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Old 07-19-2007, 11:59 PM   #1
sgt.sargent
 
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Default Combat Paralysis vs Confused

It looks to me as though Confused is a far worse disadvantage than Combat Paralysis.

As I'm reading things:
On Ht roll failure, Combat Paralysis freezes you for a second, then you get cumulative rolls at bonuses 'till you snap out of it.
Confused has negative effects outside combat and also (at 15 points) freezes you for an entire combat, except for fending off someone who attacks you personally, and does so on a -1 or worse roll (a 9 with a -10 for battle). In other words, it always interferes.

Even if you assume that -10 is for "full-scale" battle, and perhaps small scale battles are only at -5, so on a 3 or 4 you're alright, its combat effects are still worse than those of Combat Paralysis (especially for most PCs, as in my experience they almost always have above a 10 HT, usually at least a 12). Sure, the ability to defend without a -4 for a round or a few is a good thing and the ability to counterattack is as well, but the inability to act on your own for the entire combat, almost every combat, still seems worse. And then there's the out of combat effects.

Am I mis-reading something, are these disadvantages not in balance, or am I misjudging the negative side of being stunned sometimes compared to always or almost always having to only react?
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Old 07-20-2007, 01:47 AM   #2
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

Good point. You've enlightened me as to another trick--take Combat Paralysis and Very Fit. Take Bad Back [25] and High Pain Threshold [10, 15?] and buy a point of HT or two points of HT!...the old soldier who's slowing down a bit but still has plenty of fight left in him.

But yes, it seems completely out of whack. Maybe -40 points for Confused?

Last edited by AmesJainchill; 07-20-2007 at 02:00 AM.
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Old 07-20-2007, 02:24 AM   #3
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

Quote:
Originally Posted by sgt.sargent
Am I mis-reading something, are these disadvantages not in balance, or am I misjudging the negative side of being stunned sometimes compared to always or almost always having to only react?
Well at least with Confused you don't get that defense penalty. In fact as long as someone is willing to attack you, you can fight nearly normally.
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Old 07-20-2007, 04:01 AM   #4
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

Confused seems less likely to get you killed, at its base level.
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Old 07-20-2007, 08:52 AM   #5
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

Confused means that basically, you can fight normally -- you just can't choose who to fight, because you're confused, and if nobody chooses to fight you, you're kind of a fifth wheel. Combat Paralysis carries the serious risk of you standing there, unable to counterattack anyone, and unable even to defend properly. The first means fewer choices, which is an inconvenience. The second can lead directly to being injured or killed, which is significantly worse.

It goes without saying that no warrior will want either trait, and that to a warrior with good HT who prides himself on tactical flexibility, Confused might be the bigger nightmare. However, the same could be said for Colorblindness and Ham-Fisted for a bomb-disposal expert or an artist. Fortunately, the player gets to choose his PC's disadvantages . . . and not every PC has to do or be capable of combat, bomb-disposal, or artwork. Confused isn't worth more because if it were, every loner meditative monk and stealthy lone-wolf assassin would get free points for it.
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Old 07-20-2007, 09:35 AM   #6
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

I think your going too easy on Combat Paralysis, its really Threat or Harm Paralysis. An oncoming car in the wrong lane, the boat is sinking, and classically related to fright checks its going to be activated and its evil basis on HT with that cap.

Confused is all about the excessive stimulus and the happy place much like a agoraphobe it seems. Likely the problem surrounds the definition of 'commotion' as you play it and remembering that the text reads "if this disadvantage strikes in combat ..." I sort of read this as combat potentially may actually be mundane enough to not cross the commotion threshold if the fight occurs with fore knowledge and within your happy place realm.

There are other disadvantages that require a definition in a similar understanding -- such as all the phobias. You toss bad die down on any phobia and then again on a fright check, your character is potentially in some serious trouble. "The day a spider skittered in front of the trouble light on the ground, the day the empire fell"
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Old 07-20-2007, 10:27 AM   #7
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

For a third piece of the puzzle, consider the indecisive disadvantage... Imagine an archer in a battle with a thousand warriors charging the castle..

The indecisive character needs a critical success IQ roll to fire at any of the 1000 troops advancing.

The indecisive person needs to make an IQ minus the number of defensives he could take in order to defend himself...

And that disad is worth only ten points right?
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Old 07-20-2007, 10:48 AM   #8
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

No, Indecisive is fairly clear: you roll once per second in combat, and it's for the general path you take. You don't roll once per possible maneuver, attack, defense, etc. For Indecisive in combat, "path" means things like "Stand your ground and aim" vs. "Shoot and scoot," or "Charge the enemy" vs. "Hold fast." It doesn't mean "Block" vs. "Parry," or "Shoot Mook #123 vs. Shoot Mook #917."
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Old 07-20-2007, 10:48 AM   #9
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

Quote:
Originally Posted by LemmingLord
For a third piece of the puzzle, consider the indecisive disadvantage... Imagine an archer in a battle with a thousand warriors charging the castle..

The indecisive character needs a critical success IQ roll to fire at any of the 1000 troops advancing.
At any one of them. However you just shoot at the forest and not at a particular tree. You don't have to make a decision.
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Old 07-20-2007, 11:16 AM   #10
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Default Re: Combat Paralysis vs Confused

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm
...

It goes without saying that no warrior will want either trait, and that to a warrior with good HT who prides himself on tactical flexibility, Confused might be the bigger nightmare. However, the same could be said for Colorblindness and Ham-Fisted for a bomb-disposal expert or an artist. Fortunately, the player gets to choose his PC's disadvantages . . . and not every PC has to do or be capable of combat, bomb-disposal, or artwork. Confused isn't worth more because if it were, every loner meditative monk and stealthy lone-wolf assassin would get free points for it.
Now I'm sure I'm not reading Confused correctly. By my reading, the stealthy assassin with -15 point Confused would shortly be a dead assassin. For example, entering an unfamiliar room containing two guards chatting quietly, he would have less than a 37.5% chance to sneak past them or even to exit the room to search for an easier route (as doing so would be "...decisive or appropriate action." and the chance should be less than "two friends chatting quietly in a familiar room").
What would ameliorate my reading of the disadvantage? What am I missing?

For that matter, when does the confusion end, when can he react appropriately to a situation? And does not taking "...decisive or appropriate action." mean that he would take fumbling or inappropriate action, such as asking the guards a quetion about the subject of their chat or taking a few halting steps forward while looking around and struggling to take in the situation?
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