Alright everyone I'm looking for clarification on how Absorb Blow works. I am GMing a mythic campaign and one of my players has Absorb Blow. He is only tier 1 and we were wanting a clarification on how to define a "source."
If he designates another character's weapon as the source of the hit point damage does he absorb the damage for that whole round, meaning if the attacking character strikes four times the defending character absorbs 20 damage at tier 1. Or does he only absorb from one attack. In which case I assume this means he cannot get DR until tier 2.
Also, does the DR from Absorb Blow stack with itself?
Absorb Blow:
As an immediate action, whenever you take hit point damage from a single source (such as a dragon's breath, a spell, or a weapon), you can expend one use of mythic power to reduce the damage you take from that source by 5 per tier (to a minimum of 0 points of damage taken). If you have another ability or effect that reduces damage (such as protection from energy), reduce the damage with the absorb blow ability before applying any other damage-reducing effects. For every 10 points of damage that this ability prevents, for 1 minute you gain DR 1/epic and 5 points of resistance against acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage. The DR and resistances stack with any other DR and resistances that you have.
it is a fair question, I saw this thread because I have my own question relating to this power - but first I'll respond to yours.
for context I'm 42 and have played RPGs since the late 70s
I'm running a mythic game right now - players started at 3rd level and are now 10th level with 2 tiers and 1/2 of the mythic challenges for 3rd tier in hand.
the [now] 10th level fighter took absorb blow at ascension. at 1st tier he did not earn DR from using this power.
My interpretation of the wording was that a source was really "a single event that causes damage, regardless of the type of damage"
I believe the wording was chosen to imply that the player could use the power versus any hit point damage whether it was supernatural, magical or mundane (or extra-ordinary).
I would also assume that the sentence in the description
"As an immediate action, whenever you take hit point damage from a single source (such as a dragon's breath, a spell, or a weapon), you can expend one use of mythic power to reduce the damage you take from that source by 5 per tier" doesn't include a duration for a reason, because the action and the effect are immediate and apply to a single event only - only one attack -even from full-attack action iterative attacks or from the many shot feat
if they intended for it to apply to all attacks from "morgan's +1 longsword" for a whole round they would have stated a duration in that sentence.
that's my logic anyway.
Now my question, (although I've decided what I think more definitively after replying to Gelven's question):
the sentence relating to DR states:
For every 10 points of damage that this ability prevents, for 1 minute you gain DR 1/epic and 5 points of resistance against acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage. The DR and resistances stack with any other DR and resistances that you have.
so in the situation that a 6th tier individual (lets call her Mabel) takes 40 points of damage (source is irrelevant) and then 50 points of damage from a second source the following round - Mabel uses absorb blow versus each attack. how does (or should) the DR work?
scenario 1
round 1 Mabel takes 10 points of damage from the first 40, and now has DR 1/epic for 3 minutes.
round 2 Mabel takes 19 points of damage and now has DR 1/epic for 6 minutes (well.. 59 rounds)
scenario 2
R1 ten damage, DR 1/epic for 3 minutes (rounds 2-31)
R2 19 damage, DR 2/epic for rounds 3-31, DR 1 for 32nd round
Scenario 3
R1 ten damage, DR 3/epic for 1 minute (rounds 2-11)
R2 17 damage, DR 6/epic for rounds 3-11, DR 3/epic round 12
scenario 4
R1 ten damage, DR 3/epic for 3 minutes (rounds 2-31)
R2 17 damage, DR 3/epic for rounds extends to round 62
1 is probably the call I'm going to make now but when I first read it I wasn't sure that was the right answer
thoughts?
I laughed
Now my question, (although I've decided what I think more definitively after replying to Gelven's question):
the sentence relating to DR states:
For every 10 points of damage that this ability prevents, for 1 minute you gain DR 1/epic and 5 points of resistance against acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage. The DR and resistances stack with any other DR and resistances that you have.so in the situation that a 6th tier individual (lets call her Mabel) takes 40 points of damage (source is irrelevant) and then 50 points of damage from a second source the following round - Mabel uses absorb blow versus each attack. how does (or should) the DR work?
scenario 1
round 1 Mabel takes 10 points of damage from the first 40, and now has DR 1/epic for 3 minutes.
round 2 Mabel takes 19 points of damage and now has DR 1/epic for 6 minutes (well.. 59 rounds)scenario 2
R1 ten damage, DR 1/epic for 3 minutes (rounds 2-31)
R2 19 damage, DR 2/epic for rounds 3-31, DR 1 for 32nd roundScenario 3
R1 ten damage, DR 3/epic for 1 minute (rounds 2-11)
R2 17 damage, DR 6/epic for rounds 3-11, DR 3/epic round 12scenario 4
R1 ten damage, DR 3/epic for 3 minutes (rounds 2-31)
R2 17 damage, DR 3/epic for rounds extends to round 621 is probably the call I'm going to make now but when I first read it I wasn't sure that was the right answer
thoughts?
scenario 3 - my reasons:
"...for 1 minute you gain..." the time is before it tells you what you get.and the DR and resistance "stacks with any other DR and resistances..." it doesn't exclude DR etc. from this ability so why exclude it?
it is a fair question, I saw this thread because I have my own question relating to this power - but first I'll respond to yours.
for context I'm 42 and have played RPGs since the late 70s
I'm running a mythic game right now - players started at 3rd level and are now 10th level with 2 tiers and 1/2 of the mythic challenges for 3rd tier in hand.
the [now] 10th level fighter took absorb blow at ascension. at 1st tier he did not earn DR from using this power.
My interpretation of the wording was that a source was really "a single event that causes damage, regardless of the type of damage"
I believe the wording was chosen to imply that the player could use the power versus any hit point damage whether it was supernatural, magical or mundane (or extra-ordinary).I would also assume that the sentence in the description
"As an immediate action, whenever you take hit point damage from a single source (such as a dragon's breath, a spell, or a weapon), you can expend one use of mythic power to reduce the damage you take from that source by 5 per tier" doesn't include a duration for a reason, because the action and the effect are immediate and apply to a single event only - only one attack -even from full-attack action iterative attacks or from the many shot feat
if they intended for it to apply to all attacks from "morgan's +1 longsword" for a whole round they would have stated a duration in that sentence.that's my logic anyway.
(going backwards because why not!)
Not sure I agree, because of the 'whenever' I took that to mean a single attack sequence including iterative attacks. Still doesn't require a duration as all attacks are resolved pretty much at one time. I agree it wouldn't go on to protect you from, for example, attacks of opportunity in your turn.
scenario 3 - my reasons:
"...for 1 minute you gain..." the time is before it tells you what you get.and the DR and resistance "stacks with any other DR and resistances..." it doesn't exclude DR etc. from this ability so why exclude it?
so let me say this: scenario 3 is how it was used, in a game, but I think I was wrong. this way is more prone to abuse and I'm changing it for my game.
a person could be attacked by 5 attacks in a 5 rounds and( at 10th tier ) end up with dr 25, and resist acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic 125 each. (just from this ability - this would stack with any other dr or resistances they have)
the only way to get around this level of resistance/dr is to stop trying to damage them and attack with non-damaging spells or grapples or to escalate the game to crazy levels - doable - but pointless escalation just seems prone to many unintended consequences and the BBEG that grapples is a bit odd..... (but an evil monk is interesting at least)
I do think the wording is prone to misinterpretation, but I think scenario 1 is the less abuse-prone version
I say that running a game with 4 mythic characters level 10 /tier 2 that are already a handful and I'm just trying to find ways to manage them and find proper challenges for them.
(going backwards because why not!)Not sure I agree, because of the 'whenever' I took that to mean a single attack sequence including iterative attacks. Still doesn't require a duration as all attacks are resolved pretty much at one time. I agree it wouldn't go on to protect you from, for example, attacks of opportunity in your turn.
I can understand your position. In one sense, from a pure rules perspective, all iterative attacks get resolved at one point on the initiative order so they are effectively simultaneous.
But, bringing the game back to some semblance of a connection to the real world, if a character attacks twice with the same weapon, one of the attacks must come before the other.even if you took it to be "the results of one action" and included all the iterative attacks by one character or all the arrows from a "many shot" meaning any action upto a full round action, the damage avoided should not increase.
to be clear I'll use an example:
a 4th tier guardian is attacked by a character with a BAB of 11 (who is not epic and has no way of overcoming DR)
all three iterative attacks are hits and damage would be 14, 9 and 12. the guardian uses absorb blow when the first hits, absorbs all 14 and gets dr 1, the second attack does 8 and the third does 11 - total damage 19
(how I think it should be)
but, if you expand the definition to include the full attack action,
the first attack for 14 is absorbed as before, the second is subject to dr 1 so would be 8 damage but the absorb blow from a 4th tier can absorb 20 points so 6 of the 8 is absorbed and the guardian takes 2 damage, the third attack is subject to DR but not to being absorbed so 11 more damage (or only 10 if you think the dr should keep stacking and is now dr 2/epic) total damage 13 (or 12)
this power should not reduce every blow of the iterative attack by up-to 20 points, (total damage above would be zero) even if you disagree with the first interpretation, I'm certain the intent of the rule would be that it shouldn't apply to every sword swing - the power states it only absorbs 5 points per tier and that should be the cap for one use.
It would seem it should perhaps be the one attack and not all iterative attacks, that would seem to get out of hand really fast (as our battle did).
Now as far as your different scenarios go I would use scenario 4 I think in my campaign.
Hello
I have a follow up question about absorb blow.
If an attack does both physical and energy damage, such as from a flaming weapon, does absorb blow block both aspects of the attack (single source)?
If so, which damage is blocked first, the physical or energy portion?.
This is relevant in the situation where an individual has resistance or DR separate from the absorb blow ability.
Thank you in advance