Re: Zilean's Revenge (Part 3)

Zarhon Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:29 pm

Ramsus wrote:Also, it kinda doesn't matter what our HP is at, even if someone is KOed since the fight will be over once we kill it.

Well, the KO'd person would still be KO'd until one of you recovers them (which may pose a problem if your designated healer happens to be the one KO'd).

It's not a problem in this discreet store-room, especially since you're about to have an extended rest, but in a less secure location, or under pressure of time/threats...

Kris_The_Guest wrote:Today, with the help of a friend, I realized something. I am leaving because I am not having fun. I have fun playing Pokemon. I have fun playing games by Atlus. I do not have fun here. Good bye.

Huh, really don't know what to say. Sorry to hear that you feel that way, Kris. Did my best to keep everyone entertained, but I guess it wasn't enough. Been nice having you as a player, and may you have fortune and fun elsewhere.

I'll have to retire Rabiah after the fight, then.

Since it's currently Rabiah's turn in combat... Should I control her turns, or does someone else want to? Or should I just have her leave combat?

Ramsus Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:51 pm

I say go ahead and control her turn. If it results in her taking damage or even getting KOed it'd be a good excuse for why the character leaves I guess.

Broken Logic Fri Jun 14, 2013 10:50 pm

Kris_The_Guest wrote:Today, with the help of a friend, I realized something. I am leaving because I am not having fun. I have fun playing Pokemon. I have fun playing games by Atlus. I do not have fun here.

Good bye.

That's too bad. There's really no point unless your having fun. It's probably for the best, if it's not doing it for you. Thanks for giving it another shot, though.

Zarhon Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:14 pm

Ramsus wrote:I say go ahead and control her turn. If it results in her taking damage or even getting KOed it'd be a good excuse for why the character leaves I guess.

According to her last combat post, she has zero Pips, so I'll just use a "Strength of Stone".

Rabiah swoops in with her axe, empowered by her earthen protection, and lands a decent blow against the armor!

Rabiah's turn:

New round initiative order:
Rolf <-- next
Horizon
Jeraylia
Zthulan
Koras
Skitter
SOA2
Rabiah

Rolf's turn now.

Lyntermas Sat Jun 15, 2013 1:44 am

Rolf puts up a shield spell while he tries to recuperate from the armor's attack.

Combat:

Stats:

A1C Bronymous Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:28 am

Well I guess it doesn't have a Save Ends, so...

Horizon just kind of holds back and watches as the first armor ignores him and nearly cripples Rolf and Zthulan, and then proceeds to quit. Changing gears, he focuses now on the second.

[spoiler]
Standard Action, Gather Energy
Minor Action, talent swap Furious Rage for Open Options. Milk that combo.

HP: 20, Pips: 2, Status: None

Zarhon Sat Jun 15, 2013 11:41 am

Bronymous wrote:Well I guess it doesn't have a Save Ends, so...

Actually, I think it still has "Mocking Melody" (save ends), from before it was dominated. In fact, it should have been given a save during the dominated turn. Doing it now...

d20 = 4

Yep, SOA2 still has mocking melody (save ends) on it. Want to edit your move, Brony, or...?

A1C Bronymous Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:12 pm

Psh... nah. Rechecking my pips and talents I don't have any other viable options as of yet anyway.

Broken Logic Sat Jun 15, 2013 6:52 pm

Jeraylia rushed to Zthulan's side and helped the dragonborn up. She eyed the final armour warily as it stood, but struck at it nonetheless.

Combat:

Summary: SOA2 takes 1 damage (ohyeah!) before resist/vuln. Zthulan gets 5 temps.

Jeraylia:

Zarhon Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:12 pm

The suit of armor shifts into what can only be described as a 'macho' pose, demonstrating the lack of harm to its steely, polished chestpiece to Jeraylia and 'flexing' its arms.

It also appears to now have a rose in it's helmet's mouth-guard.

(Nothing happened combat wise)

Zthulan's turn now.

Azarune Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:57 pm

Shaking the stars from his eyes Zthulan stumbles momentarily before collapsing both hands together as if holding a large sphere. In his mind's eye he can see elemental energies collecting until using his left hand to bring the orb above his head. The released energy snakes outwards to himself and his allies, leaving them feeling restored of some energy.

Healbot FTW

Combat:

Status:

Zarhon Sat Jun 15, 2013 11:03 pm

That's 1 damage, actually. It has 3 resist due to "Heavy Metal".

Skitter, your up.

Ramsus Sat Jun 15, 2013 11:33 pm

Skitter sends the regular kind of shadow slash at the walking armor this time.

Combat Data:

Zarhon Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:39 am

Alright, this one is a whooper of an action (SOA2's, then Rabiah's, then a interrupt trigger). It might have an error somewhere.

The armor once again does a powerful stomp, unbalancing several of the combatants, and then does something strange indeed: Like its partner, it sets aside its halberd, but rather than rush after one of the intruders, it merely put its metallic gloves up, assuming what can only be described as a fisticuffs pose.

SOA2' turn:

Rabiah's Turn:

Rabiah channels power into her axe, charging at the armor. She is surprised, however, as her axe is stopped mid-swing - the armor grabbed the blade with one arm, slamed it aside, into the floor, and finally punched a powerful, painful blow into her gut with a metallic fist, leaving her stunned!

SOA2 interrupt:

Rabiah's Move, continued:

New round!

Note: - As far as "Iron Will" goes, since Rabiah wasn't stunned at start of her turn, but rather used her ability, and then got stunned from the interrupt, she didn't get to use "start-of-turn" extra roll "Iron Will" provides.
- "Counterguard Stance" was a [-pip] move that cost more than the suplex, and wasn't available to use before (due to not enough pips and the stun-acting-like-daze effect), for the dominated turn.

Initiative:
Rolf <- Next
Horizon - vuln3 (save ends)
Jeraylia - vuln3 (save ends)
Zthulan - vuln3 (save ends)
Koras
Skitter
SOA2 - Skipping next turn (apart from save ends)
Rabiah - Stunned (Iron Will may apply)

Take it away, Rolf.

Lyntermas Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:08 am

Rolf decides to shield himself a bit more, to gather energy to summon "reinforcements"...or at least be able to counterattack if the suit tries anything again.

Combat:

Stats:

Ramsus Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:20 am

You get/lose pips even when your combat talents fizzle, so Rabiah would get the pips there. Yeah, Iron Will's "start of turn" doesn't apply since it's the middle of her turn and not the start.

A1C Bronymous Sun Jun 16, 2013 5:13 am

Horizon takes a moment to gauge the armor's newly adopted fighting style. It seemed to him to be a rather comical challenger, and he accepted, sheathing his weapon and renewing his attack. He closed in, swiping past its defensive stance and delivering two heavy blows to its torso, dropping to sweep the legs, and finishing with a jump and kick while its off balance.

Spoiler:

Broken Logic Sun Jun 16, 2013 5:52 am

Woah, nice hit, Bronymous. I think I'll wait for Zarhon's response to tell us if it went down (I'm guessing/hoping it did).

Zarhon Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:49 pm

Impressive!

I have REALLY bad news for you though - SOA2 can still use the "Counter-Strike" against that (among other things. "Counterguard Stance" is SOA's ace card - I'll show you its full stats after the battle is over).

And depending on how the crit triggering would work in relation to the interrupting stun, it would either cancel the crit/attack outright, and stun+damage you like it did Rabiah, or... Have it activate, stun you to prevent its damage, and then potentially KO/defeat/murder you via dealing double-damage (at the cost of suffering from double damage from Brony's stuff, for the rest of the fight). Embarassed

Now I realize this is pretty terrible, which is why I'm contemplating whether to:

a) give you a freebie (cause that *is* a pretty impressive attack) by nerfing the "Counter-Strike" into being 1/round and not having it happen (it has a slightly different limitation normally).
b) stick to the rules and have your damage+crit stopped.
c) stick to the rules, have the damage stopped, but have the crit happen, risking a KO/defeat/kill, but letting you keep double damage against it (from which I think you can still actually benefit, via your "react-if-KO'd" stuff, assuming you don't get killed).
d) let you retcon/delay your actions (since you could have seen the interrupt happening, via it happening to Rabiah and knowing exactly what the trigger was. A bit surprised why you did it in the first place, to be frank) until there's a more "favorable" time to use the combo (when it can't use "counter-strike", via the previously mentioned limitation).
e) let you use your "Boomstick" to make the attack "multi-target" by technicality (I'm not sure whether this actually works, but I'll pretend it does for this case) and thus make the trigger for the interrupt not apply (this comes at an entirely different effect happening, however, which might still lead to a KO, depending on whether the crit double damage applies or not, and how lucky you are).

What does everyone want me to do / Brony want me to do? Question

To make it perfectly clear, the damage Brony would do isn't enough to KO the Armor - more would be needed (but not much - it was already bloodied before this). And keep in mind, rest of you can probably "interrupt the interrupt" and/or use your other emergency stuff, so someone might be able to counteract the effects it does on Horizon in some weird time schenanigans way.

Ramsus Sun Jun 16, 2013 3:07 pm

I'm pretty sure that the stun interrupt would cancel the crit as it cancels the roll that triggered it. I don't really have an strong opinion one way or the other though. On the one hand that counter is pretty friggin cheap, on the other Bronymous just saw it do the exact same thing so doesn't really have an excuse for not knowing better. You mentioned it has a thing it does to multitarget attacks too and enough HP that even if that move weren't interrupted in any way that it still wouldn't be dead. I'm not entirely sure how we're supposed to kill it at this point aside from hope it voluntarily exits the stance. The issue with that is that since you stated it's like a conjured weapon is that if it does so, based on the damage it's already doing for other stuff, it'll probably wipe out most of the party.

Edit: It would help things in the future if you actually told us when things become bloodied. Then we would have been able to properly gauge how much HP these things have and plan accordingly.

Zarhon Sun Jun 16, 2013 4:34 pm

Ramsus wrote:You mentioned it has a thing it does to multitarget attacks too.

That assumption is not quite right... You'll see what I mean, if the ability that would trigger from doing e) happens. It has a rather 'unique' drawback, that shouldn't bother Horizon too much - unless he is KO'd, that is. If that happens, I now realize, it might actually be a bit worse. I think I'll have to alter that one slightly...

Ramsus wrote:I'm not entirely sure how we're supposed to kill it at this point aside from hope it voluntarily exits the stance.

The stance is indeed powerful, but it does have a limitation, (one which was already stated, and one which becomes very obvious with full context), plus, it doesn't last forever (it loses it automatically when it's able to do its normal turns again, which is on the turn after its next one). There are certainly ways of going around it, even if they are few.

Ramsus wrote:Edit: It would help things in the future if you actually told us when things become bloodied. Then we would have been able to properly gauge how much HP these things have and plan accordingly.

Yeah, I forgot about the bloodied bit. Though you can use its trait specifics as a gauge as well.

A1C Bronymous Sun Jun 16, 2013 7:09 pm

Well here's what I know; according to the handbook/rules the Crit activates and resolves before the talent that activates it, so if the attack "hitting", or the damage, is what triggers the counter, then the crit should still activate. If just declaring the attack triggers it, and the counter cancels the attack and therefore the roll, then I guess the crit would be negated.

Honestly, its your call. As long as the 36 damage isn't returned (and possibly doubled due to the crit's effect, therefore killing me) then I'm ok with the outcome. I didn't consider that he could use the counter again immediately. IF taking 72 damage is about to happen, then I would request to retcon activating the crit, and just throw the 18 damage. Then if I do eat it (and the counter counts as an "attack"), I can maybe throw my own reaction back at it.

So basically, is it possibly going to kill me? If not, then do as you will.

Zarhon Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:18 pm

Who said it reflects your attack?

Counter-Strike - Interrupt Attack
Trigger: An enemy targets you with a single-target damaging ability.
Effect: Stun the enemy (save ends), and deal 1d12+6 damage.

It stuns you (meaning your 36 damage doesn't happen to SOA2) and deals 1d12 + 6 damage, which, if the crit effect is active, is then doubled against you. I'm going to roll the damage to see what we get....

Without crit:
1d12 = 9 + 6 = 15 damage

With crit:
15 x 2 = 30 damage

End result would be: Horizon gets stunned (save ends), doesn't do his 36 damage to SOA2 (loses 3 PiPs from "Furious Rage", but not from "Where It Hurts" since stun prevented it happening), and takes either 15 (no crit activated) or 30 (crit activated) damage.

So, with crit, or without? If it's as you say, then my choice of wording made it not crit, but I'll let you decide.

A1C Bronymous Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:45 pm

I couldn't be sure what kind of things might happen or what traits/other talents it could have, so I just wanted to be sure there was no way I was getting killed.
That says stun me before I attack, so in real time the roll wouldn't happen, so the crit wouldn't happen. So no crit, I take 15+3 vulnerability and am stunned. BUT since this is all on my turn, I get to roll save ends for the stun: 1.

HP: 7, Pips: 2, Status: Stunned, Vuln 3

Zarhon Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:01 pm

Alright then, that's what happens then, pretty much.

Much like with Rabiah, the suit of armor anticipates Horizon's attack, parrying it with its steel fists, then countering it with a speedy punch and helmet-butt combo.

Jeraylia's turn now.

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