Topic: Coil of the Snake

[Doridian]

Hi all. Let me begin thanking for all of the effort I’m seeing from ICE Staff in putting errata and other materials here in the RMSS sections. I'm back to the forum after several weeks and I'm glad to see that everything here is well alive! Thank you all!

I’ve gone through all of the rulings and in the Martial Arts Companion errata thread, but I’ve found nothing about. So I dare ask here.

Both in the Zen Monk and Taoist Monk new spell lists there are spells that allow to add one or more dice to roll in initiative determination (and choose the best ones): one of them is, if I’m not wrong, “coil of the snake”. The duration of such spells is “1 round” and they are instantaneous.

In the spell description I would have expected to read “it applies to next round initiative”. Instead, saying nothing about it, the spell description seems to imply that you cast the spell during initiative determination. If it were as such, it would be a spell cast out of phase. Any idea on how should it work?

I can see three possible solutions.

The one I expected, a easy one: you cast it in a round and you benefit from it in the initiative roll of the next round.

A restrictive one, maybe more appropriate: it’s cast during initiative determination, but it counts as a phase for the round (caster’s choice) and it costs 10% activity as any other instantaneous spell.

A liberal one, really different from anything else in the rules: it’s a free spell, it costs PP’s but it does count neither for a phase nor for % used activity.

What do you think?
Ciao,
Alessandro

[Doridian]

I've checked it: the spells are Coil of the Snake I (and above) for Taoist Monk and Quick Strike I (and above) for Zen Monk. In the latter spell list there's also a typo as in the spells descriptions Quick Strike spells are numbered I, II, etc., whereas in the spell list they appear as Quick Strike III, V, etc. (spell descriptions are right, I think).

So no one ever used them, did he/she? 

[Marc R]

Or perhaps you cast it, roll another die, and add it to your initiative in the following phases?

So you roll 2d10 get 3+8=11, cast Coil of the snake I in snap, roll 1d10 get a 5, 8+5=13, initiative roll considered a 13 in normal and deliberate?

Or, cast in deliberate, and it applies to the next round's initiative?

There are a lot of MAC people on this board, you'll likely get a reply from someone else, (or a horde of them) but you might need to await more than a day. . .sometimes you drop bait in the water and the fish are all over it, sometimes you have to await a little. 

[markc]

 In the past I think it was ruled that it applied to that round but I can see it being applied to the next round also. I use a different combat system so I do it differently.


MDC

[pastaav]

I have always applied the effect to upcoming round. It might not say that it apply to next round, but it does not say the current round either if I recall correctly.

Actually I suppose you could rule that it applies for the upcoming three phases, if that you desire such, but personally I see little need.

[Doridian]

A liberal one, really different from anything else in the rules: it’s a free spell, it costs PP’s but it does count neither for a phase nor for %.

I wrote that it would be different from anything else in the rules, but it would be not.
Just to give one example, in Channeling Companion, Warlock base list, Wyrd Mastery, Luck spells (I - II - True) allow the casting of the spell without counting as an action or activity. The initiative modification could be treated the same way, couldn't it?