Modified effects

[Dan Nickname Beshers]

What is the order of importance to modifications of effects caused by magic items/flaws, monster abilities or plot fiat?

If a character had assorted magic items stating that they were:
1) immune to flame,
2) healed by flame,
3) took double damage from flame,
4) took double effect from flame,
5) took a Fear effect when taking flame damage,
6) treated Dragon's Breath as if it had been Silence and
7) treated Disarm as Flamebolt,

how would these interact with each other, and which would take precedence in a case where two such wrinkles were in obvious and direct conflict, i.e. Flame is taken as Ice, Ice is taken as Flame?

Sorry.

 

[Polare]

This post is to inform you that your question is currently being discussed by the ARC and once some clarification has been made will be posted here. Depending on the level of clarification and discussion (and potential involvement of the Owners or other national staff, if needed) this may take time.

 

[Polare]

I will answer these in order.

1) immune to flame

If you're immune to something, you're immune to it. That overrides everything else.

2) healed by flame

If you're healed by it, then you're healed by it, whether it's doubled or not (note that the High Magic flaws specifically cannot affect healing, so this would need to be due to something else ... like the Undead package "healed double by Necromancy").

3) took double damage from flame

See above. If you're immune to something then you're immune to double that. If you have something that doubles damage and does not specifically exempt healing, and you're healed by it, then you'd take double healing. See the Undead package example above.

4) took double effect from flame

I'm not sure what the difference is between "double damage" and "double effect". This really should be considered the same thing. I would encourage plot teams to not put out something with such confusing verbiage, or have players get a clarification from their local plot team about what the intent of that wording is.

5) took a Fear effect when taking flame damage
6) treated Dragon's Breath as if it had been Silence
7) treated Disarm as Flamebolt

If you take X instead of Y, then it doesn't matter whether Y is doubled or not because you're not taking Y anymore. The same works in reverse - if you double X, then you double it when you take it because you took Y.

At the end of the day, ARC cannot answer every single "what if" that Plot teams can throw out there. If a Plot team puts out an item with the flaw "User is affected by Banana Split whenever they are hit with Flame damage", ARC can't make a ruling on how a Banana Split interacts with Flame damage. Plot teams can put out any flaw they want, and this means that specific interactions may vary between chapters - there's no way around that.

I would also encourage Plot teams and Rules teams that are looking at characters transferring in items with unusual flaws to seriously consider how that item will interact with other effects and items in their chapter. Personally, if I were given a Restricted item with an unusual flaw like "User takes Necromancy effects as Healing", I wouldn't be surprised if it were refused transfer. Remember that Restricted items are not 100% guaranteed transferrable into every chapter, and flaws (especially those not created by High Magic Augmentations) may make it less likely for an item to transfer. Plot teams creating items with unusual flaws would also do well to keep in mind that the flaws may make an item behave inconsistently with precedent - again, because ARC cannot rule on every single possible flaw there is.

-Bryan Gregory
ARC