Couple Questions (STUNx and Magic Casting)

[tomasina]

Alright we having a gaming session tonight, and a player just called me with a couple of questions that I could not answer. I am hoping you all might be able to help me out again...

For reference, the character is playing a Cleric.

1 - We are somewhat confused about STUNx. According to the books, when doing killing damage, you times the BODY by the stun multiplier (which is 1d6-1, min of 1) to get the STUN damage. Does the STUNx apply to result of this die?

ex. Sir Knight attacks EvilMan with a sword that does 2D6 of damage and has a STUNx of 2. He rolls his attacks and does 7 points of BODY damage. He then rolls the stun multipler and gets a 4, which is times by 2 (the weapon STUNx) to get 8. Thus, the total stun damage is 56.

We are also confused as per the STUNx listed for hit locations. Do all these multiplier stack?

ex. Sir Knight attacks EvilMan with a sword that does 2D6 of damage and has a STUNx of 2. He rolls his attacks and hits him in the head for 7 points of BODY damage. He then rolls the stun multipler and gets a 4, which is times by 2 (the weapon STUNx), and then by 5 (the hit location STUNX) to get 40 (4*2*5=40). Thus, the total stun damage is 7*40=280.

The stun amounts get HUGE very quickly, which makes me wonder if I am doing this right.

2 - When casting offensive spells, there is often a required attack roll.
For example, my cleric has the spells Sacred Fire and Voice of the Divine:

Sacred Fire: Killing Attack - Ranged 4d6, Penetrating (+1/2) (90 Active Points); OAF (Holy Symbol; -1), Only When Serving The God's Purposes (-1/2), Requires A Faith Roll (-1/2), Spell (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4)

Voice of the Divine: Mind Control 20d6 (Human class of minds) (100 Active Points); OAF (Holy Symbol; -1), Only When Serving The God's Purposes (-1/2), Requires A Faith Roll (-1/2), Spell (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4), Single Command Only (-1/4)

Sacred Fire requires a standard attack roll, and Voice of the Divine requires an ECV attack roll. Can CSL's be used to increase these attack rolls? I got confused when I started reading about the DCV levels - since I am not sure how a spell could be used to increase the DCV of the caster - and began to feel that maybe this was not the right way to do this.

If CSL's can be used to increase your efficiency with attacking with spells... what would be the best way to buy this

Thanks as always,

Tom

[EDIT] One last question just came up as well. If you are moving... how does this effect your DCV? I think I read this somewhere... but I can not remember where. If anyone can point me to it, that would be awsome.

[Curufea]

1) STUNx is used instead of the stun multiplier die. As hit locations are an optional rule - they replace the standard of the multiplier die.

2) Combat skill levels for a limited number of skills groups (ie magic spells only) is probably the best way to buy them. But you can also by PSLs for range decreases etc...

3) For fast moving objects there is a bonus to DCV - it may be in the main rulebook, I can't remember offhand.

[L. Marcus]

Velocity-Based DCV is on p. 364 of 5ER. It's an optional rule.

[sbarron]

1 - We are somewhat confused about STUNx. According to the books, when doing killing damage, you times the BODY by the stun multiplier (which is 1d6-1, min of 1) to get the STUN damage. Does the STUNx apply to result of this die?

ex. Sir Knight attacks EvilMan with a sword that does 2D6 of damage and has a STUNx of 2. He rolls his attacks and does 7 points of BODY damage. He then rolls the stun multipler and gets a 4, which is times by 2 (the weapon STUNx) to get 8. Thus, the total stun damage is 56.I always think examples make things clearer, so I'm going to use your example...

The set up: Sir Knight has a sword that does 2d6 killing damage, and has the advantage "+1 STUN multiplier" on it, right? I think that's what you mean by StunX of 2. Also, you're using hit locations?

Damage Calcs: Sir Knight attacks, and does 7 points of BODY damage. He rolls his hit location and hits the Stomach, which has a Stun muliplier of x4 and a BODY multiplier of x1. So, normally, Sir Knight would do 7 BODY (7 * 1), and 28 STUN (7 * 4).

However, Sir Knights sword has the advantage "+1 STUN multiplier." So, instead, he does 7 BODY (7 * 1) and 35 STUN (7 * 5).

Had Sir Knight hit his opponent in the head, he would have done 14 BODY (7 *2), and 45 STUN (7 * 6), since head shots do x2 BODY and x5 STUN, or x6 in Sir Knights case because of the +1 STUN multiplier.

Basically, as was explained up-thread, you're either using hit locations or you're not. If you are, then you do not roll a STUNx die. Instead, you use the STUNx listed on the hit location chart. And since I'm pretty sure you have a character that frequently uses normal attacks (rather than killing attacks), normal damage attacks calculate their STUN from what they roll on the dice, and then use the NSTUN column to determine if a multiplier is needed because of the hit location.

[Paragon]

Basically, as was explained up-thread, you're either using hit locations or you're not. If you are, then you do not roll a STUNx die. Instead, you use the STUNx listed on the hit location chart. And since I'm pretty sure you have a character that frequently uses normal attacks (rather than killing attacks), normal damage attacks calculate their STUN from what they roll on the dice, and then use the NSTUN column to determine if a multiplier is needed because of the hit location.

There's some cases where you might need to use a stun multiple die even if you are using hit locations: area effects (probably) and mental attacks (almost certainly). You're correct you don't use them at the same time, though.

[Outsider]

One other thing to note :

For Killing Attacks, while the Stun Multuplier on the Hit Location Table is applied before defenses, the BODY multiplier is applied after them. A moot point if the target has no resistant defenses.

And...

For normal attacks, both the STUN Multiplier and the BODY multiplier are applied after defenses.