Ask a Simple Question - Get a Simple Answer

Dusk Raven wrote:

Trait wrote:Throw the Gauntlet

When you attack a creature, you may ‘challenge’ that creature until the end of your next turn. Once per round, when a creature challenged by you makes an attack that does not include you as a target, that creature suffers 2d10 damage, A creature cannot be challenged by more than one creature at a time and a new ‘challenge’ supersedes the first.

If multiple enemies are affected by this, do each of them take the damage or does "once per round" mean that only one of them can be affected?

My interpretation would be each "challenge-ee" takes damage once per round; otherwise it rather defeats the purpose of challenging multiple creatures at once (Although, I suppose it increases the chance that someone gets hit by it...)

mjh6 wrote:I have a question concerning the new version of You're All My Very Best Friends

You’re All My Very Best Friends (1)
Whenever you use a Magic Point to boost an ally’s skill check, roll 1d20. On a 20, you gain a Magic Point. (This includes using the Element of Generosity or abilities such as Yeehaw! and The Stare...any ability that directly boosts an ally’s skill check as a result of spending a Magic Point.)

It specifically states that this includes abilities like The Stare, but if I have Spellchild  on The Stare, meaning I can use it without spending a magic point, can I use the above if I haven't actually spent the point?

No, you need to have actually spent a Magic Point, since the ability says "whenever you spend a Magic Point" not "whenever you use a Magic ability" (which would preclude simply adding +10 to an ally's skill check). That's a good question, though, and I've added a clarification to the Abilities document. The reason for the wording is that I wanted it to serve as a reward for players using their Magic Points to help others. It's a cheap ability because it's not a very large chance, but now and then you'll get your Magic Point back.

I've got these two abilities: Condemn and Misdirection.

Condemn:

Misdirection:

Before Condemn used to just have its damage happen when the requirements were fulfilled. Now, condemn has a separate reaction attack that is triggered. Which brings up my question is, if an enemy attacks me and damages me with an attack, would I be able to use both condemn and misdirect, as they have different particular triggers (Condemn is when enemy attacks while Misdirect is when taking damage)? Before I didn't really have to worry about it conflicting, but now I'm not completely certain. I wanted to ask since every little bit counts. I'm generally not a very hard hitter.

If you are the same player, I'd say that no you can't use both in the same attack. But if two different players are doing those, they'd combo lovely. Then again, the wording on the trigger for the Condemnation effect seems to mean that they'd even combo if used by the same player. So it's mostly very unclear. I'd say "ask your GM" on it.

Triggers are weird in this system, and haven't been fully defined. RAW says you can't interrupt or react to the same trigger more than once, but doesn't extend to if that means the talent overall or just the triggering event. Dev's most relevant reply is fairly far in the backlog (found it), but reads as you can interrupt and react to the same talent, provided the react's trigger is still met. (You couldn't Misdirect and then Slashback, as you didn't take damage.)
Since Condemnation only cares about the creature making an attack, it should work.

Broken Logic - your combo actually works. It's not the talent that you can only react to once, it's the triggers. Let's say the following were combat talents (not balanced, just mocked up for quick examples).


[+2] Absorb - Standard Attack
Deal 5 damage to target creature. Gain 5 hp.

[-1] Pain is Power - Reaction Utility
Trigger: You deal damage
Effect: Deal +3 damage on your next attack.

[-1] That Healing Touch - Reaction Utility
Trigger: You gain hp.
Effect: You gain resist 1 until the end of your next turn.

As both dealing damage and gaining hp are separate triggers, you could trigger both reactions.

Awesome. Thanks for the replies. And knowing more about triggers is great.

While I have my own opinion as a GM, do Magic Point boosts negate the critical failure aspects of rolling a nat 1?

Basically, rolling a nat 1 can best be described as, 'Rolling a negative 20'. Natural 20s are the opposite, basically like rolling a natural 40. This means that nat 20s are not automatic successes in all situations (getting a nat 20 on trying to lift a mountain is cool, but you'll still fail unless you have a Superman-level Brawn score).

Thus, you can use a magic point boost to mitigate the penalties of a natural 1, but you're still dealing with a -20 die roll. If you use a +20 Stare on a nat 1 sense check, and you have a 10 in sense, you'll still succeed at a DC 10 sense check despite the nat 1.

While we've never directly specified this negative 20/positive 40 thing in terms of these numbers, because we've liked to keep how you deal with critical successes and failures more up to various DMs, this has just created confusion and we plan to standardize this in the future (perhaps at slightly different numbers).

Now, if you're asking whether applying a +10, or +Anything modifier negates the fact you rolled a NATURAL 1... No, it does not. The crit fail state and crit success state are only triggered by the result on your die, not a modification to the check result.

Does Bone Splinters take temporary HP into account for eligible sacrifices?

Talents for reference:

HP is sadly not temporary HP.

Can the combat talent All or Nothing

[+5] All or Nothing - Standard Utility
At the end of your next turn you are reduced to -15 hp. You may use this talent only once per battle. [*]

Trigger Form of the Reaper?

[-10] Form of the Reaper - Immediate Interrupt
Trigger - You would be reduced to 0 hp or less.
Effect - Your hp total becomes 13 instead. You may use Death’s Scythe immediately without spending the energy cost, even if you do not know that talent.

Absolutely.

[-1] With Friends Like These - Interrupt Utility [Created by Fluffy McSparkles]
Trigger - You would be subjected to a (save ends) effect.
Effect - Target willing ally is subjected to the effect instead.

Conjurations under your own control are always considered willing targets for this, correct?

ZamuelNow wrote:[-1] With Friends Like These - Interrupt Utility [Created by Fluffy McSparkles]
Trigger - You would be subjected to a (save ends) effect.
Effect - Target willing ally is subjected to the effect instead.

Conjurations under your own control are always considered willing targets for this, correct?

Of course.

Combat Talents:

Sooo, if I use Charm on myself, obviously Frenzy ceases to target me. Now, if Frenzy ends up targeting an ally, and I use Defender, do I take damage as normal? Or is it negated because of Self Charm?

In theory I can't see why this can't work... Cause hey, that assumes you got the 4 pips needed just for this combo cause but equally an unknown that could mean you just fizzled your attack depending on both GM ruling and whatever the Dev Team's opinion on this be. Which in my opinion having a combo that makes you able to waste 4 pips, just to avoid harming an ally... Would be lame.

The Self-Charm + Frenzy combo totally should work to avoid self-damage with the random attack. Which in my opinion means that you'd randoming have to pick from everyone other then yourself. But the Defender Part of the combo seems like it'd just fizzle the effect of the attack at best.

There's a lot of weird things in the current combat system, and Charm is definitely one of them.
Charm does in fact prevent the random from picking you as a target, similar to how you can't random target the guy in the next country. You're just not a valid target for the attack.
If it strikes an ally, looking at RAW I'd say you cannot use Defender on it, because it'd force the attack to hit a creature that the attack can't hit due to Charm. However, Xel makes a good point in that at the end of the day you'd just be using a lot of energy to do functionally nothing, so I don't see a problem with it working like that.

The function of Defender is to keep an ally from accidentally taking a potential buttload of damage. (Energy is not an issue.) I would prefer Wheel Of Fortune, but it specifies that it must be an enemy's attack

Yeah, Charm is a bit confusing. I'm not an expert on the combat system, but I'd interpret it as "Target creature cannot target you with an attack", which is a lot less ambiguous. In which case, using Defender would cause you to take the damage, because it says nothing about changing the target of the attack – your ally is still the target, the damage just gets magically redirected to you.

As I said, that's just my reading on it, we need someone with more knowledge of combat to really make a definitive ruling.

... This works, doesn't it?

Spoiler:

Yes

Crystalite wrote:

Combat Talents:

Sooo, if I use Charm on myself, obviously Frenzy ceases to target me. Now, if Frenzy ends up targeting an ally, and I use Defender, do I take damage as normal? Or is it negated because of Self Charm?

Sorry I didn't weigh in on this earlier, I haven't been getting notifications for some reason.

This is ambiguous because of the casual wording inherent in the system that was, originally, built for a one-shot where a designer would always be present to make a call (it's amazing how almost all of the confusion stems from that, good thing we're planning a rework with more professional language). A DM could call it either way - but technically Defender can't pull the attack to you because it can't force an opponent to do something that it... Well... Can't do.

What's the farthest a character can move in a single turn in tabletop combat?

Depends on the build and circumstances (such as speed-enhancing terrain, like ocean currents). Unassisted, a player can double-move by using his standard action as well as his move action to go 12 spaces.