Wolves and Sheep OOC

*Facepalm* Oh for Frig's sake, game, quick tripping us up with your intricacies! Wanted to double check how Sneak Attack damage applies to Burst, and came across these gems:

-Sneak Attack damage may only augment the damage of a Standard Attack action.

-Sneak Attack damage may only augment (snip) a ranged attack against a target within CQB range. Beyond that, the accuracy required to hit a target's vitals cannot be managed.
(To double check this, I looked at the Sniper class, and it's Ranged Sneak Attack ability does specify that it could be applied outside CQB range, so yes this is a thing)

So two things:

A.) Are we in CQB range? Because if we are, then I get a +1 bonus to my ranged attack check and damage, from CQB Basics.
B.) If we are, does that mean I need to only use a Standard Attack to get it, or if using Burst does it only effect the first bit of damage from the "combo"?

Also, don't ask me why I'm posting so early in the morning. YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW.

Burst is a trick applied to a Standard Attack and nothing in the description of Burst or tricks changes the fact that it is still a Standard Attack so Sneak Attack should work fine with a Burst attack.

By a RAW reading of the rules it would appear that Sneak Attack may apply to any bullets that hit from the Burst attack though I can see the same exception made for critical hits also applying to Sneak Attack.

Another thing to note is that Sneak Attack requires the target to be vulnerable or helpless and in this case the thugs are vulnerable only because they are flat-footed at the start of a fight. If they take an action or are successfully attacked they cease being flat-footed, so only the first shot landed on any given thug is going to get extra damage from Sneak Attack.
The cars are roughly 90 feet long per the wiki entry for Amtrak cars so enemies within the first third of the car should be within CQB but I don't know exactly where the enemies are positioned within the car.

It can also matter to me because the 1911 has a 25ft ranged increment so some of those attacks I made might have range penalties, too.

My understanding of the RAW agrees with Whitmore's assessment. Including that only the first successful bullet will have sneak attack damage applied.

The Russians are within the first third of the train car from the rear so no range penalties (and a bonus for Dozer because of his feat)

Sooo glad I worked that hard for those sneak attack bonuses. ;P

That said, yeah, I foresee a lack of targets in the near future.

Now that I'm back from watching John Wick 3, I feel it necessary to point out that this campaign's Continentals, and the Continental Challenge Coin, are totally different from THE Continental, and the Coins they use.

In this campaign's case, the faction Continentals are a callback to the Revolutionary Continental Army. And Challenge Coins are a repected US military tradition.
Basically, my Challenge Coin generally only allows me to mooch drinks off other people. It isn't a type of currancy I can toss around.
When I'm with other Continentals, however, that's when things get interesting...

Also, is it just me, or did the OOC forum get emptier? I seem to remember there being more threads.

LOL ... yeah, very astute. Did a little cleaning up as I'll probably open recruiting back up next week. See if I can get recruiting and character creation done and ready to go next mission so you won't have to wait.

Seuss

Well... Don't know if my impulsive archivist brain likes that or not. :P
I mean, sure, it's just some rambling, but it's rambling that maybe possibly might just be relevant in the possibly right around the corner near future.
Or, y'know, maybe I like old thread surfing. ;P

My apologies :-(

Moving forward I will keep the threads (or at least archive them somewhere). Though I really only removed the thread regarding Cultures and Languages and the Campaign Start announcement thread. But again, I'll keep things up in the future.

Seuss

Thanks. I know it's silly, and one of the main reasons I have a major clutter problem, because I can't let go of even the smallest little things. But some of this stuff is, like, behind-the-scenes footage, man. People pay extra for this. ;)

See, if we didn't keep this thread around, then people would miss out on my increasingly abused face as I either palm it or desk it after yet another low roll. ;)

I am just going to throw out my Init here and follow up accordingly.

OK, I rolled worse than Dozer.

It's like a dice roller coaster! No pun intended!

I doubt that. :)

Oh for $!*@'s sake. The thug's not in cover, right? :P

So I've been looking over the rules again (was looking for the Personal Lieutenant feat) when I stumbled over the Talented and Training Advanced Skill Feats. Which shows you how closely I was paying attention to Whitmore's character, because he got the Talented feat. :P

Talented - Lets me choose one of the Basic Skill Feats (normally used to give a small bonus to two skills) even if I don't have them, and turn the two skills the feat covers into always class skills. On top of that, the two skills are linked like the Athletics/Resolve skills from my Infantryman Origin. However, from what I can gather, you can only choose this feat once, as the book often goes out of its way to tell you if you can take a feat over again.

Training - Gives me 5 "all skills are class skills" points, and I can take this feat multiple times, getting 5 points each time.

So here I've been hmm-ing and haw-ing over maybe cross-classing into this or that, when really I could have saved myself some trouble and just picked Talented and Training every time I get a free feat at character level, and stick with the Soldier(/Grunt) path I wanted to in the first place.

But what Basic Skill feat to talent in? And how will I spend those 5 points each time? The drama continues...

So the Basic Skill Feats that I'm eyeing to Talent are Actor (Bluff and Impress), Burglar (Acrobatics and Sneak), and Diplomat (Networking and Sense Motive).

On the one hand, Soldier and Grunt have none of those skills, so I could just pick any one. However, I am particularly focused on Impress (for various reasons), Acrobatics (for possibly jumping out of planes), and Sense Motive (after that particular, erm, misadventure in code-talking :P), with Bluff, Sneak, and Networking just being nice bonuses.
Additionally, Counter-Terrorist, Sniper, Tactician (oh, I've started considering specing into Tactician), and Triggerman have some combinations of those class skills, making a few of those feat choices redundant.

Not to mention that I need to pick up a few feats to even get into Counter-Terrorist (Covert), Tactician (Surge of Speed & Tactical Advantage(?)), and Triggerman (Two Weapon Fighting & Combat Expertice(?)), which all will take away from other options I'm considering.

I know, right?

There are never enough feats. As part of my background (and since I am with Banshee Net), I really wanted the Computer and Electronics skills that Faceman doesn't get so that feat was locked up. I was also looking for some way to pick up Resolve but, as you mentioned, I can't take Talented twice.

Then I was looking at possibly taking the Mole Expert class which needs Superior Documentation. I wanted to augment my unarmed capability with some sort of feat. I also wanted to leverage my above average Lifestyle (hence the Safe House feat). With my background, Nemesis Basics was practically screaming at me when I read it. Add in about 90% of the Style feats and I was agonizing forever over which ones I wanted to actually take.

I agree that there are never enough opportunities to acquire feats (especially if you want to flesh out you unarmed abilities). I had considered adding Feat Purchase campaign quality but when Vex and Avenger joined and weren't familiar with the rules I backed off not wanting to intimidate them with to many rules.

I could add that in if you would like?