08-25-2011, 01:46 PM | #41 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
In DF, all power talents (and most normal talents) are capped to 6, usually as part of the template's "Power Ups"
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08-25-2011, 04:14 PM | #42 |
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Verona, Italy
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
I'm so tempted to have long reach affect/neutralize Retreat...
To herding back tactic doesn't seem to work so well in my games, as combat usually ends much sooner for it to result effective. And it would be boring, anyway. (the long reach thing is part of my wider plan to make large creatures more dangerous, somehow).
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08-25-2011, 04:56 PM | #43 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
I ran a very high-powered fantasy game for years that included several PCs with weapon and Shield skills at 20+, Combat Reflexes, Enhanced Defenses, etc. Several carried big, magical shields. One also had Basic Speed 10.50, and thus a ridiculous Dodge to boot. It was typical for these PCs to have two to four active defense rolls a turn at 17-24, often spread out among enough different defense types to make "You don't have the right defense!" a fairly useless countermeasure.
Nevertheless, the PCs got wounded all the time. Causes of injury included:
The secret, really, is to use GM fiat and not strive to make everything "fair." The PCs didn't have access to withering gazes or full-auto magic staffs (which only worked for an NPC race) or evil mirrors, and I didn't attempt to build a lot of the nastier attacks (like self-destructing demons who blew up their killers) on points or using established traits. Many of the nasty effects were "cosmic" or otherwise capable of bypassing DR, Magic Resistance, etc. Some of the monsters were invisible to special senses, like Danger Sense, "just because." Basically, my take was that the players could power-game the system, but in return, I could stack the deck against them.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
08-25-2011, 06:10 PM | #44 |
Join Date: Jan 2011
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
Is there a way to simulate 100's of monsters without requiring 100's of attack rolls. Of the solutions I have seen, huge mobs seem the most satisfying but can be really time consuming.
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08-25-2011, 06:22 PM | #45 |
Join Date: May 2009
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
I think GURPS Horror has a rule for mobs of creatures. I can't remember everything, but their melee attacks used rate of fire and recoil in a similar way to ranged weapons.
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08-25-2011, 06:35 PM | #46 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
Yes, it;s an elaboration of similar rules in GURPS Supers. More fully fleshed out.
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08-25-2011, 07:50 PM | #47 |
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
You can also roll a bunch of 3d6 ahead of time and have them ready on a sheet. Cross off however many rolls you need, see if any are low enough to have an effect. The link in my sig has an excell file with around 3000p rolls that will fit on a 8.5 x 11. I printed it out and laminated it. Works great.
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08-25-2011, 07:57 PM | #48 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Caxias do Sul, Brazil
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
Could you post the character sheet or at least the number of CP the mage have?
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08-25-2011, 08:32 PM | #49 |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
More specifically, on the herding the retreating guy option:as a GM, I'm perfectly willing to have "I'll attack the next person who retreats into one of my front three hexes" be a valid Wait condition. Put a concealed opponent behind the dodger, wait for him to retreat into the threatened zone, and then the opponent strikes from behind:
No retreat bonus No shield bonus Penalty to Dodge from behind Possible penalty due to being attacked unawares. Cut off from future retreat routes. And, if you play with the common house rule that someone can Evaluate while waiting, throw that bonus in, too. Even better if the concealed grappler - in that case, it Waits until someone Retreats into the same hex, and the resulting Attack from behind quickly becomes Close Combat.
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08-26-2011, 09:27 AM | #50 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Dealing with high active defenses
The way I did it: Plonk a batch of monster counters on the hex map, forming a big, fluid "patch" that is the horde. Each turn, push the whole kaboodle toward the PCs at the monsters' Move, simply ignoring details like monsters stepping over/around other monsters or sidestepping, and which monster moves first. Creatures in a horde are interchangeable anyway. Once the monsters reach the PCs, have the big patch deform and flow around the PCs like water. Only roll dice for the monsters on the "front" that's actually touching the PCs. The others exist mostly to step in and replace downed ones, and should it matter, are assumed to have taken Move maneuvers. There's no need to have 100 counters (or whatever); just cycle the counters used for dead ones to the back of the horde.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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active defense, dodge, magic |
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