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Have we been playing saves with modifiers and rerolls wrong this whole time?


Thomas Lyons

Question

So, hear me out.  Here are the save rules:

saves.png.f037ba3623a668d2fca444522665675b.png

The last sentence says that re-rolls happen before modifiers are applied (positive or negative).  So what this means is that every time a save is rolled, the following steps occur:

  1. Roll dice.  
  2. Determine if a reroll happens.
  3. Add modifiers.
  4. Determine final results.

So, when you don't have re-rolls, the calculation is very straightforward.  Rerolls seem to be a different beast.  So, for example, lets take a Disk Lord that re-rolls 1's and has a +2 to his save.  He would:

  1. Roll a save dice.
  2. If the result is a 1 on a dice, he rerolls it.  If not, move on to step 3.
  3. +2 is added to the dice result.
  4. Determine if the dice result is 4 or higher to see if he succeeded.  

Fairly straightforward.  Now, lets give that same Disk Lord a re-roll to all saves. 

  1. Rolls a save dice.
  2. If the result is a 1-3 on a dice, he rerolls it (wording will determine if units must re-roll failed saves, or "may" re-roll failed saves).  If not, move on to step 3.
  3. +2 is added to the dice result.
  4. Determine if the dice result is 4 or higher to see if he succeeded.

Still fairly straightforward.  Now, lets take the Tzeentch item that grants the Disk Lord an additional +2 on saves but says he must re-roll successes.  Now he: 

  1. Rolls a save dice.
  2. If the result is a 1-3 on a dice, move on to step 3.  If a 4+, which would be a success, he must re-roll it.
  3. +4 is added to the dice result (+2 from his normal ability, +2 from the Tzeentch Paradoxical shield item).
  4. Determine if the dice result is 4 or higher to see if he succeeded.

What this seems to imply is that, with no rerolls, the Disk Lord fails on a 1, succeeds on a 2 and 3, and must re-roll on a 4+.  On the reroll, he will succeed on 2+.  If this Lord has re-roll 1s, then he re-rolls 1s and 4-6s, and is just successful on 2s and 3s.

This is obviously important for any rerolls, including hits and wounds, because this means that more of these dice may need to be rerolled (which would be good if you are fishing for higher numbers to trigger abilities).

Is this correct?  

Edit:  So, it seems any time you have bonuses to a roll and re-roll all failed rolls coupled with an ability to activate on a 6+ that things really get interesting.  Here is an example where this might be significant and used for an advantage.  

Take for example a Plague Monks that wound one 4+ with their Foetid Blades.  Imagine that the Plague Monk is getting +2 to Wound from nearby Plague Priests, has reroll all wounds from a Plague Furnace , and is in the Pestilent Clawpack battalion that says on a Wound of 6+ they do double damage. Normally, we would consider reroll failed wounds would only apply on natural 1s since you have +2 to wound (thus successfully wounding on a 2+ effectively) and you would trigger the double damage on 4+ of the die roll. Under this insight, I could opt to still reroll 2s and 3s, even though they would be successes with modifiers, to fish for more 4+s which will do double damage since rerolls are determined to occur before the modifiers are applied. All of my rerolls would still land on 2+ but rerolling 2s and 3s gives me another bite at that double damage I get from die results of 4+.  This is just one implication of how this would work.  It would work similarly for Stormcast effected by a nearby Lord Castellant's Lantern who are wanting to fish for healing on save rolls and anyone else with a reroll all ability, bonuses, and a triggering ability. Hope this is a bit clearer than my original example.

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4 hours ago, BaldoBeardo said:

I think the issue will remain abilities that force you to re-roll successes when modifiers are involved.

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But the FAQ says "success or failure will always be based on the unmodified roll". I think that is pretty clear cut.

If you have a 4+ save with reroll 1s and Paradoxical shield (reroll successes and +2 to save), and are hit by a rend -1 weapon then a D6 would yield the following results:

1 = Reroll
2 = Keep
3 = Keep
4 = Reroll
5 = Reroll
6 = Reroll

Then add 1 to the result (+2-1).

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Oh, I know that. But it then muddies the waters by explaining how you can pre-empt the modifier. Which is what will cause the arguments.
"It's a success!"
"No it's not!"
"It will be in a minute!"
"Yes, but it's not now!"
"So just reroll it!"
"No, it's not a success!"
"But you just said..." Etc. Etc.

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Re-rolls happen before modifiers.  The success/failure of an ability/attack/save/etc is based off the result of the dice roll.  The application of results is based off of the entire sequence (reroll then modifier).  It's not a difficult rule to understand, it's simply that some people either a) don't like it, or b) want to play the word game to get their way in a game.

If the logic of it is confusing, a good way to look at it is that there are Dice-rolls and Results.  Dice-rolls are the numbers you get from the dice.  Results are the numbers you get after the application of modifiers.  You can re-roll dice-rolls, but you cannot re-roll results.

It's fine not to like a rule, and that's why there's house-rules and tournament rules and sending messages to GW to ask for changes.  But the core rule is and always has been quite clear cut.  Rerolls happen before modifiers are applied.  I've always played it this way in my group and we've never once run into an issue with something being overpowered or broken because of it.

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1 hour ago, Jharen said:

Re-rolls happen before modifiers.  The success/failure of an ability/attack/save/etc is based off the result of the dice roll.  The application of results is based off of the entire sequence (reroll then modifier).  It's not a difficult rule to understand, it's simply that some people either a) don't like it, or b) want to play the word game to get their way in a game.

If the logic of it is confusing, a good way to look at it is that there are Dice-rolls and Results.  Dice-rolls are the numbers you get from the dice.  Results are the numbers you get after the application of modifiers.  You can re-roll dice-rolls, but you cannot re-roll results.

It's fine not to like a rule, and that's why there's house-rules and tournament rules and sending messages to GW to ask for changes.  But the core rule is and always has been quite clear cut.  Rerolls happen before modifiers are applied.  I've always played it this way in my group and we've never once run into an issue with something being overpowered or broken because of it.

So… Daemonettes. Re-roll to-hit rolls "of six or more". Not even slightly confusing or ambiguous in your opinion?

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1 hour ago, Squirrelmaster said:

So… Daemonettes. Re-roll to-hit rolls "of six or more". Not even slightly confusing or ambiguous in your opinion?

Daemonettes warscroll is problematic only in that it's poorly worded.  It is an extremely rare instance (the only one in fact that I'm aware of) that says "reroll ... X or more" It doesn't pose a problem with the rule in all other contexts.  It is either a) The writer of the warscroll didn't understand the nature of re-rolls in the system, or b) the warscroll should be an exception to the rule.  In other words, when taken into context of the core rules, and other warscrolls, abilities, and artifacts, it is clear that the burden falls on the Daemonettes warscroll to prove how it works around the basic statement "re-rolls happen before modifiers to the roll (if any) are applied."  It does NOT mean we rephrase or change the entire meaning of the rule itself in all contexts due to a rare instance which doesn't clarify itself as either a mistake or an exception.

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My group and I have always played it as per the 4-page rules, that re-rolls happen before modifiers.  It wasn't until I started frequenting these forums that I noticed most people did not play it that way, or only followed the rule in specific situations.  I even brought this rule up in reference to the Bloodsecrator's portal of skulls in the Khorne thread once.

I agree it can be awkward, and it's probably not how most assume the flow of things should work.  There's certainly plenty to be said over the balance of it, or if its good/bad for the game, or if you as a player like it or not.  That's fine, and house rules/TO rulings, etc are part of the game.  The bottom line to me has always been that the rules strictly say that re-rolls happen before modifiers.  It does not list exceptions or specific instances for when it does/does not apply.  It states it clear as day that rerolls happen BEFORE modifiers.  So if aiming to play RAW, that's how it should be done.

I assume if it becomes a large enough problem, or there's enough uproar over it that GW will FAQ it one way or another, probably siding on which ruling side is the most vocal (much as they did with how multiple damage dice are rolled). 

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2 minutes ago, heywoah_twitch said:

The most recent faq is still in place, and re-rolls before modifiers (creating pockets of fail-successes with rend or the like) is the law of the land.

Interesting. Is this how it's actually being played at tournaments etc? 

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4 minutes ago, Darren2607 said:

How does this interact with re-rolls of say 1s? Is a natural role of 1 treated as a 0 and not rerollable? 

If you are supposed to reroll 1s, pick up any dice that show a 1 on them (natural rolls of 1). Those get rerolled. Then you can apply any modifiers.

Always reroll before modifiers!

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On 1/29/2018 at 7:49 AM, Darren2607 said:

Interesting. Is this how it's actually being played at tournaments etc? 

It is indeed how events play now, although it wasn't when I posted this last year.  The downstream consequence of this is that is causes rend to be significantly more powerful.  

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Wow this is one of the dumbest most unneeded rules I have seen in this game. Why, that doesn't add that much strategy, just unnecessarily nerfs decent units and makes the game slower. Hope they change it. But yeah, basically that makes kurnoth hunters and other such units with said ability have to take some wounds on oddly specific dice rolls. 

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5 hours ago, Spesstaco said:

Wow this is one of the dumbest most unneeded rules I have seen in this game. Why, that doesn't add that much strategy, just unnecessarily nerfs decent units and makes the game slower. Hope they change it. But yeah, basically that makes kurnoth hunters and other such units with said ability have to take some wounds on oddly specific dice rolls. 

So you’d rather unnecessarily nerf Rend?

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The "rules as written" way of playing isn't used in my local meta but I do find it interesting. I don't really care about rend all that much because I play LoN mainly and a skeleton will die to any amount of rend and bedsheets don't give a damn. But this does make things interesting for the multitude of stormcast players in my area, suddenly reroll fails for sequitors(i believe it's dequitors that can get reroll failed saves) is less effective as rend will create a pocket in the dice pool where say with rend -1 a result of 1-3 would be rerolled but a 4 is considered a success before modifiers so wouldn't be rerolled. With rend -2 this get's crazy with results of 4 being unavoidable and anything less than a 6 failing post modifier. This definitely brings down armies with save rerolling down a notch and would make wound negation builds more common. Personally I ask my opponent which way they want to play since I play pretty casually anyways. 

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On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 6:49 AM, Darren2607 said:

Interesting. Is this how it's actually being played at tournaments etc? 

Its how its played in my area. Its definitely RAW and seems to be how the game is balanced (In my experience rerolls become a very cost effective way of countering rend and -hit otherwise).

That said, I definitely find it massively counter-intuitive and it seems to be something new people constantly get wrong. It just feels weird.

GW did change the Daemonettes warscroll to reroll unmodified hit rolls of 6 instead of 6+ though technically it is unnecessary to designate unmodified since rerolls happen before modifiers anyways....

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On 1/14/2019 at 1:27 PM, bolderiz101 said:

thing is you apply rend before you determine if a hit is a success or not so if you reroll failed save how can you not apply the rends first since its applicable before determining success or fail

Rend is a modifier that is used in the “Save” phase.

The sequence is :

1. Check for hit

2. Check for wound

3. Roll for save. Was the save successful (based on the base stat). If so, no rerolls are allowed (depending on the ability). Apply rend. Was the save still successful? 

Think of it like the monster attacking the knight in armor ... the monster attacks with razor sharp teeth ... chops the knight ... but the teeth are so sharp they pierce the armor.

So... the knight “saved” successfully ... but the teeth still were sharp enough to pass through the armor.

Basically, Rend creates the window of opportunity to make a “Success” a failure.

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