Are Calabim obvious?

[William]

Originally Posted by Acolyte

My question. Should a given Calabite's resonance always have a similar effect, or can the Calabite choose how to inflict the damage at the time of the resonance and make it different every time? I've always felt the latter, but there is some cool-factor associated with the former.

From the Band writeup, "The exact manifestation of a Destroyer's power will vary with the Word the Calabite serves; a Fire Calabite would heat up a target, while a Fate Calabite would cause premature aging." Other examples are given. The Calabite can also attempt, at a penalty, to make the damage more subtle.

[banditangel]

Originally Posted by Acolyte

With lucky rolls and/or Essence pumping, Calabim can do even more damage with their resonance.

Lucky rolls? On a CD 6, with 6 corporeal forces, they're doing 12 damage. Tops. It's not that hard to do that with Fighting, an AK-47 makes it trivial, and Numinous Corpus: Acid can do twice that.

I'll admit it's nice to always have a weapon, and a subtle one at that, but "high damage" does not seem to be the forte of the Calabim resonance. They seem far more like the snipers and sappers of Hell, not the brawlers.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by banditangel

Lucky rolls? On a CD 6, with 6 corporeal forces, they're doing 12 damage. Tops. It's not that hard to do that with Fighting, an AK-47 makes it trivial, and Numinous Corpus: Acid can do twice that.

I'll admit it's nice to always have a weapon, and a subtle one at that, but "high damage" does not seem to be the forte of the Calabim resonance. They seem far more like the snipers and sappers of Hell, not the brawlers.

Depends on whom they're brawling. The average human has between 1 and 70 Body hits under canon rules, and most folks are at the low end. (I can easily see a lot of ordinary humans being 20 body hits or less unless Toughness is very common.) So even at the higher ranges, a human will notice and at the lower ones, they'll be flat-out shredded before they realize what's happening.

Angels, naturally, can stand up to a lot more. Their hits range from 1 to 144. Even so, when my Mercurian was first starting out, 12 points would have sent him straight into Trauma.

It's a weapon that requires no Essence (unlike NC) and avoids all security checks (unlike the AK). What's more, it doesn't *have* to be the single celestial "punch" of the basic rules ... as outlined in the Infernal Player's Guide, they can also use their resonance to enhance mundane means of destroying things. A Calabite using explosives even gets to multiply the damage by his check digit, though the Disturbance from the collateral damage will ring far and wide indeed.

[banditangel]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

as outlined in the Infernal Player's Guide, they can also use their resonance to enhance mundane means of destroying things. A Calabite using explosives even gets to multiply the damage by his check digit, though the Disturbance from the collateral damage will ring far and wide indeed.

Oooh, that I was not aware of! Thank you :)

[JCD]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

Depends on whom they're brawling. The average human has between 1 and 70 Body hits under canon rules, and most folks are at the low end. (I can easily see a lot of ordinary humans being 20 body hits or less unless Toughness is very common.) So even at the higher ranges, a human will notice and at the lower ones, they'll be flat-out shredded before they realize what's happening.

Is that using the errataed rules for Human hits? They have changed them so that most humans wander around with less then 10 body.


banditangel:

Even so, their resonance has no 'clip'. It can't be taken away from them. It goes through metal detectors. It doesn't cost Essence. And it can be used every round. Many of them have enhancements from their Superiror. Andre's Calabim are rather gross in doing Celestial damage, and Belials are WORSE.

[banditangel]

Oh, I agree the Calabim resonance is quite useful, it just always felt like the books portray them as "combat monsters" who revel in obvious shows of destruction. Their strength really seems to lie in being utterly lazy and subtle, though. (Same thing with Ofanim and Malakim: The former are insane combat monsters, yet for some reason the Malakim get all the focus...)

Now that I realize I'm correct that they can be damned (ahem) subtle, I'm a lot happier with them as a band :)

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by William

From the Band writeup, "The exact manifestation of a Destroyer's power will vary with the Word the Calabite serves; a Fire Calabite would heat up a target, while a Fate Calabite would cause premature aging." Other examples are given. The Calabite can also attempt, at a penalty, to make the damage more subtle.

Could a Calabite pose as someone who is just clumsy and accident prone?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Could a Calabite pose as someone who is just clumsy and accident prone?

I'd allow it in a campaign. I know that on an earlier thread, someone proposed a Calabite with the Role of a "dizzy blonde" -- "Oopsies, did I break that?"

Of course, if any celestials are nearby, they're going to realize something's up when they hear the disturbance those little accidents cause.... ;)

[Attercap]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

I'd allow it in a campaign. I know that on an earlier thread, someone proposed a Calabite with the Role of a "dizzy blonde" -- "Oopsies, did I break that?"

Of course, if any celestials are nearby, they're going to realize something's up when they hear the disturbance those little accidents cause.... ;)

Unless the disturbance is less than the Role--that's the point of a Role, things "in character" to that Role get overlooked by the Symphony (or, at least, somewhat overlooked). Or am I interjecting house rules into my memory as canon rules again?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Attercap

Unless the disturbance is less than the Role--that's the point of a Role, things "in character" to that Role get overlooked by the Symphony (or, at least, somewhat overlooked). Or am I interjecting house rules into my memory as canon rules again?

No, you're right. My late-night brain was just failing to remind me of important codicils. :)

(Looking it up, the level of Disturbance has nothing to do with it -- if the situation's appropriate to the Role, ANY amount of Disturbance will be absorbed by a roll against Role level+Corporeal Forces. So you could be the figurative bull in a china shop and have a chance of getting away with it in this case. )