MP: The Ascension Wars: MA,12 players, no mods, newb friendly. [Year 4, 8/12 remaining]

[Nightfall]

Originally Posted by kennoseishin

Well, everything I thought I knew about a major death bless was wrong. Contrary to the manual and a discussion on this forum, it appears to make *all* damage AN if a MR check is failed.

I don't think so, as far as I know a hit from a such blessed unit does...

(Normal damage + 2dice) - (protection + 2dice) for base damage

Plus if the MR check is failed...
2 + 2dice in magic damage (nothing protects)

Every source of damage in the game gets 2 dice added...

[kennoseishin]

Originally Posted by Nightfall

I don't think so, as far as I know a hit from a such blessed unit does...

(Normal damage + 2dice) - (protection + 2dice) for base damage

Plus if the MR check is failed...
2 + 2dice in magic damage (nothing protects)

Every source of damage in the game gets 2 dice added...

Yeah, the damage formula is (total strength + DRN) - (protection + DRN), but AN attacks just treat protection as 0, so you end up with (total strength + DRN) - DRN. In other words, the defender still gets to roll DRN to reduce AN damage. If this wasn't the case, smites would average 18 damage instead of 10 or so.

But that wasn't the case with your death bless. I watched quite a few replays of your eagle warriors against my prot 14 troops, and there weren't nearly enough "wounding" blows to suggest an AN damage 2 attack; my troops were either fine or they popped.

[Nightfall]

Originally Posted by kennoseishin

In other words, the defender still gets to roll DRN to reduce AN damage. If this wasn't the case, smites would average 18 damage instead of 10 or so.

Nope, as far as I've seen the defensive DRN adds to protection, it doesn't subtract from damage.

AN or AP is then applied to the total protection value, while I don't pay attention to smite that much, I've certainly noticed this behaviour in fire arrows, AP weapons and fire/death blesses before; It's why they are worth using.

It's also why a bloodletting cabal can be, well, spectacularly fun to use on occasion.

[kennoseishin]

Originally Posted by Nightfall

Nope, as far as I've seen the defensive DRN adds to protection, it doesn't subtract from damage.

It's simple to test this. Just get a bunch of illithid; their mindblast deals 1 AN+mr damage. If AN allows an opposed DRN roll, then the average damage will be 1; if AN ignores the opposed DRN roll, then the average damage will be around 7. When I checked this for myself, the average damage was indeed around 1.

Which means the death bless causes *all* the damage to be AN+mr, not just the 2 bonus damage.