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Pony Tales Question:

Why is Slashback worded as it is, and what is it intended to do?

For reference:

[–2] Slashback - Interrupt Attack
Range: Melee
Trigger - An adjacent creature deals damage to you.
Effect - Deal 1d12 damage to the triggering creature.

It's an Interrupt, so that would happen before the damage takes place, right? One of those per-emptive strike deals? The wording for most other interrupts is in the form of "would take damage", and there's not really a basic counterattack talent, so it makes me wonder if it was supposed to be a reaction.

If it is an interrupt, how does it work if I combine with things like the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength

Gauntlets of Ogre Strength - 500 Gold
Trinket
Whenever you deal 3 or more damage to a creature with a melee attack, you may push that creature 1 space.

or Unseen Hand

[–2] Unseen Hand - Reaction Attack
Range: Ranged 7
Trigger - You make a melee attack.
Effect - Move target creature 3 spaces

in order to move myself or the enemy into a position where the attack would fizzle?

It's worded that way, very confusingly, because you DO take the damage no matter what... But you resolve your damage first (in case you were knocked to 0hp by the damage, at which point your wouldn't be able to react). It probably would have been better to just make it a reaction and accepted that if you get knocked unconscious by the damage, you can't use slashback before going down.

As for how it interacts with making the attack fizzle, you can't. The attack gets to hit you, but you can push them before you actually take the damage. So if an enemy had an effect that says "adjacent players have vulnerability 3" or similar, you'd be able to push them away or move yourself away before taking the damage - but you'd still take the damage.

Basically, the game says "Okay, I'm taking the damage - but technically I'm going to hit you first". 99% of the time this won't matter. Sometimes it does, like the scenarios you've mentioned.

So I just noticed that Healing Rays isn't a Burst power:

[-X] Healing Rays - Minor Action (Healing)
Up to X different target creatures gain 5 life.

This is weird because other talents worded the same way are burst powers:
[+3] Revival - Standard Action (Healing, Burst)
Up to 2 different target creatures gain 1d6 life.

And it's relevant because I'd like to use it in conjunction with Nova, so that healing can be condensed into one combat talent (and one feature).

I guess I need a question...Why isn't Healing Rays a Burst power?

Whoops, good catch. I'll fix that now. Thanks!

In the wanderlust combat system what happens when you have two sources of armour? Such as the Sentinel feature and the thick skin trait.

Armor stacks. If you have one source giving you 10 armor and one source giving you 5 armor, it's as if you have 15 armor.

I have a question about the Wanderlust Destinies:

At Level 4 you may either select a Complete Destiny or build your own by selecting one Path from the Combat section and one Path from the Utility section. Complete destinies are much rarer, because both sides work together to create a concept that couldn’t exist in pieces. For example, being able to transform into a Dragon would affect both combat and non-combat situations – which means the pieces can’t easily be split up.

It has Combat and Utility Path lists, but the only Complete Destiny is Dragon Disciple. Are there more being worked on to be added later?

They all used to be complete destinies, but we decided to break them apart for the sake of flexibility. The only ones that will always be complete destinies are those with flavor that requires both combat and nonbat applications (such as Dragon Disciple).

I get that. My question was, are there going to be any other Complete Destinies?

It depends if we decide we want to support a concept like that. For example, a destiny about becoming a high vampire lord would likely require a Complete Destiny.

So it would require ideas, I take it, and it seems to favor becoming a mythological being rather than individual development.

Transformations yield themselves well to nobat and combat applications. Dragon-Rider was a similar concept that falls into this category. Having a mighty dragon ally would naturally yield both combat and nonbat benefits. We decided to go with turning into a dragon though.

I was just going over my character's powers when something occured to me. Does Vampiric Blade stack?

[-1] Vampiric Blade - Minor Action (Bladespell, Healing)
The next Single Attack Power you use gets, “Gain 5 Life if you damage a creature with this attack”.

Basically, if I have the trait Quickdraw (giving me 2 minor actions a turn) may I use Vampiric Blade twice to gain 10 life?

Unfortunately, the Diversity Rule applies here - as specified in the Wanderlust Adventurer's Guide.

The Diversity Rule
Now’s as good a time as any to mention the Diversity Rule. The Diversity Rule comes in two parts.

1) You cannot take the same Ability, Power or anything else more than once (unless it says otherwise, of course). This means you can’t take Flash Teleport a bunch of times and get 3 uses for the same one.

2) Bonuses from the same ability don’t stack. For example, let’s imagine an ability that gave a +5 bonus to your next skill check. If you used it on yourself and a friend used it on you too, you don’t get a +10 bonus to your next skill check - because both the bonuses came from the same ability. It doesn’t matter that each is on different players, both abilities had the same original name in the rulebook.

This is designed to encourage, well, diversity and prevent the stacking of options that may be a bit overpowered until they happen enough times to be dramatically overpowered.

However, Vampiric Blade is completely fair. So I'd have no problems houseruling that as an exception to the Diversity Rule. It does fall under it without special GM approval though.

Hmm, i understand, and will abide by your ruling, but in terms of this particular move, i was thinking more along the lines of Bladespells, Powers, and their effects:

Weakness stacks now.

Ongoing damage stacks.

(I believe) You can use a move like Sparkblade multiple times, and have each boost count.

If given an extra standard action, you can use a healing power twice, and have them count each time.

So it feels like Vampiric Blaede gets left out in the cold a bit.

Of course, if my interpretations, are wrong, then I withdraw my argument.

The diversity rule applies to specific effects, rather than status conditions. That's why Dragon's Grandeur doesn't stack - you can't a benefit from the same named source at the same time. It's definitely borderline, so I'm fine with you stacking it here - but I believe it violates the diversity rule as written (not necessarily as intended).

Alright then thank you for your time.

I was just going over the combat balancing guidelines for Wanderlust. The thing is, I'm not quite sure where minor actions come in, since the document doesn't mention them specifically.

Minor actions aren't worth anything in terms of math. They're just used to prevent everything from happening at once. If players unleash all their stuff on the first turn, there's no interesting decisions. If they have to split them due to a shortage of minor actions, turns flow faster and players have more decisions.

So, how do you calculate balance for minor actions?

Same as any other energy cost.

Really? Huh. I know they and reactions had a penalty in LL and minors in WL aren't particularly powerful.

Same as the ENERGY cost. Spending a standardaction itself is worth 4 energy. So if a minor action costs -8, the same effect as a standard action in wanderlust would only cost -4 (because the standard action is worth 4 energy). The point is, minor actions are priced the same as a free action or reaction.

Meta question

Did someone change most of the board descriptors?

What happens when you roll a trigger-requiring combat talent due to Wild Lightning's tier 3 (12 on d12) effect?