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Can you activate reflecting armor once you start taking stamina point damage or do you have to wait until you are taking hit point damage? Here is the text from the CRB.
You create a shimmering skin-like coating of mystical force that covers your body, allowing you to reflect damage you take back against your attacker. At any time during this spell’s duration, when you take Hit Point damage from an attack made with a weapon by a foe within 100 feet, you can choose to dismiss the spell as a reaction. If you do, the armor crackles with energy as it disappears, arcing through the air to strike the attacking creature, which takes an amount of force damage equal to the damage dealt to you at the time this spell was dismissed (maximum 10). The target can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.
Hit point damage. Which makes it a weird spell at early levels that I've seen used to good effect once. At later levels it's just meh.
I am 99% sure that it works for stamina damage. The reference to "hit point damage" is to distinguish that attacks which do *ability* damage do not trigger it.
It's capitalized as Hit Point damage, just like Mystic Cure notes that it restores a number of Hit Points.
The GM that was running the session my character used it in ruled like Metaphysician did. It made the spell much more effective, but then again I forgot that the target also gets to roll a reflex save for half damage also so that was part of the issue too.
If interpreted that way, it would be vastly less powerful *only* for PCs. Ergo, that is almost certainly not the intended function, just like every other one of these "but stamina doesn't count" rules interpretations.I am 99% sure that it works for stamina damage. The reference to "hit point damage" is to distinguish that attacks which do *ability* damage do not trigger it.It's capitalized as Hit Point damage, just like Mystic Cure notes that it restores a number of Hit Points.
I would love to see it errata'd to stamina damage. The way it's written is definitely hit point damage though. For PC's that becomes useless past level 2ish.
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If interpreted that way, it would be vastly less powerful *only* for PCs. Ergo, that is almost certainly not the intended function, just like every other one of these "but stamina doesn't count" rules interpretations.I am 99% sure that it works for stamina damage. The reference to "hit point damage" is to distinguish that attacks which do *ability* damage do not trigger it.It's capitalized as Hit Point damage, just like Mystic Cure notes that it restores a number of Hit Points.
That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work! It’s an outgrowth of PCs and NPCs not using the same rules. Hey sometimes explicitly note this disparate treatment (the Vanguard Inversion aspect catalyst doesn’t and can’t work on NPCs), but it’s not necessary to do so. Not all options are equally good for PCs and NPCs.
Can you activate reflecting armor once you start taking stamina point damage or do you have to wait until you are taking hit point damage? Here is the text from the CRB.
Weapons do HP damage unless explicitly called out otherwise. Therefore you are always taking HP DAMAGE. It is just that damage is applied to your Stamina points first.
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I think the intent is indeed that it applies to both stamina and hit points, but that the phrasing is poor.
It all comes down to whether or not hit point damage is supposed to be "damage dealt to hit points" or (hit point) damage as oppposed to (strength) damage.
Kind of unfortunate that we have so many similar terms like this.