Ask Jiro presents an assortment of kobold scribes and sages to clarify Tales of the Valiant RPG rules and confirm errata sleuthed out by the ToV community!
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This month’s queries are about a variety of topics!
Nutcase 168 asks about a ghost’s Horrify trait:
If a character is immune to fear by some means like a paladin’s aura, are they affected by the ghost’s horrify effect at all or do they just automatically pass the saving throw?
ANSWER!
A creature immune to the frightened condition still needs to make the save against the ghost’s Horrify. If the creature fails the save, it takes the psychic damage but doesn’t suffer the frightened condition because of the immunity. And, by the rules, if that creature fails the save by 5 or more, it also suffers the aging effect.
However, I could see a GM ruling that the frightened immunity would also protect against that extra aging effect, if it makes sense with the character’s story or with the effect that is making the character immune to being frightened.
No One asks about pinpoint:
In the Dreamer subclass for druid in the Labyrinth Worldbook, it says, “you and allied creatures you choose within the aura’s area are aware of and can pinpoint the exact location of all creatures within its radius.”
Does this mean that if you’re in total darkness, the enemy was invisible, or you were blinded you wouldn’t have disadvantage on attack rolls because you “can pinpoint the exact location” of anyone in the range of the ability?
Or does the disadvantage from not being able to see an enemy apply, but you still know where they are, so you can make a blind attack with disadvantage?
ANSWER!
Focu“Pinpoint” is language more commonly found on the monster side of the game via things like dragons’ Detect legendary action or a shark’s Blood Sense.
Pinpoint means you know exactly where a creature (or object in the case of the xorn’s Treasure Sense) is, and you don’t suffer penalties related to not being able to see or detect that creature.
A druid using Wild Shape: Energy Link would protect itself and nearby allies from being surprised by creatures within the aura. In addition, the aura would essentially negate the advantages provided to a creature with the invisible condition, if the invisible creature was within range of the aura (though any other advantages the creature might have from something other than being invisible, like Pack Tactics, would still work).
FrostBurn326 asks about templates and Wild Shape:
My party’s druid player asked me if they could apply templates to creatures they summon or turn into. My immediate answer was “no,” but I just want to be sure.
ANSWER!
Templates (first introduced in Game Master’s Guide) are designed as a tool for game masters and aren’t designed for use by player characters, but there are some exceptions.
For example, the Flora sorcerer (see The Old Margreve) can summon plant allies with one of its class features, and we include a note that GMs can allow the Flora sorcerer to create plants that are Beasts with the Bramble Beast template. That opens up more options for the types of Plant allies the Flora sorcerer can summon and allows the sorcerer to better fit its plant theme.
We want to give a special thanks to Cas in the Discord for suggesting that GMs can use templates as quest rewards for player characters that summon or wild shape into creatures. An excellent idea, Cas! We encourage GMs to work with players that summon or wild shape into creatures to see if there are templates that work with the themes of those characters. Have an element-themed spellcaster that likes summoning creatures? Consider rewarding their hard work at the end of a quest by allowing one or more of the creatures they summon to have the Element-Infused template!
Got a question of your own? Head over to the Kobold Press official Discord server and ask your question there! Maybe you can be featured in a future installment of Ask Jiro!