Re: Ask a Simple Question - Get a Simple Answer

Zarhon Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:50 pm

Are bone mites intended to be able to summoned repeatedly from the same creature?

For example, an enemy that is KO'd, but healed / self-revives, then is KO'd again? The wording appears to allow summoning on both occasions.

It seems a bit off that a single hapless enemy can produce an infinite number of bone mites. Very Happy

Or that players can actively heal enemy creatures from KO to get another chance to summon a bone mite. Razz

**Stairc -Dan Felder** Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:59 pm

Mechanically, absolutely. If the thing can generate new body parts, it makes perfect sense. If not it comes up with another flavor justification... Or give the monster a mechanical way to stop bone mites from being repeatedly summoned.

Ramsus Fri Apr 05, 2013 10:01 pm

Zarhon wrote:Or that players can actively heal enemy creatures from KO to get another chance to summon a bone mite.

I can't help but imagine this scenario as anything but a waste of time for the players.

ZamuelNow Sat Apr 06, 2013 5:30 am

Is there a limit to the number of (non weapon) conjurations you can have summoned at a time?

Zarhon Sat Apr 06, 2013 9:11 am

Can "Knife in the Dark" (choice of 6 damage to one enemy OR 4 damage to two) be combined with a "Boomstick" (single target attack only, makes it hit adjacent), if you choose to use it for a single target attack?

SilentBelle Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:53 am

ZamuelNow wrote:Is there a limit to the number of (non weapon) conjurations you can have summoned at a time?

No, there isn't. I remember 1 mock-battle where I had 3 Fire Giants out. If anything, it told me that the monster the characters were fighting needed a bit of tweaking.

Zarhon wrote:Can "Knife in the Dark" (choice of 6 damage to one enemy OR 4 damage to two) be combined with a "Boomstick" (single target attack only, makes it hit adjacent), if you choose to use it for a single target attack?

I'm pretty sure it can. I know I would certainly allow it as a DM.

Zarhon Sat Apr 06, 2013 1:40 pm

Dunno, I recall that crescendo was ruled as not being able to be "boomstick"-able at all for any of its attacks, and it's somewhat similar to it (several attacks, that can target multiple targets, or just a single target).

**Stairc -Dan Felder** Sat Apr 06, 2013 3:29 pm

If Knife in the Dark is used for the just-single-attack mode, it's fine. Like Crescendo though, you couldn't boomstick the mode that hits two people.

Zarhon Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:40 pm

If a player gets a special critical trigger from an interrupt ability, does said special occur before the interrupted ability, or after?

For a specific example: Slashback being used before an attack, triggering a crippling strike d12 special (blindness/vuln/ongoing damage). Would the special inflict it's blindness to the target before the attack (prompting a miss coin toss), or right after it?

If said blindness does indeed come into effect before the attack - would that mean the attack has a chance of missing, making the whole attack never happen in the first place, which in turn means the interrupt didn't actually have anything to trigger off of, which is pretty much a paradox? Shocked

**LoganAura** Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:42 pm

Zarhon wrote:If a player gets a special critical trigger from an interrupt ability, does said special occur before the interrupted ability, or after?

For a specific example: Slashback being used before an attack, triggering a crippling strike d12 special (blindness/vuln/ongoing damage). Would the special inflict it's blindness to the target before the attack (prompting a miss coin toss), or right after it?

If said blindness does indeed come into effect before the attack - would that mean the attack has a chance of missing, making the whole attack never happen in the first place, which in turn means the interrupt didn't actually have anything to trigger off of, which is pretty much a paradox?

The crit is part of the interrupt there.

Ramsus Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:48 pm

Well I know interrupts are already capable of canceling out attacks (see Slashback in any other situation as well) so that part would definitely happen if the Blindness is an interrupt. I do personally believe it would indeed cause a minor technical but, not functionally important paradox that we'd have to ignore.

**Pingcode** Sun Apr 07, 2013 12:51 am

Okay, here's a question that seems a little muddy:

Where precisely are the dividing lines and overlap between athletics and acrobatics?

So far I've managed to get these down:

Overlap - Running Fast (cf. Haste, old Flying Ace referencing using acro to run fast), Climbing (cf. overlap description), Flying (cf. Flying talents), Leaping

Clear Athletics - Breaking stuff (cf. Sunderblade), Holding doors shut

Clear Acrobatics - Balancing, Tumbling.

sunbeam Sun Apr 07, 2013 1:07 am

I can't really provide much of an answer, but in a one-shot campaign I was in about 3/4 of the skill checks were either acrobatics or athletics. We got to choose depending on whether we were trying to keep our balance or grab onto something (We caused a lot of earthquakes, okay?).
While this isn't a particularly good fix to multiple situations, as a DM I would improve on it by letting people rationalize either check however they wanted to (I want to roll to cling to the trunk of the tree until the current takes the amazons away! I want to roll to scramble up into the high branches where the Amazons can't get me!) and then apply modifiers based on the situations and what they were trying to do (the two previous examples were both pretty rational, so there wouldn't be any modifiers there, but in the earthquake campaign, we were on a flat plane of stone with four gigantic hundred-foot-tall stone pillars in the cardinal directions, so trying to grab onto something would require getting to one of the pillars and grasping hard enough to crack stone, so there would've been some penalty there).
That the best way I can think of to hand the overlap. It also encourages the players to think like their players.

**Paper Shadow** Sun Apr 07, 2013 1:38 am

Actually, I believe that, although it may involve some rewording (for example, grip instead of balance), Athletics can do anything Acrobatics can do. It's balanced because if you put points in Brawn, you only get Athletics and the rarely used Endurance, while putting points in Precision gives Acrobatics, Mechanics, and Stealth, and all three are super useful. Other than that, anything which requires physical strength uses Athletics only, such as carrying, pushing, breaking, lifting, throwing, pulling, so on so forth...

SilentBelle Sun Apr 07, 2013 4:08 pm

Pingcode wrote:Okay, here's a question that seems a little muddy:

Where precisely are the dividing lines and overlap between athletics and acrobatics?

So far I've managed to get these down:

Overlap - Running Fast (cf. Haste, old Flying Ace referencing using acro to run fast), Climbing (cf. overlap description), Flying (cf. Flying talents), Leaping

Clear Athletics - Breaking stuff (cf. Sunderblade), Holding doors shut

Clear Acrobatics - Balancing, Tumbling.

Overlapping is important. It allows for many different ways to approach situations. If a player can reasonably argue the use of their skill, I'd let them do it. Of course that's not just with Athletics and Acrobatics. For example: Breaking stuff, I'd allow a clever use of mechanics to do it if they had tools, holding doors shut I'd easily ask for an Endurance or Athletics, whichever is higher, and again Mechanics if they make an impromptu barrier out of nearby debris or jamming the lock in the door.

It's one of those situations where the vagueness is actually beneficial to the players feeling useful in any given situation.

**Nehiel Mori** Sun Apr 07, 2013 5:14 pm

From my experience, while there are some things that clearly belong to others (like jumping off a mountain onto a flying horse is acrobatics, punching a wall is athletics) this is really up to the DM and the player if they can make an adequate case.

Like in a game I am in, I had to dodge some turrets and the DM asked for an acrobatics check. I'm min-maxed to athletics, so I tried to convince him to allow me to use athletics to dodge instead and listed off my own experiences playing football where athletic skill was used to make snap decisions and change direction on the drop of a dime. Eventually he relented somewhat; allowing me to try to use Athletics to just outrace the auto-targeting which I ended up doing though not to actually dodge the arrows individually. The DC was harder but I've got a +30 to athletics.

Fury of the Tempest Sun Apr 07, 2013 5:37 pm

Nehiel Mori wrote:The DC was harder but I've got a +30 to athletics.

That's... a big bonus.

**Paper Shadow** Sun Apr 07, 2013 5:47 pm

Fury of the Tempest wrote:
Nehiel Mori wrote:The DC was harder but I've got a +30 to athletics.

That's... a big bonus.

If I were to make a guess on how he got that bonus, I'd say he had Specialist in Brawn, Cutie Mark in Athletics, Training in Athletics, Old Flying Ace, and Haste...

**Nehiel Mori** Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:21 pm

Miss-type, +20 to athletics and I rolled a 10.

Caden2112 Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:25 am

Here's a question for a possibly brutal build. If you take Sense Weakness and Sneak Attack, do you get to drop SA on any target with a Save-ends effect as long as you make single-target attacks? For reference:

Sense Weakness
Targets suffering from (save ends) effects have vulnerability 2 against your attacks.

And:

Sneak Attack
Once per round, when you make a single target attack against a creature that is suffering from vulnerability, you may have that attack deal an additional 1d6 damage.

...Because if so, that could get very nasty quite quickly as an opportunist build.

Quietkal Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:40 pm

Do initiative bonuses stack? I assumed yes, but given that save throw bonuses don't I thought I'd double check.
Let's say I've got Fleetfoot (Trait, + Cool

and a Quickblade (Weapon, +2). I roll initiative, get a 1, and decide to use Lightning Pace (-2 pips, +7 to initiative).
Am I at 9 (highest bonus), 16 (highest bonus and talent), or 18 (all bonuses)?

**Stairc -Dan Felder** Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:46 pm

Yep, they stack.

Xel Unknown Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:49 pm

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Yep, they stack.

Now, now dan you know you gotta be clear, was that to both questions or what?

**Stairc -Dan Felder** Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:55 pm

All of them of course.

SilentBelle Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:20 pm

I have a question. When you conjure a creature, does it come into play adjacent to you, or wherever you want in the adjacency list? Very useful to know with talents like Spectral Warden. I assume it's wherever I want it to be, but I could also see it as being next to the summoner.

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