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Was looking at the Spit Dragon Pearl spell in Mystic China. It causes damage through magic to what ever it hits.

My question is what happens if the roll to strike hits but is below the Nat AR number?

A: the pearl bounces off doing no damage at all

B: the pearl bounces off but magic causes damage

C: other

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Was looking at the Spit Dragon Pearl spell in Mystic China. It causes damage through magic to what ever it hits.

My question is what happens if the roll to strike hits but is below the Nat AR number?

A: the pearl bounces off doing no damage at all

B: the pearl bounces off but magic causes damage

C: other

Natural AR is a physical property. If the spell does damage through a non-physical mechanism, then the AR does not apply.

--flatline

Looking at the spell, the damage is physical, so it would have to hit over the AR, but with the hefty strike bonus it shouldn't be too hard.
However, as long as it hits at all the Chi Damage should still take effect, overcoming AR or no, because that is a mystical effect.

Armorlord wrote:snip...
However, as long as it hits at all the Chi Damage should still take effect, overcoming AR or no, because that is a mystical effect.

This is what I thought but wanted some input from others on it.

If you don't get past AR, nothing happens. There are no exceptions for "magical properties". If you throw a spell at them, you still have to get past AR.

Nekira Sudacne wrote:If you don't get past AR, nothing happens. There are no exceptions for "magical properties". If you throw a spell at them, you still have to get past AR.

Generally speaking, correct. The spell in question isn't actually doing any 'magical damage', it has an effect that damages the target's Chi when the pearl first strikes them, not if it damages them physically. AR protects against physical damage, it doesn't make harder to strike, so it can protect against the impact of the pearl, but not the specific 'on strike' effect.

Armorlord wrote:

Nekira Sudacne wrote:If you don't get past AR, nothing happens. There are no exceptions for "magical properties". If you throw a spell at them, you still have to get past AR.

Generally speaking, correct. The spell in question isn't actually doing any 'magical damage', it has an effect that damages the target's Chi when the pearl first strikes them, not if it damages them physically. AR protects against physical damage, it doesn't make harder to strike, so it can protect against the impact of the pearl, but not the specific 'on strike' effect.

The spell does both physical (1d6/chi point) and chi damage (2d6/chi point.)

The spell seams to be contact specific.

I will pose another question that might shed more light.
"Do wards, that are triggered by contact, have to roll to strike if the creatures touching it have a Nat AR?"

The description of Nat AR is pretty spec that the object has to hit the being or armor for it to bounce off.

And everybody, I would appreciate it since we are talking about Nat. AR, to use Nat AR or NAR in our typing. So no-one reading this will "get a misunderstanding" just because Nat AR got shortened to AR.

The reason to me that the spell appears to be contact specific to activate the magic that damages physically and to the chi is because of the inherent fragility of pearls.

there are two schools of thought
school one says "nAR applies only to physical attacks"
school two says "nAR applies to everything"

The problem is that there is no cannon answer, since the rules just say that if the strike is under the nAR the attack does no damage. This leads to some saying the attack is physically blocked, others to say it stops all damage. This is in my opinion, the sort of thing a GM would have to make a case by case ruling on based on the needs of their particular game world at the time.

The Dragon pearl is a physical attack and must penetrate any AR in order to inflict damage. Yes, it inflicts damage through magic, but you could look at the Dragon Pearl as a magic weapon, inflicting damage with magic through a physical attack.

JuliusCreed wrote:The Dragon pearl is a physical attack and must penetrate any AR in order to inflict damage. Yes, it inflicts damage through magic, but you could look at the Dragon Pearl as a magic weapon, inflicting damage with magic through a physical attack.

Just a few changes to the above...

The Dragon Pearl as a magic weapon, inflicting damage with magic carried by a physical attack. Yes, it inflicts damage through magic, but some GMs could look at the Dragon pearl is a physical attack and must penetrate any AR in order to inflict damage.


...you get My POV, and is why I was asking the question.

Because the text is not black and white, the opinion of the GM comes into play.