Can you spend either a focus token even though you didn't roll any focus results on your dice? We had a player running Garven Dreis in his squad and wanted to use his special ability of passing a focus to another ship when Dreis used it. He was wondering if he could spend the focus even though he didn't roll any on the dice. My feeling is that he can but, because there are no focus on the dice roll, nothing would happen. I can't find anything in the rules to prevent or permit this action so I bring the question here for discussion.

You can spend a focus token as long as you rolled dice, whether or not you rolled any eyeballs. It's in the FAQ.

You simply use the focus to change all of the eyeballs into hits (in this case, it affects 0 dice). You cannot spend it if you rolled no dice.

paradox23 said:

I'm not sure this is correct. You have to have an attack, but I can't see anything that requires you to have rolled dice. A Blinded Pilot critical damage, for example, reduces your dice to zero, but the rest of the attack flow is still in place, and that includes the Modify Results step.

It's possible that the Combat Bonuses callout on the bottom of Page 11 means to short-circuit the rest of the attack flow, and not complete it… but if we're going to read that that way, it's going to have other impacts… Gunner comes to mind immediately.

zathras23 said:

From the FAQ:

Q: Can Garven Dreis spend a focus token to modify dice even if he didn't roll any symbols

A: Yes.

I think what paradox23 means is that if you have not rolled any dice (not where you are rolling ZERO dice).

You can only use Focus token during the modify dice results stage (p. 11 and p. 12) So you have to have rolled attack/defense dice (or rolled ZERO dice in that possible scenario) to use a focus token. If you have not had the opportunity to roll any dice you do not enter the modify dice step and, therefore, could not use a focus token.

If your attack/defense is at zero dice you can still follow the process to use the focus token up, however, you could not use it if you are barred from attacking/defending altogether (ie not allowed to roll any dice).

So, rolling MODIFIED TO ZERO dice = can use focus token

Not allowed to roll any dice = cannot use focus token

Buhallin said:

Okay, so let's say Han Solo gets a Blinded Pilot critical damage card. He has Luke Skywalker on board. His next attack uses zero dice, but then Luke's ability kicks in, and he gets to roll another primary weapon attack normally. Is that correct?

Gullwind said:

Pretty much. An attack roll at zero dice is still an attack. You roll zero dice, your target rolls their defense dice, there are no uncanceled hits or crits, so the attack misses. That triggers the Gunner/Luke for the second attack.

Sergovan said:

Yessir

Buhallin said:

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I had that exact situation come up yesterday and didn't capitalize on using Luke's ability. Doggone it.

I think one of the hardest parts of this game is just remembering to use all the special abilities and upgrades you have. Well, that's that harderst part for me, anyway.

Thanks.

A lot of the questions in the faq required more than a yes and no answer. In the faq the question asked was if I do nothing can I gain a benefit from it and they said yes.

Ozmodon65 said:

Not exactly sure what you are referring to here…