Advanced Martial Techniques and exploding die

With the Advanced Spell change to combining damage effects,

when combining two damaging spells which deal (Primary) damage, you only roll one (Primary) but gain a +2 bonus to your damage roll

The oddball rule for only one die exploding in an Advanced Martial Technique also needs a review.

Example (high level, but shows a long term issue, being a T5 is not the point):
Tick 1: Unbalancing Attack
wait for recovery to clear
Tick X: Moment of Prescience; Effect: Weapon (Qu) ++ (Pr) + (Qu) + (In)
ALL FOUR attributes are eligible to explode, as its only a Base Category Man.

Tick 1: Unbalancing Attack
wait for recovery to clear
Tick X: Moment of Prescience+Mighty Throw; Effect: Weapon+5 (Qu) ++ (Pr) + (Qu) + (In)
Only ONE attribute die can explode.

Q&A: How do you determine which die can explode? If it is after you roll, there is a mechanical advantage over advanced spells. If it is before, balance with the new Advanced Spell rules is (mostly) maintained.

Additional suggestion: Bonus attribute die for all Martial Techniques and Spells have the brackets removed (so they don’t explode).

A sub-reason is that in online play, the die parsers can’t deal with that rule exception.

I have already been thinking applying something like this to Advanced Maneuvers/Tricks.

the main issue is the fact that all weapon attacks have an attribute die, even if the rule was applied you would still have to deal with.. at least.. 2 attribute die

If only the (Primary) or the (Weapon Attribute) die can explode and no attribute die given by a Martial Technique or Spell can explode, then there aren’t more than one exploding die to deal with, regardless of the way stacking rules get involved.

Except the only way to get (Primary) to any spell attack is to cast a spell with (Primary)

Unlike a weapon which, in essence, has it’s own (Primary) in the form of an attribute die

No weapon gives extra attribute die without a LMT or Spell being involved in the process.

Correct but something like Moment of Prescience would have you rolling 3 attribute die…

I agree that the attribute dice for martial techniques are (mostly) fine the way they are and don’t need to be down-graded to +2 or +6. The only thing that needs fixing is the exploding base vs advanced difference (assuming the base maneuver gives multiple attribute dice).

Which is my original proposal.

I agree that the attribute dice for martial techniques are (mostly) fine the way they are and don’t need to be down-graded to +2 or +6. The only thing that needs fixing is the exploding base vs advanced difference (assuming the base maneuver gives multiple attribute dice).

What about just stating that any attribute die granted through a maneuver can not explode?

Just make it unerversal

Doesn’t this break the ‘general rule’ of Attribute Dice exploding?

The average damage on a regular dX is (X/2 +.5). The average damage on a regular exploding dX is roughly (X/2 + 1.5) with a bit more for lower die types (d4/d6). Is the extra point of damage potential from the multiple exploding die that problematic given infrequently adding additional attribute dice occurs until higher tiers?

Except when you combine two maneuvers which currently grant an attribute die..

you can, currently, end up rolling 3 attribute die.. at higher tiers you can do 4

I do agree though.. I rather not lose the “attribute die always explode” as it’s one of the core rules built into the system.

I see no “clean” way do to it other then some static damage modifier in place of additional attribute die.

Can you roll and allow all Attribute Dice to explode and just choose the highest roll among them with the others just being the ‘die’ max?

For instance say you’re making an attack with:

d8 (Weapon) + d10 (Strength) + d6 (Insight) + d8 (Quickness)

You roll:
7 (Weapon)
10 (Strength) – Exploding roll (4) = Total 14
6 (Insight) – Exploding roll (6) – 2nd Exploding Roll (3) = Total 15
5 (Quickness)

You ‘keep’ the 15 from Insight, then add 7 from Weapon, 10 from Strength, and 5 from Quickness?

John

Wait a second, don’t we have a rule that only 1 die can explode when rolling multiple action die?

:::thinks::::

I need to dig into my book later today

EDIT: never mind, I looked.. it’s a note in my pdf… an idea I had.. nothing I ever implemented

It’s basically saying the same thing but you get to roll all exploding dice to see which one you want to keep. Since we’re only allowing 1 to explode, it makes sense to at least pick the highest exploding die.

Now, the question is, would this apply the same when you are rolling multiple Attribute Dice for a normal attack (as some very strong enemies do)?

John

Thinking about making it a general rule.. if you roll multiple attribute die, only one can explode…

Add it to the general rule on attribute die and remove the question in the current FAQ