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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Keywords vs Damage Types
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<blockquote data-quote="D'karr" data-source="post: 7282357" data-attributes="member: 336"><p>What I have found is that the power mechanics kind of vary all over the place. Some powers specifically require the player to designate the type of damage at selection. In that case I would say the power takes on the keyword selected. Some feats and items allow you to change damage types when the power is used. In that case the power's keywords don't change, but damage type itself is a keyword. FIRE Damage, and COLD Damage are two distinct keywords with separate mechanical assumptions and repercussions.</p><p></p><p>What I have found works best in my game is to attempt, as much as possible, to go with the interpretation that has the least consequences. The least abusive interpretation. A power that adds a damage type now has 2 keywords. This has an impact on vulnerabilities/resistances and makes it more difficult to resist. A power that only changes damage type takes on the new keyword and drops the previous one. This changes what vulnerabilities/resistances come into effect, but it is still one of them rather than combined damage types. Which is also plausible.</p><p></p><p>It also helps when the powers/feats/items are read/parsed almost in a pedantic plain language. AND, OR, etc. become important to that parsing. If it does not say AND then it does not combine. If it says OR, it is one option OR the other, not both. When something says ALL it means ALL. It sounds silly at times but for parsing the mechanical aspects it works rather well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="D'karr, post: 7282357, member: 336"] What I have found is that the power mechanics kind of vary all over the place. Some powers specifically require the player to designate the type of damage at selection. In that case I would say the power takes on the keyword selected. Some feats and items allow you to change damage types when the power is used. In that case the power's keywords don't change, but damage type itself is a keyword. FIRE Damage, and COLD Damage are two distinct keywords with separate mechanical assumptions and repercussions. What I have found works best in my game is to attempt, as much as possible, to go with the interpretation that has the least consequences. The least abusive interpretation. A power that adds a damage type now has 2 keywords. This has an impact on vulnerabilities/resistances and makes it more difficult to resist. A power that only changes damage type takes on the new keyword and drops the previous one. This changes what vulnerabilities/resistances come into effect, but it is still one of them rather than combined damage types. Which is also plausible. It also helps when the powers/feats/items are read/parsed almost in a pedantic plain language. AND, OR, etc. become important to that parsing. If it does not say AND then it does not combine. If it says OR, it is one option OR the other, not both. When something says ALL it means ALL. It sounds silly at times but for parsing the mechanical aspects it works rather well. [/QUOTE]
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Keywords vs Damage Types
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