Ask a Simple Question - Get a Simple Answer

Okay, this is a quick question, but the handbook was a little vague:

Is ongoing damage affected by resistance/vulnerability?

I've Read A Lot About It says you can take an additional trained skill. It does NOT say, specifically, whether or not you can take more than one this way.

Can you take more than one this way?

Z2 wrote:Okay, this is a quick question, but the handbook was a little vague:

Is ongoing damage affected by resistance/vulnerability?

Yes it is. So if you have Ongoing 1, Resist 3 it doesn't do damage. If you have Ongoing 1, Vul 5 you take 5. Not sure about Read All About it.

Grey Pen wrote:I've Read A Lot About It says you can take an additional trained skill. It does NOT say, specifically, whether or not you can take more than one this way.

Can you take more than one this way?

As written, you cannot take this utility talent multiple times. However, you're supposed to be able to - I'll have to fix that. Thanks.

So, as of this writing - no, you can't.

Shortly after this post is made - yes, you can.

Miracle was recently nerfed because, understandably, a -3 4d12 free action heal is pretty strong, so it was nerfed to 3d12...

But I have a question; why is Miracle a free action and not a standard one in the first place?

Paper Shadow wrote:Miracle was recently nerfed because, understandably, a -3 4d12 free action heal is pretty strong, so it was nerfed to 3d12...

But I have a question; why is Miracle a free action and not a standard one in the first place?

Because it's designed to get a player up immediately before their next turn, so they don't miss it, and can heal them before a series of enemy attacks kills them. If you have to wait till your turn to save the player, three enemies going in a row might be enough to take the player from 10hp all the way to comatose pretty easily. Miracle gets around that, since it can be used off-turn as a free action.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:

Paper Shadow wrote:Miracle was recently nerfed because, understandably, a -3 4d12 free action heal is pretty strong, so it was nerfed to 3d12...

But I have a question; why is Miracle a free action and not a standard one in the first place?

Because it's designed to get a player up immediately before their next turn, so they don't miss it, and can heal them before a series of enemy attacks kills them. If you have to wait till your turn to save the player, three enemies going in a row might be enough to take the player from 10hp all the way to comatose pretty easily. Miracle gets around that, since it can be used off-turn as a free action.

Any reason why the "free action" mechanic doesn't apply to the other "target unconscious" abilities, like IT IS NOT THIS DAY! (standard) or Deathly Vigor (minor), then?

IT IS NOT THIS DAY! particularly suffers from being both a standard action, requiring an unconscious ally and costing 6 PiPs, and actively puts the revived player at risk of being knocked comatose (due to being at 1d4 health and being viable target for enemies, but not getting its actual turn yet). It really needs some leeway here, it's simply too clunky to use.

Zarhon wrote:

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:

Paper Shadow wrote:Miracle was recently nerfed because, understandably, a -3 4d12 free action heal is pretty strong, so it was nerfed to 3d12...

But I have a question; why is Miracle a free action and not a standard one in the first place?

Because it's designed to get a player up immediately before their next turn, so they don't miss it, and can heal them before a series of enemy attacks kills them. If you have to wait till your turn to save the player, three enemies going in a row might be enough to take the player from 10hp all the way to comatose pretty easily. Miracle gets around that, since it can be used off-turn as a free action.

Any reason why the "free action" mechanic doesn't apply to the other "target unconscious" abilities, like IT IS NOT THIS DAY! (standard) or Deathly Vigor (minor), then?

IT IS NOT THIS DAY! particularly suffers from being both a standard action, requiring an unconscious ally and costing 6 PiPs, and actively puts the revived player at risk of being knocked comatose (due to being at 1d4 health and being viable target for enemies, but not getting its actual turn yet). It really needs some leeway here, it's simply too clunky to use.

Well the reason why Deathly Vigor is a minor is because it combos really well with the other necro-moves and healing moves. Such as granting your ally 2d10 temp hp then using your standard to heal for 1d10 +3, or any other healing move. Or using Deathly vigor then preserving the corpse if they become the target of attention.

Though I think IT IS NOT THIS DAY! could actually be a reaction talent, the trigger being: An ally is knocked unconscious. Or it could just be a minor. I agree that the standard action is probably too costly, but this talent was made prior to us having minor actions.

Turning it into a reaction would mean the talent becomes worthless if you don't have a stockpile of 6 PiPs at all times, to use it when it triggers off an ally getting KO'd. "Never stay down" faces a similar problem (if you don't have the 6 PiPs needed when it triggers, you don't get to trigger it).

A minor would help, but it's still putting the ally at a pretty big risk: You can't guarantee the initiative order will be favorable for that ally. If the enemies have their turns right after yours, that player is almost guaranteed to get KO'd again (even by minion damage), if not put comatose. You also have to often delay a player being revived by other healing abilities to use it (meaning they likely lose a turn, or are at risk of being attacked whilst unconscious).

To put it in another respective: If you, a KO'd player, had the choice between Miracle being used on you immediately / right before you would have your normal turn, or delaying that to allow IT IS NOT THIS DAY! being properly used on you, which would you rather go for? Especially if the enemies are capable of doing damage large enough to knock one comatose?

Good points. It's Not This Day could definitely use a buff.

Kindle Pain is meant to always be able to boost Ongoing to insane levels, right?

And the Hurricane Blade's Blowback talent... How does that work?

[+2] Blowback – Standard Utility
Rearrange the order of all enemies.

Rearrage the Order Needs to be clarified what happens... Does it get turned to whatever the user wills it to become or what?

Flying Ace ~ Prerequisite: Cloud Chaser
Your flying improves from good maneuverability to awesome maneuverability (you gain a +5 bonus to precision or brawn checks while flying and you can hover).

What does the hovering mean? It mean Hovering counts at flight therefore you can get a +5 to doing stuff while hovering? Or does it mean you can just hover in the air without a skill check?

(Think you should add a comment on the player's handbook about this, just in case)

((Also STILL WAITING on my blowback and Kindle Pain questions to be answered too...))

Wasn't getting updates in this thread for some reason.

1) Hovering means that you can remain still in mid-air. Normal flight requires constant momentum. Most birds can't hover. Rainbow Dash can

2) Kindle Pain is indeed supposed to let you boost ongoing damage if I understand the question. I think I must not because it seems kind of clear that Kindle Pain is intended to boost ongoing damage. Am I missing something?

3) Yes, rearranging the order of the enemies (not the initiative order - the order that matters for things like determining what enemies are adjacent to one another) lets you rearrange them however you like - provided it's within the rules.

Just making sure that Kindle Pain, being able to boost damage, I mean something like this should be allowed, right:

Turn 1: Draw Blood
Turn 2: Kindle Pain
Turn 3: Kindle Pain
Turn 4: Kindle Pain
Turn 5: Kindle Pain

So this would turn the ongoing damage up to 21, right, if it was pulled off?

Absolutely. It might turn out that such antics could be far too powerful, I've had my eye on Kindle Pain since day 1, but so far I haven't heard of anyone breaking it. We don't like to nerf cool-looking powers until we're sure they're actually too-powerful - and thus we usually wait for playtesting. It's also fun for the Johnnies among us to find a broken talent and get to be the one that breaks it.

Well, there's saving throws, and traits that help enemies throw off the ongoing.

That's why I haven't nerfed it yet. I'm more worried about all the players taking Kindle Pain and going in a row before the enemy goes... But with most solo monsters getting multiple turns in a single round and such a tactic being best against solo monsters - it's not something I'm that worried about.

Using the "Sink Your Teeth In" trait, Draw Blood, and two applications of Kindle Pain I once got a (non-boss, non-solo) enemy up to 13 ongoing damage. He fell unconscious immediately thereafter before I could apply it again though so I didn't get a chance to try it.

Well, the real trick with Kindle Pain is to combo it with Fleshrender, Drain Blood, and Blood is Power. Then you can have the enemy with OD 17 after turn 2 for no pips, though you do have OD 5 yourself. Between those and the 'you get screwed on save' options that are available, you can quickly do some absurd damage to anything that doesn't have some way to completely wipe save-ends from itself.

If I use lightning storm ([-X], throw out x bolts of (2d10)/2 that hit random targets), do I calculate each bolts damage in sequence? For example, if the opponent has 3 spectral wards (or the monster equivalent of spectral wards), and I shell out 5 pips for 5 bolts, do I
a) Select all targets and calculate all damage simultaneously, striking only the wardens (and possibly myself) because I'm incapable of targeting the creature they're protecting
or
b) Select each target and calculate it's damage individually, so I could theoretically nail each warden once, eliminate it, and then target either myself or the (previously) protected creature
?

For damage, you only roll once, and all bolts do the same damage. I'm not a hundred percent sure if it happens all at once, or sequencially though.

Actually Logan, Thunderstorm damage is rolled separately for each bolt according to :

A Note About Rolling Damage
When an attack targets multiple creatures, you only roll once for determining all the damage. For example, if an attack deals 1d8 to five creatures... You roll 1d8 just once. If it turns up 5, you deal 5 damage to all those enemies. If it turns up a 8, you deal 8 damage to all those enemies and only activate your special move a single time - as you just rolled a single d8.

However, if a talent like Thunderstorm or Chain Lightning sends multiple copies of the attack’s effects around; you roll separately for each one.

I must have the wrong move then. Sorry.

sunbeam wrote:If I use lightning storm ([-X], throw out x bolts of (2d10)/2 that hit random targets), do I calculate each bolts damage in sequence? For example, if the opponent has 3 spectral wards (or the monster equivalent of spectral wards), and I shell out 5 pips for 5 bolts, do I
a) Select all targets and calculate all damage simultaneously, striking only the wardens (and possibly myself) because I'm incapable of targeting the creature they're protecting
or
b) Select each target and calculate it's damage individually, so I could theoretically nail each warden once, eliminate it, and then target either myself or the (previously) protected creature
?

As the damage-rolling has already been answered, I'll just answer the targeting one. You do select all the targets immediately, so your celestial wardens could protect you.

Thanks. The warden setup was just an easier to grasp scenario for me, the impetus behind the question was really "If I do enough damage to off somebody, do my chances of nailing myself with a subsequent bolt get higher?"
Which it does not. Huzzah.