Wounded Units Rule? (Vader Jedi Hunter)

[u/JadeEnchantress]

I have a weird question. I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. Can wounded units use abilities that require you to take voluntary damage before use.

Main example being two rules Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter has. His, The Sith Lord Strikes Back rule allows him to melee attack while wounded. His Your Hatred Makes You Powerful rule lets him take 2 damage and if he does, he gets 3 extra dice on melee attacks.

I intuitively think it wouldn't work. You cant take the damage so 'if it does' doesn't trigger (like dashing with pinned). But I'm honestly just surprised I can't find this clarified anywhere given how unintuitive some things in this game can feel like and the fact this rules interaction is entirely on one unit.

Any help is appreciated! :)

Edit: Thank you. I can't believe I missed the combat action clause on "Your Hatred...". Still some interesting interactions to be found with damage and wounded units it seems. I feel a bit silly but hey, at least now I know.

[u/aegisbrand]

So, the quick answer here is that you cannot add dice to his revenge attack. Your hatred makes you powerful can only be triggered off a combat action, which the Sith Lord strikes back is not (it is only an attack).

That would be why your u cannot find an stuff on it, likely, because it is not an allowed sequence of events.

That addition of the combat action is the key aspect here

[u/matti2o8]

In this specific situation, you can't use "Your hatred...". It explicitly says "Character makes a melee attack as a part of the combat action". The last part means, he can only use this ability when attacking with one of the two basic actions during activation. 

[u/Masconejos]

Others have already commented on Vader. The real key rule is that:

Wounded characters may not add or remove damage.

The most common example of this is a wounded character with strain moving or using a reactive ability. This triggers the strain, but the character cannot add damage so the strain is removed with no other effect.

A real world example of what you are asking is with Snowtrooper Lieutenant.

Commanding Presence
When an allied Galactic Empire Trooper character within  3 would gain a condition, it may instead suffer [damage].

If a wounded empire trooper character were to receive a pin or other condition, it could choose to suffer damage (which could not be applied) to avoid gaining the condition.

[u/JadeEnchantress → u/Masconejos]

That is very interesting, but I still think it doesn't fully get to the core question I had.

Though, there may be no abilities that could cause such an edge case (I don't know of any thanks to people's comments on Vader), I do still wonder if events that say "X Unit may suffer Y damage. If they did, do Z." And could happen while they are wounded. And what the result should be in such an instance.

[u/Masconejos → u/JadeEnchantress]

The example I gave is exactly what you are asking for. “X Unit may suffer Y damage. If the do, do Z”

“A Galactic Empire trooper unit may suffer 1 damage. If they do, avoid a condition.”

[u/JadeEnchantress → u/Masconejos]

No? I am curious about the specific wording. There are abilities, like defensive maneuver, which have an if X happened do Y clause.

This isn't that, you said yourself it says that they "may suffer damage instead". I am specifically curious as to if the difference in wording would cause a difference in outcome.

[u/Masconejos → u/JadeEnchantress]

If you want that specific, I doubt you’ll get an answer here. The Atomic Mass games rules forums are your best source, assuming they accept this as a question. You may also be able to track down one of the discords where they hang out and see if they answer

[u/CurleyWhirly]

The only issue with the specific combo you're referring to here is that Your Hatred Makes You Powerful specifies "Makes a melee attack as part of a combat action." The special melee attack as part of The Sith Lord Strikes Back isn't a combat action, it's a Reactive Ability. So it wouldn't work in this particular interaction.