Question: FWYH says it can "can find the chinks in her opponent's armor at a glance". Since it affects only rolls made against you, it cannot reduce Dodge, Parry, or Soak. Is this intentional?
You know what, I can definitely see where the wording might be misleading there. Thanks for noticing - we'll add to it to make it clearer!
Fight With Your Head can be used to either reduce successes from an Epic Attribute, or to affect a derived value from an Epic Attribute, including DV and soak. Targeting an Attribute that contributes to a derived value does not lower it, however; if you target an opponent's Dexterity, it will lower his ability to hit you but not his DV. If you want to lower his DV, you have to target it specifically and deal with him still hitting you as dextrously as ever.
So if you are fighting a monstrous snake with high Dexterity and Stamina, you have several options:
1) Lower the snake's Dexterity. It will have a harder time hitting you, but you will get no bonus to attacking it.
2) Lower the snake's DV. You will have an easier time hitting it, but it has no penalties to hitting you.
3) Lower the snake's soak. Both you and the snake will be hitting as normal, but you will deal more damage than you otherwise would.
4) Lower the snake's Stamina. It will continue hitting you normally and have no penalties to its soak, but you will be able to punch through it more easily with powers that roll Stamina + Fortitude for resist (like Infect, for example).
Obviously, you have other options - you can drop any Epic Attribute's successes, so you can also use FWYH to make the snake worse at charming your pants off, slower on the uptake when it comes to realizing what's happening or too imperceptive to see you creeping up for a sneak attack - but those are the most common options in the thick of combat. Since you can only have one of these active at a time, it's all about your assessment of your enemy and what you think will be the most effective strategy against it.
Which is how the super-smart roll when it comes to beating the brains out of their enemies. They use science.
Since our own house rules state that dice adders or removers don't affect derived values but auto success adders or removers do, I always thought FWYH did indeed reduce DV or Soak when applied to Dexterity or Stamina. Since it's only one Attribute that can be reduced at a time and only against the FWYH user, I've never really found it game breaking.
ReplyDeleteThe way you describe it seems a bit underwhelming for a 10-tick action, have you considered making it into a normal miscellaneous action instead?
The last argument confuses me, I thought the Knack only worked for the user, since he's only exploiting a weakness he can understand with his vast intellect, how would that make an enemy worse at charming allies?
Oh, shoot, you're right - totally a typo. It can make an enemy worse at charming you, but can't help your friends.
DeleteWe normally don't allow any adders/removers to affect derived values in any way, so powers that want to affect things like speed, soak or DV have to do so directly. FWYH is still pretty super-powered, especially since it lasts scene-long once activated, so we're pretty comfortable with the ten-tick time length. It's a relatively small price to pay for the equivalent of always doing 22 more damage every strike for the rest of combat, etc.
so can you use fight with your head to make sure Etzli can't hit you with all the power of a neutron bomb? It seems a bit overpowered that you can pretty much negate your opponents strongest attribute (except their intelligence), especially their strength. on the other hand it makes sure that they can't turn you into a smear on the wall, or that you can run from them without them being able to catch you.
ReplyDeleteIf you're as smart as she is strong, yes. It's not that Eztli gets any weaker, but rather that your intellect is so powerful that you can think your way around what she's doing and make it impossible for her to fully bring her strength to bear on you. It is very powerful, but it's also only usable on a single attribute at a time, so it's not an instant win; to keep using Eztli as an example, if you shut down all her Strength, it's possible she could still burn you down with enough threshold dice from high Dex, or she could start striking you with lightning instead of hitting you herself. It gives you a distinct tactical advantage and is quite powerful, but for most foes it only forces them to be more creative rather than actually making them helpless.
DeleteOur FWYH-ers usually use it to lower enemies' DV or soak so their own attacks are more useful.
Seeing that you added the effect of going against soak and dodge value is good, I tried talking to a past GM about it, he did not want to hear it. I have a different question.
ReplyDeleteWhat if someone wanted to use it outside of normal combat? The scenarios I am asking about is when people are using Charisma to win over the hearts and mind of the people in a debate. Can someone use FWYH on the other person to bring their Charisma down? The other scenario is trying to sneak past people. Could you bring down like a sentries Perception as you sneak up on him or around him?
I would let someone Fight with their Head against Perception to sneak past a guard! There's no direct requirement in the knack for combat to involved before it can be used, and it sounds like a perfect use of the knack - thinking out all the possible ways someone could notice you and getting around them.
DeleteThe Charisma scenario, however, no. You could use FWYH to make yourself less swayed by their debating skills, but you couldn't prevent him from swaying others. FWYH doesn't actually lower an attribute, just lets you think your way around it; the attribute is still there and works just as it normally would on anyone who isn't FWYHing at the time. Since the target of those Charisma powers is the crowd, not you, FWYH can't do anything about it.
Glad that the sentry thing worked out. I tried to argue that point with FWYH, in the fact that it can be portrayed as a combat of sorts, but not with normal combat. The ST argued that it specifically said combat in the paragraph and then we took up half the time of game arguing on the definition of what that means in the sentence, me going more of the route of what it means in the books and how its being used in the sentences and his argument that combat is physical fighting. Eventually, I gave up. But I am no longer in his game. :P
DeleteI actually got into a game I am enjoying cause its not so linear like the last game, its a lot more open world.
If you already cleared up FWYH then it is still not clear that it affects some derived values. It still says 'Rolls against you".
ReplyDeleteIf you have not yet cleared up FWYH then ignore this! :P
It hadn't been changed yet. Just got back from work and wedding prep for one of the players. :)
DeleteAnother year, another wedding!
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