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Old 04-19-2016, 10:55 PM   #1
Edges
 
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Default Alternate Afflictions

If you take multiple afflictions as alternate abilities, can have them all running at once?

Usually Affliction is a fire and forget advantage. You might afflict someone with -2 DX for 3 minutes for instance. Could you then switch to your alternate Affliction of -3 Will before the 3-minute duration is up and use that on the same or different target? And if so, would it cancel the -2 DX already running on target #1?

If it would cancel the DX penalty, you have some "spooky action at a distance." But if the penalty doesn't get cancelled, you could potentially build a pretty powerful buff/debuff machine of a character.
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Old 04-19-2016, 11:04 PM   #2
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

Far as I know after an Affliction afflicts the target the effects continue until done - even if you switch to another alternate ability.
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Old 04-20-2016, 12:39 AM   #3
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

At the worst, I wouldn't let you have two Afflictions from the same AA set affect the same person. Otherwise, RAW doesn't object to hitting 5 different people with 5 different Afflictions from the same AA set.
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Old 04-20-2016, 12:49 AM   #4
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

I don't see a reason why alternate afflictions couldn't afflict the same target despite potentially being gamebreaking. You could do the same thing with innate attack by adding side effects or symptoms and making those attacks alternate abilities.

It would be like the target recovers the injury taken because you decided to use a different attack on them. You could say if the target has a cure for one affliction, it cures all of the afflictions.
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Old 04-20-2016, 01:33 AM   #5
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Draconix View Post
I don't see a reason why alternate afflictions couldn't afflict the same target despite potentially being gamebreaking. You could do the same thing with innate attack by adding side effects or symptoms and making those attacks alternate abilities.

It would be like the target recovers the injury taken because you decided to use a different attack on them. You could say if the target has a cure for one affliction, it cures all of the afflictions.
You're not allowed to benefit from two parts of an AA set at the same time. Affecting one person with two parts of the set breaks that rule.
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Old 04-20-2016, 01:47 AM   #6
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

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Originally Posted by Nereidalbel View Post
You're not allowed to benefit from two parts of an AA set at the same time. Affecting one person with two parts of the set breaks that rule.
So if I buy a laser - flashlight, the moment I turn on the flashlight your burns magically heal?
Or two types of venomous spit, hitting you with the second cures the first?

AA means you can't USE them simultaneously and knocking out one knocks out the other. Lingering effects of their use are out of your hands for good and ill.
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Old 04-20-2016, 02:44 AM   #7
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edges View Post
If you take multiple afflictions as alternate abilities, can have them all running at once?

Usually Affliction is a fire and forget advantage. You might afflict someone with -2 DX for 3 minutes for instance. Could you then switch to your alternate Affliction of -3 Will before the 3-minute duration is up and use that on the same or different target? And if so, would it cancel the -2 DX already running on target #1?

If it would cancel the DX penalty, you have some "spooky action at a distance." But if the penalty doesn't get cancelled, you could potentially build a pretty powerful buff/debuff machine of a character.
Bard Songs from DF10 (which are bought as AAs) covers this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DF10.p20
A bard can use only one Song at a time. He may stop playing and coast on the results he has achieved, but if he switches Songs, the effects of the previous one end instantly.
So in your example, as soon as you switch from the DX Affliction to the Will Affliction, the effects of the DX Affliction end instantly.

This does not mean than injuries or illness are magically cured - any damage already taken wouldn't just disappear.
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Old 04-20-2016, 09:55 AM   #8
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

Quote:
Originally Posted by SCAR View Post
Bard Songs from DF10 (which are bought as AAs) covers this.


So in your example, as soon as you switch from the DX Affliction to the Will Affliction, the effects of the DX Affliction end instantly.

This does not mean than injuries or illness are magically cured - any damage already taken wouldn't just disappear.
Good. Thank you for this RAW answer.
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Old 04-20-2016, 04:51 PM   #9
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

Re: Bard-Songs

This can also be interpreted as a special effect of the bard-songs being... well song-based and therefore the effects of a new song 'overwriting' the effects of an old one.

If you port this over to other constructs it can lead to a few problems. Take for example a nerve-affecting ability that blinds a target and another ability that causes pain. If you connect these using alternate abilites, your interpretation, based on the bard-songs of DF11, would mean that the blindness a victim of aforementioned ability suffers would end as soon as the other ability is used to cause pain. I daresay that this is more than counterintuitive.

EDIT:
Even more so when you take into account that bard-songs are area-effects and other alternate abilities-constructs may consist of abilities that only affect one target. Interpreted strictly this would mean that an affliction currently affecting person #1 would end when another affliction of the same alternate abilities framework is targeted on person #2.
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Last edited by Imion; 04-20-2016 at 05:04 PM.
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Old 04-20-2016, 04:59 PM   #10
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default Re: Alternate Afflictions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Imion View Post
Re: Bard-Songs

This can also be interpreted as a special effect of the bard-songs being... well song-based and therefore the effects of a new song 'overwriting' the effects of an old one.

If you port this over to other constructs it can lead to a few problems. Take for example a nerve-affecting ability that blinds a target and another ability that causes pain. If you connect these using alternate abilites, your interpretation, based on the bard-songs of DF11, would mean that the blindness a victim of aforementioned ability suffers would end as soon as the other ability is used to cause pain. I daresay that this is more than counterintuitive.
Yeah, it's DF. I'm not saying it's not RAW, but it IS tailored to that genre line.
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