Clarification on Resists

[caldsteven]

I have heard this several ways and would like to have an official ruling. As far I as I can tell you may not resist something that you are afflicted by, only before you are affected.

Example
Player A has 1 Resist Sleep. Player B hits Player A with 3 consecutive Trance Spells. Player A may resist the 1st spell, take the 2nd, and No Effect the 3rd due to already being affected by the spell.

The reason I ask this is that I've seen and heard of Player A taking the 1st spell, No Effect the 2nd and No Effect the 3rd and then Resist Sleep once Player B is within attacking range to break out of sleep.

The rule books states that you must be CONSCIOUS to use a Resist and that you may "pretend" to be afflicted by a spell.
So in the above case it would seem that the person would need 3 Resist Sleeps to pretend to be asleep.

The same would apply to Resist Toxin and being hit with 3 Sleep Gasses.

(EDIT: For simplicity's sake, we are assuming that neither player has active spell shields or cloak)

[Casey]

Player A has 1 Resist Sleep. Player B hits Player A with 3 consecutive Trance Spells. Player A may resist the 1st spell, take the 2nd, and No Effect the 3rd due to already being affected by the spell.

Yes, this is a valid use of the Resist.  (I'm assuming you meant a Sleep spell for the purposes of your example and resist combo.)

The reason I ask this is that I've seen and heard of Player A taking the 1st spell, No Effect the 2nd and No Effect the 3rd and then Resist Sleep once Player B is within attacking range to break out of sleep.

This is NOT a valid use of the Resist.  If the player chooses to actually take the 1st spell instead of using his Resist, he is asleep and may not subsequently activate a Resist to "break out" of it.  If he chooses to "pretend" on the 1st spell, then the 2nd spell still gets him and the 3rd spell has no effect.  The only spell he could validly Resist is the first one that hit him.

[Josh B]

Ummmm Casey.... Trance and Sleep are interchangeble for the purposes of Steven's example as the two spells are just the Celestial and Earth versions of each other. 

[BeccaH]

To further clarify, you have to be conscious to use a resist. If you take the first sleep, get waylaid, etc, so that you are not conscious you can not use a resist.

[caldsteven]

Thank you for clarifying. 

[Casey]

@ Josh...yes, I know, I just didn't want to confuse anybody.  Stephen was making such an effort to be consistent and clear!

 Also I am running on 4 hours of sleep, shaddup!   

[trevor.l]

in the rule book it says this

Resist Sleep*
Prerequisite(s): Any Elf or Faerie
The Resist Sleep skill allows a character to resist any sleep spell, potion, or poison as many
times per day as he has purchased the skill. This includes the spells Trance (C,5) and Sleep
(EG/D/H,5).
If a player with this skill is hit with one of the aforementioned, he should say “Resist” if he
wishes to resist the spell, gas, or poison. He can also pretend to be asleep and say “Resist” at a
later time.

so just to make sure i have this correct if, i do not take more sleeps or trance spells than i have resist's i should be able to pretend to be asleep and then use my resist?

[caldsteven]

Yes. if you have 3 Resist Sleeps and are hit by 3 or less, then you may pretend to be asleep