Fantasy Craft Q&A Thread!

[Mister Andersen]

So, Hands Free and Scale will be new upgrades, the Drake upgrade puts them together + allows untrained use of items that would otherwise not be able to be used at all, yes?

[Crafty_Alex]

So, Hands Free and Scale will be new upgrades, the Drake upgrade puts them together + allows untrained use of items that would otherwise not be able to be used at all, yes?

Not exactly. Weapons upgrades have received a disproportionately high level of complaints and questions, and so underwent a lot of revisions I wasn't keeping straight in my head.

First, I messed up on drakes - they won't be able to use weapons not modified for their use (as we don't have a beast upgrade for weapons in the errata). Scale has indeed be separated from species craftsmanship, but a shift can only be made once in either direction. Species craftsmanship now reflects the item as made in the tradition of the species, not for the species. The ability for unborn to attach weapons to their bodies is a special rule included in the table, rather than a quality. This is on top of a few other tweaks and a largely across the board set of price increases to prevent over-twinking and prevent modified weapons from being cheaper than unmodified weapons with similar qualities.

[Sletchman]

Siege weapons for the most part don't have ammunition listed anywhere [the only ones that do fire existing projectiles - the Arbalest and Harpoon Cannon].  How many shots do you get?  How much do reloads cost / weigh?

[Crafty_Alex]

Siege weapons for the most part don't have ammunition listed anywhere [the only ones that do fire existing projectiles - the Arbalest and Harpoon Cannon].  How many shots do you get?  How much do reloads cost / weigh?

Siege weapons are commonly field improvised, and so is their ammo, and the assumption is characters will not be carrying them around in all but a very few cases (such as the arbalest). The only thing that might need formed ammo would be the springdal and cannon, but as you see from FC weapons at this point if ammunition is used, the code is the ammunition's name, which adds another section to the table. We won't be able to change this in the FC errata due to space issues, but we might be able to address seige weapons in a different way and finer degree of detail in the FC gear book next year.

[Sletchman]

Siege weapons for the most part don't have ammunition listed anywhere [the only ones that do fire existing projectiles - the Arbalest and Harpoon Cannon].  How many shots do you get?  How much do reloads cost / weigh?

Siege weapons are commonly field improvised, and so is their ammo, and the assumption is characters will not be carrying them around in all but a very few cases (such as the arbalest). The only thing that might need formed ammo would be the springdal and cannon, but as you see from FC weapons at this point if ammunition is used, the code is the ammunition's name, which adds another section to the table. We won't be able to change this in the FC errata due to space issues, but we might be able to address seige weapons in a different way and finer degree of detail in the FC gear book next year.

Cheers - it came up in our group with regards to the Ballista, the Mortar and fire shell for the Catapult, which are the more fabricated ones, and less "good sized rocks".

[pawsplay]

Hey Gang, I just stumbled into the Tire action.
Since it isn't a true "attack" does DR apply to the paltry 1d6 subdual damage?  Or does DR defeat (or nearly defeat) this combat option?
(Search fu failed to find a result, maybe because "tire" is in a lot of words.)

DR does not apply to subdual damage inflicted with a Tire action.

Is there a general rule that would help undestand situations like that? I looked it up, and Damage Reduction says it applies whenever you "suffer" damage. Along the same lines, what about the Edgemaster's carve ability?

[Crafty_Alex]

Hey Gang, I just stumbled into the Tire action.
Since it isn't a true "attack" does DR apply to the paltry 1d6 subdual damage?  Or does DR defeat (or nearly defeat) this combat option?
(Search fu failed to find a result, maybe because "tire" is in a lot of words.)

DR does not apply to subdual damage inflicted with a Tire action.

Is there a general rule that would help undestand situations like that? I looked it up, and Damage Reduction says it applies whenever you "suffer" damage. Along the same lines, what about the Edgemaster's carve ability?

It would be at the action level. However, nothing in the action says it ignores DR.

[mind flayer]

So, I am the kind of person who is easily distracted by ideas buried in fluff.  I was excited when I saw the Fire Brave feat while browsing through the feats section.  Immediately, images of a shape-shifting oni assassins began flitting through my mind.

Well, that lasted until I searched the forums for "Fire Brave" to answer some questions.  I understand the "doesn't shift size" thing, as that would be pretty broken, but the question is, how is the feat supposed to work?  Is it an illusion feat to make the Ogre *look* like a medium-sized creature, while still being large?  Or is it just minor shapeshifting that allows an Ogre to... uh... look like a giant?  I refuse to believe that an Oni finds it any easier to imitate a Rootwalker than a dwarf.

Next question: could an Oni poison it's gore attack?  Logic says yes, but is there any kind of game balance reason why they couldn't?

And finally, is there any way other than the Sea Brave feat to buy off Banned Actions?  I mean, I understand banning Tumble, and maybe Outmaneuver, but Influence?  I don't really want to play a suave ogre or anything, but it'd be nice to be able to take 20 on a "make a friend" check.  I could understand due to the interaction with "Reviled", but Oni don't have to deal with it.  I find it vaguely amusing that the Marrow, who are fluffed to be the grossest of the Ogres, have the best shot at improving people's reactions towards them.

[Crafty_Pat]

Or is it just minor shapeshifting that allows an Ogre to... uh... look like a giant?

This. It's not actual shapeshifting but a minor "trick of the eyes" effect.

Next question: could an Oni poison it's gore attack?  Logic says yes, but is there any kind of game balance reason why they couldn't?

Certain weapons have a poisonous quality (see page 177), which can also be added with the poisonous upgrade (see page 185). Now, this only applies to held (i.e. non-natural) weapons in the RAW, and the rules for applying the upgrade break down for natural weapons. The corresponding natural attack upgrade also doesn't work, as it's a significant upgrade, producing natural poison, and therefore would grossly unbalance the feat.

At first blush, were I your GM, I'd allow it if you paid for each use of poison and took a full minute to apply each use, which would be consumed with a single attack. I'm not saying that's the official answer - just that it's what I'd do without an official answer. Alex and I may be able to slip something official into an upcoming book.

And finally, is there any way other than the Sea Brave feat to buy off Banned Actions?  I mean, I understand banning Tumble, and maybe Outmaneuver, but Influence?  I don't really want to play a suave ogre or anything, but it'd be nice to be able to take 20 on a "make a friend" check.  I could understand due to the interaction with "Reviled", but Oni don't have to deal with it.  I find it vaguely amusing that the Marrow, who are fluffed to be the grossest of the Ogres, have the best shot at improving people's reactions towards them.

Banned actions are going away. The errata replaces them with "restricted actions," which forces an untrained check, even if you have skill ranks.

[Dhampire]

Next question: could an Oni poison it's gore attack?  Logic says yes, but is there any kind of game balance reason why they couldn't?

Certain weapons have a poisonous quality (see page 177), which can also be added with the poisonous upgrade (see page 185). Now, this only applies to held (i.e. non-natural) weapons in the RAW, and the rules for applying the upgrade break down for natural weapons. The corresponding natural attack upgrade also doesn't work, as it's a significant upgrade, producing natural poison, and therefore would grossly unbalance the feat.

At first blush, were I your GM, I'd allow it if you paid for each use of poison and took a full minute to apply each use, which would be consumed with a single attack. I'm not saying that's the official answer - just that it's what I'd do without an official answer. Alex and I may be able to slip something official into an upcoming book.

I'd just require the person to buy a Poison Ring for using poisonous with the Gore attack from Horns.  It works with Standard Unarmed Attacks.

[tenebrae]

Rune Knight - Gouging Rune.

Am I misreading it, or does this provide no benefit? As a free action, when you hit, you can spend an AD to have to spend 1 less AD to activate a critical.

[aegis]

You spend a spell point, not an action die.

[Kerebrus]

So, another Monday game afteraction report.

It turns out there are rules that don't have enough rules to them.  Acrobatics / Jumping uses the height of the character to control the maximum amount of a vertical leap, but other than Humans & Giants, the actual size of players character races are not covered.  Normally the height and weight fo a character is pretty much all fluff, but this is a case where it is needed to complete the resolution of another action.  And having weights would be handy for lifting / dragging team members back to safety via The Extra Mile.  (The easy default is to steal these sorts of numbers from 3.5 products, but we want to be above that)

Sprawled to Prone.  There are two conditions for being on the ground - Sprawled and Prone.  Sprawled being that state of not wanting to be knocked to the ground, and Prone being essentially on the ground intentionally.  Sprawled carries with it the Flat Footed Condition and a -2 on all attack checks.  The Sprawled condition is lost when the character is attacked or Repositions.  SO, if a character is attacked, they then become Prone?  Just making sure, because it isn't expressly stated.

Light sensitivity training.  Apperently creatures of the dark have a viable reason to want to become followers of the light.  On the first step of the Path of Light, character gain an immunityu to Flash damage (Plus Flare and Glow at will).  As far as I can tell, that should counteract the Light Sensitivity of Goblins, Orcs, Elemental Heritage: Shadow, Spider Nation Elves, or Stone Brave Ogres.  No real question to go with this, just an bservation.

[Crafty_Alex]

So, another Monday game afteraction report.

It turns out there are rules that don't have enough rules to them.  Acrobatics / Jumping uses the height of the character to control the maximum amount of a vertical leap, but other than Humans & Giants, the actual size of players character races are not covered.  Normally the height and weight fo a character is pretty much all fluff, but this is a case where it is needed to complete the resolution of another action.  And having weights would be handy for lifting / dragging team members back to safety via The Extra Mile.  (The easy default is to steal these sorts of numbers from 3.5 products, but we want to be above that)

I'd say wing it. Let characters be as tall or as heavy as they want.

Sprawled to Prone.  There are two conditions for being on the ground - Sprawled and Prone.  Sprawled being that state of not wanting to be knocked to the ground, and Prone being essentially on the ground intentionally.  Sprawled carries with it the Flat Footed Condition and a -2 on all attack checks.  The Sprawled condition is lost when the character is attacked or Repositions.  SO, if a character is attacked, they then become Prone?  Just making sure, because it isn't expressly stated.

This error is being corrected in the errata.

Light sensitivity training.  Apperently creatures of the dark have a viable reason to want to become followers of the light.  On the first step of the Path of Light, character gain an immunityu to Flash damage (Plus Flare and Glow at will).  As far as I can tell, that should counteract the Light Sensitivity of Goblins, Orcs, Elemental Heritage: Shadow, Spider Nation Elves, or Stone Brave Ogres.  No real question to go with this, just an bservation.

Yep!

[tenebrae]

You spend a spell point, not an action die.

Yep, that makes sense. Don't know how I missed that.