Daze and other area powers and evade

Sunslinger · Post by **Sunslinger** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:01 pm

Do you allow tragets of a non-damage area power to try to evade it, dodging out of the (burst) area?

We now have a character able to "shoot" spores that daze targets in an area. Would Mr. Nimble be able to "dodge" out of the area and evade the effect (= Mind Attack Roll)?

Baelor · Post by **Baelor** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:15 pm

Excellent question, Sunslinger! I look forward to hearing what others have to say on this.

In my own campaign, I have a player character that emits a field that cause fear in an area around her - Confusion 2, doesn't work against those who do not feel fear, Medium Burst Area, No Range.

Up to now I have not been allowing an evade, using the Mind Contest on anyone who is close enough when she uses the attack. I would like to know if I am on track with that though.

The Daze power and Confusion both work on a Mind Contest, so they should both be covered by an answer to your question.

The reason I ruled no evade is too keep down extra rolling, and because I did not see someone being agile helping them against a Confusion/Fear power better than anyone else.

Sunslinger · Post by **Sunslinger** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 1:58 am

I wondered especially in case Confusion or Daze Powers have a physical component, like the spores or a dozen mini-tranqulizer darts. If it was a damage power, targets could evade the attack. Now can't they just becuse the spores/darts have another effect?

WaylanderPK · Post by **WaylanderPK** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:09 am

I think the rules are pretty clear, if the effect can't be divided (like damage) then its a defence roll against it. I wouldn't allow Mr Nimble to 'dodge' a mental attack, unless the power in question had a disadvantage like "Acts vs Agility" or some such.

If the power is something Mental, or something that cannot be divided, such as Daze or Immobilization, then the attacker makes a single attack roll, and all the targets (or each group of minions) make their own separate defense roll against it.

Sunslinger · Post by **Sunslinger** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:26 am

This is kinda my question. Do the spores hit with a mental attack vs mental defense? Or would you then have to do an attack roll based on A and targets be allowed to dodge? Then only hit targets would be subject of the mental attack.
That makes more sense to me but requires a high A to make the power efficient.
Btw I like it better to use the area damage rules to evade all area effects. You can either rule that you need a complete success to evade the effect, decrease the power on a half evasion or even roll one die to determine if your half cchance to evade was enough. That way all area powers are more in line. Otherwise you had to chose what to do with a linked special attack/daze area power for example.

WaylanderPK · Post by **WaylanderPK** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:28 pm

I think it would be perfectly acceptable to allow for a mental power to attack with Agility, Defend with agility but do "Mental Damage", ie Soak with Mind rather than Brawn. I can't see it makes too much difference in game balance.

For that matter I can't see that "Mind Spikes" is too much different than a "Special Attack" that does Mental Damage.

WaylanderPK · Post by **WaylanderPK** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:35 pm

Sunslinger wrote: Btw I like it better to use the area damage rules to evade all area effects. You can either rule that you need a complete success to evade the effect, decrease the power on a half evasion or even roll one die to determine if your half cchance to evade was enough. That way all area powers are more in line. Otherwise you had to chose what to do with a linked special attack/daze area power for example.

I think if you were going for "all or nothing" system then you need to increase the attack roll by adding the level of the "Burst" to the Hit Multiplier.

So a A2 Solider with a Medium Burst Grenade would roll x4 to hit, anyone in the area effect would roll defence normally.

Sunslinger · Post by **Sunslinger** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:33 am

Most powers with the Burst effect do not roll to hit the targets. If the targets wish to avoid the effects, they roll a Defense roll or Athletics/Acrobatics check. If they get 19 or less, they are fully affected by the power. If they get 20+ they take half the effect, 30+ they take a third of the effect, 40+ they take no effect.

I mean this. I prefer to use that for also for non-damage powers. Either targets evade on a complete dodge or you mitigate the effect depending on the quality of a dodge (bonus on mental resistance roll e.g.) or you roll one chance die with the effect of the evasion roll as chance to evade completels (so target evades on 1-3 if it rolled a 20+ on evasion). I also thought about raising/lowering the evasion difficulty depending on how many squares a target is from the edge of the burst.