Occultist Focus Power: Energy Shield


Rules Questions


I'm playing a level 5 Occultist in Carrion Crown, and I want to make sure I didn't just cheat =P

Here is the ability in question:

As a swift action, you can expend 1 point of mental focus to surround yourself with a shield that protects you from energy damage. Whenever you take acid, cold, electricity, or fire damage, the shield absorbs the damage (as PROTECTION FROM ENERGY). The energy shield can absorb up to 5 points of energy damage per occultist level you possess. This shield lasts for 1 minute or until its power is exhausted. Its effect doesn’t stack with itself, with protection from energy, or with resist energy. You can activate the energy shield as an immediate action by expending 2 points of mental focus instead of 1. You must be at least 3rd level to select this focus power.

(Link added for Protection from Energy)

So I used this ability to gain a temporary shield vs fire damage, then 2 rounds later I used it again to gain a temporary shield vs acid damage. I wanted to double check that you can have 2 instances of the same ability going at the same time (as long as they specify different energy types). I can't see anything that says it doesn't work the way I used it, but I thought I should double check (I'm the rules-guy in my group so if I'm cheating it's bad)


The shield is an ENERGY shield - it already protects against all energy, so you don't need to pick fire, acid, etc. You're already covered: this is already explicit in the text:

"protects you from energy damage. Whenever you take acid, cold, electricity, or fire damage, the shield absorbs the damage". As noted, is doesn't stack with itself, so should you refresh the ability, then you'll essentially start a new shield.


santherus wrote:
The shield is an ENERGY shield - it already protects against all energy, so you don't need to pick fire, acid, etc.

You could be right, but the reason I don't think it works that way is because it says: "as Protection From Energy", and Protection From Energy says you must choose an energy type.

In fact I already brought up the wording with my GM. He decided I have to choose an energy type, and I'm ok with that since it's still an amazing power with that limitation (and I'm basically 50/50 on which way it's supposed to be ruled).

Let's assume it has a clause that says I have to choose an energy type. Would you allow me to have 2 instances of the power active at the same time (assuming different energy types of course)?


Could you have two different instances of resist energy targeting different types of energy up? I've seen it argued both ways but the recent one here comes up as 'yes, absolutely'. Which is the same question

Grand Lodge

It only provides protection from energy as per the spell, but it doesn't say the ability duplicates the spell, so I don't see why you couldn't have multiple instances, since your GM nerfed it. If it applied to all energy types (which it should) it wouldn't stack and instead simply be refreshed.

Something else to note is that Mind Barrier should stack with Energy Shield.


avr wrote:
Could you have two different instances of resist energy targeting different types of energy up? I've seen it argued both ways but the recent one here comes up as 'yes, absolutely'. Which is the same question

Yes, for the same reason you can apply the evil eye hex more than once to the same target so long as it imposes different penalties.

In this case, though, the energy shield ability specifically says that it works whenever you take any of the four standard elemental energy damages, so it's moot. You get a shield against all four elements, but all energy attacks deduct from the same pool.

Given MrCharisma's hypothetical, though, yes, you ought to be able to have multiple shields up for different elements per above.


Awesome, thanks guys.

For the record the GM didn't impose this on me, I brought up the 2 possible interpretations and asked him to make a ruling. I'm the most experienced player at the table, so I try to make sure I'm keeping the GM up-to-date with any weird rules he might not be familiar with (and this ability is still more than strong enough even with this limitation, so I'm not worried).

I'm happy to know the forum consensus on this though, so thanks for sharing.

=)

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