Hello! Looking at making an Aldmeri Dominion force for the game (the free download ESO), and finally sat down tonight and banged it out after receiving the card packs. It provoked some questions:
Kharjo (the Khajiit caravan guard from the adventurers) has the Bodyguard rule, so he seems like a natural co-conspirator for my Dominion Sorceress (maybe I will name him Razum’dar, haha). But thinking about how to employ him gave me the following question:
What happens when a Bodyguard takes the Ready action, then an enemy moves within 3" of the Party Champion/his guarded friend? The way I understand it is that he moves immediately into base to base (if possible) and then normal play resumes, which would still let him spend a ready action (in melee now of course for a mace smack!).
Furthermore, can the Dominion Sorceress:
use a Ready Action to cast a spell as a Ranged or Melee Attack if it has the appropriate targeting type?
add Force to that spell (if it is Shock) for an extra Magicka, blasting the foe away (with Impulse Control)…
…and into a rune which detonates from the involuntary movement?
If it is a Shock rune, would she spend the extra Magicka to make it Force when it detonates or when it is cast?
Bodyguard with Ready - Interesting one. Both the Ready and Bodyguard abilities are triggered by an Enemy completing an Action. RAW you’d do one or the other, since if you used your Bodyguard ability after the Enemy moves into 3" of the protected, you could Engage them. But, you’d then have to wait until the Enemy completed Another action to respond with the Ready token. I’ll check with the designers to be sure.
Dominion Sorceress - yes, if she has sufficient Reserves, she can do all those things. The extra Magicka is spent on her spell (Sparks or whatever) and not, I think, on the rune. Whilst a shock rune is a shock spell, its not inflicting damage at the point of casting, but later when the Rune goes off. But, again, I’ll check with our Designer.
As an extension on the ruling elsewhere for getting a bonus die on a critical success for a Rune casting (i.e. you don’t), I’d take it that you can’t boost them or trigger additional perks etc. if nothing else as it’s a lot to track, not to mention that the original caster might not still be on the board (as Runes persist even after the caster is removed unless I’ve missed something that indicates otherwise).
Thanks! Makes sense to me. While you are asking the designer questions, ask about a ranged weapon ready too - in the case above, if Kharjo had, say, throwing knives, could he throw and then engage or can he only do one or the other, or does bodyguard override the Ready token?
And that makes sense too @JimmyW. It is certainly easier to track if she simply can’t Force Keyword the rune. But the cinematics of such a thing (getting blasted around by a Rune) are fun! I think for ease of play though you are right, it can get confusing to track effects/deduct Magicka for a spell some time after it has been cast.
I believe the Ranged weapons is the same thing - the Ready action and Bodyguard both require an enemy to complete an action, and once you respond with one (Ready or Bodyguard) they need to complete another action before you can respond again.
But the controlling player picks which? Or player with Advantage? I ask because I think the bodyguard rule is a MUST while the ready rule is a MAY, so usually in my brain a Must overrides a May, and the Must ‘must’ happen, and the ‘may’ doesn’t (unless you can do both).
Spending a Ready token is a May. The option for a Bodyguard to become the target is a May. But, if you are standing within 3" of your charge, you MUST move.
Right, and the MUST move prevents the player from ever choosing to pop the ready instead for the triggering action (whether to fire a ranged weapon if possible [probably not] or to attack). The readied ranged attack thing was kind of a dumb question on my part, since the Party Champion would be engaged anyways with the target…
Makes sense now! Bodyguard’s compulsory move (if applicable) overrides any ability to use the Ready token on the same triggering action.