Rings of Control question

[hcobb]

What house wording do you put after this:

ITL 159: "The victim must be in the same MH as the ring user, or an adjacent MH"

1. At all times. If the victim moves out of this range the control is released instantly.
2. As above but the victim gets a new saving throw every five minutes instead at one less die per doubling of distance.
3. The control continues until the ring wearer sleeps. You're out of luck if they're a Litch.
4. Something else?

Also I'm leaning towards a

Summon, Control, Undead and Magic item

modification that the controller can send mental commands at any time as a free action, but to use the controlled's senses requires the controller to take a concentrate action. This is why you can't use Staff to Snake in order to see a target for your thrown spell because you can't concentrate on using the snake senses at the same moment that you concentrate on casting the spell.

[larsdangly]

That's a really good question. The function of the ring differs in several important ways from simply casting the spell: 1) you (presumably) don't have to make a casting roll; 2) the range is loosely similar to that of most thrown spells, but sharply limited (basically equivalent to that of creation spells); and 3) there is no obvious constraint on duration, and, because there is no ST cost associated with its use it is hard to say what would limit the period of time you maintain it. I am not sure what the author's intent was, but I think the best solution is to read the rules exactly as written: it only controls beings within the 7 MH area surrounding the user, full stop. You could keep someone under control by making them walk near you as you move around, but if they ever leave that area they are free. That works for me.

[Skarg]

It is a good question, especially because Control Person is such a powerful effect.

My reading of the RAW is that the range requirement is only when control is first attempted, because:

They must be within the same range when control is first attempted.

Which implies to me that after first attempted, their is no range issue. It's true that that sentence is at the end of the type descriptions, in the paragraph on low-IQ creatures, but since it's the only clue as to how it works, I think it applies to all.

Also, if it required you to walk next to your subject all the time, it should say so for clarity's sake.

The other clue I would go by is:

as per Control Person

Control Person does not have any range requirements for maintaining control.

So, your option #3.


On another matter, the exact letter of RAW shows no ST cost to use this item. However, given that it's still VERY powerful even with a ST cost, I would tend to say it has a ST cost of 1 per turn (per Control Person) unless made Self-Powering.

As for my own campaigns, I tend to liberally tweak and adjust spells and magic items. Control Person I think needs a ST cost for my tastes. Otherwise it is massively powerful, which I'd want to be at least as expensive/difficult as self-powering would provide (and in fact moreso, due to the Magic Item Breakdown house rules I use, and perhaps other tweaks to prevent it being too easy to cheese the world with).