Developer's Blog -- A pair of new spell mechanics

[Utsukushi]

Just remember - you're not playing Limbo here! It's OK to knock the bar down! Hehe...

[Slimcreeper]

One thing I noticed - they are limited to only a few extra threads, but the mechanic was described as a way to cast a spell on a whole group. Don't know if this is an issue, but it would only be a small group for most of the life of the game.

[Mataxes]

Some spells (most notably the beneficial buff spells) upgrade from single target to +Rank targets with a single thread.

So the default version of the spell gives you one target affected. An extra thread and Spellcasting 4 will cover up to 5 targets.

[Roth]

Awesome, now our elementalist doesn't have to spend like forever weaving Air Armor for everyone!

[Slimcreeper]

So it is not 1 potential extra thread per tier? One for novice, etc?

or is it that one extra thread can modify the number of targets by more than 1?

[Mataxes]

[Slimcreeper]

Quite, thanks

[Telarus_KSC]

Very cool mechanic, can't wait for 4th.

[Xandarth]

[Utsukushi]

I.. I can see that as a totally valid and very interesting interpretation of the rules, but apart from Knockdown-as-a-Sensing-Test, I'm not seeing most of that `clearly laid out' in any Edition.

So, you're saying that once an Ephemeral Bolt has hit someone, they can Disbelieve it later, and the damage will go away? Or possibly their friend can look over and Disbelieve it for them? That doesn't just require keeping a separate track of Illusion-damage -- that requires tracking each individual Illusion-attack and what round it occurred in so that they can clarify which damage they're trying to Disbelieve later. And there's nothing in the rules that suggests doing either of those things -- marking down Illusionary damage separately so it can be individually Disbelieved later, or just tracking Illusion damage on its own line because it's `not real'. The only `not real' place about it seems to be the piece about how if it puts someone past their Death Rating, they stop there and are just unconscious, not dead.

I see nothing canonical about the Illusion then sticking around to make them look dead, though; in the rules, so far as I can see, it's just that the damage stops there and they're Unconscious like anybody else would be Unconscious. It makes sense, and it's a cool concept, but it's not in the rules.

As far as I can tell, to Disbelieve an Ephemeral Bolt, you have to beat the Illusionist's Initiative, and then interrupt their Action to Disbelieve it as it's being cast. You can't do it when you're being hit (except via Knockdown-as-Sensing, of course) because it's not your Action and Disbelief requires an Action. You can't do it before they cast the spell because there's nothing to Disbelieve, and you can't do it after because it's already happened and the damage, once done, is real damage. Otherwise, indeed, there would be a mechanic about recording Illusion-damage separately, or Illusions would only cause Stun damage, instead of them having the singular exception of just not being able to quite kill someone forever. And presumably, you have to do this every single round, because, as you say, Disbelief works on a casting-by-casting basis.

The downside to this is that it's plainly ridiculous and totally negates the plausibility of the True Ephemeral Bolt (and True Blazing Fists, etc.) as existing because of people Disbelieving the Illusionary versions too often.

Which is why I stand by my question. I don't think this has ever really been addressed very well. It'd be nice if 4E can figure something out.