I tried a quick search but didn't dig through all of the posts, I was wondering how the based damage is defined for the Unleash ability when to comes to the Burn damage.

When reading the rule book the only part i see base damage used is equal to the will power, which seem very low and unpowered for the ability. I remember on one of the order 66 podcast they saying the strength upgrades counts towards the base damage, but didn't it worded that way in the book, and that felt over powers.

In my game I went in the middle and just used the Willpower plus success, but not the strength upgrades for the burn damage each round. It ended up being around 8 or 9 which is close to a flame thrower.

Thanks for any answers, advice or Opinions you can give me.

Yeah, base damage is what you get before spending Success.

So it would be Willpower+Strength Upgrades.

With full Strength and 4 Willpower, that's a fairly consistent 8 damage, which is on par with a flame projector (aside from a lower Burn rating). Whether you think that's overpowered or not is up to you, but I think it works well.

My main concern is that it works out to Extreme range.

My villain was able to activate strength (4) multiple times, so the total damage on the original attack was 20 (5 Willpower, 3 Successes, and 12 from 3 strength upgrades), so with all of the strength upgrades the base would have been 17 for the burn each round.

Huh. Yikes. Didn't realize you could trigger that multiple times. That surprises me. I thought most could only be activated the once, but apparently not.

Upon rereading the full text of the Force Power, it says "A base damage equal to Willpower."

Not sure how I missed it the first time around (thought it just said "damage equal to Willpower"), but there's your answer.

23 hours ago, damnkid3 said:

My villain was able to activate strength (4) multiple times, so the total damage on the original attack was 20 (5 Willpower, 3 Successes , and 12 from 3 strength upgrades), so with all of the strength upgrades the base would have been 17 for the burn each round.

(Bolding mine.)

Unlike the Protect variant, Unleash does not specifically say that one adds +1 damage for each success on the original Discipline check.

My impression has always been that when the base power says "base damage", that any extra damage comes from any Strength upgrades purchased (and activated by means of Force points spent). This is how the Harm variant of Heal works.

If anyone knows of a developer/designer who has ruled otherwise, please let me know (and supply a link).

17 minutes ago, Bellona said:

Unlike the Protect variant, Unleash does not specifically say that one adds +1 damage for each success on the original Discipline check.

Unleashed is a ranged attack, so the standard rules would apply. It doesn't specify that you can spend Advantage to trigger the qualities either, but that is implicit.

With Protect, it is its own thing so they have to specify.

1 minute ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Unleashed is a ranged attack, so the standard rules would apply. It doesn't specify that you can spend Advantage to trigger the qualities either, but that is implicit.

With Protect, it is its own thing so they have to specify.

I concede your point, particularly as the attacker's Discipline check could be treated as a "custom skill in combat" (sidebar on FaD p. 211, in the Conflict and Combat chapter).

It is unfortunate that "Base Damage" is only defined under the Weapon Characteristics section in the Gear and Equipment chapter, but not in the Force chapter. Considering the amount of repetition found in the rules text, FFG could have cut some of that in order to add some general clarifying text in the Force chapter.

(Harm is obviously functions differently.)

5 minutes ago, Bellona said:

I concede your point, particularly as the attacker's Discipline check could be treated as a "custom skill in combat" (sidebar on FaD p. 211, in the Conflict and Combat chapter).

It is unfortunate that "Base Damage" is only defined under the Weapon Characteristics section in the Gear and Equipment chapter, but not in the Force chapter. Considering the amount of repetition found in the rules text, FFG could have cut some of that in order to add some general clarifying text in the Force chapter.

(Harm is obviously functions differently.)

It does state "base damage equal to Willpower" so they probably figured that was sufficient.

2 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

It does state "base damage equal to Willpower" so they probably figured that was sufficient.

It's not, reallly, when the power's Strength upgrades can (also in this case) add damage. The power's basic text should have been more clear.

(Regarding the repetition in other parts of the core rulebook: it really started to make my teeth grind as I read my way through it. I kept thinking "this is a waste of text space!")

I would rule Willpower + Strength as well, but only if the player/NPC actually spent the Force result for the bonus damage when activating the power.

Willpower + Strength upgrades simply determines the base damage, not total damage.