N18 Falshood & Reckless

[noupha]

Hi guys,

Question there, about Falsehood versus Reckless.

On the 1st side, Falsehood says:

A fighter equipped with a Falsehood cannot be targeted by ranged or melee attacks or enemy psychic powers, and will not cause the alarm to be raised if spotted by a sentry in a battle using the Sneak Attack rules. These effects last until the fighter makes a melee or ranged attack, uses a psychic power on an enemy fighter, or until the End phase of the second round. At this point their suspicious or openly hostile acts give them away, the illusion is dispelled and the hood has no further effect.

On the other side, Reckless says:

Reckless weapons are indiscriminate in what they target:

• Before making a ranged attack with a Reckless weapon, randomly determine the target of the attack from all eligible models (including friendly models) within this model's line of sight and range of the weapon.
• Attacks made with a Reckless weapon that also has the Melee trait are randomly distributed between any models (including friendly models) that are in base contact with this fighter.
• Attacks made with a Reckless weapon that also has the Versatile trait are randomly distributed between any models (including friendly models) that are within the weapon's Long range.

If the weapon also has the Rapid Fire (X) trait, then any additional hits generated from the Firepower dice must be distributed among the maximum number of eligible targets. If there are more hits than eligible targets, the attacker may choose where any spare hits are allocated.

(all of this copied and pasted from NecroRAW, I hope this is ok?)

So the question is: can a reckless weapon "target" a Falsehood protected ganger (supposing Falsehood is still active)?

From a pure "fluff" approach, I would say yes, as the fluff of Falsehood is "When this device is activated it projects a distortion field that changes the wearer's appearance, making them appear as someone else.", which means that you believe the ganger is not an ennemy, and Reckless can target friendly people you love (or not).
Still, from a pure RAW approach, a Falsehood protected ganger cannot be targetted, so even Reckless weapons should not be able to target them (even in an "indiscriminate" way)...
And there is a way to complexify the question: if there are 2 "targets", 1 with Falsehood active and the other perfectly elligible, can you use a Reckless weapon and potentially hit the Falsehood protected ganger?

Did you house-ruled it in your games?
Or do you simply ban Falsehood because it is abused?

By the way, an additional question: can you Charge someone that you cannot Fight? Can you Charge a Falsehood protected ganger even if you cannot Fight them?

 

[Aulenback]

I would house-rule this (figuring RAI) that the Falsehood fighter can be randomly targeted as one of the potential targets - since Reckless makes no distinction for opposing fighters, friendly fighters, or innocent bystanders. But yes, RAW, it does look like thanks to not careful writing, the Falsehood technically prevents targeting even under Reckless.

I also don't think Charging against a Falsehooded fighter should be available, since the required Fight action isn't possible, though RAW does not seem to agree with me, as there is nothing preventing targeting for a Charge action, but only for a Fight action. The FAQ said decisively that at the end of a successful Charge you MUST take the Fight action, and cannot choose to not take it, but that is not exactly the same as this.

Falsehood makes this messy. So yes, were I the arbitrator, I would house rule such that Reckless COULD hit the Falsehooded fighter, randomly chosen or equally divided, as if they were a friendly fighter; and also house rule such that you could not Charge (and thus lock into Engaged status) a Falsehooded fighter (despite not being able to actually then take the free Fight action).

 

[Xisor_of_Karak_Izor]

Yeah, I'm in agreement that getting fussy with RAW - it's fairly clear that Reckless can't target the falsehood.

But otherwise, I'm convinced: bad rules writing*. Reckless definitely is to beat the Falsehood, no worries.

(*Or rather: bad rules fixing, I'm not aghast at rules leading to unforeseen consequences. I'm aghast at stuff not being refactored to be better. But c'est la vie.)

 

[Aulenback]

And it isn’t only this “rare” conflict. As written, it looks like Falsehood makes the he wearer immune to stray shots from misses, as well, which it really shouldn’t.

Better writing might have just had enemy fighters treat the Falsehood wearer as a friendly fighter for purposes of targeting and sneak attack?

 

[lastbrat]

Falsehood makes the he wearer immune to stray shots

I do not see why Falsehood would protect against stray shots? As I read it, it protects from being targeted, not against being hit, be it by a stray shot or a scattered template. It would protect against any reckless attacks, as reckless is just a fighter not discriminating between friend or foe in targeting them.

 

[HugeSamples]

there is nothing preventing targeting for a Charge action

Not necessarily relevant to falsehoods, but IIRC charging doesn't target.

i.e. you charge in a direction and you may or may not go into base contact with enemies, enabling the free fight basic action (if it's able to be performed) etc.

 

[Banjulhu]

I'm pretty certain the order of operations would allow a shooter of a rapid fire weapon to get around a Falsehood. I doubt this is the intent but frankly Falsehoods are a terrible bit of game design so things that get around them is fair game to my mind.

 

[lastbrat]

Haha.. yeah. They are certainly broken, I would not use one either. Some other things like Frenzon collar or ablative armour are easily fixable (pay for a dose of frenzon each battle and pay for ablative armour once its used up) but Falsehood is just silly.