Forbiddance does what exactly?

Joker

First Post
I was just wondering what Forbiddance does exactly.

SRD said:
Forbiddance
Abjuration
Level: Clr 6
Components: V, S, M, DF
Casting Time: 6 rounds
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Area: 60-ft. cube/level (S)
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes
Forbiddance seals an area against all planar travel into or within it. This includes all teleportation spells (such as dimension door and teleport), plane shifting, astral travel, ethereal travel, and all summoning spells. Such effects simply fail automatically.
In addition, it damages entering creatures whose alignments are different from yours. The effect on those attempting to enter the warded area is based on their alignment relative to yours (see below). A creature inside the area when the spell is cast takes no damage unless it exits the area and attempts to reenter, at which time it is affected as normal.
Alignments identical: No effect. The creature may enter the area freely (although not by planar travel).
Alignments different with respect to either law/chaos or good/evil: The creature takes 6d6 points of damage. A successful Will save halves the damage, and spell resistance applies.
Alignments different with respect to both law/chaos and good/evil: The creature takes 12d6 points of damage. A successful Will save halves the damage, and spell resistance applies.
At your option, the abjuration can include a password, in which case creatures of alignments different from yours can avoid the damage by speaking the password as they enter the area. You must select this option (and the password) at the time of casting.
Dispel magic does not dispel a forbiddance effect unless the dispeller’s level is at least as high as your caster level.
You can’t have multiple overlapping forbiddance effects. In such a case, the more recent effect stops at the boundary of the older effect.
Material Component: A sprinkling of holy water and rare incenses worth at least 1,500 gp, plus 1,500 gp per 60-foot cube. If a password is desired, this requires the burning of additional rare incenses worth at least 1,000 gp, plus 1,000 gp per 60-foot cube.

If someone fails his save and takes the damage, can he just enter and frolic about freely?
 

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Joker said:
I was just wondering what Forbiddance does exactly.



If someone fails his save and takes the damage, can he just enter and frolic about freely?
Yes.

The primary function is to prevent magical/planar travel. It does this without fail.

The secondary function is to damage creatures of incorrect alignment who enter the area. Sometimes they shake off some of the damage, sometimes they don't. Either way, damaged or not, they can enter the area and do whatever they want.
 

It's also a good idea to rule that the damaging effect is pretty obvious, so the guardians of an inhabited area protected by a forbiddance (such as a temple sanctuary) know that there is an unwanted intruder entering. Wouldn't want someone just quietly soaking the damage and heading on in.
 


If this question is in response to reading ahead in CotSQ... just use the 3.0 version of the spell. It makes life easier on DMs. ;)


Mike
 

mikebr99 said:
If this question is in response to reading ahead in CotSQ... just use the 3.0 version of the spell. It makes life easier on DMs. ;)


Mike

LOL - yes, our group just finished CotSQ.
 

I'm currently planing on running CotSQ pretty soon, and I was somewhat annoyed by the changes that were made from 3.0 to 3.5. The damage is increased, but the spell no longer keeps enemies out. "What use is that? 6d6 or 12d6 damage, will save for half? I don't think a high level party will have any trouble with that obstacle."

Well, I thought about it some more, and here are my two cents...

* Party without a cleric, or otherwise with weak healing resources - Although CotSQ is a tough adventure, and a cleric is almost required, it should be possible to complete the adventure for a party without heavy healing resources. And 6d6 or 12d6 damage could be more than an annoyance for them. From the DMG, an average 17-18.level fighter has about 140 hp. With a will save of +7, and a save DC of what, 20-something, for Forbiddance, the average fighter will take somewhere around 40 hp of damage. That's not something to sneeze at.

* The spell no longer splits the party in two - Everyone who has been a DM has been there. The party breaks up, and this slows down the progress, and everyone gets less "stage-time". Personally I encourage my players to do what they fell is right, from a character perspective, but that still doesn't mean I hate DM'ing when the party splits in 2 or more groups. The point is, I think the change was made for just that reason - to make the game easier to run, even though it robbs the DM/bad guys (and sometimes the players) of a handy home-security-spell.

With regards to CotSQ I believe the Forbiddance spell is used to protect one of the final strongholds of the adventure's nemesis, and even though it is possible to dispel, it would mean that the last encounters of the adventure could become too difficult for the adventurers to handle.
 
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