[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Set

I enjoy the vision that spells are tomes written by very very powerful wizards - the regular apprentice can't shape magic at will. So, the most powerful spells are secret and rare, and if you want to cast something you can't just amass enough people and do it, you'd have to search for the old tome lost in the catacombs of the Wizard King of the 3th Century, then gather the required materials - that will probably include some hard to find stuff too. And then, maybe, it will also require assistance or sacrifice.

Then you should probably switch to Effects Shaping Book magic, which requires one have access to those long-lost books of magic.

Totally not a D&D style magic system, but then... eh.

I may be horribly wrong, since I don't know the system very well, but take the following example:

In your examples the Apprentice dies horribly every single time. If he's close enough to not take range penalties, he's struck by the Knight (or Archer, or Wizard's) attack since they have higher Base Speeds before he can act and is suffering penalties to his action on his turn. This begins his immediate death spiral. Favor everyone but the Apprentice.

But this is as it should be for an Apprentice facing foes that are twice his point total.

Knight, sword and shield. Fearlessness 4.
He's got a 3 + 8 (Shield-16 /2) + 2 (medium shield DB) + 1 (Combat Reflexes) + 1 (Enhanced Block) = 15 Block.
And a Will of 14 against things that could scary him.

Wizard, has some spells, but whatever. One of them is Deflect Missiles (Since it's so cheap to cast and to acquire, wizards get so many spells and being protected against arrows is surely a very common thing to be desired by a relatively fragile ranged combatant.).
Also has a Will of 19.

That's a very high Will for a starting Wizard, but easily doable. Not my choice... but okay.

Archer, has Bow-16.

A Scout starts at a 19, if they take Weapon Bond (and for 1 point they should).

Apprentice, has Panic-14.

Should be a 13. But sure, it could easily be a 14, not a real issue.

Vs the Wizard, the Apprentice has a very low chance of hitting Panic. Archer simply won't hit his arrows.

Why? Is that Wizard rolling with Missile Shield up constantly? With a Will 19 he can't start with a 20 in Missile Shield so it costs him 1FP per minute to maintain. Since the Scout goes first (higher Base Speed) he puts a pair of Leading the Target/Deceptive Shots into the Wizard*, putting the Wizard's next action into Shock Penalties, beginning the poor Wizard's death spiral. Favor Scout.

* But only one hits due to Deflect Missiles. Skill 22, -2 Dual Weapon Attack, main body hits, Scout can be up to 10 yards away (-4) and still have an excellent chance (Scout can even get risky and try for Leading the Target/Deceptive Strike). Wizard Deflects one and must Dodge the other at 9 (or worse if Deceptive). Likelihood is Wizard takes one to the chest.

But you keep saying Archer... so sure. Let's look at the hench version: Archer can have a 17 bow skill, so a 20 after Acc. No reason to go for the eyes, it's a Wizard who is a 'squishy clothy' so just put two into his torso. Like the above, Wizard probably takes one to the torso. (Unless the Wizard goes first, they have the same Base Speed, so it's fifty-fifty).

Vs the Knight, the Apprentice has an equal (minus distance in yards) chance of hitting and of missing the Panic spell.

Why are you ignoring the distance? That's the only thing saving the Apprentice from an immediate death in the first turn... and of course reducing the Apprentice's capacity to actually affect the Knight with Panic.

So if the Apprentice starts far enough away, he can't affect the Knight, but if close enough he dies before he can cast.

The Archer has a skill of 10 to hit the eye (Bow-16 + 3 Acc -9 eye), before Size/Speed modifiers. In any case, the Knight will have a Block skill of 15. That's 95% chance of blocking. The Archer would have to do Deceptive Shots, and that would reduce his skill even further. He could offset a the -2 for a -1 on the block with +3 seconds of aiming. But still, Block-14 is 90%. That's assuming the Knight is going straight to him, and not taking any step to Retreat.

Why is the Archer being so dumb as to stand still? He can Move and Attack at full skill, so he does. He keeps simply moving away and firing and on this infinite plan of theorycrafting, eventually get's lucky. Favor Archer (yes even the Archer, the Scout is simply better at it).

In a situation where there's a Knight and +2 thugs against a party of 4 adventurers...

Why are you rolling a Knight +2 thugs versus 4 Adventures? Do you just want the Evil Knight to go down like a punk?


I think this is the heart of the problem. You want a singular individual* who is the same weight class as one of his foes to be able to stand up to and challenge a group of them without heaping him with one-shot protections.

He won't. He'll go down like a punk. Even if you shore up his weaknesses, he's one foe versus 4, he won't stand.


* Two thugs? One of the party will take them out instantly. Okay, it won't be the Thief, they suck at combat.