Snow White and the ever diminishing dwarves.

[hcobb]

Here's my attempt at an equally abusive fighter to the super staff wizards.

One day Snow White asked her parents why they and her five brothers didn't have pointed ears, dark skin and hair as white as the fallen snow, save of course for the touch of white at the edges of her mother's hair and her father's beard.

They replied that this was because she was adopted.

Satisfied with this simple explanation she herded their alpaca flock out towards their mountain pastures. Along the way she passed her brothers tending to their potato and tobacco fields. They congratulated her when she used some thrown rocks to drive away wild kangaroos from their fields.

Up in the mountain pasture she takes out a wolf with a head shot from her ordinary dagger.

Later she finds her family slain by finely made black arrows with a strange Nordic script scrawled on the house walls. She grabs the set of fine daggers (with similar markings) that her father had kept hidden and made her way to the big city. She will meet up with the dwarves there and Dopey's assertion that they are not traveling with a disguised prince will remind Snow of one time she had overheard her parents talking about the true princess of a vast underground queendom in hiding. Which they then explained was an old fairy tale. Doc will find this story to be very interesting.

Snow White
ST 6, DX 16, IQ 10, MA 12
Dagger(1d-1, 1d-1 in HTH) (Carries five finely made daggers (+1 dam) on belt.)
Skills: Knife(1), Quick-Draw Dagger(1), Thrown Weapons(2), Alertness(2), Animal Handler(2), Climbing(1), Tracking(1)
Language and social knowledge: Common tongue and human farmland culture only.

Grumpy
St 10, DX 6(0), IQ 16, MA 10(6)
Staff of Power (1d, range two, auto-hit and ignores non-magical defenses)
Plate Armor(Stops 5 hits, -5 DX), Large Shield(Stops 2 hits, -1 DX)
Spells: Staff IV, Light, Aid, Meal, Reveal/Conceal, Pathfinder
Talents: Shield(1*2), Human tongue(1), Literacy(1), Alertness(2*2), Tactics(1*2)

[Chris Goodwin]

Grumpy's cave is the Wizard mapsheet. The obstacle megahexes are bottomless pits.

Sadly, Snow White is not abusive enough. Grumpy keeps moving 3 hexes and dodging. When Snow throws a dagger at him, and it misses, he picks it up and throws it in the pit.

[Chris Goodwin]

The way to take Grumpy out is with entangling weapons or spells. Lasso, bolas, net & trident, whip; Rope, Stop, Avert spells. The ever popular combo of Stop and Open Tunnel means Grumpy gets vaporized. AdjDX 0 means he auto-fails the save, and if he's Stopped he can't leave the hex anyway.

[RobW]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Here's my attempt at an equally abusive fighter to the super staff wizards.

I would suggest one of the Murderous Ninja Sniper Halflings (MNSH). TBH members of this clan are less abusive now that the racial bonus to thrown weapons has been dropped. Also listed here as a 32-pt character.

Snow White the MNSH
ST 4
DX 20
IQ 8
Talents: thrown weapons, sha-ken, quick draw, running

Her adjDX with sha-ken is 22.

If you are unarmored or lightly armored, she throws 12 sha-ken at you each turn (adjDX=14 exclusive of range penalties). You are looking at an average of about 7D-14 damage when three hexes away.

If you are heavily armored, you have a prayer and she considers two options.
(A) Use dagger/sha-ken marksmanship and aim at your weapon hand with a 3 sha-ken attack (adjDX = 14 exclusive of range). From three hexes away, this gives her about a 95% chance of disarming you, regardless of armor protection.
(B) Aim at your face with a 6 sha-ken attack (adjDX = 12 exclusive of range). This is a double-damage armor-penetrating attack. From 3 hexes away, you are looking at an average of about 7.5 damage. So she will need a little luck to knock you down or potentially even kill you in one turn. Two will do.

[Flavius Marcellus]

ITL Page 120, Aimed Shots, Dagger, Sha-Ken or Whip specifies "a single throwing star"

[larsdangly]

Thank you; that's how I thought it worked. I feel like most of the really crazy white-room arguments involve healthy doses of mistaken rulings and/or statistically unsound conclusions.

[RobW]

Yes thank you, I had read that rule to mean each attack is resolved individually (similar to the normal sha-ken rules), but I agree only one attack is a much more sensible interpretation for sha-ken marksmanship.

So yes, that means MNSHs can only destroy lightly/unarmored opponents, and lose to Grumpys.

[Chris Goodwin]

Draziw, a wizard

ST 9 DX 10 (10) IQ 13 MA 10 (10)

Spells: Magic Fist, Slow Movement, Aid, Avert, Fire, Lock/Knock, Reveal/Conceal, Reverse Missiles, Rope, Drain Strength, Repair, Open Tunnel

Talents: Literacy (1)

Armor: None. Weapons: None.

Draziw waits for Grumpy to enter mega-megahex range. Draziw casts Rope at Grumpy (Draziw now at 7 ST). Draziw rolls a 7; Grumpy is now tied up. As Grumpy's adjDX is below 2, he falls.

Draziw casts Drain Strength on Grumpy; Grumpy loses 5 ST, Draziw recovers 1. (Draziw at 8 ST, Grumpy at 5 ST)

Draziw casts Aid on Grumpy, aids him for 6 ST. (Draziw at 2 ST, Grumpy at 11 ST for 2 turns.)

Next turn, Draziw casts Drain Strength on Grumpy; drains 10 ST and recovers 2. (Draziw at 4 ST, Grumpy at 1 ST for 1 turn)

Next turn, Grumpy's Aided ST wears off. Grumpy now at -5 ST. Grumpy dies.

Huzzah! Grumpy's reign of terror has come to an end!

[RobW]

Can Grumpy still free-auto-strike with his staff even when held helpless by a Rope?

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by RobW

Can Grumpy still free-auto-strike with his staff even when held helpless by a Rope?

ITL p.26 "This staff is immune to Drop Weapon and Break Weapon spells and critical failures."

You can't get the staff out of Grumpy's greedy hands with magic?