How do I dodge an 'Unsigned' Innate Attack?

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

Given that Active Defenses are only allowed against known attacks, how does one Dodge/Parry/Block an Innate Attack enhanced with No Signature 20% or Undetectable +25%? Such as when a mere gaze is enough, without any gestures, magic words or the like, to target the attack and 'shoot' it. Or when there is an invisible/insubstantial third arm that crushes the essence of objects?

There's the Hearing-2 rule, but I don't think it would always be appropriate.

Thanks in advance to all who answer!

[Harald B]

Danger Sense allows a defense roll against anything on an IQ roll (I'm always surprised when it's missing in otherwise paranoidly defensive builds). If you don't have Danger Sense, a roll against Body Language might let you know when someone's about to attack you, though it feels like a bit of a stretch to me.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

You don't actually see the bullet coming when you attempt a dodge somebody shooting at you, so the fact that an Innate Attack is essentially invisible shouldn't, by itself, prevent you from dodging. You dodge away from where the gun is pointing a split second before the trigger is pulled.

The tricky bit is knowing when the attack is coming. We may imagine by further analogy with dodging gun attacks that even when there's no signature to the attack itself, it's not impossible that the potential attacker's body language may at times (for example, in open combat) indicate that he's about to attack, or at least could potentially attack. If you should notice, for example, that things explode when a particular person looks at them, you don't want him looking at you, and if you see him looking in your direction you can choose to dodge. However, not everything he looks at explodes because he's not constantly using his IA.

What this means, I think, is that if you know a particular attacker has a no-signature Innate Attack, you can dodge as you would any other attack if you're paying attention to him, but since you don't necessarily know whether or not he's using his IA on you any given turn, you end up more or less blindly dodging a lot of attacks which never come, and you may be sufficiently distracted that his friend can come up behind you and whack you with a very visible club.

[transmetahuman]

Interesting. An Innate Attack without Area Effect, Cone, Malediction, Cosmic: No Active Defense Allowed, or Surprise Attack (from Overhead, +150%) can by definition be dodged, right? Correct me if I've missed any.

To dodge an attack, you must be able to perceive either the medium of the attack (what passes through the space between attacker and target), or some action on the part of the attacker that lets you know that he is attacking, and where he is aiming. That just makes sense. I'd probably price an attack that can only be perceived and dodged by someone with an unusual sense along the lines of Surprise Attack (which requires 360 degree Vision to dodge).

So the real question is, just what does No Signature mean on an attack that doesn't have one of those enhancements in the first paragraph? Maybe its only use is for one of those, and/or removing supernatural/paranormal traces?

Or, just going by the examples under Low/No Signature, it only prevents the attack from drawing attention - you can still see the attacker aim the silenced gun or the blowgun, after all, and still dodge those attacks.

So your "just by looking at him" attack would be either a Malediction (most likely), a Surprise Attack (Detect Magic or similar), or a Cosmic: No Active Defense Allowed. Or it has No Signature, and he has to wiggle his nose or squint really hard, or something else which would let someone who knew his capabilities know when and where he was attacking, and try to dodge.

[PK]

It depends on how many times you get hit by it, IMO.

First time

GM: <clatter> "You just got hit with something in your left side that feels like electricity. You have no idea where it came from."

Player: "Can I look around and tell who shot me?"

GM: <rolls PC's Perception just to see if he gets a crit> "Nope."

Player: "Okay, I'm going to keep an eye open to try to identify what's going on."

GM: "Normally that's either a Concentrate or Wait, but I'll let you just split your attention if you take -2 to all rolls, like for Move and Attack."

Player: "I'll do that."

Second time

GM: <clatter> "You just got zapped again."

Player: "Okay, I was specifically watching to see who's doing this!"

GM: "Yep. Roll Perception and tell me how much you beat it by."

Player: <clatter> "By six."

GM: There's only one opponent who seems to be staring directly at you, and her hand is slightly outstretched in your direction, even though nothing actually flew from her to you."

Player: "I scream out to the others, 'The girl in the back! She's got some sort of invisible electric attack!' and move to attack her."

Further times

GM: <rolls attack, then secretly rolls player's Perception-2> "That one girl has turned and is gesturing toward you."

Player: "I dodge!"

GM: "Roll Dodge-2, since you still can't see it."

[CattyNebulart]

I'd say you doge the attacks like that like you dodge attacks in a FPS, you zig and zag and hope that you don't zig when you should have zagged.

In many ways it's just like dogging a silenced gun, since that is a gun with low signature. Also in most combat situations with multiple combatants it becomes hard to keep track of them all, so actively moving when someone points a gun your way is probably not what you are doing, instead you just try to move unpredictably.

just my 2c.

[Mark Skarr]

RPK's way is how I usually do it. If you have an idea that they're attacking you can try to dodge.

[roguebfl]

Remember the rules do state, if your aware of an attack coming, but can not see the source you are at Dodge -4