Changing skill used doesn't change number of dice added by blessings

[Alklein35]

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see this on any of the known bug lists or any other threads about it.

 

When you use a blessing to add dice to your check, and then change which skill you are using for that check, it doesn't change how many dice were added by the blessing if needed.

 

For example, I was encountering a monster as Sajan. First, I recharged a Blessing of the Gods (top card of the blessing discard was Erastil, add 2 dice to a combat Dexterity check) to add 1 die (since you have to actively use his power to use Dexterity, something that should probably be a prompt at the start of the check). I now had 2d6 then activated his power, now making this a Dexterity combat check, and that Blessing of the Gods should have matched the discard pile's Erastil and given me 2d10, for a total of 3 (1 for Dex, 2 for blessing). However, that didn't happen and it only had 2d10 total (1 for Dex, 1 for the blessing).

[Faranim]

I don't believe this particular issue has been mentioned before on here.

 

Does it work properly if you activate Sajan's skill first, and then play the blessing?

 

There is a similar issue, that if you play a blessing that affects a specific type of check (e.g. 2 dice to a wisdom check), and then change skills from wisdom to something else, it still adds 2 extra dice, even after you changed the skill being used.  Can you trigger a similar behavior with Sajan's ability, play a blessing (like Erastil), and then switching the check back to STR?

[Hannibal_PJV]

Yes...

It checks the check type when you discard the blessing...

Human players can do this, but rules says that you chose your skill before you add the dices... So it should not actually allow you to change the check skill after you add dices. And that would be bad in the game.

So a bug, but I think that it is hard to fix.

It is possible that there Are Many blessings and other boons played before the player remember to chose the skill to the check.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Hannibal_PJV

[Faranim]

I don't think this should be a hard bug to fix, but it depends on how they implemented the dice pool calculation and the way checks are performed.

 

Cards like blessings and other skills that add or alter dice should be treated like a stack in Magic the Gathering.  After the particular skill, weapon, or spell is chosen (what to use for the check), the stack of abilities is evaluated against the chosen skill to determine the final dice pool and difficulty of the check.  In this way, the app can show the player (before actually choosing a skill) what dice would be rolled based on the current abilities on the stack.

 

Ex:

Add 1 additional die  (most blessings)

Add 1 additional die if check is a Combat Dexterity check  (e.g. Erastil)

Add 1 additional die if check is a non-combat Wisdom check

Add additional 1d4 (Valeros' ability, or Lem's ability, for example)

Add 1d8 if the check has the Cold trait

Add the Magic Trait

Immune to Acid

If check has piercing trait, increase the difficulty by 4

If the monster has the goblin trait, increase the difficulty by 1d4

If the player doesn't have Weapon proficiency, increase the difficulty by 4

 

All of these are state-based changes to the dice pool based upon the skill and traits involved in the check.  It seems like a pretty easy problem to solve, but maybe their back-end data structures and/or specific implementation make it more difficult to code correctly.

[Hannibal_PJV]

Thats true. But as you say it depends on how it has been done. The game can change the dice pool by it self, depending on what card you use to allow extra dies. So there is a mechanics that try to reset the dice pool according what the player does.