Ask the Sage - Quick Questions Volume 8 - all systems

[zevonian]

We're not all just DnD here. So let's try having this catch all thread for any system. If any one system gets asked about often, a separate thread can be made for it.

With that in mind, please specify which game and edition you are asking about, as the answers may vary a lot, depending upon that information.

[anamiac]

3.5 d&d

Alright, so I'm GM in a game, and one of the players has a celestial familiar who can go incorporeal. He's sent the familiar scouting out the baddie's compound. One of the baddies henchmen is a kind of ghost, and she's incorporeal. Ergo, if the familiar fails on its hide check, it will get seen. My question is: When the incorporeal familiar sees the incorporeal ghost, will it be able to recognize that this individual is incorporeal? Because the ghost greatly resembles its corporeal shape in life.


Also one other question. The ghost has a fear aura ability. Any creature within a 60- foot radius that looks at [the ghost]... must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by a fear spell. But the familiar has magic circle against evil casted on it. Does that negate the fear Aura?

[Admin Dirk]

Originally Posted by anamiac

3.5 d&d

Alright, so I'm GM in a game, and one of the players has a celestial familiar who can go incorporeal. He's sent the familiar scouting out the baddie's compound. One of the baddies henchmen is a kind of ghost, and she's incorporeal. Ergo, if the familiar fails on its hide check, it will get seen. My question is: When the incorporeal familiar sees the incorporeal ghost, will it be able to recognize that this individual is incorporeal? Because the ghost greatly resembles its corporeal shape in life.


Also one other question. The ghost has a fear aura ability. Any creature within a 60- foot radius that looks at [the ghost]... must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by a fear spell. But the familiar has magic circle against evil casted on it. Does that negate the fear Aura?

Question 1: Vision and sight are tough in 3.5, but in my opinion, yes, the ghost can see the familiar, and yes, can recognize it as incorporeal. If you need, you can roll a small/easy knowledge check (planes, perhaps) to get a feel for how much the ghost recognizes, but I would say yes, the ghost knows the other thing is incorporeal.

Question 2: And there's no reason I can see why the familiar would be immune to the fear. Prot from evil/magic circle prevents mental CONTROL, but fear is not a controlling "thing". The ghost has no control over the creature, it just instills fear in it.

[jj_wolven]

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/ru...Incorporeal_Ex

Good reading material. Things to note

• It does not say they are invisible - it actually discusses most other senses, so logically they are still visible.
• Physical creatures are difficult to see for the incorporeal creature.
• Thick walls cannot be passed through (must be adjacent to an objects exterior)

Fear - as dirk said...fear is an emotion effect, not mental control, though they would get the +2 save bonus.
-me

[degroove]

1- is there a thread somewhere with general etiquette / dos and don’ts for playing?

2 - is there a thread where I can see the full set of game posts between the DM and the players, and the “final” story line to the extent there is one? (As an example)

[jj_wolven]

Site Rules & Help (top toolbar) gives a good table of contents for things to know. There are the rules there.

Are you asking about a specific DM?
You can search for their name, but posting a summary isn't something I have seen in any of the games.

-me

[zevonian]

Note that we have several of these threads that are RPG system specific. Please check those other volumes before posting in here. Thanks.