1) Lets say you have an attack 10 unit attacking a defense 8 unit. Can the attacker fail to land a blow? My understanding is that the attacker gets their attack bonus + DRN and if the result is greater than the defense then the unit scores a hit and tries to do more damage than the defender has protection... right? And DRN's are only ever positive... right?


2) Lets say that our defender has a protection of 8, a base defense of 10 and carries a tower shield (prot 15, parry 7, def -2). The shield lowers their defense to 8 but the shield parry brings it up to 15. Is the following interpretation of results correct:

a) The attacker's attack result is < the unit's defense of 8. The attack misses entirely.

b) The attacker's attack result is >= 8 but < 15 (the shield parry range) so the defenders protection is increased by the shield's protection value for this attack (for a total of 8 + 15 = 23).

c) The attacker's attacker result is >= 15 so the attack lands and the defenders protection is only 8.


3) A communion has 2 S1 slaves and one E1S1 master. The master casts Summon Earthpower, making him effectively an E3S2 caster. His slaves remain S1s (though now with reinvig-4) but are treated as E2S2s (+1 to all from communion of 2 slaves, +1E from Earthpower) for calculating their fatigue from the master's casting, right? In other words, do the path boosting spells (PotS, Earthpower, Phoenix Power, etc.) boost the slaves' fatigue path levels as well as their actual path levels?


4) Do resistances from different spells stack? For example, if a caster casts Fire Ward and Fire Fend on the same units, do they receive the benefit of just one spell or both? What about if the caster casts Fire Ward on himself and then Elemental Fortitude?


5) At what level are spells cast out of items cast as? For example, a Wand of Wildfire casts the fireball spell, whose damage and range increases with the caster's fire paths. If I give a Wand of Wildfire to a indie commander I assume he's shooting minimum range, minimum damage fireballs. But what if I give it to a F4 caster? Also, does the commander's gear factor in (such as carrying penetration boosting items while using an itemspam MR effect)?


6) Finally, is there a way to prevent a storm-immune flier scripted to attack-rear from flying to your back line?

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

1) Usually DRN's are opposed rolls (both sides get a roll and then results are compared) and also usually open ended (all 6's add a bonus roll to the total) which makes odds fairly predictable, but leaving all possibilities...well, possible.

Magic Duel (single opposed single opposed roll) being one of the rare exceptions.

4) Spell effects do not stack with each other, but spell effects do stack with magic item and innate bonuses (which also stack with each other)

6) Creativity. Putting bodyguards on your mages with equipment or spells geared towards immobilizing or killing the storm immune flyer that has been plaguing you would be a thing to try.

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

question 2 does not cover weapon length.

I believe the sequence is

morale check if opponent has a longer weapon. I'll have to look up the specifics.

attack + DRN vs. def + DRN

attack < defence then attack fails.

attack < defence + shield parry then shield defence added to protection.

protection also adds DRN, though only once (not twice if shield is in play for that attack).

3. I did not think that paths would be increased unless the mage actually possessed those paths. Path rating 0 being seperate from not having the path at all. I'll have to check this out for myself. Just a comment, not an answer.

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

maintain a broad front across the entire arc of battle, most of the time the attacker will hang up on your flanks. IIRC, but not completely certain - fliers still use normal movement, they just do it instantly. So units blocking the flank-move path will hang them up.

start the battle with units on the flanks+further back than your mages.

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

Which of the following apply to the caster's chance of success during a magic duel:

1) Astral boosting items (crystal coin, starshine skullcap, etc.)?

2) Astral boosting spells (Light of the Northern Star, Power of the Spheres, etc.)?

3) Path boosts from being a communion master? (Additionally, does anything bad happen to the slaves if the master loses the duel?)

4) Penetration bonuses from items (rune smasher, spell focus, etc.)?

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

For magic duel, none of the above, except maybe penetration items. Magic duel is base astral vs base astral, boosters not allowed.

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

Let me run a quick test.

Tien Chi Geomancer + 2 Ministers of Magic.

First run: Geomancer set to cast Earthpower (with a gem), C.Master, Blade Wind.
On Blade Wind, slave fatigue goes from 23 to 191

Second run: G set to C.Master, Earthpower, BW.
On Blade Wind, slave fatigue goes from 47 to 200. Crap. Gonna need a bigger set.
-----
First run with 4 slaves (2 Ministers, 2 Geomancers)
On BW, Minister fatigue goes from 23 to 67.

Second run with 4 slaves
On BW, Minister fatigue goes from 27 to 67. Factor in the 4 from reinvig, and the fatigue bump's the same.

Ergo: Non-existing paths don't get boosted in slaves.

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

I think non-existing paths only get boosted by larger communions.

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

Shucks :( I just bought my guy all sorts of S boosters to make his numbers high, now you tell me they don't count.

Do boosters count for Mind Hunt/Mind Burn/Soul Slay?

And what about, if your guy has a Luck charm, does that help for any of these?

And when I put a Global up, do boosters at that time count for future spell "defending"? Or maybe the current boosted state for the caster??

Re: Quick Mechanic Questions
 

For globals only the natural levels count for boosting. So each natural level above the base requirements adds 5 gems for dispel/overpower defense.

If you do not have enough natural levels you do not get a malus for using boosters.