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The relevant text is as follows:

1st Circle – Dance of the Sun and Moon: You embark upon the path of the Careful Sun or the Reckless Moon. Choose one of the following abilities (this choice is permanent):

Reckless Moon: Once per [Encounter], when you make a successful Reflex saving throw against an offensive action that would normally have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as a spell with a save of “Reflex half ”), you may instead ignore the effect entirely.

The 5th circle benefit has a very similar wording, with only two clauses difference.

5th Circle – Cloak of the Sun and Moon: Your devotion to the Careful Sun or Reckless Moon provides additional benefits. Choose one of the following abilities (this choice is permanent):

Reckless Moon: Once per [Encounter], when you make a Reflex saving throw against an offensive action that normally deals half damage on a successful save, you may take no damage from that offensive action instead on a successful save, or take half damage from that offensive action instead on a failed save.

It appears the 5th circle benefit here is simply a lesser form of the first! Do they stack, so that the character can ignore/half one damaging effect and one effect of any type per encounter?

If so, that seems to me like a pretty lackluster 5th circle.

If I'm wildly off base here (for instance, Reflex saves vs e.g. spells might be more important than I realize?), please let me know.

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2 Answers2

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These two abilities are direct translations of the evasion and improved evasion abilities from D&D 3.5, on which Legend is based. The only significant change in what the abilities do is that in Legend Reflex saves can have “lesser effects” that aren’t just “half damage.”

  • Reckless moon’s dance is equivalent to evasion: for effects that allow a Reflex save for a lesser effect (3.5: for half damage), your successful save instead negates the effect entirely.

  • Reckless moon’s cloak is equivalent to improved evasion: for effects that allow a Reflex save for a lesser effect (3.5: for half damage), you take the lesser effect (half damage) even when you fail the saving throw.

This yields three separate cases:

  1. Neither dance nor cloak: you take the full effect on a failed save, and a lesser effect on a successful save.

  2. Dance but not cloak: you take the full effect on a failed save, and no effect on a successful save.

  3. Dance and cloak: you take the lesser effect on a failed save, and no effect on a successful save.

Of course the wording was also changed, presumably in an attempt to be clearer—note that much of the text for the cloak version of reckless moon is actually just repeating the benefit of dance, to make it clear that cloak upgrades dance, rather than replaces it. I’m not wholly convinced that this is clearer than 3.5 had it, without the redundant clarification, but that’s what it was going for.

Which one is better is debatable; Legend just used the same order for these effects that 3.5 did. I tend to concur with you that the “improved” version is actually the less-important effect, but oh well.

KRyan
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  • It's not a new benefit in the original source material, it is restated so people know they still get the benefit of the old ability when they learn the improved version. It's idiot-proofing. – T.J.L. Jun 05 '17 at 12:55
  • @T.J.L. I know. I worked on this game, I’m pretty familiar with it. I’m now somewhat unsure what the purpose of these comments is? – KRyan Jun 05 '17 at 12:56
  • Because you don't point out that the text duplicates itself as idiot-proofing. – T.J.L. Jun 05 '17 at 13:00
  • @T.J.L. Ah, OK, that is a useful, constructive comment that I can act on. I thought that explaining what each does was sufficient to clarify that, but I can add that in, it’s never a bad idea to be more clear. – KRyan Jun 05 '17 at 13:06
  • How about this rewrite for clarity?

    Reckless Moon: When using your Reckless Moon ability on a Reflex save, a failed saving throw will now result in the lesser effect.

     – placeholder Jun 05 '17 at 16:06
  • @placeholder I dunno if it’s fair to say you use reckless moon, since it’s a passive ability, but otherwise that seems accurate and clear. Legend is no longer in active development, though, so it is extremely unlikely that any revision to this ability is ever going to happen. – KRyan Jun 05 '17 at 16:07
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When you earn the first Reckless Moon ability at 1st Circle, it gives you a very powerful ability: when you succeed on a Reflex saving throw, you can decide to act as if it simply didn't happen to you. This decision can be made once in a battle, as an [Encounter] ability.

When you earn the second Reckless Moon ability at 5th Circle, it gives you two related, yet different, abilities:
• When you make a Reflex save against an eligible effect (one that deals half damage on a successful Reflex save) and fail it, you can decide to improve it to the result you'd get for a success.
• When you succeed on a Reflex save against an eligible effect, you can decide to act as if that one effect simply didn't happen to you.
Regardless of which you use, Cloak of the Sun and Moon can only improve one saving throw in a battle, because it's an [Encounter] ability.

If you have the Dance and Cloak abilities both for Reckless Moon, having both means you can improve one saving throw (on a success) with Dance of the Sun and Moon, and cut out half the base damage roll for another saving throw (succeed or fail) with Cloak of the Sun and Moon.

Firebreak
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