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Old 05-12-2019, 12:05 PM   #16
Sinanju
 
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Join Date: Jan 2015
Default Re: Well, that went...poorly

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard View Post
I think both this and a previous reply kind of miss the point of the original post. It's not actually about wolves qua wolves, but showing an example of combat. Not everything (in fact, hardly anything) is improved by nitpicking it half to death.
OP Here. I ran the original wolves vs humans combat as an experiment. I wanted to see how a couple of armed and armored (in one case) humans did against a pack of wolves.

I was surprised at how one-sided the combat was. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been. The wolves were getting up to six attacks a turn, doing 1d+1 damage each, while the humans got two and were extremely unlikely to take out any of the wolves in a single turn.

The wolves also got numerous chances to take the battle to the ground (HTH), where the humans were at even greater disadvantage. At best, they'd retain a dagger, doing equal damage (1d+1) to the wolves, but still dealing with multiple opponents. Unless the wolves missed a lot and the humans did major damage, the wolves were going to reduce them to cooling meat in short order.

RaniE's combat using dog stats was very interesting, and more in line with how I thought the combat would go before I ran mine. Reducing the wolves' ST from 10 to 6 meant it was possible to kill a wolf in one shot, and thereby effectively reduce their numerical advantage much more easily, and reducing the number of wolves attacking seems to be the best way to survive the encounter.

Reran my original combat with THREE humans versus six Original Flavor (tm) wolves. It went a bit longer, but still ended with all three humans--and one wolf--dead.

Statting wolves as medium dogs makes the combat much more survivable for the humans, but that's really a matter of taste. Plus, I agree that realistically, the wolves would be unlikely to attack a couple of armed humans unless they had no choice, and would back off in favor of easier prey if the humans put up a strong defense.

Either way (Wolves as Wolves, or Wolves as Dogs), I am pleased that they represent a real threat. Too many games treat ordinary animals as unthreatening--the PCs are simply too powerful (at least at higher levels) to have to worry about them. One of the things I like at TFT is that "It's just a bear" or "It's just some wolves" are not words one is likely to hear spoken even by experienced heroes.
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