So if Johnny Storm lets rip at Bobby Drake with his fire blast [ range = ST+EN ] and hits, Bobby is no chump so he counterblasts (4.14.5) with his ice blast [ range = ST+EN)/2 ] and he also hits, but neither does double the others damage so a standoff occurs.
If Johnny flies up outside Bobby's range on his next movement phase and then keeps blasting. What happens?
- If Johnny is outside the range of the shorter ice blast attack is he immune to counterblast as it doesn't have the range to reach him?
- I presume Bobby can keep counter blasting to protect himself as he can blast at the fire when it is closer to him.
Or do we have an exception to the range rules whereby a counterblast gets the right to hit home if the damage racks up a double or higher?
Cheers
GC
"If either participant takes any action other than firing back at their opponent before the impasse is broken, then that opponent immediately hits and deals damage at no cost whatsoever." (p. 117)
Our mistake for using the word 'action' (small 'a'), which you've understandably taken to mean an Action (large 'a'). The intent here is that once you're involved in a counterblast *doing anything else besides just staying there and firing back* will get you hit.
Hope that helps,
-Jeff
It does partially. "Moving concedes the standoff to your opponent."
But just wanted to clarify that flame blast is immune to counterblast from ice blast if the flame blast initiated the attack from outside the range of the ice blast, because the ice actually falls short of the target even if the ice blast "wins" the standoff?
I'd say yes: if the opponent is out of range it is impossible to hit. The counterblast would only be the option to avoid being hit yourself. Why should a counterblast enable you to damage someone out of range?
My brain just had to imagine a funny way out of this situation - and this is definitely no attempt at power gaming, I just cuoldn't help it 🙂 How about having the person with shorter range sitting on a skateboard while counterblasting and the allies slowly pushing the board towards the opponent? XD
But the "real" situation could be to start a counterblast while inside a moving open vehicle that you do not control. How would you handle this? You could leave it like it is but I'd probably have some extra check to see if the opponents manage to keep hitting the moving target and thus are able to keep up the counterblast (although RAW say that you automatically hit). Could be quite epic to see if the two opponents start melting parts of the vehicle left and right of their targets while trying to keep up the blasts against each other ...
