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A while ago we crafted a Decoy ring for someone in our party. The description for it is as follows:

Whenever the wearer of this ring takes the withdraw action or becomes helpless (including falling unconscious), it instantly makes her invisible for 3 rounds and creates four illusory duplicates that either run off in opposite directions or perform other plausible actions that could draw enemy attention away from her. The duplicates last for 3 rounds before disappearing, but they instantly pop out of existence if struck by an attack (AC 10) and can be disbelieved (Will DC 19). Allies of the wearer always know her true location and can freely provide aid or assistance to her.

I want to know if this ring can be used multiple times per day. Our GM feels that it's overpowered as it is, and can't find specific ruling from PF that states it can be, but my thought is that it doesn't state that it has a limit on the number of times a day, and most equipment that limits that states so in the description.

A follow up, can a Withdraw action be taken any time, even when not in melee combat? I see that it's used as a part of melee combat, but it's not exactly clear on that detail.

I can follow my GM's decision that you have to be in melee combat to Withdraw, but I'm at odds with the idea that this can only be used once a day. Is it that overpowered that it should be toned down for a 12,000 gold ring?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Bonus question: Does it also trigger every time you fall asleep? \$\endgroup\$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Sep 28, 2022 at 19:57

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The ring as printed can be used multiple times per day

The condition for activation is:

Whenever the wearer of this ring takes the withdraw action or becomes helpless (including falling unconscious)

The withdraw action only makes sense in combat, as it states:

Withdrawing from melee combat is a full-round action.

There are, rules as written, no additional limitiations that say it that it only can be used in combat or that it would be limited to a given number of times per day. You can compare this for example to a Ring of Grit Mastery, which says

Once per day, as a standard action, the wearer of the ring can (...)

If there was a limitation on uses per day, you would expect similar language in the ring's description.

It would not be overpowered to allow using it multiple times per day, because that is how the item has been published in the printed rules (if you allow the idea that the rules as given are balanced; they may not fully be). Allowing to use it outside of combat also should not cause balance issues, as Hey I Can Chan points out: you can obtain a wand of invisibility in the same price range, that can be used any time, and is more generally useful as a way to become invisible.

That said, if your DM rules the ring only works once per day, then that is what it does. The rules say this about the matter:

Just as GMs arbitrate the rules within their games, so can they manipulate, repurpose, and wholly invent new rules to improve their games.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ His reasoning is that he says to focus on what the rules say, not what they don't say, and that he thinks that it may have been created in haste without taking it all fully into consideration, and that they might have missed something. I'm conceding to how he wants to run the game (after all, I'm a Druid who feels that Tears to Wine is way too powerful, and would impose a negative to Dex and Str skill checks equal to the Wis and Int bonus if I was GM). I'm kind of trying to see if I'm crazy for wanting to push the subject with him. Everyone else at the table sided with him, so there's that. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mynock1108
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 7:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ As a GM I think I'd be comfortable with it being usable outside combat: The character must still take a full-round action and move at least 5 ft. then becomes invisible (for but 3 rounds) and generates the decoys. Anyone familiar with a decoy ring will recognize its unique illusion generation effect and know that the wearer hasn't moved from where the wearer was last seen. That's an extremely clumsy method of at-will invisibility. A wand of invisibility (2nd-spell at caster level 8) is the same price and way more versatile. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 13:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan Don't the decoys and the invisibility start at the very beginning of the withdraw action? Otherwise, enemies always know where the opponent is. \$\endgroup\$
    – Zachiel
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 17:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Zachiel You are correct. I was thinking along the lines of Well, you've not taken the withdraw action until you've taken the withdraw action, but that reading makes more senses, especially in light of that otherwise unnecessary instantly in the ring description. I'd still rather have a wand of invisibility, though, (ahem) seeing as how using the wand is only a standard action and doesn't provoke anyway. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 18:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Ifusaso I love the idea that going to sleep activates the ring. The wearer might not even know that happens. Upon rereading it, I am kind of wondering, though, how literally the line Allies of the wearer always know her true location and can freely provide aid or assistance to her should be taken. As in, is such knowledge is available all the time? Or does it apply only when the wearer's invisible due to the ring? If the GM rules that it's the former, that'd totally be a reason to get everyone in the party a ring. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 20:26

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