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Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Well, definitely highlights the weakness of vibro weapons (but also their Strengths, as I'm guessing M'elena wouldn't have gotten into this position with a bright glowing force sword to help her hide)

Had I been M'elena, this would have been time for my favorite goofy move when facing a superior foe 'Attack that Ends the Battle', the All Out Attack that either wins, or let's the enemy win on their next go

So! Determined (+4 to skill) dual weapon attack from behind, M'elena has 19 DWA, so with her skill and Determined she can lay down Deceptive -3 and still crit on a 6!

So even with feverish precognitive parry on Tanes part she has a good shot to land a blow

Realistically, she should have walked. An assassin needs to pick her moments to strike, and when the Legendary Beast is in his Raging Frenzy with +7 to all stats, that's not your ideal time to attack.

But what you describe I actually did the first time around. This was the second draft of the playtest, meant to highlight more of what she could do. She attacks with both her blades (Cross-Blade Execution: It's even a trademark move!) and he parried, which destroyed both of her weapons and then he proceeded to kick her butt. +7 DX = HUGE bonus to parry, even if she attacks from behind (which, per the optional rules, is always allowed for Weapon Masters).

And then we see the glaring weakness of her vibrosword . . . she will do 10 damage or so. If Tane is wearing the lighter armor (it doesn't specify, but why not) he would stop 4 of that with DR and take 6 cut for 9. Not enough to send him to KO check land! With his +8 ST from his Communion? Its not enough for KO check land naked

A force sword would send him barreling straight to death check land, armor or no, communion or no

This is a definite concern! Vibro-weapons are close to being as effective as blaster pistols... but blaster pistols can shoot you from across the room! I'm hoping that a vibro-weapon has the advantage of feint and deceptive attack and better ability to parry. Obviously, a melee fight with a guy with a force blade is a losing proposition. The counter point is that the force blade is much more expensive. Is that balanced enough? I don't know.

However the goons were buying time for reinforcements. So if she can knock him for 12 damage, then he might be in trouble, in risk of either limping along at move 1 do nothings or sprawling unconscious after a failed KO check

Suppose Vesper got unlucky and took a hit to lower him to his KO check range, could his Communion get him out of it? Actually, he could spend Destiny on flesh wounds right?

I haven't been spending points on flesh wounds because I want to see what things would look like without it. Flesh wounds are something players do as a last ditch effort, weighing character advancement against the possibility of being insta-gibbed, which is not a concern a one-shot playtest character has (give an NPC the option to use flesh wounds and watch players cry foul XD). A good Communion miracle could certainly help, especially if he could get some rapid healing or high pain threshold, though both of these are more typical of Ego Communion than Id Communion.

The lack of damage output seems unhelpful here for poor M'elena

I thin it's definitely worth watching, though I also think Vesper outclassed her on several levels. The more I've played with Vesper, the more powerful I've realized TK is and Communion is. If you really want to take a Space Knight, it really helps to be immune to psionic powers on some level. Of course, this is not helped by the fact that his corruption points "don't count." I mean, they count academically, but if you're playing him AS A PLAYER and need to deal with the fallout of all those negatives, you might be more careful with the Id than I've been. He's also 50 points higher than she is, so her defeat isn't necessarily a problem.

That said, I'm worried about the viability of vibro-weapons. It seems from your post that you'd take a force sword over a vibro-blade, and I'm not sure I'd disagree with you. Does this pose a problem? I'm not sure yet.

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Oh wait. Lighting is -2 not -1, so that negates some deceptive

I notice that the various UT contact lenses are NOT part of the Psi Wars gear list

From these example fights I suspect night vision may become a very popular purchase

Depends on how strict you are, but yeah, I've noticed that Imperial Troopers really enjoy their IR visors. Rafari's race also has Night Vision 2, which is handy.

Originally Posted by ericthered

It also highlights the strength of melee etiquette. She got in, and whereas everyone else just hastened their doom by attacking, she landed a hit.

You also let Tane spend some prep time to get big bonuses, playing to his strengths. I suspect an assassin striking from hiding would result in a very different fight.

I suspect that the way Tane handled Communion is going to be similar to how must players handle it: Meditate in down time, or shortly before an obvious fight comes up. What's interesting is that Dark Communion has GREAT options for combat, while Ego communion doesn't. This is partly intentional, but I'm not sure that I haven't overdone it.

But yeah, like I said, the real reason M'elena attacked at such an obviously sub-optimal moment was because it was a playtest and she was supposed to. In Thursday's playtest, she's better about this, and you can see what a difference that makes.