Oof.
As expected, the effort of moving snow yesterday shows this morning. Ow.
Our big battle with ye ol' baddies continued and concluded last night. Some highlights and lessons learned:
The most combat-heavy individuals of both sides went at it and mutually went down. Kashim (wolf lunar exalt, rawr) laid into their heavily armored warrior, tearing him up good and even popping his head off. In retributive form, said warrior exploded and sent Kashim into the realm of the would-be-dead-but-regenerating-slowly before starting to reform. I'm unclear on the death knight's ability to get back up after that, as simply being stomped on and separated from his head seemed to finish him off with no more actual damage dealt to him (that I'm aware of).
Alexandra shifted her attention to help with the enemy we knew - Tainted Whispers. Alexi and Auric kept her busy and battered, but were unable to get past a combo that allowed her to negate damage and regain essence. I'm not sure it's supposed to work that well, but I guess it is defeatable with much higher damage output than we could muster. Auric dodged heart removal this time due to strategic use of an artifact - good thinking, that. Alexandra really didn't become a target, but her charm use worked out well in that she was able to alternately distract Whispers (forcing, essentially, the loss of every other turn for her) and be prepared with a defensive charm. It worked out such that the only times it looked like Alexandra might be targetted, she was ready to defend.
We got lucky in that one of the death knights didn't feel like fighting and walked away. We let him.
Another launched a big flurry a Kujath (multi-form lunar, usually cute) and demonstrated the effectiveness of such things. I'm not quite sure how much essence he put into the attack, but Kujath dropped some 40 motes on non-perfect defenses and still ate enough damage to drop - though still alive. Technically, I don't think he was unconscious, but seriously messed up. Shortly thereafter, though, the death knight in question was finished off.
And their sorcerer (technically necromancer, I suppose) was good enough to demonstrate why casting in combat is usually very, very bad. Even "small" spells (which are rarely small) in Exalted take as long as an attack and recovery - essentially a full round for casting before they go off. In that time, the caster is basically defenseless - passive DVs go to 0 and they can't actively defend or use charms. A couple attacks, and he went down just about the time his spell would have gone off. ... Additionally, there are a few single-target damage spells, but most spells that deal damage do so in an area. If his had gone off, he might have killed everyone in the square except him - included Whispers, who was still alive at the time. How's that for friendship?
So with some luck and the advantage of surprise and numbers, our heroes carried the day, but Tainted Whispers survives until we can figure out how to remedy that. Ending the first story arc, the characters have a chance to recover and train a little. After a fight like that, it's hard not to go for a bit more combat effectiveness, and Alexandra's not where I want her in that regard yet anyway.
Our big battle with ye ol' baddies continued and concluded last night. Some highlights and lessons learned:
The most combat-heavy individuals of both sides went at it and mutually went down. Kashim (wolf lunar exalt, rawr) laid into their heavily armored warrior, tearing him up good and even popping his head off. In retributive form, said warrior exploded and sent Kashim into the realm of the would-be-dead-but-regenerating-slowly before starting to reform. I'm unclear on the death knight's ability to get back up after that, as simply being stomped on and separated from his head seemed to finish him off with no more actual damage dealt to him (that I'm aware of).
Alexandra shifted her attention to help with the enemy we knew - Tainted Whispers. Alexi and Auric kept her busy and battered, but were unable to get past a combo that allowed her to negate damage and regain essence. I'm not sure it's supposed to work that well, but I guess it is defeatable with much higher damage output than we could muster. Auric dodged heart removal this time due to strategic use of an artifact - good thinking, that. Alexandra really didn't become a target, but her charm use worked out well in that she was able to alternately distract Whispers (forcing, essentially, the loss of every other turn for her) and be prepared with a defensive charm. It worked out such that the only times it looked like Alexandra might be targetted, she was ready to defend.
We got lucky in that one of the death knights didn't feel like fighting and walked away. We let him.
Another launched a big flurry a Kujath (multi-form lunar, usually cute) and demonstrated the effectiveness of such things. I'm not quite sure how much essence he put into the attack, but Kujath dropped some 40 motes on non-perfect defenses and still ate enough damage to drop - though still alive. Technically, I don't think he was unconscious, but seriously messed up. Shortly thereafter, though, the death knight in question was finished off.
And their sorcerer (technically necromancer, I suppose) was good enough to demonstrate why casting in combat is usually very, very bad. Even "small" spells (which are rarely small) in Exalted take as long as an attack and recovery - essentially a full round for casting before they go off. In that time, the caster is basically defenseless - passive DVs go to 0 and they can't actively defend or use charms. A couple attacks, and he went down just about the time his spell would have gone off. ... Additionally, there are a few single-target damage spells, but most spells that deal damage do so in an area. If his had gone off, he might have killed everyone in the square except him - included Whispers, who was still alive at the time. How's that for friendship?
So with some luck and the advantage of surprise and numbers, our heroes carried the day, but Tainted Whispers survives until we can figure out how to remedy that. Ending the first story arc, the characters have a chance to recover and train a little. After a fight like that, it's hard not to go for a bit more combat effectiveness, and Alexandra's not where I want her in that regard yet anyway.
The Dusk Caste getting back up was from Tainted Whispers using her anima ability -- animate corpses. You'd seen it before. Other than that, yeah, the martial artist blew most of his Essence in the attack. My roomie had noticed that with Exalted combat, I tend to pull out the big guns in the first round.
ReplyDeleteTsk. I saw no such things. >.> Alexandra didn't follow Whispers when she fled through the woods after stealing Auric's heart the first time (which, I assume is what you are referring to). Now that you mention it, it makes some sense. When I saw it, I was just wondering "Damn, is he regenerating or something?" Heh. I figured that many attacks at bonuses that high had to be costly. Did he spend more or less than the 40 motes Kujath blew trying to dodge? 'course, even if it cost him more, it was arguably worth it to do that much damage. Which reminds me... the book actually says you don't pass out until your Inc health level is filled. Kujath was filled down through his -4, so... he was conscious, able to act, but at -4 then?
ReplyDeleteKujath was at -4, so he was still conscious. :)
ReplyDeleteStrangely, I went into things with a conservative approach. And with using a 5-mote charm every other turn, and stunting 2-dice almost every turn against someone who really wasn't avoiding the attacks, Alexandra ended up with more essence than she went in.
ReplyDelete