How will my ability activate during a follow-up attack?

[Hide]

Hello, I am not very used to “follow-up” so I would like to understand this detail:

If I have an ability such as “innate attack: burning” and I give it the “follow up” enhancement so I can land a punch on fire, how many times do I roll to make this happen in a single turn? 1 or 2 times? Can this happen in a single turn to begin with?

(2 rolls mean the innate attack skill and then the brawling skill).

Thanks!

[Nereidalbel]

You don't roll for Follow-Ups to hit; they're carried by whatever attack they're attached to. In the case of burning fists, you only have to make an [Insert appropriate skill here] roll to hit, and the Follow-Up is automatic if your fist connects.

[Plane]

In regard to the cost on melee attacks, something I found a little confusing...

Powers 40 "Those borne on fangs, claws, etc. have Follow-Up (+0%)"
Powers 55 "Poison on Claws, Teeth, etc. should cause fatigue or toxic damage
unless it’s very unusual. Such attacks always have Follow-Up (+0%)."
Powers 144 "Follow-Up, Teeth/Striker, +0%;" + "Follow-Up, Teeth or Striker,
+0%;" + "Spines, -50%;"

Mental Blow (P143) and Pyrokinetic Attack (P144) and Telekinetic Squeeze (P144) are good examples of how stuff like "Costs Fatigue" and "No Signature" and "Variable" on the carrier don't affect the cost of the Follow-up, only the Malediction.

Tranquilizer Dart (P145) is a good example of how Increased 1/2D (as part of Increased Range) is passed from carrier to followup, but Accurate and Armor Divisor are not

Page 146 of Powers says "Melee Attack, Variable, and Visible, which are already built into unarmed damage". Now I know Variable/Visible don't pass from carrier to followup ... but shouldn't melee attack?

The way it's written, something like Crushing Attack 0.25 (Melee Attack -30% ST-based +100%) [4] + Toxic Attack 1 (Followup, Crushing Attack -30%) [4] should be legal...

My guess is that when you define an Innate Attack (Melee Attack) it is a singular weapon wielded by a single body part (thus Melee Attack (Dual) on P103) whereas the +0% for "Teeth or Striker" is more expensive than -30% because it applies to both? Or the freedom for all 3 (Claws/Strikers/Teeth) classes? I can understand paying more when a Followup is interchangeable with multiple carriers. I don't know if there's any other way to set that up.

A "Striker" is limited to a single body part just like Innate Attack (Melee Attack) but it's actually got HP that can be targeted, while an Innate Attack does not unless you take Gadget limitations.

Spines doesn't just attack people who attack you, you can get a free attack 1/second against anyone you're in close combat with. Despite it saying you can't attack actively with them, intentionally getting into close combat sort of gives that effect... My guess at why something so useful is only worth -50% is because the most basic damage you can ever do from this advantage is 6, so it falls behind Claws/Strikers/Teeth and ST-based Innate Attacks at high ST levels, or behind high-level Innate Attacks in general.

I wondered if the roll to hit being DX-4 might also have something to do with it, although if you have an "Inaccurate" Innate Attack or "Clumsy" Striker as a carrier it might have something to do with it.

To design something equal or better to "Short Spines" would be a 4 impaling or 6 impaling to match the automatically maximum slam damage. Free attacks against anyone in close combat is better than aura which requires actual contact. You'd need Melee Attack -30% Aura +80% Area Effect +25% to cover it, but you can't take "Inaccurate" on Melee-type Innate Attacks so I'm not sure how to cover the -2 to hit additional -2 to hit those on front/sides (reverse concept of -4 to hit, +2 to hit those in rear)

[Hide]

Are you really sure? What happens if I have "Create enhanced with destruction and follow-up"? Do I need to make the IQ?

[Nereidalbel]

Only Innate Attack is legal for Follow-Up; it is not valid for Create.

[RyanW]

Follow-Up, as an attack modifier, can only be applied to Innate Attack, Affliction, Binding, and advantages modified to act like a ranged attack (if it has an Acc stat, it's probably legal). It has two effects:

A) Do not roll to hit the target with the Follow-Up attack. The Follow-Up hits or misses based on the attack roll of the carrier.
B) If the carrier penetrated DR, DR is ignored for determining the effect of the Follow-Up - assuming DR would normally effect the Follow-Up.

Any rolls other than the "to hit" roll would need to still be rolled. For example, if you had Neutralize (Ranged, Follow-Up) as part of an anti-psi attack, you would still need to roll for the quick contest of Will.

[Hide]

However create (destruction/transmutation) may deal damage during combat; it roughly scores 1d per level (Powers 93).

Could not it be considered an attack? It is not much different than Innate Attack for that matter, right? Thus, it could be subject to follow-up.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Any rolls other than the "to hit" roll would need to still be rolled. For example, if you had Neutralize (Ranged, Follow-Up) as part of an anti-psi attack, you would still need to roll for the quick contest of Will.

Since there are some cases where as a feature you can merge 2 rolls if they have the same criteria, if the carrier was a Will v Will Malediction too where the numbers would never be different, you could probably opt to combine it as a single roll?

[Hide]

Originally Posted by Plane

Since there are some cases where as a feature you can merge 2 rolls if they have the same criteria, if the carrier was a Will v Will Malediction too where the numbers would never be different, you could probably opt to combine it as a single roll?

That sounds nice, where do I find that?