|
| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
I'm not sure how many situations this applies to but I was looking at a potential multiclass Operative/Soldier build and stumbled on two abilities and was wondering about the order of operations of how they operate.
Namely, there is a class option of each class that reduces speed, Hampering Shot and Flash Freeze:
Hampering Shot (Ex)
For your debilitating trick, you can reduce your target’s speeds by half and prevent it from using the guarded step action until the beginning of your next turn.
Flash Freeze (Ex; 7th level)
D When you hit a creature with a weapon in the cryo category, that creature’s speeds are reduced by 10 feet for 1 round, to a minimum of 10 feet.
If the thing you're hitting with both of these has 30 foot move speed it will actually lead to the same result, 10 feet movement speed, but if, for instance, the creature has 40 foot move speed it leads to the following:
Hampering half first then Flash Freeze subtraction = 10 foot move speed
Flash Freeze subtraction first then hampering half = 15 foot move speed
Normal math order of operations says that we should divide first and then subtract, is this a general rule in Starfinder, should it be?
Taking into consideration Starship DCs, which are written as 10 + 1.5 × Starship Tier, it is safe to assume BEDMAS applies. Brackets, Exponents, Division/Multiplication, Addition/Subtraction. (On a brief lookup for reminder of terms, apparently it's PEDMAS in the states? I'm Canadian so we use Brackets instead of Parentheses. Fun fact.).
Starship DCs would be impossible reading left to right, so it's assumed you're following order of operations. In that regard, it would be safe to assume the same applies to other aspects of the game.
However, things like critical hits multiply after all bonuses, implying they are written as such (weapon dice + modifiers) × 2 + precision damage.
This is big because you're right, very different outcomes. 30/2-10=15-10=5 OR (30-10)/2=20/2=10. In this case, I would say divide after, only because of how it plays out in my head. Debilitating Trick, the base ability, is part of a trick attack which isn't guaranteed if you fail the skill check (similarly to how you do not know if an attack is a crit until you roll it). If you're using the cryo weapon at all though Flash Freeze is active on a hit. This is also overall less crippling to an encounter, and therefore that little bit less toxic to play overall.
However, things like critical hits multiply after all bonuses, implying they are written as such (weapon dice + modifiers) × 2 + precision damage.
This isn't really how it works. There is no notion of precision damage or any such thing in Starfinder. Critical hits double all damage, including extra damage dice. Pathfinder had language stating that, say, the extra dice from Sneak Attack or the Alchemist's Bombs are not multiplied after a critical hit. This is entirely missing in Starfinder. Heck, it explicitly says "including any additional damage from special abilities".
Not really relevant to the rules question here; just thought I should clear that up.