Tomble's Heroic Ability and Firebreathing

By centralx, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

So the question of whether Tomble gets a bonus pool to roll with from his hero's ability came up when he is being affected by firebreathing from an attack that he is not the target of? We went with no because he wasn't the target of the attack therefore he was not attacked and just suffering an area effect. Was this the correct play?

Thanks

Tomble Burrowell Hero Ability:

If you are attacked while adjacent to at least one other hero, you may choose an adjacent hero and add the defense pool of that hero to your own.

Fire Breath:

Starting with the target space, trace a path of 4 spaces in any direction. All figures on this path are affected by this attack. Each figure rolls defense dice separately.

-----

The problem here is there is no clarification on whether or not being affected by an attack is the same as being targeted by the attack (Or for this example, just attacked in general.).
I would personally allow the use of the ability, because you are going to be rolling defense dice and have the option of using any defensive skills or equipment as if you are being attacked. But, as I said, there is no clarification in the book (That I have read.).

Edited by SouLx

The problem here is there is no clarification on whether or not being affected by an attack is the same as being attacked.

I would personally allow the use of the ability, because you are going to be rolling defense dice and have the option of using any defensive skills or equipment as if you are being attacked. But, as I said, there is no clarification in the book (That I have read.).

I'm inclined to agree. Figures that are affected by an attack have still been attacked, even if they weren't the target of the attack.

I don't know. If tomble had the heavy cloak which cancels a surge, would you allow him to negate the fire breath ability even though he wasnt the target of the attack?

Likewise the spiritspeaker couldn't use stone skin on tomble in this instance because he wasnt the target of the attack.

So I would say he can't use the defense die.

I don't know. If Tomble had the heavy cloak which cancels a surge, would you allow him to negate the fire breath ability even though he wasn't the target of the attack?

I wouldn't allow it, because the surge is 'spent' already, in my opinion. Kind of like when you attack at range and need to spend a surge to add a range to hit the target. You can't cancel the surge and no longer be affected by the attack, because the surge was spent to make the attack valid.

I know you can't cancel the surge because tomble wouldn't have been the target.

That's why you can't use his heroic ability because he wasnt the target.

Don't know why this one posted when I was editing my last post.


Edited by SouLx

I know you can't cancel the surge because tomble wouldn't have been the target.

That's why you can't use his heroic ability because he wasnt the target.

I didn't say I wouldn't allow it because he wasn't the target. I said I wouldn't personally allow it because it would negate the validity of the attack after the surge was spent to make it valid.

I am just trying to illustrate a point.

I am just trying to illustrate a point.

The problem is that all we can say are our guesses of how it should go.

There is no clarification if being affected by an attack makes you a target of said attack, which would help a question like this and similar ones brought up (Can you use X if affected by attack.).

Didn't realize this question would cause such a stir. I will have to ask FFG and see what they say. I will post what their answer is.

Rereading it now, both my examples were pretty poor.

I would like clarification if you ask. I was scouring BGG because I had thought somewhere there was a response from Justin Kemppainen about "target" vs "affected" but I could be wrong.

So everyone got the answer back already. He didn't go into great detail but said that YES Tomble would get the bonus roll in that situation. Kind of puts some good perspective on what an attack means with other things like blast and such.

Thanks again for everyone's perspective on this question.

So everyone got the answer back already. He didn't go into great detail but said that YES Tomble would get the bonus roll in that situation. Kind of puts some good perspective on what an attack means with other things like blast and such.

Thanks again for everyone's perspective on this question.

I don't suppose you asked about the cloak/firebreath thing?

I'm again inclined to agree with SouLx's interpretation, mostly for the sake of my own sanity, but that's definitely one that could use a little official clarification.

As a general rule, anything that causes a paradox in resolution is an automatic "no" in my books.

Somebody started a thread and answered this. The answer was no because when you get to step four of combat and spend the surges you would be able to spend the surge with the first guy, since he lacks a cloak. Then when the firebreath creeps over to the dude with the cloak, the surge is spent and gone so he will not be able to trigger his effect.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/86958-surge-removal-and-fire-breath/

Edited by centralx