Goodman Games

I thought I had seen this on another thread but I can't seem to find it in a search. Paralysis spell, page 264... Result 12-13 "cleric must make a normal attack on next round. If he succeeds..."

Results 14 and above say nothing about making a successful attack. They just say "any attack delivers normal damage plus paralysis".

Seems pretty straightforward but I wanted to check with you guys to make sure I'm not making an assumption. I read results 14 through 19 to say that the target takes normal weapon damage regardless of whether attack lands or not though this makes little narrative sense. And then the target would make a will save against the original spell roll to save against paralysis.

Or are we to assume that the intention is that the attack must land as in results 12-13? I don't want to nerf the party cleric.

This seems to be different in the fourth printing (page 268):

12-13 "The cleric’s hands and melee weapons are charged with the energy of paralysis. The cleric must make
a normal attack on his next round. If it succeeds, he causes normal damage and his enemy must make
a Will save or be paralyzed."

14-17 "The cleric’s hands and melee weapons are charged with the energy of paralysis. The charge remains for
1d4+CL rounds. Any attack by the cleric during this period delivers normal damage plus paralysis if the
target fails a Will save."

and so on.

Higher levels of success even extend this to missile attacks (Woot!) Slings stones of paralysis for multiple rounds, lol.

Yeah, that's how it reads in my book too, I just abbreviated what it was saying.

It still doesnt implicitly state in results of 14 through 19 that the attack must succeed. It just says that an attack does damage and maybe paralysis. I'm relatively sure that the intent is that the attack must succeed (which it states in result 12-13), but it doesn't actually say that.

I'd cast the spell as is every time. Forget the paralysis... Automatic weapon damage each round until the spell runs out...

I would require the attack to succeed.

Raven_Crowking wrote:I would require the attack to succeed.

Seconded,

It reads as if it's implied with "Any attack by the cleric during this period" ( maybe they should add the word THAT ) "delivers normal damage" in the following entries.

It's a Paralysis spell, not No Escape Damage Dealing spell...

Sometimes you gotta go with your gut, words be damned.