Entangles

[Hugh Neilson]

Last one for tonight - what is the rationale behind prohibiting dice being more than double DEF and vice versa? A character can have an entangle with only 1 DOD, or one with no defense, which would just as easily be accomplished by eliminating this restriction.

Plus, entangle with no defense costs 4 points per die, when an extra d6 of entangle costs 5 points. Ent w/ 1 BOD is only -1/2, meaning I'm paying 6 2/3 points for +1 DEF instead of 5. Is there any logical reason for these costs to vary?

I suspect a lot of these answers are derived from playtesting in the design process, and look forward to your insights.

Thanks
Hugh

[Steve Long]

The "Questions" board is for actual rules question, not rules discussion or design philosophy stuff. So, I've moved this to the "Discussion" board so folx can talk about it if they want.

[Gary]

Def is a lot better than Body for entangles. Def applies to attack after attack. Body is essentially Def with 1 use.

The only advantage Body has over Def is vs Body drains and transforms.

[Hugh Neilson]

"Def is a lot better than Body for entangles. Def applies to attack after attack. Body is essentially Def with 1 use."

In general, I would agree. It is also advantageous to have more BOD in a smaller entangle (that will likely be escaped in 1 shot) since it makes it harder to double the body and get a full phase, but in general DEF is more useful.

But all this does is turn the secondary question around to "why does +1 DEF cost the same as +1d6 BOD?" instead of "Why does "entangle with no DEF carry a greater limit than Entangle with 1 BOD?".

The reasoning behind limiting extra DEF or extra dice to double the other item is the real question. Neither limitation would be needed if that restriction were lifted.

Extrapolating from the limits, perhaps the cost for extra DEF should be 6 2/3 (10/1.5; 3 DEF for 20 points), and the cost of an extra d6 BOD should be 4 (10/2.5). The aggregate is slightly more than the 10 points per d6 cost, but sometimes customization is a bit more expensive.