Horror mark mechanics

[Bananadine]

Originally Posted by Joku

Basically, how units get marked by horrors? The description in astral claw (one of horrors attacks) says that unit wounded by this attack gets horror marked. Does this mean that it will not get marked if the horror fails to hit it or the attack fails to do damage either due to protection or luck?

I just tested by casting Send Horror on a province where a lone sea king was patrolling. The sea king had no luck and 62 defense (he's a pretty special guy).

I tried this several times in a row, and each time, the horror spent about two rounds attacking the sea king before being killed, so I guess the astral claw attack was attempted many times. But the sea king was never horror-marked; it appeared that he was also never hurt. I think the horrors probably never hit him with any attack. So, the claw must hit to leave a mark, and high defense can prevent the mark. If high defense can prevent the mark, then luck probably can do so as well.

I think protection cannot block the mark, because the astral claw is armor-negating. Still, if the attack somehow hit but did no damage (maybe because the horror's strength had all been drained away via the Evening Star?), I think the mark would still occur. But since the claw ignores armor and a horror has substantial strength, a successful hit that does no damage is very unlikely. (Mistform could reduce the hit's damage to 1, but that's not zero... mossbody could do it, maybe? But that's a pretty rare effect.)

I'd expect Twist Fate to stop a mark (though that wouldn't work reliably in practice due to the horror's use of multiple weapons per round). Ethereality would not, since the claw is magical.