Path of War - Mystic Questions

[Wolfswift]

So I'm playing a Knight-Chandler/Aurora Soul Mystic in an upcoming game and I've had a few questions I've had some trouble finding answers to. So I thought I'd pose my questions here and see what people think.

1. If I'm using a healing maneuver from Silver Crane or Radiant Dawn, if I can negate the damage with a counter, can I still slap someone and initiate the healing maneuver, even out of combat?

2. Would it work if I hit myself? Is hitting yourself actually an attack? Is that a thing you can do? Does it require an attack roll? Can you even miss?

3. Big one here: If I were to utilize one of the discipline stance feats that let me expend readied maneuvers, like say Veiled Moon Shunt, it lets me teleport an opponent 30ft away, even up, after hitting them with a maneuver, presuming I expend a readied maneuver to use it. Now for Mystics, their readied maneuvers are divided into granted and withheld maneuvers, but both sorts are readied, can I expend a withheld maneuver to essentially cut down the turns required before all maneuvers are readied automatically again?

It feels like the answer to this is yes, but that somehow feels too strong with the Mystic's mechanic for resetting maneuvers. It makes Veiled Moon Shunt extra awesome if it not only adds 3d6 fall damage to some of my best maneuvers, but also lets me get my favorite maneuvers back sooner too. Not to mention that 30 ft teleport can just be extra versatile in many other ways too.

4. I read here (http://bpfindley.com/PoWErrata.html) that Aurora Soul's Defensive Aura had been errata'd so it did not work with light armor anymore, is that right? Because the official errata they link seems to indicate that is false.

5. So, on archetypes, Knight-Chandler's Illumination ability is a bit confusing, they get Illumination instead of Animus, but then they also get Tap Animus as a bonus feat? Isn't that exactly the same as the Animus class feature just with a weak sauce starting pool? The Animus they get from the feat can still be used for all the same things as a normal Mystic can use for their Animus ability, right? It's not more limited than that is it?

[Kris Moonhand]

So I'm playing a Knight-Chandler/Aurora Soul Mystic in an upcoming game and I've had a few questions I've had some trouble finding answers to. So I thought I'd pose my questions here and see what people think.

1. If I'm using a healing maneuver from Silver Crane or Radiant Dawn, if I can negate the damage with a counter, can I still slap someone and initiate the healing maneuver, even out of combat?
If a strike is countered, its other effects do not happen, so no. Also, I believe one of the devs stated somewhere that using maneuvers for out of combat healing isn't specifically allowed or prohibited, and it's for each table to decide whether they think it should be allowed.

2. Would it work if I hit myself? Is hitting yourself actually an attack? Is that a thing you can do? Does it require an attack roll? Can you even miss?
I suppose you could, since you generally are a creature within your own reach or whatever.

3. Big one here: If I were to utilize one of the discipline stance feats that let me expend readied maneuvers, like say Veiled Moon Shunt, it lets me teleport an opponent 30ft away, even up, after hitting them with a maneuver, presuming I expend a readied maneuver to use it. Now for Mystics, their readied maneuvers are divided into granted and withheld maneuvers, but both sorts are readied, can I expend a withheld maneuver to essentially cut down the turns required before all maneuvers are readied automatically again?

It feels like the answer to this is yes, but that somehow feels too strong with the Mystic's mechanic for resetting maneuvers. It makes Veiled Moon Shunt extra awesome if it not only adds 3d6 fall damage to some of my best maneuvers, but also lets me get my favorite maneuvers back sooner too. Not to mention that 30 ft teleport can just be extra versatile in many other ways too.
Technically yes. Though if I were DMing, I would personally make you expend a granted maneuver, so best to ask your DM beforehand.

4. I read here (http://bpfindley.com/PoWErrata.html) that Aurora Soul's Defensive Aura had been errata'd so it did not work with light armor anymore, is that right? Because the official errata they link seems to indicate that is false.
That website is somebody's homebrew errata. While I agree with some of their changes, I wouldn't recommend using them wholecloth. If you use the Library of Metzofitz, it only has official errata, no homebrew, and dev comments clearly marked when applicable.

5. So, on archetypes, Knight-Chandler's Illumination ability is a bit confusing, they get Illumination instead of Animus, but then they also get Tap Animus as a bonus feat? Isn't that exactly the same as the Animus class feature just with a weak sauce starting pool? The Animus they get from the feat can still be used for all the same things as a normal Mystic can use for their Animus ability, right? It's not more limited than that is it?
Okay, so Knight-chandler has a lot going on in it. Illumination, as you may have noticed, only goes up. You can't spend it like Animus (except for the final Bonfire ability, but whatever), so it's just a growing power source as the battle continues. Now, you lose the Animus class feature, which includes all of the special Mystic-only abilities that come from the Animus class feature, like Enhance Maneuver, Increase DC, Anima Burn, etc. All you get is the less useful Tap Animus feat, which is normally for people who want to use Elemental Flux but don't want to play a Mystic. So you can still use the augmentations listed in the Elemental Flux maneuvers themselves, but nothing from the class features you traded out. You can, however, still use it on anything else you might have, like feats or The Primordial title veil.

[Powerdork]

So I'm playing a Knight-Chandler/Aurora Soul Mystic in an upcoming game and I've had a few questions I've had some trouble finding answers to. So I thought I'd pose my questions here and see what people think.

1. If I'm using a healing maneuver from Silver Crane or Radiant Dawn, if I can negate the damage with a counter, can I still slap someone and initiate the healing maneuver, even out of combat?

2. Would it work if I hit myself? Is hitting yourself actually an attack? Is that a thing you can do? Does it require an attack roll? Can you even miss?

3. Big one here: If I were to utilize one of the discipline stance feats that let me expend readied maneuvers, like say Veiled Moon Shunt, it lets me teleport an opponent 30ft away, even up, after hitting them with a maneuver, presuming I expend a readied maneuver to use it. Now for Mystics, their readied maneuvers are divided into granted and withheld maneuvers, but both sorts are readied, can I expend a withheld maneuver to essentially cut down the turns required before all maneuvers are readied automatically again?

It feels like the answer to this is yes, but that somehow feels too strong with the Mystic's mechanic for resetting maneuvers. It makes Veiled Moon Shunt extra awesome if it not only adds 3d6 fall damage to some of my best maneuvers, but also lets me get my favorite maneuvers back sooner too. Not to mention that 30 ft teleport can just be extra versatile in many other ways too.

4. I read here (http://bpfindley.com/PoWErrata.html) that Aurora Soul's Defensive Aura had been errata'd so it did not work with light armor anymore, is that right? Because the official errata they link seems to indicate that is false.

5. So, on archetypes, Knight-Chandler's Illumination ability is a bit confusing, they get Illumination instead of Animus, but then they also get Tap Animus as a bonus feat? Isn't that exactly the same as the Animus class feature just with a weak sauce starting pool? The Animus they get from the feat can still be used for all the same things as a normal Mystic can use for their Animus ability, right? It's not more limited than that is it?

1. Negating damage tends to negate the additional effects of an attack, going by the example of damage reduction. And if an attack is negated (which happens before damage is rolled, in the case of a lot of counters; see "Counters" in errata), it can hardly be called successful, meaning it might not work for most of the healing strikes. If an attack ends up not hitting because of a counter, then on-hit effects like curate's strike or staunching strike won't go off either.

2. You're not more distant to yourself than your reach, so probably, if you've got a GM that can support it. Note that the existence of Blackstock's death urge suggests that you can willingly inflict a coup de grace on yourself, if your survival instinct is ripped out of you. Something similar (attacking yourself without penalty) might be the case if you know you can heal as a result of hitting yourself.

3. The withheld maneuvers are described early on as "inaccessible", and it's unclear if that means only for the sake of initiation.

4. I can't find reference in my own copy (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XOaJTBE8Knb_PYjZV1T4m-7pqVA__yWe/view?usp=sharing), either, so shrug?

5. They lose the mystic's unique animus augments too, for the record, leaving you only the augments available from other sources, like those built into Elemental Flux. The Tap Animus feat doesn't describe itself as "as if you were a mystic"; it tells you you get animus. The fact that the Animus class feature comes with a lot more than just an animus pool is a failure on the part of its author to name it something beyond 'animus'.

[Wolfswift]

The Tap Animus feat says at the end "You can use this animus pool to augment maneuvers or power animus-related feats as normal." I would think normal use of Animus to augment maneuvers include bonuses to attack and increasing DCs and the like.

[Kris Moonhand]

It doesn't say you get "the Animus class feature, as a Mystic". It just says "animus pool". Take a look at the Roil Dancer (https://libraryofmetzofitz.fandom.com/wiki/Roil_Dancer), for example. It gets an Animus pool, but does not gain any of the Mystic's abilities, instead getting its own set of Animus abilities. It's like getting a ki pool from a feat. You can use it to power other abilities that run off of ki, but unless it says it works as a Monk, you don't get the ability to make an extra attack or increase your AC or move faster. When Tap Animus talks about augmenting maneuvers, it's specifically talking about the "Animus augmentation" line found in many Elemental Flux maneuvers.

[Powerdork]

The Tap Animus feat says at the end "You can use this animus pool to augment maneuvers or power animus-related feats as normal." I would think normal use of Animus to augment maneuvers include bonuses to attack and increasing DCs and the like.

The thing about "normal" is that class features aren't normal.

[Wolfswift]

Hmm... Well I'll present this information to my GM and see what he says. But it'll likely be the same.

Back on the topic of a countered maneuver not being a successful attack. I meant like a counter that grants damage reduction like Bolster from Radiant Dawn, the attack still hits, it just deals no damage. But it was definitely a successful attack roll and it connected, just the damage was negated. Wouldn't a secondary effect of getting healing still apply for the successful hit regardless?

For that matter, can I grant a counter like Bolster to an ally I'm striking to heal? I think my GM said you can't consider someone an ally if you're attacking them, they'd get opponent stuff that turn he said. Which I'm not sure is quite accurate. I just thought it'd be a really silly extra vigorous lay on hands if I used staunching strike and bolster together on someone. But I accepted it on the count of I can still just slap myself.

Similarly, if I'm fire immune and strike myself with all fire damage, if it hits but does no actual damage, the attack still connected and was successful, but no damage was dealt, wouldn't I still be able to get the secondary effect of healing off for a successful hit?

[Powerdork]

Your GM is trying to preserve a tone. Please trust them.

[Wolfswift]

Your GM is trying to preserve a tone. Please trust them.

That's all well and good, but it doesn't answer the main question in any regard. I was asking about successful hits that deal no damage still getting secondary effects. I know it's currently how we're rolling it, to not be able to apply ally effects to people I'm attacking. But if I hit myself or someone else and deal no damage due to DR or immunity, wouldn't I still get the on a successful hit effects of a maneuver?