Chillborn Zombie rules questions

[baberg]

You enter the first zombies aura, but are not in the other zombies aura yet. You take 5 damage

You keep moving, you hit the 2nd zombies aura. Does it deal 10 damage because it's cumulative with the 1st aura (meaning that you have now taken 15 cold damage)?

Absolutely not.

You take damage from the aura when you enter the aura (or begin your turn in the aura, but that's irrelevant for this discussion). So you move and enter the first zombie's aura. You take 5 damage. You continue your move and (presumably) do not leave the first zombie's aura, but enter the second zombie's aura. You take 5 damage from aura #2.

The cumulative just means that if the auras overlap you don't get to only take damage from one - at least, that's how I read it.

 

[Caliban]

I'm not convinced that "cumulative" means "add them all together and apply them once".

My personal interpretation would be that it means "you take this damage from each chillborn whose aura reaches you". In other words, 3 chillborn do three lots of 5 damage, rather than just one.

You might be right, I've sent a question off to Customer Service asking for clarification.

 

[Caliban]

And here is my question:

Customer (Caliban) 05/15/2009 11:10 AM

"Chillborn Aura (Cold) aura 2; any creature that enters or begins its turn in the aura takes 5 cold damage. Multiple chillborn auras deal cumulative damage."

How is the cumulative damage calculated? If you have resist cold 5, and are in the aura of 3 chillborn zombies, do you take 15 cold damage once, reduced to 10 by your cold resistance, or do you take 5 cold damage 3 times, reduced to zero by your cold resistance?

Also: The Ice Reaper ability states: "The chillborn zombie deals +5 cold damage to an immobilized creature." Does that increase the damage from a creatue takes the cold aura as well, if they start their turn immobilized within the aura?

Thank you

And their response:

Discussion Thread Response (Support Agent)05/15/2009 04:44 PMHello Caliban,

Thank you for contacting us. If you have resist cold 5, and are in the aura of 3 Chillborn Zombies, you would not take any damage, because each aura will deal its damage separately. The Damage from Ice Reaper is separate damage from the Chillborn Aura. I hope this information is useful.

Please let me know if you need anymore help!

Good Gaming!

We would appreciate your feedback on the service we are providing you. Please click here to fill out a short questionnaire.

To login to your account, or update your question please click here.

Marc
Online Response Crew
Wizards of the Coast
1-800-324-6496 (US and Canada)
425-204-8069 (From all other countries)
Monday-Friday 9am-6pm PST / 12pm-9pm EST
Saturday-Sunday 10am-4pm PST / 1pm-7pm EST

 

[keterys]

Also, with 3 chillborn - even if you stacked the damage, they wouldn't get hit by their own aura so it'd just be max 10 damage.

Fwiw, I think chillborn are actually pretty badly implemented. But nobody asked me, I guess

Ice Reaper really should say on damage rolls.

Something like 5 cold and -2 to speed, speed penalty stacking... sure. That's very soldiery. Not 'first turn of combat, you're at half hp from automatic damage. Now what? Religion check as a minor... okay, now you know these guys blow up when they die, and you'll take the automatic damage next turn too. And yeah, you can't move cause you're immobilized, so you might be unconscious by then. Unfortunately the aura will still kill you.'