question regarding Hold Person spell
Lemernis
Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
Hold Person
School: Enchantment/Charm
Range: Sight of caster
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 round/level
Casting Time: 3
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: Negates
This spell holds 1-4 humans, demihumans, or humanoid creatures rigidly immobile and in place for five or more rounds. The Hold Person spell affects any bipedal human, demihuman, or humanoid of man-size or smaller, including brownies, dryads, dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins, humans, kobolds, lizard men, nixies, orcs, pixies, sprites, troglodytes, and others. Thus, a 10th-level fighter could be held, while an ogre could not. The effect selects the enemies closest to the target and holds them. Enemies making saving throws are totally unaffected by the spell. Undead creatures cannot be held. Held creatures cannot move or speak, but remain aware of events around them and can use abilities not requiring motion or speech. Being held does not prevent the worsening of the subjects' condition due to wounds, disease, or poison.</blockquote
Will only the party members who fall within the perception range of the enemy caster be affected? Or as long as the target of the spell is within sight of the caster, will any party members standing close to that target also be affected, even if they fall outside the perception range of the caster? How close is "closest to the target"? Does that mean up to the three party members that are closest to the target regardless of however far away they might be? And then 'sight of caster" refers only to the target?
Otherwise, I'm guessing "sight of caster" means that and only that, period, but just checking (playing a no-reload game, lol).
I guess as long as the PC is kept well away from any other party member affected by Hold, and he is fourth farthest away from the possible targets, that should ensure safety, though.
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P.S. that is not the description used in the game.
Example:Two gnolls are close together. You start casting hold person on one of them, the other suffers morale failure and runs away. Your spell goes and hits the gnoll you targeted, but at the exact moment the spell hits (the magical enchantment globe touches the gnoll) the other gnoll is so far away and is unaffected.
You start casting hold on a single kobold, there are no other enemies close. But by the time the spell is cast, three more kobolds have joined to fight your tank character. So when the spell hits four are so close together, they are all affected.
You start casting a lightning bolt spell on a target but before you can finish the chant, the target goes invisible or sanctuaries. Spell casting is stopped but occasionaly you may see your character waving his hands franticaly as if still trying to cast.
An enemy casts a chaos spell on Khalid. Jaheira and Imoen are next to him, you immediately order Khalid to rush north while the two rushes south. By the time spell hits Khalid, with luck Immy and Jaheira will be out of its 'blast range' and be unaffected. This works different for player and computer, computer always has to target a single character while you can cast chaos centered on an area.
So a single target spell requires you to have unblocked eye contact with the target for as long as the spell takes to cast. Once the spell is cast, it has to travel to the victim and affect. The victim can run far but the spell will follow and eventually catch, even if the victim goes invisible. Only way of avoiding a targeted spell after it is cast is to leave the area or quickly erect a spell deflection/turning before it hits. At the moment the spell hits, its area of effect will be determined, at that exact moment the number of enemies suspectible and within the radius will be affected.