OOTS #1302 - The Discussion Thread

[Psepha]

we've seen Roy's Spellsplinter Maneuver fail to disrupt Durkula's Harm casting

I was thinking about that too, but I realised I'm not actually certain that Roy used Spellsplinter there. In all instances where I'm certain that he used it, there were a couple of factors - he was facing them head on, and he was ready for the strike - specifically in #886 it looks a lot like Roy is using it as a readied action (much like a counterspell), and he's not striking until Xykon tries to cast - he's definitely got extra attacks to spend, but instead he's holding fire until Xykon casts.

In #1003 when he uses it against vamped Durkon, he can see Durkon coming and he's ready for the attack, so it could well be a readied action... granted he follows it up with another attack, but that looks like it might be a combat maneuver... not sure lol.

But then in #1006, it looks like Durkon slightly got the drop on him with his gaseous form - Durkon appeared behind Roy, who noticed him start casting and then reacted - so that's plausibly an attack of opportunity, rather than a readied action.

Now this is all total speculation of course, since we haven't really had too much detail on how Spellsplinter actually works - it could be all attacks of opportunity, and it's not like we get a clear indication of the types of actions characters are using (especially since a lot of that is going to be based on things like combat pacing, making it look awesome, etc. rather than actual combat rules)... So I'm almost certainly reading way too much into the art choices and such - but we're all guilty of that here sometimes, right?