Hey guys. Just wanted to comment on last night's game (hey, how come me and Tim and the occasional Shawn are the only posters here? Brian? What happened to the weekly log you were gonna post?). I thought it was really good...Tim gave us a good tactical challenge that could either work well for us or go badly if we chose poorly, and we rose to the occasion. The Bad guys were fun and memorable, and the battle was very tough with opportunities for heroism all around.
In particular, hilights for me were my heroic dive off the cliff to come to the aid of my fellows and of course killing Brute the Kehana in single combat (thanks Nigel for the boost, it not only helped me alot it probably ended the combat far sooner and with less casualties than it might have). Others were Barilas taking a full volley of pistol fire and coming thru barely scratched, Hork taking the cannoneer's head off with one swipe of his jumani chain, and Lynn's rifle duel with Ogden (Lynn has helped us so very much in battle by keeping the leader in check).
Lowlights were unfortunately the mage getting wounded AGAIN (lucky shot!), James spending nearly the entire battle on one mook (bad luck mostly, but Jimmy needs to be a bit stronger I think!), and sadly the complete lame-out of Edmund's cannon volley (that would have been so cool if it hadn't crapped out!).
In any case, I think we had some good team work, and it seems like we are all settling in to our roles very well. Andy, I had some suggestions for Hork...you have to remember that a grael's job is to be the party Brick. Strength and Vigor are your friends, have as much of that as you can. Getting hit should not be a worry for you, the goal is to be able to shrug off the damage. Having an 8 toughness is going to help that, I would also suggest getting the edge Brawny which will give you a further +1 and let you carry more stuff. Basically, if I were you, I'd wild attack nearly all the time. That will give you a +2 to hit with your first swing, but more importantly it will cancel out your -2 with your second swing. And if you hit, doing a d10+3+2 (hopefully a d12 soon?) damage will probably smush most mooks into paste.
If you are worried about being shaken, pick up the edge Combat Reflexes when you get to Seasoned...it will give you a +2 to unshake. Also, right now you are eligible to buy Nerves of Steel and Improved Nerves of steel which will help cancel out those nasty wound modifiers. Finally, Berzerk would be a great edge for you to have, as would Sweep.
The only other thing I have to say is, Shawn, you are our most powerful artillery, but I'm thinking you need more power points as you seem to run low quickly. And your dice luck has been poor lately...would upping your spellcasting die help do you think?
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The dive from the cliffs was impressive. Quite impressive.
I'll admit to being a bit worried when more mooks came out of the shed, along with a couple of wild cards. I was afraid sheer numbers were going to pummel us - well, most of you, anyway. I figure if we run into a combat where the front line types are consistently hurting me, we're in big trouble.
Having copped to being a bit worried, I'd also ad in that I was surprised at how "easily" we managed to emerge victorious. (I hate using easily there, because it wasn't easy, but hopefully y'all get my drift.) With a little better dice luck, we could potentially have emerged almost unscathed.
It was a fun battle. Kudos to Tim. Thank you for not mowing me down with your volley.
On the lowlights, don't forget the complete assing out of my damage (not to mention the initial attack roll) on the first casting of Blast on the mooks by the bowchaser. Although I impressivly melted the one mook, I should have gotten at least a shake out of the other.
Reviewing it, it seems that my dice luck has been higher than average (remember that I rolled 5 total on 3d6 for the first one, then rolled 3 6's for the second one) it has just been wildly swinging from one extreme to the other.
As to how to correct the issue, I think that I need to stay the course that I have plotted (no true pun intended there) for Delphino's advances. The next advance is slotted to be a stat increase of Wits (to d10) at 15 (yes, I only have 14 experience at this time) followed by a raising of the Arcane skill and another related skill to d10 at 20. The raise of the Arcane skill will hopefully balance a bit of the problem, increasing the average roll for me from 3.5 to 4.5.
The real problem with my power points is my fault. Each time in which I took the shots, I was choosing to try and make them count as big as possible. So I was paying the double cost for all of them and making the widest spread possible. (For those not familiar with this, let me clarify: point cost for this spell is 1-6, base damage is 2d6, range 12/24/48. One to three bolts can be cast each time with an additional 1 ppt for each bolt (thus 1-3) and the damage on each bolt can be increased to 3d6 by doubling the cost on the bolt to 2 each (thus 4-6.))
So I had the opening volley against 3 mooks, I missed one on an target number of 4 (above average) and on the 2 that I hit, I rolled a total of 23 on 6d6 (above average.) If I could have distributed that better, I would have killed both of them leaving just the one for James to tangle with all combat and perhaps allowing Baralis, Hork and Edmund a little more freedome of movement, maybe to not have taken the volley of 3 shots from the right the next round.
My second shot was again 3 volleys @ 3d6 against the Grael, which he bennied out of his ass for (I think I did 3 wounds of which he took 0.) That was good in a supportive way.
My third shot was against my better judgement. I had a bad feeling about pop-ing my head out to take the shot against Shark... and in reality, I was just as useful by sitting back and making him waste his turns trying to find me and not shooting at anyone else as I was doing anything else.
But, I was swayed by his need of a 14 to hit me, and popped my head out for the shot... and was punished for it. It was a 4 pt-er, only 2 bolts @ 3d6, and for some reason I missed after he layed 2 wounds on me. I don't know why I missed, perhaps I was just shocked that he hit me... or maybe it was the average of 1.5 that I was going to roll in that situation from there forward. Monday morning quarterback says, "I would have kept my head down there..." Ya' think so?
The last bolt was the one I was happiest with, I think that I helped stun one of the mooks pinning Baralis in the terrible 3 on 1 situation, but that might be my desparete need to actually feel as if I added more to the combat clouding my memory than reality...but that was a 2 pt-er... leaving me with 2 points left.
Now, against the mooks, I could have probably gone with the 1 point versions of the spell, 2d6 probably would have been good enough, but on the first volley, I was going for overkill, to try and help as much as possible. Against the last 1, it was kinda a bad situation which I thought needed the extra uhmphh.
Against the aces, I am certain that the doubling was needed... although probably less needed again Shark than the Grael.
When it comes to help for the PPT pool, I can spend an advance for 5 more points (I think that is correct) or soon I could go with the improved recharge edge, but I don't think that will help (it lowers the recharge time from 1/hour to 1/half hour. Woo.. big whoop in combat.) but either of those are waiting until 25 regardless.
The other edge I have been thinking of was the sorcerous edge that allows raises from the casting roll, but I wouldn't think of taking that right away...
I believe that Delphino will come into his own when he has finally reached 40 XP, because then he will have balanced out with all of the elements and no longer have the -1/-2 for upsetting them. (expenditures 35 & 40 are intended to the Air and Earth in that order, leaving me with a -2 for as little time as possible since I can only buy 1 new Element each Rank.) But then most Archmages are pretty cool, too.
Reality: I will be more careful with the mooks and try and leave those to you guys more.
Sorry Boze. With my schedule being as crazy as it has been the last couple months I have not had time do do a lot of posting on the blog. I have been taking notes but my other responsibilities have kept me from getting them organized. Between getting games set up at 2 conventions. Trying to find a guest of honor for Gamicon & drum up prize support. Helping my oldest with homework & generally just being a Dad. I've been a little busy lately.
As for last weeks game, My combat could have gone a lot better then it did. That cannon shot set the mood for my end of the combat. I hit almost every round I was in combat. Only problem was i couldn't seem to do any damage. Guess i shouldn't have taken my strength up to a d6. I was averaging about 7-8 points of damage every hit I think my av was about 5 even with the modifiers I was creating for myself. I was pleased that I managed to knock down my opponents near the end so I didn't get knocked. This was the first time I've taken actual damage in this game.
I plan on getting great luck in the near future. I I had just one more Bennie. I would still remain unscathed.
I think taking stealth is another important step for my character. It would have been a lot easier to get into the storeroom 2 weeks ago if I could have been there to pick the locks.
I think my new trinket will be extremely useful in the near future. Learning stealth will only help with that.
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