mcmourning's catalyst ability m3e

[Brandy46]

Mcmourings catalyst ability says that models with posion within 3" suffer 1 damage from poison. Does that mean the poison condition lowers by 1?

[Fetid Strumpet]

Not to my mind. The condition itself says during the end phase it does 1 dmg plus an additional 1 for every multiple of 3. Then lower it by 1. Nothing about the condition stats that taking a dmg from it is a prerequisite for lowering the condition. Nothing in Catalyst tells you to reduce the condition. So not only wouldn’t you lower it, as far as i can tell you also wouldn’t have multiple of dmg if your poison stacking is sky high. All that happens is 1 dmg, caused by poison, so if it kills the enemy no one gets credit for the kill.

Tht’s my interpretation anyway.

[JudgeDread]

I also rule it that way in my community. For the same reasons. The damage is not a direct connection to reducing the condition. Also you take 1 dmg regardless of how much poison is on the model.

[solkan]

Yeah, neither the ability Catalyst (present on five different models) or things like the Blood Poisoning action, The Feeding, are resolving the Poison Condition.  So none of the mechanics specified in the Poison +X paragraph are relevant.  They each do what they say they do, and that's it.

The same goes for actions like Immolate; or things like Talos's "Flames of the Void" and "Soul Furnace" abilities (which just make the models 'suffer +1 damage from Burning' without caring whether or not they have Burning); or the Smolder trigger.

They're all mechanics that cause damage specified as 'from Burning' or 'from Poison' to interact with the models that either reduce 'from Burning' or 'from Poison' damage or heal instead.

Note that there's a bizarre difference in the game.  An Action that says 'target suffers 1 damage from Poison', the model taking the action gets credit for the kill due to the Conditions paragraph five.  There's no corresponding statement for Abilities that do the same.

 

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

I think it is ambiguous enough that we can't rule either way, but worth noting a few things.

Quote

Killed models are always considered to be killed by the model that generated the Action or Ability that killed them (as well as by that model’s Crew)

So the kill text spells out that you get credit for abilities and for actions.

The condition text... I believe that was added as a clarification after discussion in the beta, and I suspect it was left out as an oversight.

If it ever gets FAQed, my money would be on catalyst kills counting. But the argument of RAW is pretty reasonable in a technical sense (it technically says damage from conditions doesn't count for kills, though I infer that means the end phase damage and is a clarification rather than a hard rule)