Unarmed Strike Active?

[CovertDad]

How can I tell when the Magic/Fire traits for Unarmed Strike are active?  Is it when the checkbox is white, or dark?

[Brainwave]

I don't have an answer for you here but in another thread it was suggested to add a list of all traits currently associated with the check. If that was in place, it would eliminate questions like this...

[da_mayor]

There should be a black checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the power icon that shows that the power was selected (or that you began with it).

[269Hawkmoon]

I think CovertDad means "when Sajan is making a combat check, how do I know if Unarmed Stirke has the additional power for Fire and/or Magic turned on?"

 

I'll double check when I can look at mine in a minute, but I think they light up when they are activated in a check.

[da_mayor]

Oooooh right.  That's a "You may", isn't it?  I haven't played Sajan yet (in PA).

 

That's gonna be pretty critical when Class Deck Sajan is adding elemental damage with his Monk of the Four Winds role...

 

If it's an intuitive (to me, anyway) interface, then it will default to NOT applying the Magic/Fire traits, so you would have to click to apply them.

[269Hawkmoon]

I think the default is that they apply, since the majority of the time, having them on won't hurt things. In the RotR cards, there are a few things that are immune to Fire, but not until after deck 3. Until then, Fire can only help you.

[PinkRose]

I would like a list of traits for checks as well.

[Hannibal_PJV]

Yes They Are on by default.

[StormbringerGT]

First you activate Unarmed Strike.
Once that happens you will 1 or two additional options appear above Unarmed Strike. The Blue first is Ki Strike (if you have it) and the Orange fist is Flame Strike (if you have it)

You will notice a green mark next to one or both options this means they are on and being added to the check. This is by default. If you tap an option you will notice the green light go out meaning that it is no longer enabled.

[da_mayor]

The reason I would findit intuitive to have them off by default is when I see the word "may" I see it as something I should opt-into.  Dunno if anyone else thinks that way.

[StormbringerGT]

The reason I would findit intuitive to have them off by default is when I see the word "may" I see it as something I should opt-into.  Dunno if anyone else thinks that way.

 I can see that; it is an optional action. But during testing we found it more useful to have them on than to have them off.

[da_mayor]

You have tested FAR more intently than I have.  I'll trust your judgement.

[StormbringerGT]

You have tested FAR more intently than I have.  I'll trust your judgement.

Not at all. I really welcome your guys opinions and thoughts. As the game is made for more people than just myself, all input it valid! Keep it coming! We are listening and I hope that is pretty obvious!

[Hannibal_PJV]

Well most often than not I want the check have the Magic trait so it would be irritating to put in on every time. So this is better this way. I may togle it off if needed. Even better if the game togles it off against mosters that Are immune to fire or immune to Magic.

[Doppelschwert]

Yeah, I just unlocked the magic trait and it being always on was a pleasent surprise (I feared I had to toogle it on every time).

 

Argument for default on:

Incorporeal creatures can only be destroyed by attacks with the magic trait, and several of them are already in the basic box (ghost, spectre, shadow). They are the worst in early game for martial characters, since you just can't kill them without magic weapons.

 

Argument for default off:

Any enemy immune to magic. But even though I played through RotR, I can not even remember a single one (I know of those golems in WotR, but thats it). Some enemies prevent you from casting spells if you fail a check, but that doesn't interfere with this magic trait.

 

For the fire trait (or any element for that matter), I can't really remember any particular enemy that is resistant against them, although sometimes they add bonus dice.

 

So in the majority of cases, you will want these traits to be automatically on since they are either beneficial or don't change anything. Them being on by default is the right call imho.

[Brainwave]

There are enemies later on immune to element type damage for sure but still the vast majority of the time, on is better.

[Namyra]

Don't think there's anything immune to the Magic trait in RotR (or, in fact, any of the other adventure paths). Golems are just immune to the Attack trait. If they were immune to the Magic trait, pretty much nobody could ever beat them unless you got **** loot luck and were still running around with nonmagical weapons when you met them. Or punched them with a lot of blessings.

 

There's probably a rare few fire immune enemies in RotR later on, yeah (it's been a while so I don't remember exactly, and Season of the Runelords isn't far enough along that I've run into any there yet). They're much more common in WotR, with all its Outsiders, though. The only damage types that are VERY commonly resisted in RotR are Poison and Mental as there's a lot of undead (more than the other adventure paths I think).

 

I agree that always on for the Magic trait is much much better, there's practically no reason to ever not use that. For the Fire trait, I'm not sure if there's more instances where it will be helpful (fighting at the Old Light I suppose? Being double-blessable by Zarongel? There's not too many occasions), than harmful, but it's probably a wash, and either way works fine, so always on might be better for sake of consistency.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Namyra

[Doppelschwert]

Don't think there's anything immune to the Magic trait in RotR (or, in fact, any of the other adventure paths). Golems are just immune to the Attack trait. If they were immune to the Magic trait, pretty much nobody could ever beat them unless you got **** loot luck and were still running around with nonmagical weapons when you met them. Or punched them with a lot of blessings.

 

You raise a good point - that's the only reasonable conclusion.

 

On the matter of always on, I think it would be nice to have a toggle on the character sheet that governs these settings. I love playing monks, but its actually pretty tedious to manually activate unarmed strike every_single_time on sajan.

If you go for the drunken master role, I think there is not enough incentive to ever use weapons on sajan, so the option to automatically using unarmed strike would be pretty convenient. On the flip side, I see that this may not be very convenient for the KI archer, so a toggle would be a great solution.

 

I guess that is not easy to implement since it seems to clash with the way the game handles playing modifiers, but it would be nice nevertheless. Having the traits activated by default is a big help already in reducing tedium.