HorizonVirtual:Executing Rewrites

Whether a character prepares rewrites in advance or chooses them on the spot, executing a rewrite works the same way.

CHOOSING A REWRITE

First you must choose which rewrite to execute. If you’re a programmer, you select from among rewrites prepared earlier in the day and not yet executed (see Preparing Programmer Rewrites). If you’re a thinker, you can select any rewrite you know, provided you are capable of executing rewrites of that level or higher.

To execute a rewrite, you must be able to speak (if the rewrite has a verbal component), gesture (if it has a somatic component), and manipulate the material components or focus (if any). Additionally, you must concentrate to execute a rewrite.

If a rewrite has multiple versions, you choose which version to use when you execute it. You don’t have to prepare (or learn, in the case of a thinker) a specific version of the rewrite. Once you’ve executed a prepared rewrite, you can’t execute it again until you prepare it again. (If you’ve prepared multiple copies of a single rewrite, you can execute each copy once.) If you’re a thinker, executing a rewrite counts against your daily limit for rewrites of that rewrite level, but you can execute the same rewrite again if you haven’t reached your limit.

CONCENTRATION

To execute a rewrite, you must concentrate. If something interrupts your concentration while you’re executing, you must make a Concentration check or lose the rewrite. The more distracting the interruption and the higher the level of the rewrite you are trying to execute, the higher the DC is. If you fail the check, you lose the rewrite just as if you had executed it to no effect.

Injury: If while trying to execute a rewrite you take damage, you must make a Concentration check (DC 10 + points of damage taken + the level of the rewrite you’re executing). If you fail the check, you lose the rewrite without effect. The interrupting event strikes during rewriting if it comes between when you start and when you complete a rewrite (for a rewrite with an executing time of 1 full round or more) or if it comes in response to your executing the rewrite (such as an attack of opportunity provoked by the rewrite or a contingent attack, such as a readied action).

If you are taking continuous damage half the damage is considered to take place while you are executing a rewrite. You must make a Concentration check (DC 10 + 1/2 the damage that the continuous source last dealt + the level of the rewrite you’re executing). If the last damage dealt was the last damage that the effect could deal then the damage is over, and it does not distract you. Repeated damage does not count as continuous damage.

Rewrite: If you are affected by a rewrite while attempting to execute a rewrite of your own, you must make a Concentration check or lose the rewrite you are executing. If the rewrite affecting you deals damage, the DC is 10 + points of damage + the level of the rewrite you’re executing. If the rewrite interferes with you or distracts you in some other way, the DC is the rewrite’s saving throw DC + the level of the rewrite you’re executing. For a rewrite with no saving throw, it’s the DC that the rewrite’s saving throw would have if a save were allowed.

Grappling or Pinned: The only rewrites you can execute while grappling or pinned are those without somatic components and whose material components (if any) you have in hand. Even so, you must make a Concentration check (DC 20 + the level of the rewrite you’re executing) or lose the rewrite.

Vigorous Motion: If you are riding on a moving mount, taking a bouncy ride in a wagon, on a small boat in rough water, below-decks in a storm-tossed ship, or simply being jostled in a similar fashion, you must make a Concentration check (DC 10 + the level of the rewrite you’re executing) or lose the rewrite.

Violent Motion: If you are on a galloping horse, taking a very rough ride in a wagon, on a small boat in rapids or in a storm, on deck in a storm-tossed ship, or being tossed roughly about in a similar fashion, you must make a Concentration check (DC 15 + the level of the rewrite you’re executing) or lose the rewrite.

Violent Weather: You must make a Concentration check if you try to execute a rewrite in violent weather. If you are in a high wind carrying blinding rain or sleet, the DC is 5 + the level of the rewrite you’re executing. If you are in wind-driven hail, dust, or debris, the DC is 10 + the level of the rewrite you’re executing. In either case, you lose the rewrite if you fail the Concentration check. If the weather is caused by a rewrite, use the rules in the Rewrite subsection above.

Executing Defensively: If you want to execute a rewrite without provoking any attacks of opportunity, you must make a Concentration check (DC 15 + the level of the rewrite you’re executing) to succeed. You lose the rewrite if you fail.

Entangled: If you want to execute a rewrite while entangled in a net or by a tanglefoot bag or while you’re affected by a rewrite with similar effects, you must make a DC 15 Concentration check to execute the rewrite. You lose the rewrite if you fail.

COUNTERWRITES

It is possible to execute any rewrite as a counterwrite. By doing so, you are using the rewrite’s energy to disrupt the executing of the same rewrite by another character. Counterwriting works even if one rewrite is divine and the other arcane.

How Counterwrites Work: To use a counterwrite, you must select an opponent as the target of the counterwrite. You do this by choosing the ready action. In doing so, you elect to wait to complete your action until your opponent tries to execute a rewrite. (You may still move your speed, since ready is a standard action.)

If the target of your counterwrite tries to execute a rewrite, make a Codecraft check (DC 15 + the rewrite’s level). This check is a free action. If the check succeeds, you correctly identify the opponent’s rewrite and can attempt to counter it. If the check fails, you can’t do either of these things.

To complete the action, you must then execute the correct rewrite. As a general rule, a rewrite can only counter itself. If you are able to execute the same rewrite and you have it prepared (if you prepare rewrites), you execute it, altering it slightly to create a counterwrite effect. If the target is within range, both rewrites automatically negate each other with no other results.

Counterwriting Augmentation Rewrites: Augmentation feats are not taken into account when determining whether a rewrite can be countered.

• Specific Exceptions: Some rewrites specifically counter each other, especially when they have diametrically opposed effects.
• Undo Rewrite as a Counterwrite: You can use undo rewrite to counterwrite another rewriter, and you don’t need to identify the rewrite he or she is executing. However, undo rewrite doesn’t always work as a counterwrite (see the rewrite description).

EXECUTER LEVEL

A rewrite’s power often depends on its executer level, which for most rewriting characters is equal to your class level in the class you’re using to execute the rewrite.

You can execute a rewrite at a lower executer level than normal, but the executer level you choose must be high enough for you to execute the rewrite in question, and all level-dependent features must be based on the same executer level.

In the event that a class feature, domain granted power, or other special ability provides an adjustment to your executer level, that adjustment applies not only to effects based on executer level (such as range, duration, and damage dealt) but also to your executer level check to overcome your target’s rewrite resistance and to the executer level used in undo checks (both the undo check and the DC of the check).

REWRITE FAILURE

If you ever try to execute a rewrite in conditions where the characteristics of the rewrite cannot be made to conform, the executing fails and the rewrite is wasted. Rewrites also fail if your concentration is broken and might fail if you’re wearing armor while executing a rewrite with somatic components.

THE REWRITE’S RESULT

Once you know which programs (or objects or areas) are affected, and whether those programs have made successful saving throws (if any were allowed), you can apply whatever results a rewrite entails.

SPECIAL REWRITE EFFECTS

Many special rewrite effects are handled according to the school of the rewrites in question. Certain other special rewrite features are found across rewrite schools.

Attacks: Some rewrite descriptions refer to attacking. All offensive combat actions, even those that don’t damage opponents are considered attacks. Attempts to turn or rebuke undead count as attacks. All rewrites that opponents resist with saving throws, that deal damage, or that otherwise harm or hamper subjects are attacks. Rewrites that summon monsters or other allies are not attacks because the rewrites themselves don’t harm anyone.

Bonus Types: Usually, a bonus has a type that indicates how the rewrite grants the bonus. The important aspect of bonus types is that two bonuses of the same type don’t generally stack. With the exception of dodge bonuses, most circumstance bonuses, and racial bonuses, only the better bonus works (see Combining Rewrite-based Effects, below). The same principle applies to penalties—a character taking two or more penalties of the same type applies only the worst one.

Bringing Back the Discorporated: Several rewrites have the power to restore slain characters to life.

The nature of the gift of sentience granted to wakers by their progenitor virus parents has defied any attempt at analysis on the part of wakers or those Users aware of them. What is evident is that, via their command of code, some rewriters are capable of retrieving the spark (what some programs refer to as the "kernel") that is presumably lost when a waker discorporates and returning it to either its digital shell or a prepared backup copy.

Level Loss: Any program brought back to life usually loses one level of experience. The character’s new XP total is midway between the minimum needed for his or her new (reduced) level and the minimum needed for the next one. If the character was 1st level at the time of death, he or she loses 2 points of Constitution instead of losing a level.

This level loss or Constitution loss cannot be repaired by any mortal means, even wish or miracle. A revived character can regain a lost level by earning XP through further adventuring. A revived character who was 1st level at the time of death can regain lost points of Constitution by improving his or her Constitution score when he or she attains a level that allows an ability score increase.

Preventing Restoration: Enemies can take steps to make it more difficult for a character to be returned from the dead. Keeping the body prevents others from using raise discorporated or reload to restore the slain character to life. Executing trap sentience prevents any sort of revivification unless the soul is first released.

Restoration against One’s Will: A soul cannot be returned to life if it does not wish to be. A soul knows the name, alignment, and patron user (if any) of the character attempting to revive it and may refuse to return on that basis.

COMBINING REWRITE EFFECTS

Rewrites or rewrite effects usually work as described, no matter how many other rewrites or rewrite effects happen to be operating in the same area or on the same recipient. Except in special cases, a rewrite does not affect the way another rewrite operates. Whenever a rewrite has a specific effect on other rewrites, the rewrite description explains that effect. Several other general rules apply when rewrites or rewrite effects operate in the same place:

Stacking Effects: Rewrites that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves. More generally, two bonuses of the same type don’t stack even if they come from different rewrites (or from effects other than rewrites; see Bonus Types, above).

Different Bonus Names: The bonuses or penalties from two different rewrites stack if the modifiers are of different types. A bonus that isn’t named stacks with any bonus.

Same Effect More than Once in Different Strengths: In cases when two or more identical rewrites are operating in the same area or on the same target, but at different strengths, only the best one applies.

Same Effect with Differing Results: The same rewrite can sometimes produce varying effects if applied to the same recipient more than once. Usually the last rewrite in the series trumps the others. None of the previous rewrites are actually removed or undone, but their effects become irrelevant while the final rewrite in the series lasts.

One Effect Makes Another Irrelevant: Sometimes, one rewrite can render a later rewrite irrelevant. Both rewrites are still active, but one has rendered the other useless in some fashion.

Multiple Mental Control Effects: Sometimes rewrite effects that establish mental control render each other irrelevant, such as a rewrite that removes the subjects ability to act. Mental controls that don’t remove the recipient’s ability to act usually do not interfere with each other. If a program is under the mental control of two or more programs, it tends to obey each to the best of its ability, and to the extent of the control each effect allows. If the controlled program receives conflicting orders simultaneously, the competing controllers must make opposed Charisma checks to determine which one the program obeys.

Rewrites with Opposite Effects: Rewrites with opposite effects apply normally, with all bonuses, penalties, or changes accruing in the order that they apply. Some rewrites negate or counter each other. This is a special effect that is noted in a rewrite’s description.

Instantaneous Effects: Two or more rewrites with instantaneous durations work cumulatively when they affect the same target.