This recently came up as an issue at our venue and I had an argument with another guy about how things would work in this situation:

Player A has the Advanced Sentinel on one of its clicks that has 4 damage. Power Dampening Field is in play.

I said that the Sentinel's damage would be reduced to 2 for the attack since PDF makes the printed damage value 3, and Multi-attack would further reduce it to 2. I further argued that Feat/BFC/Character card text always overrides the rulebook, and so PDF would take place first.

The flip side of the argument was that the Sentinel would deal 3 damage on the Multi-attack because it is already reducing its damage by one (via MA) to 3 and would hence fall under the PDF rule of damage values greater than three becoming three.

To me, it seems to be an issue of timing more than anything, but the BFC will always happen first (in most cases that I can think of). This is why I said the damage value on the MA would be 2 (barring critical misses, Mystics, yadda yadda).

Anyone have an official answer on this?

EDIT: and yes, I did search the forums and FAQs/Erratas. I found no mention of this particular issue.

I would rule that the Sentinal is doing 3 damage after both effects.

My reasoning is that all in game effects, perplex, enhancement etc. are added/subtracted and the final result is compared with the BFC to see whether it is 'legal.' If it is more than three, then it is reduced to three.

But thats just how I would rule on it.

While I don't have an official answer, I would fall back on the "Replace, then modify" rule. PDF says that any damage value greater than 3 becomes 3. It does not specify a time when this effect occurs, so even when the Sentinel is not taking an action, its dmg value is replaced with 3. The multiattack would then modify the damage down to a 2. Following established protocol, I would say you are right. Again, not official, but my interpretation.

I would agree with DarkCorsair.

The only problem with this is that after all of the modifiers are added in, the damage value will still become 3. If I Perplexed the Sentinel's damage to 6, PDF would drop it down to 3 for the Multi-attack, and I'm arguing that this 3 would be further reduced to 2 due to the Multi-attack.

Using Perplex, etc. to argue the counterpoint seems counterintuitive in and of itself to me. It just seems to further prove my point. Modify your damage all you want prior to the attack; if it starts and/or ends above 3, it will become 3, then the action will take place (re: Multi-attack).

Without question, it is 2.

The two things affect different types of damage.

PDF caps the damage VALUE at 3.

Multi-Attack reduces the damage DEALT by 1.

When it makes the attack, it would have a damage value of 3. It then deals its damage and reduces it by 1.

Harpua is right.

The problem with this reasoning is that Perplex modification occurs prior to the attack: The Multi-attack penalty is applied during the attack. So yes, Perplex damage all you want, it will still become 3... and suffer an additional -1 when a multi-attack is made.
And yes, Harpua is right. As usual.

No props for DarkCorsair.

Now you may get away with an enhancement character (umen) standing next to the sentinel. Not to sure, but enhancement is there during the attack unlike perplex which is before.


P.S. I could be wrong.......IwanttoberightIwanttoberightIwanttoberight.

The timing doesn't have anything to do with it.

Per the PAC description, Enhancement adds to damage value. Doesn't matter when it does it; it could be added before the multi-attack, after the multi-attack, or during and it would still add to the damage value.

Since it adds to the damage value, as Harpua pointed out above, there really isn't any wiggle room here: PDF caps the damage value at 3.

The only way, these days, to commonly get around PDF is with a critical hit (that adds +1 to damage dealt) or to a couple of the 3D objects (both the Soda Machine and Mailbox still add +1 to damage dealt). Objects in general used to be a slick way to circumvent PDF, but since they all add to damage value now (with the exceptions I mentioned before), this doesn't really work any more.

To further expand on that, B/C/F replaces the damage value of the figure after the successful CC Attack, and is still subject to the cap imposed by PDF.


BoT