| | Ref | Ouvrage | Question | | Reponse |
|---|
| 591. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Movement and Combat: If a magic-user has a familiar, how fast can the familiar travel
astrally? | | Familiars (but not pets) are assumed to be able to travel at a
velocity based on the magic-user’s intelligence if they are
within 12” of the magic-user; beyond that range, they move at a
rate based on their natural intelligence score. A minimum score
of 2 (for a 2” movement rate) is suggested, even for a creature
type of animal intelligence, since the Players Handbook says
familiars are “abnormally intelligent.” |
| 592. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Movement and Combat: If an astrally projecting character is wounded but survives to
come back to his or her material body, is all the damage taken
removed? | | No. The psychic trauma of being wounded will still be present;
though the material body will be unharmed, the person will
appear exhausted and may possibly have sympathetic or
imaginary pains in the parts of his or her body that received the
wounding. Normal recovery times apply, and magical spells or
potions may be used to restore lost hit points. |
| 593. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Movement and Combat: Shouldn’t the initial penalty of -6 “to hit” on missile fire
(because the archer is not initially used to shooting without
having to account for gravity) be removed after it is suffered just
once, to reflect the archer’s sudden realization that all he has to
do is aim at a target directly? | | This good point was made, in one way or another, by several
persons. The rule stated in the original article should still apply
to all attacks made with thrown weapons; one will always have
the penalty initially, and even after compensating for it will have
to re-learn how to compensate each time the Astral Plane is
re-entered. (Perhaps a few practice sessions at throwing things
would be in order right after one enters astral space.) Slings are
also governed by this rule.
A modification to the rule may be made for all types of bows
and crossbows that permit direct missile fire. Immediately after
entering the Astral Plane, a person who is familiar with archery
(who has taken a bow or crossbow as a personal weapon of
expertise) rolls 3d6; a result equal to or less than the character’s
intelligence score indicates that the character already realizes
the weightlessness of the plane will change the path of arrows
or bolts to a straight line; the first missile such a character fires
will have a -2 “to hit” penalty, but the rest will be fired as normal.
Would-be archers who fail the roll vs. intelligence will automatically
miss any target over 60’ distant on the first attempt to
hit it. However, with each subsequent missile fired, the archer
or crossbowman may again attempt to roll intelligence or less
on 3d6, and if successful will have a -2 “to hit” on the next
missile fired, and then make all future shots at normal “to hit”
odds. (Again, a little target practice at first couldn’t hurt.) One
character may forewarn another about the adjustments, so the
second archer won’t need to do an intelligence roll; the procedure
of firing the first missile at a -2 “to hit,” however, stays the
same. Once this difference in missile fire is learned, an archer
does not need to make any further intelligence rolls upon reentering
the Astral Plane, but will always shoot the first missile
he fires on that plane at -2 (while “learning” the procedure
first-hand over again).
|
| 594. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Movement and Combat: Since any missile in astral space will follow a straight-line
path without slowing down, shouldn’t the maximum missile
ranges be extended to infinity, or at least to “as far as the eye
can see”? | | It’s true that missiles will have infinite range; they can (and
perhaps do) travel “to infinity.” But the probability of hitting a
target — which is what missile firing is all about — at long
ranges is extremely low; it approaches zero much sooner, and
much more rapidly, than the missile approaches infinity.
The smallest fraction of error in aiming at a very distant target
can produce a complete miss. Imagine having a rifle in outer
space and being told to shoot at a 5-foot-diameter target one
mile away. You can see that far, and a fired missile would
certainly travel that far, but the slightest error in your aim
means that you miss. Doubling the maximum missile ranges
seemed like a fair way to extend missile fire without failing to
account for the loss of accuracy. The chance of hitting anything
(unless it is really big) at a distance greater than the
double-distance long range (as set forth in the original article)
should be considered very small — too small to be worth bothering
about.
But . . . if some magic-user were to invent, perish the thought,
“smart arrows” that track a target by its innate intelligence, or
some wizard eye- like guidance system, well . . . let’s let that
possibility go for the time being. |
| 595. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Movement and Combat: Since all movement depends upon simply thinking about
moving, couldn’t a character dodge a blow by literally thinking
himself out of the way? | | Not really; the ability to dodge blows in this fashion is subsumed
in the normal armor class adjustments involving dexterity.
The higher dexterity one has, regardless of intelligence, the
better one’s nervous system is at responding to mental commands
to move. (Think of dexterity as analogous to reaction
time.) One astral character could “swoop down” at another
character and strike as he flew past, but unless the target
character is preoccupied, he or she will get a chance to strike
back, too, at normal odds “to hit.” |
| 596. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Movement and Combat: Why is overbearing not allowed, but grappling and pummeling
are? Couldn’t an attempt to overbear disorient and upset
the defender, sending him rolling and tossing? | | The sort of attack described in the question could be done
just as well by grappling. Overbearing requires that there be a
surface to fight on, and gravity that will work to the overbearer’s
advantage. Otherwise, attacks meant to overbear will work out
(in non-gravity) just like grappling. |
| 597. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Movement and Combat: If movement on the Astral Plane depends only on intelligence,
then it would seem that a magical sword or other weapon
that had ah innate intelligence would be able to move and
fight just like a sword of dancing can. If this is so, then how
could you determine the fighting ability of an intelligent
weapon? | | This question didn’t occur to us during the production of the
original astral article. It opens up many more questions than
just the one above — for instance, could an intelligent sword be
made to push treasure along? Haul unconscious party members?
Fight independently, either as a sword or by making a
long run at something like a spear?
Fortunately, there is a good “game” answer to the above
question that also makes some sense “realistically”: The intelligence
of a magic weapon is not a biological intelligence that is
normally accustomed to acting while being able to move independently;
in contrast, characters or creatures that can and do
move independently on the Prime Material and other planes are
accustomed to acting while moving on their own, even though
movement ability is not a function of intelligence in their normal
environment.
Thus, magical weapons have no effective movement on their
own in astral space (except for swords of dancing, which function
as per the DMG). Magic weapons are assumed to have no
sensory awareness of their surroundings except by means of
whatever powers they might possess (detect traps, detect
metals, etc.) In a word, they are blind. If such a weapon is held
by a character, it may be assumed that the weapon can obtain
some limited awareness of its surroundings, through the
wielder’s own senses, but that is all. In the AD&D adventure
provided with the Astral Plane article in DRAGON #67, Fedifensor
itself might have escaped its predicament if it had been able
to move on its own astrally. |
| 598. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Magic Alterations: If magic items from the Prime Material Plane are reduced in
effectiveness when taken to the Astral Plane or one of the Outer
Planes, would not items made upon an Outer Plane be reduced
in effectiveness if taken to the Astral or Prime Material Plane? | | Sure, although there should be a limit to the reduction in
effectiveness. Prime Material magic items suffer a loss of one
magical “plus” when taken to the Astral Plane, and two such
steps when taken to any Outer Plane. The reverse should also
be true of items coming from a particular Outer Plane. If a
demon prince made a +5 weapon on Plane #423 of the Abyss,
the weapon would still be a +5 weapon anywhere in the Abyss,
but would be a +4 weapon on the Astral Plane and a +3 weapon
on the Prime Material Plane. Some interesting adventures
might be arranged around magic weapons which, on the Prime
Material Plane, are quite weak, but which pick up additional and
unexpected powers the closer they are taken to their home
planes. |
| 599. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Magic Alterations: Wouldn’t magic items that depend on energy from the Positive
and Negative Material Planes be reduced in effectiveness if
taken into astral space? | | Yes, but most of these effects are assumed to be accounted
for in the general magic-item alterations. A sword of life stealing,
+2 would become a sword of life stealing, +1 astrally and a
non-magical sword on any Outer Plane; it is assumed that such
a sword has some kind of innate link anyway with the Negative
Material Plane.
Part of the problem in answering this question is that it is not
clear which weapons and items, if any, get their magical energy
directly from the Positive and Negative Material Planes and
which do not. The question can be dropped for the present
without affecting the play of the game, however. |
| 600. | DR071 | Dragon #71 | ASTRAL, Magic Alterations: How long does it take to recover spells for casting astrally? | | The spell caster, whether praying for a spell or reading from a
spell book, will find that it takes the same amount of time to
recover spells in the Astral Plane as it does normally (see
p.39-40, DMG), but instead of sleeping the spell-caster must
remain at rest, unmoving, for the stated length of time. As
mentioned in the original article, spell casters may only attempt
to gain new spells once during any single astral journey; the
peculiar magical properties of the plane make it impossible for
normal spell casters to gain any new spells after that. |
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