Tuesday, September 06, 2005

fogged up faeries

conner the bare druid (or is that druid with a bear?) asked the following:

"Greeting

I am a druid and I have been contemplating the various Divine Magics available to me. I came across Faerie Fire and Fog Cloud, which look like they might have some form of interesting synergy, but I'm not sure on the rulings. Basically, they work like this:
Faerie Fire negates all concealment bonuses afforded by darkness.
Fog Cloud grants a 20% miss chance conceal bonus at 5ft, and a 50% total concealment bonus anywhere past that, and you can't use sight to locate targets.
Okay, so the way I see it is this. Fog Cloud is obviously not a dark effect, but flavour-wise it seems that a glowing outline would help in fog just as much as in dark. Obviously I'm not looking for Faerie Fire to negate the 10+ft bonus from Fog Cloud, since that makes no sense.

On a related note, how does Sneak Attack work in conjunction with Concealment? I have some Rogue friends who are obviously very interested in keeping their bonus. I've heard that all Sneak Attack bonuses are negated by any form of Concealment, but what counts as Concealment? Pitch black, obviously, but how light can it be before the Sneak Attack kicks back in? Full moonlight? Campfire? Dusk?

Yours in Nature
Connor and Baldur "

yours in nature?
man... get some pants! i think your acorns are showing...
anyway. the answer to your questions are simple:

you can do whatever your dm will let you get away with. if you ply your dm with alchohols and/or foods he'll probably let you see through fogclouds, have raving disco faerie fire, and backstab using a seige ballista while in perfect dark at a range of several small countries.
however, if your dm is a shrewd man who eats before arriving at the game and has a high alchohol tolarence, you may find you need to play a bit closer to the actual rules so i'll detail them a bit for you.

faerie fire halos the target with something equivalent to a candle flame. this means that your target is nicely outlined should they try to conceal themselves in a shadow, along a darkened hallway, in the bath with the bathroom light off while your wife insists that theres no-one else here and that she often does aerobic exercise in the nude.
fog cloud does exactly what it says... it creates a cloud of fog. this cloud is unusually dense and blocks all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 ft.
i once knew a druid who could do this spell on command (especially if we had beans the night before) but he also had the feat "pass without trace" so we could never prove it was him!
the combination of these two spells does this: within the first 5 ft of cloud, the target is distinguishable by a faint outline and may be struck as normal. he loses the concealment bonus given by fogcloud. beyond that 5 ft... you'll never know because you cannot see. if you step into the cloud you cannot see more than 5 ft so if you're hunting someone with faerie fire on them you won't know where they are until you stand on them... then you may strike them normally, until they do a 5 foot step and disappear again. there may be some glowing visible from outside the cloud but you will not be able to pinpoint where its emenating from. (ever driven in the fog with your headlights on? same thing).
now if you get a group of goblins together, cast different colours of faerie fire on different goblins, get them to chase each other around (tell them the other is keeping money from them) and then cast fog cloud on the dance floor you have an instant rave.
i once knew a hippie who could cast fog cloud... it smelt a bit suspect and he was the only one blinded, but he swears there were goblins involved, man...

now as for your next query.... you planning on replacing the bear or something?
if i were your bear i'd stick to the shadows / stay in the bath with the bathroom light off (ah... i see why you want to know now...).
according to the greatest wizards of all... the wizards who produce tomes upon tomes of knowledge... the wizards of the coast: "Sneak attacks aren't possible when the target has any concealment whatsoever."
in other word no!
basically if they get a concealment bonus there is no backstab allowed. if it is kinda dusky and they get a concealment bonus at 30 ft, try sneak a little closer... not surprisingly, unless its as dark as an unlight bathroom, you should be able to negate the cover bonus due to low light by getting right up to your target... especially if you're carrying a torch... in fact why not backstab them with a torch? fur goes up a treat!
but remember: if your dm is drunk he'll forget such things as concealment, time of day, and his name.

hope this helps answer your concerns.
remember: always check the bathroom first!

uncle zenstar

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