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 the Player’s Guide, on sale in hardback and pocket edition!
SlyFlourish swings at some tongue-twisting spell specifics
The pendulum spell states: “A creature affected by this spell can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.”
Does the pendulum effect itself affect the saving throw of the creature affected? Can the target of pendulum burn checks to ensure it saves at the end of its own turn?
ANSWER!
The effect of the pendulum spell does affect the repeated save to get rid of pendulum.
This means that smart creatures affected by the spell could burn resources to engineer a success on their end-of-turn save. This also means PCs could force the target to make checks and saves (via other spells, shoving, etc.) to engineer continued failure on that end-of-turn save. Note that “smart” creatures are called out because the average, unintelligent beast won’t understand what’s happening to it and would likely just keep attacking or flee.
Many effects that require saving throws state that the target “must make a save,” meaning you can’t choose to fail. Some things, like grappling, are opposed rolls, which might make sense as something a creature can choose to fail at. In those cases, the creature is choosing not to oppose the effect.
NoOne calls us out on Ratfolk swim speeds
You gave ratfolk a 10-foot swimming speed, but a normal character without a swimming speed can swim 15 feet a turn (30 halved). Outside of situations like running 15+ feet and then swimming; or swimming 10 feet and then getting out of the water with 20 feet left (instead of 10 feet left), the ratfolk would be a far slower swimmer than the average character.
ANSWER!
The 10-foot swimming speed on the ratfolk is indeed a holdover from when they had a base walking speed of 25 feet in 5e. It looks like the conversion brought their walking speed up to the standard of 30 feet but didn’t adjust the swimming speed accordingly.
The ratfolk’s swimming speed should be 15 feet (one-half walking speed) like many other features that give you a unique type of movement speed that isn’t meant to be a core method of movement for you. We’ve have made a note for a future errata update to correct this.
Keep in mind that having a swimming speed often negates the need for certain checks while swimming, and it allows the ratfolk to bypass some of the hindrances of underwater combat. So, although their swimming speed is only half their walking speed, they don’t suffer the other challenges that a creature without a swimming speed would while moving at the same rate.
Messmeower unpacks the Pact Magic feature
When using the following Pact Magic class feature: “You can expend one use of Pact Magic to cast any Pact Spell you know without expending a spell slot, though they are always treated as cast at the highest-circle warlock spell slot you can access.”
Does this mean, for example, if you’re paladin 7/warlock 3, that you would cast your pact spells at 3rd level? I presume you would only be able to use those pact spells granted by your warlock level and not your overall spellcasting level.
ANSWER!
Under the rules of multiclassing in the Player’s Guide (the final two paragraphs under Spellcasting to be exact), the table might give you spell slots of a circle higher than the spells you know or can prepare. But you don’t have access to higher-circle spells unless a class grants them.
A multiclass warlock can use those empty spell slots to upcast a 1st-circle spell like bane. But that warlock still doesn’t have access to spells of those higher circles. This means the 3rd-level warlock casts Pact Magic spells at 1st circle, no matter the circle of spell slots they gain from multiclassing.
So, a Pact Spell could be upcast using a higher-circle spell slot gained from multiclass, but the Pact Magic feature (where you can cast the spell at the highest circle warlock spell slot without expending a slot) can be used to cast a spell no higher than 1st for a 3rd-level, multi-classed warlock.
matthewtdawson digs in on Last Stand
For the Last Stand fighter class feature, I have two potentially related questions. First, is it required that Last Stand be used only when a character is above half hit points before that character takes damage? Second, can a character use Last Stand if they are dropped to 0 HP by the damage in question?
ANSWER!
Last Stand can be used at any point where the fighter would take damage that would reduce it to less than half their hit point maximum.
Let’s say you are a fighter with 40 maximum hit points and you have only 12 HP left. The next time you take damage, you can use Last Stand since that damage would put you below your hit point maximum.
The trigger for Last Stand is when you take damage that would reduce your hit points below X amount. The trigger goes off when you take damage but before the results of that damage (like dying) would finalize. This means you can use Last Stand in that split second between being reduced to 0 HP and gaining the unconscious and dying conditions.
That’s it for this month. Meanwhile, check out Lineages & Heritages: Supplement 1 and Midgard Lineages & Heritages for more character options for Tales of the Valiant.
And don’t forget! You can help mold the future of ToV through playtest participation and feedback via Project Chiron!
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