurled" weapons, like the sling and blowgun, for example). The point isn't that you get three specific types of damage &mdash; it's that you get to choose three different types. So our version actually offers you more versatility and utility. Just remember that this spell only produces ammunition, not the weapons to use it with.

===The Insanity spell can inflict enraged, which states that upon losing the condition a character immediately falls unconscious. So, would Insanity make people fall unconscious if they end up rolling the enraged condition and the spell immediately terminated?===

In and of itself, no. The transition from one condition to another as a result of the spell trumps the standard end of duration effect. However, should the target of the spell make their Resolve check then yes, they're out like a light and potentially in an immediate Terminal situation.

===When using summoning spells, does this means you must spend a full round summoning the creature, and then the creature spends a full round doing nothing, such that a summoning spell cast immediately after Initiative is rolled won't have an offensive impact on a combat until Round 3?===

Yes, that is the intention.

Should Harm ever provoke a save vs Massive Damage or Critical Injury?
Yes.

How would you bypass a magic trap like Glyph of Protection? Counter Magic seems to be only usable after the spell has been triggered.
Detect Magic to see the Glyph, Knowledge (Spellcasting) to determine what it is, and Counter Magic to break it. Some GMs might allow a Sesne Motive or Investigate check to determine a password.

If an NPC with baseline Cha 10 and the Devoted quality casts a spell, is the save DC 10?
Yes.

Does Massive damage apply to damage inflicted by spells? The wording says 'damage in a single hit'. Is a spell effect a 'hit'?
No.

Does Blindsight negate Blur?
I would rule yes &mdash; unless there was some mitigating reason why it shouldn't. (I'm not seeing one now, but there's always that possibility).

===What negates or blocks Deathwatch? I thought maybe Mind Blank as it says "...character can’t be magically observed in his location...", but it says Divination spells automatically fail & Deathwatch is Necromancy.===

Given that Mind Blank is Level 8 and Deathwatch is Level 1, I'd be perfectly happy saying that the former trumps the latter. We generally dislike absolutes but there's a point where the mechanical support required to avoid them simply isn't worth it. In this case Deathwatch is adding rather than taking away (in that it's offering info rather than shutting down an avenue of play), so it's fine, and Mind Blank is Level 8, which is well into "game breaking" territory.

===Detect Magic allows the caster to sense magical characters and objects. The objects part is fairly simple, but characters is less so. Is that intended to mean characters with casting levels, or something more intrinsic like creature type?===

It's left vague on purpose to allow for a variety of applications with GM approval and/or interpretation. I would not personally allow its use to identify spellcasters &mdash; unless they were currently casting a spell or affected by one &mdash; but I probably would let casters use it to identify inherently magical creatures like, say, the little burlap sack puppets on the Spellbound cover.

The spells are split up into the 8 schools, but I can't find any game rule for using the schools. What then are the schools for?
Take a look at the Alchemist - he has a limited list of schools he can learn spells from. There will be more in Spellbound, when it is released (classes that only cast from a single school - a Conjurer, a Reaper, etc). }}