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There have been a couple of threads (here and here) already, but I don't recall seeing any official clarification, yet. In the past, this hasn't come up much because other than Directed Denial of Strength (a Technomancer spell in Pact Worlds) I'm not sure of any way for a PC to apply the encumbered condition to an NPC.
However, under Biohacker, the Pharmacology Inhibitor also automatically applies the Encumbered condition. Because of this, and because this is one of the (potentially) 'better' options for a Biohacker at level 1, I have a feeling it's going to start coming up far more often and really needs to be officially FAQ'd.
So the question is, since Dexterity modifier is supposed to have no affect on NPC AC, how does the part of the Encumbered condition that changes Max Dex to +2 affect NPCs? None at all? A flat rate (like Flat-footed)? Or are we expected to do the math on the fly for every NPC? What about the low level ones that often have a +3 dex mod but only an AC adjustment of +2 to begin with, because that's what their CR says?
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As a bonus question, could we have an explicit answer whether the -5 to Dexterity and Strength based checks does or doesn't apply to attack rolls and saves?
"Checks" says that a check is a d20 roll (which saves and attack rolls are), and that initiative and skills are the most common ones.
The conspicuous absence of attack rolls and saves as "most common types of check" suggests they aren't counted as checks, but they're not explicitly excluded. This wasn't really an issue until now because being Encumbered was so extremely rare. But now it would be good to have an explicit answer.
Yeah, I've always assumed Attack rolls were checks, but it'd be nice for that to also be set in stone whether it is or isn't.
Encumber is potentially one of the best 'debuffs' available. -5 to almost all attacks, initiative, str based skills, dex based skills, reflex saves plus minus 10 to speed plus a potential penalty to AC is together pretty dang potent.
Hi, I would like to know this as well, please. Can we have a F.A.Q. about this?
I don't understand how to apply the effects of this spell to NPCs. If the -5 is only to be applied to skill checks then it's almost useless. If it applies to attack bonuses then it's amazing... As for the AC penalty I'm never going to bother calculating that during an encounter. It's "the monster gets -2 to AC", period, imo.
Thank you.
Answered in FAQ. No effect on NPC armor, and -5 is to skill checks only. So it's just a speed reducer, but one that does stack, presumably, with others.