Reflect and Active weapon effects

By FinarinPanjoro, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

Hey all,

If a lightsaber wielding character with Reflect (or Parry really) uses it to reduce the damage taken from an attack to the point of no wounds being taken can the attacker still activate weapon qualities?

It's a straight yes/no proposition for most properties, but Burn in particular leaves me with questions. If yes, would the Burn damage be the base damage rolled ignoring Reflect? or only damage that made it past Reflect (possible none)?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Finarin

Reflect reduces damage, it doesn't cancel successes. All an effect needs is a successful combat check and the requisite Triumphs or Advantages.

I wouldn't let anyone Reflect a flamethrower....

1 hour ago, 2P51 said:

Reflect reduces damage, it doesn't cancel successes. All an effect needs is a successful combat check and the requisite Triumphs or Advantages.

I wouldn't let anyone Reflect a flamethrower....

Well, technical reflect can be used against a flame thrower, it just burns you anyway and blast you and everyone around you on top, but I guess you should be able to reflect some of the damage from the original hit as well.

Side question, does blast count as a hit to apply burn to a crowed of people?

Nor would 2P51, but we actually have blasters and lightsabers in my game that have gained the Burn quality through Crafting (and a Barab Ingot).

So there's the potential confusion of "I reflected/soaked all the damage, but I'm still suffering full burn damage next turn?"

So I guess the question is if Reflect reduces the damage, would the burn damage the following turn be full damage or post-reflect reduced damage?

SEApocalypse, I'm interested in that answer too! If you activate both blast and burn does everyone affected by the blast suffer burn as well? Or do you have to activate burn per person? And do they then suffer damage equal to the blast damage?

Edited by FinarinPanjoro
Quote

When triggering the weapon’s Burn quality, the user may choose to apply it to any one target hit by the attack; this quality may be triggered multiple times, affecting a different target each time. However, the GM can spend [2 TH] or [DE] to apply the weapon’s Burn quality to an ally hit by the original attack.

Description of the flame projector. I assume when it says "any one target hit by the attack" it must be applied to the Blast quality.

Okay thanks Blackbird888, that seems clear on the activation.

So I assume that anyone hit by the blast can also be hit by burn for whatever the blast inflicted (though each burn victim would have to be separately activated).

Burn states that the target continues to suffer the weapon's base damage, which suggests to me that Reflect would not reduce what is inflicted on subsequent turns.

4 hours ago, FinarinPanjoro said:

Hey all,

If a lightsaber wielding character with Reflect (or Parry really) uses it to reduce the damage taken from an attack to the point of no wounds being taken can the attacker still activate weapon qualities?

It's a straight yes/no proposition for most properties, but Burn in particular leaves me with questions. If yes, would the Burn damage be the base damage rolled ignoring Reflect? or only damage that made it past Reflect (possible none)?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Finarin

If the weapon quality only requires a hit (like most active qualities), then it can be activated in such a situation.

But if the weapon quality requires damage (like a crit, for example), then if Reflect reduce the damage to zero, the quality can't be activated.

If the damage from the weapon can get through reflect then the quality should be able to activate. Although, burn does specify a successful attack, which doesn't necessarily mean that base damage has to get through, but rather adds to the damage. I think it depends on the weapon that has the burn quality. I'd say a flamethrower cannot be reflected by a lightsaber but a lightsaber with a barab ingot can (although that'd be Parry in this instance). Reflect doesn't negate a single attack, it just reduces damage. At first, coming from d20 systems, that didn't make a whole lot of sense until I realized that each "attack action" doesn't translate into a single swing of a lightsaber or a single pull of a trigger but, rather, a sequence of narrative attacks which may include any number of swings or shots that takes place within a vague period of time. This isn't D&D where each round is 6 seconds long, but rather an ambiguous amount of time that takes as long as the GM and players desire it to; often minutes long. Each time a player takes damage it may be from one well placed shot or several shots. Reflect and Parry "reflect" this idea of multiple attacks per turn.

Just to add, being right a wrong doesn't matter as much as having fun. Just go with whatever you think makes the most sense if you're the GM or just go with whatever your GM rules if you are just a player. Not saying that players and their GM can't discuss these types of issues and come up with a solution that makes logical sense for everyone to help a GM come up with a ruling, but I'd avoid throwing a contrary opinion in a GM's face just because it was the consensus of some internet forum.

Edited by ghatt