Question about Melee skill

[Talonius]

I just added a point to Kyra's strength. So when she uses her Mace for a combat check, does that Melee skill include the bonus to strength as well?

[Hawkmoon269]

Yes. Since her Melee references her strength, any time she uses her Melee she is also using her strength. So that modifier gets added into her Melee check.

[Hawkmoon269]

FYI: That is somewhat hinted at here. Things that add to one skill, also add to the other skills that reference it. So if something adds to your strength, and your melee references your strength, then that also adds to your melee. That goes for skill feat or cards.

Though you don't add the skill feat in until you attempt the roll.

[Talonius]

Ok I thought that was the case. I did a lot of reading on the subject, but most of the behemoth threads on dice refer to whether the bonuses apply on additional dice such as blessings, which they don't. I couldn't find a solid answer on this and it seemed a little overpowered...

but I played Approach to Thistletop tonight and faced Gogmurt with +3 from the scenario and +2 from the Goblin Fortress and that Strength bonus saved my bacon!

[Hawkmoon269]

Yeah. It can be a bit hard to reason through. Here's how it works:

Kyra's strength is a d6. She has a +1 skill feat in strength. Her Melee is Strength + 2. (Of course you know all that). Lets pretend she has a weapon that says "For your combat check, reveal this card to roll your Strength or Melee die plus 1d8." And we'll have her play a Blessing of the Gods to. So here is how she would attempt a combat 12 check to defeat a monster.

Attempting a Check
Determine which die you’re using. Kyra plays her weapon which lets her use Melee, so she'll be using Melee.
Determine the difficulty. It is a 12.
Play cards and use powers that affect the check (optional). She plays a Blessing of the Gods.
Assemble your dice. Her Melee says "Strength + 2" and her Strength die is d6, so she grabs a d6. The Blessing of the Gods lets her grab a second d6.
Attempt the roll. She rolls the 2d6. She gets a 9. She also adds in any modifiers that apply now. Melee has a +2 modifier. And she used her strength die, so she can add +1 for her skill feat. Adding 3 to the 9 gives her 12, so she succeeds.
Take damage if you fail a check to defeat a monster. She didn't fail, so she doesn't have to take damage.

So that is how it works. That's also why you don't add the modifiers more than once when you play a blessing, since you assemble the dice from the cards you play, then add modifiers to the results.

[Starranger]

Not to nitpick but you forgot about your +1d8 in your example...

[Hawkmoon269]

Starranger wrote:

Not to nitpick but you forgot about your +1d8 in your example...

Oops. Yeah, so that would be in there too. Here it is corrected:

Kyra's strength is a d6. She has a +1 skill feat in strength. Her Melee is Strength + 2. (Of course you know all that). Lets pretend she has a weapon that says "For your combat check, reveal this card to roll your Strength or Melee die plus 1d8." And we'll have her play a Blessing of the Gods to. So here is how she would attempt a combat 12 check to defeat a monster.

Attempting a Check
Determine which die you’re using. Kyra plays her weapon which lets her use Melee, so she'll be using Melee.
Determine the difficulty. It is a 12.
Play cards and use powers that affect the check (optional). She plays a Blessing of the Gods.
Assemble your dice. Her Melee says "Strength + 2" and her Strength die is d6, so she grabs a d6. Here weapon gives her a d8, so she grabs one. The Blessing of the Gods lets her grab a second d6.
Attempt the roll. She rolls the 2d6 + 1d8. She gets a 9. She also adds in any modifiers that apply now. Melee has a +2 modifier. And she used her strength die, so she can add +1 for her skill feat. Adding 3 to the 9 gives her 12, so she succeeds.
Take damage if you fail a check to defeat a monster. She didn't fail, so she doesn't have to take damage.