Calm Emotions vs. Confusion

[zibeck]

Okay, here's another one. The Calm Emotion spell reads:

"(Calm Emotions) removes the confused condition from all targets."

Suppose a target failed their will save and became confused as per the spell. Now suppose calm emotions is the cast on that target among others, and the confused condition is removed. But does this mean the target becomes confused again if the confusion has a longer duration? My group's initial thought was no, but after further reading into it, we became unclear, especially since confusion also has a duration (is there any other way to become confused other than the spell?).

Also, what if someone under the effect of calm emotions became confused? Does it remove the condition then, or only at the onset of the spell?

 

[Dross]

Based on other spell combos like dominate/Prot from Evil i'd be inclined to say the confusion kicks back in after CE runs out.

As for the 2nd Q, maybe calm emotions is overwhelmed by confusion? However I'm going to leave this for someone a bit more rules savy than myself to provide a better answer.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

According to the SRD:

This spell automatically suppresses (but does not dispel) any morale bonuses granted by spells such as bless, good hope, and rage, as well as negating a bard’s ability to inspire courage or a barbarian’s rage ability. It also suppresses any fear effects and removes the confused condition from all targets. While the spell lasts, a suppressed spell or effect has no effect. When the calm emotions spell ends, the original spell or effect takes hold of the creature again, provided that its duration has not expired in the meantime.

The question is whether the word "removes" in the highlighted text is used in contradistinction to the word "suppresses", or whether the author was trying to use it as a synonym for "suppresses" in an effort to make the sentence "read better".

Taking a literalist approach to interpretation, "removes" denotes something different to "suppresses" - the question is what. I conjecture it is synonymous with "dispels".

On the other hand, taking a more purposive approach to interpretation, I conjecture that "removes" is meant to be synonymous with "suppresses". This interpretation would be supported by the fact that there are two sentences devoted to explaining the meaning of "suppresses" but nothing for "removes". One also has to ask what game justification there is for fear and other morale effects being suppressed by the spell, but confusion is isolated as a special case.

In my opinion, the word "removes" is an artefact of the author's grammar, and is not intentionally being used in contradistinction to "suppresses". I would rule that confusion effects are suppressed by calm emotions, and spring back into effect if their duration exceeds the duration of the calm emotions.

I note that the spell description is generally badly worded. For example, the spell has a Will negates save, but "automatically" suppresses certain effects - effects which have saving throws are not, by definition, automatic.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar