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[alphawhelp]

everyone starts with 20 init, so a level 0 character using unarmed as a weapon actually has an init of 40 assuming 0 bonus from dex + agi.

[ilovecheese1]

Some character have protection from N levels of elemental intensity. Do he have some protection from elemental damage attacks as well?

Intensities directly translate to 5 base damage of the corresponding type. So if your character (or monster) has say protection from 4 fire intensities, then all moves on the HEAt table have their base damage reduced by 20, to a minimum of 0.
Assuming my memory is correct.
Hope that helps

[Lia Valenth]

1) However his actual inits are both 20 bigger. What have I missed?

2) As far as I understand the Attack wording means Attack primaruy ability, and Defence is Block, Dodge or Projection?

3) Let's assume that we have character who is immune to some kind of attack. Like he have Damage barrier or totally immune to some element. Is her required to defend himself from such attacks because they still put him on defensive with successful hit? Or he can totally ignore them?

4) Some character have protection from N levels of elemental intensity. Do he have some protection from elemental damage attacks as well?
[/quote]

1) See aphawhelps answer above.

2) If a character uses Attack he probably uses Dodge or Block for defence. Mages and Mentalists use Projection for both Attack and Defense. It will note a difference between Projection and Attack/Defense if they are a class that uses both (such as Warlock) for when attacking/defending with normal means (Attack/Dodge/Block are used with weapons) or when using magic or psychic powers (When Projection is used).

3) see ilovecheese1s answer above.

4) A character can at any time take a maneuver to Absorb Blows, cutting their defence in half for one attack and in exchange not being put on the defensive if you are hit. I see no reason why they would HAVE to defend against an attack, but if they do not know what the attack type is it would be dangerous, as that if they were wrong about the damage type they would have a Defense or Defensive Projection of 0.

[Lizbeth]

Thanks!
Next bunch on the way.

1. Some Ars Magnuses and Martial Arts have Attack/Block/etc prerequisites. Primary Combat abilities are DP invested + class bonus + stat bonus + quality bonus (if any). Which of these is used to determine whether character qualifies or not? I assume that DP invested are totally in and quality bonus is out. What about class bonuses and stat?

2. Sagittarius Magister Shield breaker ability states that defending character takes -20 on his defence while using a shields. However only Dominion shields are using attack/block, magic and psionic shields are using projection. Do this mean that Defence is block, dodge, magic projection and psychic projection? If yes, do it also mean that Projections can be qualified as an attack?

[Lia Valenth]

1. I assume that DP invested are totally in and quality bonus is out. What about class bonuses and stat?

2. Do this mean that Defence is block, dodge, magic projection and psychic projection? If yes, do it also mean that Projections can be qualified as an attack?

1) Invested DP, Stat and Class bonuses all count. However temporary boosts to stats do not count. For example if you used Ki to increase your DEX by 2 temporarily and thus gain a +5 on attack/block the +5 would not be included for prerequisites.

2) You are correct, -20 to Defense is any skill you use to defend. In the case of Wizards and Mentalists Projection is what is decreased by 20. If it was, for example, a -20 to Block it would only affect Block.
2.1) Yes Projection can be qualified as an attack, but it does not qualify as Attack Ability. For example, while enemies often take a penalty for defending against multiple attacks, including magic and psychic ones, it cannot be used to qualify for things such as Ars Magnus.

[Lizbeth]

Thanks!

2. So the Defence is any defence ability and Attack is only Attack?
Iim trying to figure can the wizard qualify for Aimed Attack, clothes.

[Lia Valenth]

2. So the Defence is any defence ability and Attack is only Attack?
Iim trying to figure can the wizard qualify for Aimed Attack, clothes.

That is hard to say. A wizard can use spells to aim at certain body parts, at the usual penalty for Directed Attack (so at the head for -60 or a foot for -50) even though Directed Attack says Attack Ability. The only reason we know this is that there is a metamagic ability that makes spells Precise (cutting the penalty for Directed Attack in half) thus they must be able to use Directed Attacks with spells.
However, as far as I know, a wizard cannot learn Ars Magnus using their Projection to qualify. Which is what makes this difficult.

As per if they can target clothes, I do not know. I would have to look at the exact rules, if it is an extension to Directed Attack somewhere then the wizard can. As DM I would probably allow it, if your OK with taking the penalty I see no reason to not allow it with spells that make sense. Obviously a Fireball wouldn't work, but Air Cut or the like would in my game.

[ilovecheese1]

I might suggest using the metamagic advantage of mystic precision to achieve the same effect once arcana comes out, as it fits the same feel.

with appropriate penalties of course.

[Lizbeth]

Ok. Another bunch of questions.

1. Fighter with the base damage 120 (Axe + Aura Extension + Increased Damage) attacks the wizard. Wizard had 500 hp shield placed before, it already sustained four hits so it have 20 hp left. Do I get it right, that if Wizard blocks successfully then he receives 100 damage (leftover from 20 hp of shield and 120 damage), and if he get hit then he suffers Combat Table % of damage, which is generally significantly lesser?

2. Heavy Weapon Guy makes bunch of attacks against the wizard. Do he suffer any drawbacks (beside the fact he will hit only the shield most of the time) from such tactics? Warlock is able to counterattack with shield, and what about the wizard?

3. Let's assume that we have Dominion technique which provides 300 hp regenerating shield and also +20 to block. What becomes of the technique after the shield looses all its 300 hp? Will it regenerate itself on the next round because maintenance cost is paid fo the whole tech? Or the whole tech will cease to exist, thus no shield and no +20 to block?

4. Is it possible to obtain some kind of one time bonus against the opponent due to fact that opponent is unaware about the ability of Scorpio to change form? Same goes for other "surprise" weapons.

[FearlessElbow]

2. As for now I ruled it as "increased characteristic augment can increase stats up to 4 total so it's 4 to one stat, 1 to four stats, etc." — I don't want to restrict infinite flight through Flight Dominion Ability.

Increasing your characteristics using Ki costs the number of Ki equivalent to the final stat number, and it has to come from that specific stat's accumulations (as does the maintenance cost).

So increasing 1 stat from 10 to 14 costs 14 Ki, accumulated against that stat.

If you're increasing 4 stats from 10 to 11 (assuming you have 4 stats at 10) would be 44 Ki (11 against each) with 4 times the maintenance cost!  It's 4 different increases, not one.

[Lizbeth]

Yes. But using the Recovery III it is possible to put buffs on an then wait for the pool to regenrate at speed 6 minus 4 per minute.

[Spirit_Crusher]

Ok. Another bunch of questions.

1. Fighter with the base damage 120 (Axe + Aura Extension + Increased Damage) attacks the wizard. Wizard had 500 hp shield placed before, it already sustained four hits so it have 20 hp left. Do I get it right, that if Wizard blocks successfully then he receives 100 damage (leftover from 20 hp of shield and 120 damage), and if he get hit then he suffers Combat Table % of damage, which is generally significantly lesser?

2. Heavy Weapon Guy makes bunch of attacks against the wizard. Do he suffer any drawbacks (beside the fact he will hit only the shield most of the time) from such tactics? Warlock is able to counterattack with shield, and what about the wizard?

3. Let's assume that we have Dominion technique which provides 300 hp regenerating shield and also +20 to block. What becomes of the technique after the shield looses all its 300 hp? Will it regenerate itself on the next round because maintenance cost is paid fo the whole tech? Or the whole tech will cease to exist, thus no shield and no +20 to block?

4. Is it possible to obtain some kind of one time bonus against the opponent due to fact that opponent is unaware about the ability of Scorpio to change form? Same goes for other "surprise" weapons.

1-you have it down right. It's like saying "I make a so-so parry with a sword" or I parry perfectly...with a grass blade". You may haveparried perfectly but the bulk of the damage goes thru.

2- Using a shield you can counterattack with a melee attack, but NOT with a magical one. So "bunch of attacks" may be a good tactic against a pure wizard.

3-This is an interesting one. My take is that the whole tec is gone, but i'm not 100% adamant.
Another interesting point to consider: if you have a tecnique that has multiple effects, you can choose which one affects which action I seem to remember.
So, let's take the shield + defense bonus tecnique example. The first attack you receive, you use just the defense bonus (to spare the shield an impact), then for later attacks you use the shield (negating multiple defense penalties) AND the defense bonus. You then arrive to a point where you know your shield will break and do not want it to happen, so you take one more defense without the shield. Do the cumulative penalties for multiple defense kick in, now? Or do all the defenses taken with the shield simply "not count" towards the calculation for mutiple defense penalties?

4- Gm call. I would say  120 notice check to avoid surprise.

[alphawhelp]

Ok. Another bunch of questions.

1. Fighter with the base damage 120 (Axe + Aura Extension + Increased Damage) attacks the wizard. Wizard had 500 hp shield placed before, it already sustained four hits so it have 20 hp left. Do I get it right, that if Wizard blocks successfully then he receives 100 damage (leftover from 20 hp of shield and 120 damage), and if he get hit then he suffers Combat Table % of damage, which is generally significantly lesser?

2. Heavy Weapon Guy makes bunch of attacks against the wizard. Do he suffer any drawbacks (beside the fact he will hit only the shield most of the time) from such tactics? Warlock is able to counterattack with shield, and what about the wizard?

3. Let's assume that we have Dominion technique which provides 300 hp regenerating shield and also +20 to block. What becomes of the technique after the shield looses all its 300 hp? Will it regenerate itself on the next round because maintenance cost is paid fo the whole tech? Or the whole tech will cease to exist, thus no shield and no +20 to block?

4. Is it possible to obtain some kind of one time bonus against the opponent due to fact that opponent is unaware about the ability of Scorpio to change form? Same goes for other "surprise" weapons.

1. is correct, but point of AT reduces damage done by 10%, since armor is really easy to get as a wizard with magic armor options that don't require wear armor, the wizard will probably take little damage

2. wizard should be standing behind a guy that can counterattack, I realize this isn't always possible but there just shouldn't be any "I've got all bases covered" options in this game, even at absurd levels, things should still have something they suck at

3. if the shield is broken the technique must be reactivated.  same as a magic shield or psychic shield that breaks.  however, +20 to block continues to exist because the rules for maintaining techniques very explicitly say you can let some effects end and maintain the others.

4. no, there are other magnus that does get surprise like that such as Cancer.  if its not explicitly stated in Scorpio, it has no benefit

[Lia Valenth]

1. is correct, but point of AT reduces damage done by 10%, since armor is really easy to get as a wizard with magic armor options that don't require wear armor, the wizard will probably take little damage

I didn't know armour protected in this instance. Is that true? And does that mean with 10AT a wizard whose shield breaks would not take any damage? (using example above, wizard blocks with shield of 20LP to stop a 120Damage attack, the shield is destroyed and the wizard would take 100 damage, but with 10AT they take 0 due to "-100%" damage?)

[alphawhelp]

yes 10 AT wizard is spared only from rollover damage, but remember, 10 AT wizard also has better chance to block with shield since he has extra buffer of 70 points of defense where shield stops the attack compared to AT 0-2 Wizard.

Also remember, though, it is very difficult to get 10 AT as Wizard, magical armor is still halved as normal armor stacking rules.  Most daily maintenance armor has very low maximum zeon value, a "really good" armor value for wizard to be around 6.