SPECIAL ABILITIES

Contents

• Ability Score Loss - Various attacks cause ability score loss, either ability damage or ability drain.
• Antimagic - An antimagic field spell or effect cancels magic altogether.
• Blindsight And Blindsense - Some creatures have blindsight, the extraordinary ability to use a nonvisual...
• Blindsense - Other creatures have blindsense, a lesser ability that lets the creature...
• Breath Weapon - A creature attacking with a breath weapon is actually expelling something...
• Charm And Compulsion - Many abilities and spells can cloud the minds of characters and monsters,...
• Cold Immunity - A creature with cold immunity never takes cold damage.
• Damage Reduction - Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage...
• Darkvision - Darkvision is the extraordinary ability to see with no light source at all, out to a range specified for the creature.
• Death Attacks - In most cases, a death attack allows the victim a Fortitude save to avoid...
• Disease - When a character is injured by a contaminated attack touches an item smeared...
• Disease Descriptions - Diseases have various symptoms and are spread through a number of vectors.
• Healing A Disease - Use of the Heal skill can help a diseased character.
• Energy Drain And Negative Levels - Some horrible creatures, especially undead monsters, possess a fearsome...
• Etherealness - Phase spiders and certain other creatures can exist on the Ethereal Plane.
• Evasion And Improved Evasion - These extraordinary abilities allow the target of an area attack to leap or twist out of the way.
• Fast Healing - A creature with fast healing has the extraordinary ability to regain hit points at an exceptional rate.
• Fear - Spells, magic items, and certain monsters can affect characters with fear.
• Becoming Even More Fearful - Fear effects are cumulative. A shaken character who is made shaken again...
• Frightened - Characters who are frightened are shaken, and in addition they flee from the source of their fear as quickly as they can.
• Panicked - Characters who are panicked are shaken, and they run away from the source of their fear as quickly as they can.
• Shaken - Characters who are shaken take a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.
• Fire Immunity - A creature with fire immunity never takes fire damage.
• Gaseous Form - Some creatures have the supernatural or spell-like ability to take the form of a cloud of vapor or gas.
• Gaze Attacks - While the medusa's gaze is well known, gaze attacks can also charm, curse, or even kill.
• Incorporeality - Spectres, wraiths, and a few other creatures lack physical bodies.
• Invisibility - The ability to move about unseen is not foolproof. While they can't be...
• Level Loss - A character who loses a level instantly loses one Hit Die.
• Low-Light Vision - Characters with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light...
• Paralysis - Some monsters and spells have the supernatural or spell-like ability to...
• Poison - When a character takes damage from an attack with a poisoned weapon, touches...
• Contact - Merely touching this type of poison necessitates a saving throw.
• Ingested - Ingested poisons are virtually impossible to utilize in a combat situation.
• Inhaled - Inhaled poisons are usually contained in fragile vials or eggshells.
• Injury - This poison must be delivered through a wound. If a creature has sufficient...
• Perils Of Using Poison - A character has a 5% chance of exposing himself to a poison whenever he applies it to a weapon or otherwise readies it for use.
• Poison Immunities - Creatures with natural poison attacks are immune to their own poison.
• Polymorph - Magic can cause creatures and characters to change their shapes-sometimes against their will, but usually to gain an advantage.
• Psionics - Telepathy, mental combat and psychic powers-psionics is a catchall word...
• Rays - All ray attacks require the attacker to make a successful ranged touch attack against the target.
• Regeneration - Creatures with this extraordinary ability recover from wounds quickly and can even regrow or reattach severed body parts.
• Resistance To Energy - A creature with resistance to energy has the ability (usually extraordinary)...
• Scent - This extraordinary ability lets a creature detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell.
• Spell Resistance - Spell resistance is the extraordinary ability to avoid being affected by spells.
• Successful Spell Resistance - Spell resistance prevents a spell or a spell-like ability from affecting...
• When Spell Resistance Applies - Each spell includes an entry that indicates whether spell resistance applies to the spell.
• Tremorsense - A creature with tremorsense automatically senses the location of anything that is in contact with the ground and within range.
• Turn Resistance - Some creatures (usually undead) are less easily affected by the turning ability of clerics or paladins.