Alpha Rules Questions

[Alryeth]

Question, what is considered a magic item for the siphons cantrip ability and how doest it interact with other abilities? For example, can it be used to purge a lasting ward on an enemy (I know it requires a minute to actually work, but if somehow they were able to do that). What about ritual areas? Are the siphon spells a big one time resist thing

[Staff_Cory]

Batter: Useless skill. Costs the same as Maul which does the same thing but adds "Knockback". Likely some typo. Maul should probably be 2 valor.

Nope. No typos. Batter does damage. Maul only does CC. Different uses for your valor which can't be blocked.

If you take a gander at page 31 you will see that if a call specifies an effect other than Damage (or wound, I suppose but that's it's own special case) than it only does the effect listed and no damage is dealt.

[Staff_Cory]

Question, what is considered a magic item for the siphons cantrip ability and how doest it interact with other abilities? For example, can it be used to purge a lasting ward on an enemy (I know it requires a minute to actually work, but if somehow they were able to do that). What about ritual areas? Are the siphon spells a big one time resist thing

They would be tagged items listed as magical. The idea behind it being that it works semi-like sabotage from 2Dawn in that you can break plot relevant things (like an evil artificers forge constantly popping out animated weapons or some such).

It's worth mentioning, if it's not obvious, all of the cantrips are explicitly meant to not be useful in combat. They are meant to be fun utility/non-combat skills which do not cost mana.

That being said, Siphon's cantrip in particular is the one I've been meaning to nuke from orbit and replace with something not stupid for like a month now and will as soon as I can.

[VoodooSpecter]

That is really cool, I totally skimmed that section and did not realize! But I like that a LOT.

[ryan]

Is there going to be hidden skills / tier 2 stuff, or is the idea to have all the build possibilities in the rulebook at launch?

[Staff_Cory]

Is there going to be hidden skills / tier 2 stuff, or is the idea to have all the build possibilities in the rulebook at launch?

While "hidden skills" is not really a thing we have in mind, we currently expect to implement a Tier 2 system at some point during the campaign. The exact form this takes, and whether it even happens, will be dependent on a number of factors, most of which revolve around whether we are satisfied with the feel of combat scenarios and player abilities as well as the whether the level of progression is where we want it to be. These are not determinations we will be making for some time but know that tier 2 is a possibility, if not quite a guarantee, at some point in the future.

Look at me being vague mc.vaguepants.

[Alryeth]

How does this work with piercing attacks? I assume those still do damage. Does this mean knock back attacks like those a ritualist gets don't do damage?

[Staff_Cory]

How does this work with piercing attacks? I assume those still do damage. Does this mean knock back attacks like those a ritualist gets don't do damage?

Piercing simply means that the effect of a call, whatever that effect may be, carries through the targets wards.

Against an enemy with "Fire Ward" the following calls would have the following results:

• I hit her with a "Fire" call (the effect is damage in this case and needn't be said) --> She callsback "Ward" and nothing happens.
• I hit her with a "Piercing by Fire" call --> She loses a point of Armor. If she has no armor she, instead, loses a point of Blood.
• I hit her with a "Stun by Fire" call --> She callsback "Ward" and nothing happens.
• I hit her with a "Piercing Stun by Fire" call --> She cannot walk or attack for 5 seconds.
• I hit her with a "Earth" call --> She loses a point of Armor. If she has no armor she, instead, loses a point of Blood.

[Alryeth]

What about knock back by spirit?

[Staff_Cory]

What about knock back by spirit?

All sources are mechanically exactly the same. The only difference between sources is flavor and to determine what defenses work against the call.

Against an enemy with "Spirit Ward" the following calls would have the following results:

• I hit her with a "Spirit" call (the effect is damage in this case and needn't be said) --> She callsback "Ward" and nothing happens.
• I hit her with a "Piercing by Spirit" call --> She loses a point of Armor. If she has no armor she, instead, loses a point of Blood.
• I hit her with a "Knockback by Spirit" call --> She callsback "Ward" and nothing happens.
• I hit her with a "Piercing Knockback by Spirit" call --> She moves 5 feet away from me and can not approach for 5 seconds.
• I hit her with a "Fire" call --> She loses a point of Armor. If she has no armor she, instead, loses a point of Blood.

[Alryeth]

Thanks Cory :), question regarding speaking with dead for ritualist, is there a limit to time since death or the wholeness of the body? Like if the skarventaa ritualists found the goblet saviors cousin could we ask them questions? What about if we found the savior's cat (lol mostly joking)?

Regarding the sigils and activation cost, if someone has 5 mana they could afford one of the 3 mana and one of the 2 mana abilies. They can only have one active at a time. My question is can they only switch the ability once due to mana limitations or could they switch back and forth (with the 5+ second rp setup time) between two abilities once they paid the mana cost for both?

[Staff_Cory]

question regarding speaking with dead for ritualist, is there a limit to time since death or the wholeness of the body? Like if the skarventaa ritualists found the goblet saviors cousin could we ask them questions? What about if we found the savior's cat (lol mostly joking)?

You can try to use the ability on anyone/thing regardless of condition. Your mileage may vary. I will point you towards a couple sentences in the general setting blurb on the After (pg.6):

"Ritualists can oftentimes communicate with the recently dead. They commonly describe their existence after death as most throughout the ages have hoped it would be: a gentle and possibly eternal rest."

Regarding the sigils and activation cost, if someone has 5 mana they could afford one of the 3 mana and one of the 2 mana abilies. They can only have one active at a time. My question is can they only switch the ability once due to mana limitations or could they switch back and forth (with the 5+ second rp setup time) between two abilities once they paid the mana cost for both?

Once you activate a second ability your previous ability can no longer be used unless you again pay the activation cost for it. For instance:

I have 6 Mana (Max attainable through build and itemization).

I cast "Immaterial Sigil" for 2 Mana at the start of an encounter. Whenever in a ritual zone I have Mundane Ward.

Later in that same encounter I decide to cast "Etheric Sigil" in order to deal with a nasty enemy. Now when in a ritual zone I no longer have Mundane Ward but may call "Piercing by Spirit" freely while attacking.

I only have 1 Mana remaining. Meaning that I do not have enough mana to cast any more Ritualist spells to replace "Etheric Sigil" until I next rest.

The next time I rest "Etheric Sigil" is dispelled, however, I regain all of my lost Mana and can begin again how I see fit for the next encounter.

[Alryeth]

Hmm so I could try to speak to Gribbets revulsion of canabilism (clearly that's long dead)

[Erez]

Hah! I get it! Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck.

[VoodooSpecter]

There are two skills called "Advise". One is an unspecialized skill. One is Specialized under "Persuasion". Just thought you ought to know! Both skills are really cool though.

[Staff_Cory]

There are two skills called "Advise". One is an unspecialized skill. One is Specialized under "Persuasion". Just thought you ought to know! Both skills are really cool though.

Yeah, am aware. That's what comes from adding a couple wholly new lines of proficiencies/skills the week before announcement. Will be fixed in the next iteration.

[VoodooSpecter]

Well I love the new proficiencies and skills!

[Alryeth]

So in second dawn we could do inventions in bgas, will we be able to do similar things in divine intervention?

[Staff_Cory]

So in second dawn we could do inventions in bgas, will we be able to do similar things in divine intervention?

No. We may consider something like the Opus system from S&C but that's as close to the inventions system as we intend to consider.

[VoodooSpecter]

I think there's still a lot of flexibility in a soft bga without inventions. You can still do stuff in a soft bga that creates really interesting plot-based opportunities, you just can't do things like invent skills or techniques or items.

I dig some of S&C's mechanics to deal with that stuff. In the case of those specific things it would be "Opuses" (Profession related, have to be at max rank and can only get it once) and "Signature Abilities" (a Feat of some sort that you can also only ever get once). But one of the things staff wanted was to minimize how many things crunchies have to remember, and those things inherently complicate that and can make encounters get a little hard to plan if they get too crazy.

I will miss being able to just making up crazy tinker bullshit, but I think it's just going to be a shift in focus about how we use soft bgas. To be honest, inventions very quickly became a competition to see who could get away with fucking up game balance more in a single BGA.