[Sorcery] Multiple Linked Innate Attacks and DR

[VariousRen]

I'm attempting to create a spell that fires multiple innate attacks of different damage types. The hope is that something in the mix will hurt opponents who might be resistant or immune to most.

Linked seems like the way to go, since it even specifies one roll can be used to represent multiple attacks. However, it doesn't make it clear if DR is only accounted for once or if it is applied to each attack separately.

Follow-up would be another possibility. Hit with innate attack (crushing), innate attack (corrosive) follows that up, then burning, and so on. Follow-up states that DR is ignored if the first attack penetrates, but doesn't state what happens if it doesn't fully go though DR. Do the follow up attacks go off at all? Do they have to try and overcome full DR again, or can they pick up where the carrier attack left off?

Some clarification for the issues above would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by VariousRen

I'm attempting to create a spell that fires multiple innate attacks of different damage types. The hope is that something in the mix will hurt opponents who might be resistant or immune to most.

Linked seems like the way to go, since it even specifies one roll can be used to represent multiple attacks. However, it doesn't make it clear if DR is only accounted for once or if it is applied to each attack separately.

Linked attacks take DR into account for each attack.

Originally Posted by VariousRen

Follow-up would be another possibility. Hit with innate attack (crushing), innate attack (corrosive) follows that up, then burning, and so on. Follow-up states that DR is ignored if the first attack penetrates, but doesn't state what happens if it doesn't fully go though DR. Do the follow up attacks go off at all? Do they have to try and overcome full DR again, or can they pick up where the carrier attack left off?

Follow-Up only goes off if the main carrier attack penetrates DR. That's why it's a penetration modifier.

[VariousRen]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Linked attacks take DR into account for each attack.

Follow-Up only goes off if the main carrier attack penetrates DR. That's why it's a penetration modifier.

Hmm, that's kind of a bummer. Is there any way to avoid this effectively giving the attack an AD of 0.2 from the 5 different parts of the attack?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by VariousRen

Hmm, that's kind of a bummer. Is there any way to avoid this effectively giving the attack an AD of 0.2 from the 5 different parts of the attack?

Let me ask you a counter-question: What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

[VariousRen]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Let me ask you a counter-question: What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

The goal is to create a spell that uses a bunch of different damage types in the hopes that something will hurt the enemy. Our group faces non-human creatures fairly often, and since we aren't the most knowledgeable characters we do most of our learning by doing. By doing damage across all the main damage types I can get some information about what it's resistant to and what it's vulnerable to. I was even thinking about making this explicit by adding a linked Detect(Injury) to the spell. Without figuring out details I was thinking of something like this:

Innate Attack (Crushing 1d) +
Innate Attack (Cutting 1d) +
Innate Attack (Burning 1d) +
Innate Attack (Toxic 1d) +
Innate Attack (Impaling 1d) +
Innate Attack (Corrosive 1d) +
Detect (Injury, only from damage this spell just did)

Against an enemy that is resistant to all but one type of damage, this does what I want: do a little bit of damage reliably on the first casting. Against a non-resistant enemy though, every damage type is going through DR separately. I end up paying for a 6d innate attack while probably doing little more than 1d or 2d of actual injury.

[Christopher R. Rice]

That seems needlessly complicated. How about a Cosmic enhancement? All of those added up as alternate attacks cost about 70% more of the most expensive attack. If we add all of the damage types up for innate attack it's more like like 150% more (to cover adding such a modifier to the most expensive innate attack (either Fatigue or Corrosion). Add in the ability for the attack itself to figure out what is the "best" damage type (via a built-in Detect) and that cost seems fair.

That being the case, call it a +150% version of cosmic "Adaptive Damage" where your innate attack uses the best damage type against your target.