Concentrating while dodging?

[Jasonft]

I'll admit it, I'm lazy today. I could look this up and take a half hour trying to find a definite answer... or I could just ask here.

Is there a penalty to your Dodge if you are taking a Concentrate Maneuver?

If you have to make a lot of Dodges, from maybe being in a large melee, do you have a penalty to your concentration even if you make all your Dodge checks?

Getting hit gives penalties I can find easy. The above assumes you don't get hit for multiple turns.

My latest build is a martial artist who may or may not use his Weapon Master special skills in melee depending on the answers to the above. Dodging for three turns and then letting loose with a Flying Leap at the Giant in heavy armor *might* come in to play soon.

[Kelly Pedersen]

There's no penalty to Dodge or other active defenses for Concentrating. However, if you make any active defenses while Concentrating, you have to make a Will-3 roll, or lose your concentration. You have to do this for each active defense you make, so even a high-Will character will probably fail if they have to make a bunch of defenses.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

There's no penalty to Dodge or other active defenses for Concentrating. However, if you make any active defenses while Concentrating, you have to make a Will-3 roll, or lose your concentration. You have to do this for each active defense you make, so even a high-Will character will probably fail if they have to make a bunch of defenses.

I'd forgotten about this nasty little addition to things. Is there canonically an Advantage that will allow you to avoid the Will-3 roll? Mages who can cast while on the defensive (and other characters who are clearly using Concentration while defending, like the various Awesome By Analysis types) aren't entirely uncommon in fiction, after all.

[Leynok]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I'd forgotten about this nasty little addition to things. Is there canonically an Advantage that will allow you to avoid the Will-3 roll? Mages who can cast while on the defensive (and other characters who are clearly using Concentration while defending, like the various Awesome By Analysis types) aren't entirely uncommon in fiction, after all.

I don't believe there is, though it should be easy enough to work out a price.
Will (Only for maintaining Concentrate) should be about 1 per level, essentially a leveled Perk. If you just get enough of that to reach say 20 should be enough that the roll can be hand waved without ever rolling for those 17's and 18's. This would be 13 points for most people, but we could just call it a 10 point Advantage here, since most people who want to take this likely have a high IQ and probably a high Will to go with it.
Or you could keep it not as a solid Advantage, and just ask each character that wants it to buy it up per level to reach 18 or 20 or so on their own.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I'd forgotten about this nasty little addition to things. Is there canonically an Advantage that will allow you to avoid the Will-3 roll? .

Compartmentalized Mind of course.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Leynok

I don't believe there is, though it should be easy enough to work out a price.

While Will (Only to maintain Concentration) is probably legitimate, it occurs to me that using Resistant might be a better option (while primarily meant for HT, mental resistance is also an option). "Distractions to Concentrate" are either Common or Occasional (I'd lean toward the latter, but if a GM ruled it were the former, I'd accept that), while "Non-Damaging Distractions to Concentrate" (so you're fine if you successfully defend, but your spells can still fizzle if you're actually hit) are one category less common. For Immunity, that's either [15] or [10] to completely ignore distractions, [10] or [5] to ignore anything that doesn't harm you. Those sound in about the right ballpark to me (as noted, I'd lean toward [10]/[5]).

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Compartmentalized Mind of course.

I considered that, but nothing in the Advantage's description actually implies this - do you know if there is a specific ruling somewhere that shows CM working this way? So far as I can tell, it just lets you take an extra Concentrate maneuver each round, with a side bonus (unless properly Limited) of making you harder to mentally dominate and the like.

[Leynok]

Originally Posted by Varyon

While Will (Only to maintain Concentration) is probably legitimate, it occurs to me that using Resistant might be a better option (while primarily meant for HT, mental resistance is also an option). "Distractions to Concentrate" are either Common or Occasional (I'd lean toward the latter, but if a GM ruled it were the former, I'd accept that), while "Non-Damaging Distractions to Concentrate" (so you're fine if you successfully defend, but your spells can still fizzle if you're actually hit) are one category less common. For Immunity, that's either [15] or [10] to completely ignore distractions, [10] or [5] to ignore anything that doesn't harm you. Those sound in about the right ballpark to me (as noted, I'd lean toward [10]/[5]).

I was more or less just breaking it all down to get a rough price estimation, and that you came to a similar conclusion means that seems like a good place to put it. [10]/[5] seems fair.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Last year it was hinted Magical Styles might help. Something about levels of perks.

Taking a look at the names of the Perks in the Table of Contents from the preview for Magical Styles, there are a couple of names that imply they could be relevant, but checking the rules for adapting Magical Styles to RPM from Pyramid #3/66, each of those is either unavailable under RPM or has mechanics completely unrelated to the Will-3 roll for distractions. That in mind, it doesn't look like Magical Styles has rules for reducing or negating that problem. I think I'll just stick with [10]/[5], although in many settings I might functionally elevate that to [15]/[5] (by adding a 5-point UB), or even outright disallow the [10] version, as I feel it should be possible to stop a mage from casting without knocking him out or similar.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I considered that, but nothing in the Advantage's description actually implies this - the .

It lets you do one mental and one complete physical manuever at the same time. Without penalties. You let one compartment handle the physical manuever (which includes dodging) and the other one is free to give its total attention to concentrating.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

It lets you do one mental and one complete physical manuever at the same time. Without penalties. You let one compartment handle the physical manuever (which includes dodging) and the other one is free to give its total attention to concentrating.

I could maybe see that working, but it seems a bit of a stretch to me. At the very least, I'd expect needing to defend - even with another part of your brain - to count as a suitable enough distraction to call for the Will-3 roll. I'll stick with my interpretation until I read something official that says otherwise. Certainly, I wouldn't object to another GM ruling that way, I'd just consider it a houserule.