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MidgetMarine
2013-01-08, 07:40 PM
Hey GitP. I'm posting with a rule question for you. So, to give you some backstory. I've been in this campaign for about a year now, and it's all going well, there's four of us in it and it's a lot of fun. However, one of the players (The rogue) is a bit of **** sometimes, especially when it comes to rules. He's recently taken some levels in assassin and we were talking about death attack, and he said "I finally have the capabilities to defeat your character (The dwarf tank) now that I have Death Attack." I agreed happily, however I then remembered that I have the Fortification enchantment on my armor. Now, I brought this up, and he said 'that doesn't change anything.' I presented the rules that I am about to present to you, to him. However, he is being quite stubborn in his statement that Fortification does NOT stop death attack.

Here's my case.

The description for death attack reads as such.

'If an assassin studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (assassin’s choice).'

The bolded section is the important part. Now let me show you the text for fortification.

'This suit of armor or shield produces a magical force that protects vital areas of the wearer more effectively. When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the wearer, there is a chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally'

The first and most important part of this part of my argument is that it clearly states that the sneak attack must deal damage. I view sneak attack as the extra d6 that are added to the attack. He claims that the entire attack is a sneak attack, not just the extra d6. And as long as the attack meets the prerequisites for a sneak attack (denied Dex bonus to AC) it is a sneak attack regardless of whether or not the extra damage is rolled.

I view it that Fortification DOES protect from Death Attack because it also states 'sneak attack is negated and damage is rolled normally'.

And, as the final part of my argument, and my ace-in-the-hole (Which he still refuses to listen to.

This is from the description of Sneak Attack.

'Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to sneak attacks.'

Fortification (Heavy) Makes you immune to critical hits. So Sneak attack does not apply, thus Death Attack does not apply.

Am I reading this wrong or is he just being stubborn?

many thanks.

-MidgetMarine

Rakoa
2013-01-08, 07:55 PM
You're totally correct. For the Death Attack to have any effect, it must be a sneak attack. In Death Attack, it states that the sneak attack is performed it has the additional effect of killing/paralyzing. So yes, if the sneak attack is negated, then how could it possibly have an additional effect? It's like claiming that because your +1 Flaming sword missed, then you still deal 1d6 fire damage. It doesn't work that way.

So in short, you're completely correct.

docnessuno
2013-01-08, 09:19 PM
Note that theare are ways to still deal damage to someone normally immune to sneak attack (such as the Penetrating strike ACF from dungeonscape). If this is the case, you might want to seek your DM and ask him if the extra damage does allow to activate sneack attack "rider" effects or not (RAW unclear).

Curmudgeon
2013-01-08, 11:24 PM
Note that theare are ways to still deal damage to someone normally immune to sneak attack (such as the Penetrating strike ACF from dungeonscape). If this is the case, you might want to seek your DM and ask him if the extra damage does allow to activate sneack attack "rider" effects or not (RAW unclear).
You're right that the Penetrating Strike ACF is unclear, so you should instead be using the Lightbringer Penetrating Strike ACF (Expection to Castle Ravenloft, page 208). That one makes it clear you're still dealing sneak attack damage, which means sneak attack add-ons (death attack, Craven, & c.) still apply. Because the names are different, you're free to pick the ACF which doesn't leave ambiguities for your DM to adjudicate.

BowStreetRunner
2013-01-09, 09:34 AM
You are either 25%, 75%, or 100% correct, depending on what level of the Fortification (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm#fortification) enhancement you have on your armor. :smallwink: