Need help with Energy Missile

[Vurt]

This has been coming up more and more often in my game, and it's getting on my nerves somewhat.

Grappler grapples the armoured (metal) Bad Guy. Kineticist energy missiles (electricity) the Bad Guy. My beef with this is that, strictly by the rules, Grappler takes no damage from being in contact with the highly conductive Bad Guy. Now I realize that real life and D&D don't necessarily mix well, but...

Should I just let it go, it being an exceptionally strong power and all? Or should I amend the power to conduct some portion of the energy damage to those also in the grapple?

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Rhun]

It's your campaign...if you think it makes sense to have the electricity shock the grappler, then make it so. I'd probably do the same in my campaign. After all, rules are made to be bent, broken, modified and manipulated.

 

[Lord Morte]

Go with it if you think it makes sense, but be sure to discuss it with the psion player.

A suggestion is that anyone grappling the target of an energy attack (such as energy missile or any of the orb spells) should roll either a Reflex save against the attack's save DC or an opposed grapple check to avoid taking the same damage as the target.

If you want to be nasty (and realistic) apply a penalty equal to the target's armour check penalty for any conductive armour. Remember that as heat and cold can be conducted as well, and being next to the guy being splattered with acid or at the centre of a sonic boom isn't fun either, these rules should probably apply equally to all energy types.

 

[Vurt]

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback. After some discussion with the player in question I've settled on the following:

Energy Missile – If an energy missile is fired at a target in a grapple, anyone else taking part in the grapple in the same square in which the energy missile hits suffers half damage from conduction/contact with the energy. Appropriate saving throws can reduce the damage even further, as is normal for the power. (i.e. evasion works, etc.) If the target is unaffected by the power (i.e. negated by power resistance, etc.), then neither does it affect anyone else in the grapple.

Does this look reasonable? Any more suggestions?

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Hodgie]

Is the problem only when s/he chooses electricity? Because if this is the case I would say that you should let it go. The player is choosing the optimal option for the situation which means they shouldn't be punished, and the benefit they get is nominal.

 

[Vurt]

Hodgie, the problem isn't so much the player as the power Energy Missile. I have no qualms with the player using the power. As written, it can deliver boatloads of energy damage with impunity (no attack roll) and with no repercussions.

I'm not against it delivering boatloads of damage. I'm against the no repercussions. Are there any other pin-point energy spells out there? IIRC, they tend to be either area-effect like fireball, or require an attack roll like melf's acid arrow.

For example, where this came up the last time was when the party Sorcerer was engulfed by a medium-sized ooze type creature, and was effectively grappled. The kineticist delivers an energy missile (cold) to the ooze, doing enough damage to kill the ooze.

If enough damage was generated to outright kill the ooze (no cold immunities), shouldn't some of that cold also been passed on to the encased party member (also no cold immunities)? Or can the Sorc wear an ablative ooze suit to soak up energy missiles? It just seems wrong to me on some level that I can't just handwave away.

If it was force damage (ala magic missile) I would have no issue with it. The fact that it's energy damage, however, is what does it for me. Energy doesn't tend to stay in one place, it likes to spread out. And it's not like the player is suffering from options, it's a relatively high-powered campaign and the characters are all gestalt.

So maybe the problem here is actually me.

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Staffan]

Are there any other pin-point energy spells out there?

Only one I could find on a rapid check of the SRD is chain lightning, which has a single target that gets lots of damage, and optionally a bunch of secondary targets that get half damage.

 

[Vurt]

Only one I could find on a rapid check of the SRD is chain lightning, which has a single target that gets lots of damage, and optionally a bunch of secondary targets that get half damage.

Good catch. At least I could justify this one. If electricity is arcing towards the next target, it isn't going through any potential grapplers.

And the situation probably won't come up enough to make me worry about it.

Any others out there?

Vurt