[.11] Trap Qualifiers and Defensives

Surion Maedhros

Newbie
Marshal
Hello All,

I have a few questions about the new trap rules.

It makes sense to me that the qualifier for Weapons, Gas Traps, and Scroll Traps are Weapon, Poison, and Spell, respectively. What is the qualifier for an explosive trap or a Massive trap? Do they simply not have one (being simply "50 Explosive" or "50 Massive" that the "Qualifier Shield" spells are useless against?)

In ARB1.3, "Areas of Effect", like an Explosive Trap, can't be dodged. Is that still the case, even when the delivery has a qualifier? Can a Scroll Trap be dodged or Spell Parried?

I'm looking forward to trying out the new trap rules at our upcoming playtest, and I want to make sure I have these rules right. Thanks!
 
great question.
Just as a rider, since trap related, what is the call when you activate "Trap Avoidance"?

-Joe
 
There is no explicit verbal. Traps pretty much always require a Hold, and players can state during that hold that they are activating this Ritual after finding out what type of trap it is if there is a question.

-Bryan Gregory
ARC
 
If I'm reading the intent behind Scroll Traps correctly, then you can Resist Spell or Spell Shield/Reflect them, but would be unable to Dodge (similar to how you can Resist Poison or Poison Shield a Gas trap, but can't use Dodge against them). Spell Parry would also likely not work, for a similar reason you can't Dodge: if the effect of the trap is that the spell goes off and affects everything in the area, there's no way to Parry the spell in such a way that it would only hit your weapon/shield and be deflected (which I believe is the "intended visual" behind Spell Parry, in that the magic of Spell Parry prevents the spell from affecting you on contact, giving you time to deflect it).

Explosive traps are kind of their own effect, and lack a distinct Qualifier, but I personally consider them to be Arcane for all intents and purposes; even though they for sure aren't Arcane, you can't call any defenses against an Explosive trap under most circumstances (Trap Avoidance springs to mind, but I think a Phase would also work), so in 99% or circumstances it works adequately.

Massive is a Carrier that interacts with defenses in ways unique to it, so you can basically consider any Massive Carrier to be Weapon Qualifier for most circumstances; most traps that use it are Mechanical, so I would leave it up to the Marshal whether "a huge boulder falls on you from the ceiling" counts as a weapon for the purposes of Weapon Shield or not, but you should be able to Dodge or Evade it as usual.
 
If I'm reading the intent behind Scroll Traps correctly, then you can Resist Spell or Spell Shield/Reflect them, but would be unable to Dodge (similar to how you can Resist Poison or Poison Shield a Gas trap, but can't use Dodge against them). Spell Parry would also likely not work, for a similar reason you can't Dodge: if the effect of the trap is that the spell goes off and affects everything in the area, there's no way to Parry the spell in such a way that it would only hit your weapon/shield and be deflected (which I believe is the "intended visual" behind Spell Parry, in that the magic of Spell Parry prevents the spell from affecting you on contact, giving you time to deflect it).

I would like to point out that Spell Parry states in the Ritual Scroll "Cloak any one magical effect". So if something can be cloaked a Spell Parry will work.
Also since you can cloak a voice effect, you can Spell Parry it as well.
 
Ah, gotcha; hadn't read Spell Parry in a good long while, forgot that it acts as a Parry-fueled unspecified Cloak. That being the case, I don't see why you couldn't Spell Parry a Scroll Trap if you wanted to and were willing to burn the Parry.

On a side note, I find it very strange that you can Spell Parry a Voice-delivered effect, but that's neither here nor there and as written it's 100% within the bounds of the Ritual.
 
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