Ask a Simple Question - Get a Simple Answer

Zarhon wrote:How does "random targeting" affect in terms of targeting, attacks, and protection from such? In this case:

Ally is protected by a warden, cannot be attacked.

Warden can't be targeted by attacks, thanks to cutscene immunity.

Enemy uses wild lightning on a different ally:

Wild Lightning - Standard Attack
Deal 1d12 damage to target enemy and 1d10 damage to another random enemy.

Would the "random enemy" targeting be able to affect the protected ally, or the warden? Would they be "put out of the loop" for the random targeting situation?

I believe they would be put "out of the loop."

Lots of Weather-Crafter questions inbound! Marked the question with numbers.

1) How should one treat the talent "Weather-Crafter" for a non-flying, non-magical/unicorn pony (e.g. an Earth Pony)?

Considering the distance is a mere 100 feet / 30ish meters, and the talent requiring athletics/stunts to perform:

2) - How exactly would one go about doing so with athletics/stunts, if unable to fly, or do magic? The only option I can think of is the one I mention below, which is hardly viable for most characters.
3) - How much would one be capable of actually doing with the talent, considering the range?

As an alternate question, does "Weather-Crafting" count as a magical effect, and thus is viable for having the athletics/acrobatics roll substituted with "It's Witchcraft"?

If the above question isn't valid, I think it would be a good notion to have the talent updated to allow for arcana manipulation - The season 3 finale cemented it as a viable option (and made "Heavy Weather" and "Thundercrash" utilities outdated, somewhat).

I'm asking the questions mostly because I'm considering having my zebra voodoo user/spirit medium/gravedigger take weather-crafting for his next utility: He'd either do "voodoo rituals" (arcana and/or "It's Withcraft"), or "energetic rain dances" (athletics, his CMC), but I'm not sure if it's viable / useful, considering the talent's current limitations on range, his lack of flying ability, and the description limitations.

EDIT: 4) Any reason why "Thundercrash" doesn't have "Weather-Crafter" as a prerequisite?

Zarhon wrote:Lots of Weather-Crafter questions inbound! Marked the question with numbers.

1) How should one treat the talent "Weather-Crafter" for a non-flying, non-magical/unicorn pony (e.g. an Earth Pony)?

Considering the distance is a mere 100 feet / 30ish meters, and the talent requiring athletics/stunts to perform:

2) - How exactly would one go about doing so with athletics/stunts, if unable to fly, or do magic? The only option I can think of is the one I mention below, which is hardly viable for most characters.
3) - How much would one be capable of actually doing with the talent, considering the range?

As an alternate question, does "Weather-Crafting" count as a magical effect, and thus is viable for having the athletics/acrobatics roll substituted with "It's Witchcraft"?

If the above question isn't valid, I think it would be a good notion to have the talent updated to allow for arcana manipulation - The season 3 finale cemented it as a viable option (and made "Heavy Weather" and "Thundercrash" utilities outdated, somewhat).

I'm asking the questions mostly because I'm considering having my zebra voodoo user/spirit medium/gravedigger take weather-crafting for his next utility: He'd either do "voodoo rituals" (arcana and/or "It's Withcraft"), or "energetic rain dances" (athletics, his CMC), but I'm not sure if it's viable / useful, considering the talent's current limitations on range, his lack of flying ability, and the description limitations.

EDIT: 4) Any reason why "Thundercrash" doesn't have "Weather-Crafter" as a prerequisite?

1) What changes about the distance?
2) How would a non-magical, non Pegasus character do weather-crafting anyway? What skill other than Arcana, Athlecits or Acrobatics do you propose? Or are you wondering the viability of Ath/Acro for a ground pony?
3) We should really add arcana to the list of viable skills. This was especially odd in our classic fantasy version of the system.
4) Not really, except that there isn't actually a reason to take it without weather-crafting. The fact that you can is funny, though

Ok so if you make Arcana an available skill for Weather-Crafting (which I'm fine with and even have a player doing), you create a problem where Flying Weather-Crafters need to take 4 Utilities to be equally as good at doing it as non-fliers. Weather-Crafters who don't use Arcana don't have an excuse for how they do so on the ground. On the other hand, letting people get the same 4 Utility advantage with It's Witchcraft would be even worse as it'd in fact be 5 Utilities then.

I've proposed shortening the Flight tree elsewhere but, even if we shortened it down to 2, that'd still be 2 Utilities non-flying Weather-Crafters don't have to take.

Edit: As a note, the only reason I'm allowing Arcana to be used for Weather-Crafting in the game I'm running where that's come up is because it's via a Druid and that's actually the only way to do it, so it doesn't actually have a comparison problem with other methods.

Kindulas wrote:1) What changes about the distance?
2) How would a non-magical, non Pegasus character do weather-crafting anyway? What skill other than Arcana, Athlecits or Acrobatics do you propose? Or are you wondering the viability of Ath/Acro for a ground pony?
3) We should really add arcana to the list of viable skills. This was especially odd in our classic fantasy version of the system.
4) Not really, except that there isn't actually a reason to take it without weather-crafting. The fact that you can is funny, though

1) Well, distance wise, the talent was originally created with flight in mind - You can fly up very high and make a thunderstorm high above a town, that would essentially be a 100 feet diamater circle. If you're grounded however, this turns into a semicircle area around your current ground location. The storm / weather might not be higher than a building in that case, and you've got difficulty "transporting" said weather. There's also the fact that clouds and similar weather probably isn't any naturally occurring at heights as low as 100 feet.

A good way of looking at this would be the "storm" that Alicorn-Amulet-fueled Trixie creates - It's semicircular, but for Trixie, its much higher and wider than 100 feet, or 200 feet, or possibly even a mile.

Or if you mean what changed in the season finale, we saw Rarity use magic to move clouds presumably a mile away, with just magic, as well as eventually cover all of Ponyville with it. Compare with the above stuff.

2) I was wondering the viability of athletics/acrobatics, flavor-wise: examples of how a typical grounded/non-magical pony, or other races, such as Minotaurs, goes about using the two skills to alter the weather... Do they dance horribly/awesomely, or something?

Similar thing applies to Living Legends characters - How would a warrior/fighter-type human go about changing the weather with athletics, for example? It's a bit hard, if impossible, to flavor.

EDIT: What Ramsus said - Non-flying ponies are gimped, flavor wise (unless using arcana, which is currently not an option) and mechanics wise, in regards to Weather-crafting.

I suppose an easy fix would just be to change Weather-Crafting so that it doesn't suffer penalties from poor flying.

Edit: I still think the Flight tree should be shortened anyway though.

I don't think this got answered, and with the new summons to play with I'm now really curious, so I'll bump it up.

SilentBelle wrote:I got a simple question:
What happens when you summon something and then you go up in the initiative order? Does your summon follow you? Alternatively, can you summon something and then on the next turn delay until after your summon goes, or do summons ALWAYS go right after you?

Yes, the summons' turn always happens immediately after yours to reduce confusion.

Hi! I would just like to know if I have to have any of the "flight" string of talents to be able to create a Crazy Contraption that allows me to fly.

Nope. Crazy contraptions are awesome that way.

How exactly does

[-2] Blink - Interrupt Utility
Trigger - An enemy targets you with an attack.
Effect - Flip a coin. If heads, you are not affected by the attack. If tails, gain 5 temporary hp.

Work in conjunction with say

Improved Defense
Whenever a creature attacks you, roll a d12. On an 11 or higher, the attack has no effect on you.

Does Blink go first and then you get to roll improved? Or do you have to choose one or the other?

Improved Defense will trigger automatically. Before rolling it though to see if it lets you dodge the attack, you can also choose to activate your blink.

Cool.
Thank you!

Just a few quick questions for clarification:

Can a standard action be 'downgraded' into a minor one? Like if I wanted to use Caltrops twice in one turn, for example.

For the Spiked Armor and Hellspike Armor, does their "Strikeback" Reaction count as a Utility or an Attack? Right now it's neither.

For the new Iron Will trait: am I reading it right that it gives you two chances to make saving throws, at both the beginning and end of your turn? And when it says you may save against stunned and dazed effects that a saving throw could not normally end, does that mean you may use it to make saving throws against conditions that are "until the end of your next turn" and the like?

Philadelphus wrote:Just a few quick questions for clarification:

Can a standard action be 'downgraded' into a minor one? Like if I wanted to use Caltrops twice in one turn, for example.

For the Spiked Armor and Hellspike Armor, does their "Strikeback" Reaction count as a Utility or an Attack? Right now it's neither.

For the new Iron Will trait: am I reading it right that it gives you two chances to make saving throws, at both the beginning and end of your turn? And when it says you may save against stunned and dazed effects that a saving throw could not normally end, does that mean you may use it to make saving throws against conditions that are "until the end of your next turn" and the like?

1) Absolutely. Whether Caltrops is allowed to stack, I'm not sure
2) It should be an attack
3) Exactly. But extra saves still only for Dazed and Stunned.

Mark of Defense
You gain the following combat talent.
[0] Mark of Defense - Minor Utility

Target creature is subjected to your, ‘challenge’ until the end of your next turn. Once per round, when a creature that is subjected to your, ‘challenge’ makes a single target attack against an ally, you may have the attack target you instead. A creature cannot be challenged by more than one creature at a time and a new ‘challenge’ supersedes the first.

Situation: I'm protected by a Warden and cannot be attacked. The creature subjected to my challenge attacks my ally. I activate Mark of Defense and have the creature attack me. What would be the outcome?

Also, the way it is worded, does it mean I can challenge multiple creatures?

EDIT: Well, there goes that infinite loop defense idea...

You would be trying to force the creature to attack you illegally - thus your Mark of Defense fails.

With regards to the rules surrounding Interrups and Reactions

Mark of Shielding
You gain the following combat talent.
[0] Mark of Shielding - Minor Utility
Target creature is subjected to your, ‘challenge’ until the end of your next turn. Once per round, when a creature that is subjected to your, ‘challenge’ makes a single target attack that doesn’t target you, you may grant the attacked creature 1d12 temporary hp as an interrupt. A creature cannot be challenged by more than one creature at a time and a new ‘challenge’ supersedes the first.

If that happens, I can use this in response, yes?

Healer’s Blessing
You may use the following combat talent.

[0] Healer’s Blessing - Reaction Utility

Trigger - You use a talent that results in an ally gaining temporary hp.
Effect - You gain the same amount of temporary hp.

With other words, can I react on my own interrupt?

Demonu wrote:With regards to the rules surrounding Interrups and Reactions

Mark of Shielding
You gain the following combat talent.
[0] Mark of Shielding - Minor Utility
Target creature is subjected to your, ‘challenge’ until the end of your next turn. Once per round, when a creature that is subjected to your, ‘challenge’ makes a single target attack that doesn’t target you, you may grant the attacked creature 1d12 temporary hp as an interrupt. A creature cannot be challenged by more than one creature at a time and a new ‘challenge’ supersedes the first.

If that happens, I can use this in response, yes?

Healer’s Blessing
You may use the following combat talent.

[0] Healer’s Blessing - Reaction Utility

Trigger - You use a talent that results in an ally gaining temporary hp.
Effect - You gain the same amount of temporary hp.

With other words, can I react on my own interrupt?

Absolutely. You can't react to the same trigger twice, but as one triggers off of an attack and the other triggers off of you granting temporary hp - you can definitely activate both of them.

Thanks for the previous answers Kindulas, one more I thought of:

If you have some steady source of Regen (such as Lifebound Armor), and you are knocked unconscious, but you use the Never Stay Down talent:

[-6] Never Stay Down - Interrupt Utility
Trigger - You fall unconscious
Effect - At the beginning of your next turn, if you are still alive, you regain 2d8 hit points and may take an extra standard action.

Assuming you're still alive, when you regain health next turn, would your Regen activate? Or does Regen process before this effect happens, while you're still below zero HP (i.e., it doesn't)?

The character whose turn it is chooses what order "start of turn" and "end of turn" happen in.

Oh, awesome. Thanks!

I have a question.

How come I haven't seen people asking questions about Thunderborn, Frostborn, Acidborn and similar? It's been legal in genetic engineering for a while now, but a miscommunication got them to slip through our approval process (Kindulas thought I had approved them and asked him to add them, while I thought I was asking him to balance them and then add them) and they were able to give characters godlike powers. Heck, thunderborn let you call down the power of zeus' lightning *at will* as long as you didn't use it in combat as a 1 point racial trait! Frostborn can let you freeze creatures of unspecified size and power into solid blocks of ice! Acidborn lets you melt the walls of a town with acid blasts of unspecified size or intensity!

These will be fixed soon.

I think it's because nobody realized they be OP... But yeah you got a point... Guess they should be fixed and made balanced.