Jump to content
  • 0

Presence attacks & Initiative


jdounis

Question

Hello just some clarifications for presence attacks and one question about starting combat.

 

1) When an enemy(or enemies) hesitates and acts after because you have achieved this effect with a PRE attack how do you resolve that? The enemy's DEX or EGO gets yours + 1 for example for this phase? or your DEX or EGO climbs above theirs? i ask these especially on how this interacts with the other combatants.

 

2) In the example of 6E2 pg 138 with Arkelos, how Arkelos managed to use his Fire Bolt Spell to initiate a PRE attack before the Giants acting?

 

 

and now about starting combat, this connects with question 2 above

 

Lets say two hostile groups of combatants are verbally threatening each other but noone has started fighting yet,when someone suddenly tries to attack first and is not a surprise attack,does he get to attack first and then everyone othen acts normally on their DEX or normal initiative rules get into play(even he has to wait for his DEX)

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 answer to this question

Recommended Posts

1.  Good question — I’m surprised this one hasn’t come up before.

 

Presence Attacks that cause a target to “hesitate,” as described on 6E2 136-37, are usually made at the beginning of a Segment in which both the attacker and target have a Phase. If that’s not the case, the GM has to decide how long the target remains “impressed” in light of the current situation — Presence Attacking too far in advance of his ability to act may ultimately deprive the attacker of any advantage. In any event, the effect of being “impressed” only lasts long enough for the target to hesitate one time. After that, the characters’ relative DEXs return to normal for purposes of determining the order of Actions in a Segment.

 

When a character “hesitates” due to a Presence Attack, reduce that character’s DEX and EGO to 1 less than that of the character who successfully Presence Attacked him only for purposes of determining who acts first in a Segment. Unlike the similar effect of being Blocked or Thrown, this reduction typically applies as to all characters in the combat, unless the GM rules otherwise. (This may depend on the nature and specifics of the Presence Attack.) Once the attacker takes advantage of this to attack the target, or that Segment passes, the effect ends and relative DEXs return to normal.

 

2.  It’s difficult to say for certain, because we don’t know the specifics of the campaign setting that Arkelos exists in or the magic system that governs his spells. But based on the example his Fire Bolt spell, at least, doesn’t seem to require any Concentration, Extra Time, or anything else that might prevent him from using it as part of a Presence Attack in the described fashion, so the GM chose to allow him to do it even though making an attack would ordinarily require an Attack Action. After all, it’s pretty cool and adds to the fun of the game, so why not? If he tries to do it multiple times every game session the GM would probably rein him in, but once every now and then isn’t a problem — at least not for this GM. ;)

 

3.  That’s really up to the GM based on the situation. I think that most GMs (including me) would let the character who declared that he was attacking make his attack first, then go to the ordinary initiative order for determining the order of Actions for the rest of the characters in Segment 12.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...