Piercing Blow question

[tomcat]

I did a search on this question, but could not find anything, so I have started a new topic...

A Shadow creature adds its Attribute Level to any skill or attack that is underlined in its statistics. A character spends a point of hope to increase his roll to a success.

If the Feat die result -plus- the Hope or Shadow creature's Attribute Level is higher than the weapons Edge statistic, is it a Piercing Blow? Or is a Piercing Blow achieved solely by the die result?

Thanks in advance...

[bluejay]

It's just the actual number on the feat die itself.

[bluejay]

It's on page 126 of the Revised rulebook

[tomcat]

Thanks, bluejay!

I will go with your reply that it is the feat die itself as the determiner.

But, I don't think page 126 clarifies anything more than to say it is the Feat die result. Hope and Attribute Level are added to the Feat die result, so it would be nice to have an official TOR clarification as to whether the actual die roll, or the die roll plus modifiers (not advantage dice) determines whether a hit causes a Piercing Blow.

Again, I thank you for your help!

[fencingmonkey]

But, I don't think page 126 clarifies anything more than to say it is the Feat die result. Hope and Attribute Level are added to the Feat die result, so it would be nice to have an official TOR clarification as to whether the actual die roll, or the die roll plus modifiers (not advantage dice) determines whether a hit causes a Piercing Blow.

I can't say that this interpretation had ever occurred to me -- I've never added any bonuses when determining Piercing Blows. I wouldn't test this out myself, but I'm curious if anyone wants to give it a go and report back. I'm pretty sure it would make Piercing Blows *far* too common, particularly with decent Edge ratings. I *do* like the idea of being able to "boost" an attack using Hope, but I think this is going too far.

[bluejay]

Hey Tomcat,

The text says the value of the Feat die result. Technically you add an Attribute bonus to the (somewhat incorrectly named) "die roll" which is the total of the Feat die plus any success dice. Whenever the text refers to the Feat die it is always talking about the natural number that was rolled.

Hope that helps clear it up!

[tomcat]

I can't say that this interpretation had ever occurred to me -- I've never added any bonuses when determining Piercing Blows. I wouldn't test this out myself, but I'm curious if anyone wants to give it a go and report back. I'm pretty sure it would make Piercing Blows *far* too common, particularly with decent Edge ratings. I *do* like the idea of being able to "boost" an attack using Hope, but I think this is going too far.

Agreed, Fencingmonkey. Piercing Blows would become more common and it makes me believe that the Feat die result is the true marker that determines a potential wound. But I also think would a finite asset like Hope be spent haphazardly to get a bunch of quick kills? Granted Hope does return to a PC, but it can be slow to do so. I also think that there might be times you want to assure a Piercing Blow, so a Hope could do that, especially when facing a nasty beast.

But either way, for now I am going to interpret it as bluejay has and make it that my PC's will only score a PB when the actual Feat die result itself meets or exceeds the necessary score.

[Rich H]

But, I don't think page 126 clarifies anything more than to say it is the Feat die result. Hope and Attribute Level are added to the Feat die result, so it would be nice to have an official TOR clarification as to whether the actual die roll, or the die roll plus modifiers (not advantage dice) determines whether a hit causes a Piercing Blow.

The Feat Die result is exactly that, just the result on the Feat Die; no additional bonuses are added/included - if they were then it wouldn't be referred to as "... the Feat Die result" but as something along the lines of "the total value rolled" or "the Feat Die plus bonuses"; anything other than what is rolled on the Feat Die is not referred to as the Feat Die result. There's really no ambiguity here at all. It's quite explicit.

Hope and Attribute Level are added to the Feat die result...

... So are the results of any Success Dice so why are you not also including those?

[Glorelendil]

If invoking an attribute actually increased the value of the Feat die, then any result above 10 would be a Gandalf and thus would be an automatic success. Which clearly isn't how this works.