Tomorrow we'll resolve the fight with the giant brothers.
- Honestly, I was a bit soft. I tried to incapacitate two PCs instead of killing one for certain. And for experienced fighters, it's the swashbuckler not the knight. How do you know it's a swashbuckler? Because he's got a pair of longswords and no shield, heavy torso armor and little else, and runs headlong into a fight and attacks a whole bunch of times?
Anyway, I was soft. Let's see if I can bail it out for the brothers after that mis-step. After all, in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, it's incredibly easy to spring back from anything that isn't either instantly fatal or that lops off a limb. I may seem mean, but look at this way - the PCs busted into these guy's home looking for money. They'd cheerfully slaughter them and then justify it later. Once they realized these guys are dangerous, they started to say, geez, we should ally with these guys. As soon as the tide turns, they'll kill them all, sparing none, and refuse to negotiate . . . then loot everything, sell their bodies for parts if they can, ttry to make bows out of the teeth from the dragon skull even though you can't do that, and summon and interrogate their spirits. So let's not make the NPCs out to be worse than the PCs here.
- I still haven't done this up as a battle map. I can't express how much time that takes me, and how much time per player turn of combat this adds to the time. People really do take extra time to determine every single hex and the value of going there. They really do try to find a way to magically face two directions at once. They work strenuously to get a flank on a foe in a situation they'd claim was unrealistic to be flanked in as a PC. It adds a huge amount of time. If I put up a map, I'd expect the fight to take the entire session at least..
- The giants go first next turn, a lesson I'd learned in the past for split fights. XP will be for one delve. The fun will be for two . . . and the we're off for a number of weeks!
- If and when the PCs win, will they push their luck? They keep talking about the dragon but also keep ducking it, and keep talking about Sakatha's island but also keep ducking that, too. What next if they pull this off?
"Honestly, I was a bit soft. I tried to incapacitate two PCs instead of killing one for certain."
ReplyDeleteFrom the Giants' POV, isn't that the smart call? Or do they have bloodlust?
From the giant's POV, bloodlust or not, it's a foolish call to try to just hit someone hard enough to take them out. Barring a dismemberment or death, a foe with access to external healing sources is always a threat.
DeleteCase in point, the Lord of Spite beat Mild Bruce down with enough damage to kill several 10 HP humans. He left off for a variety of reasons, Mild Bruce got free of a grapple, and healed himself all the way up to full in a matter of seconds thanks to his friends and his healing potions and got back into being a big threat to the LoS. Same here - Aldwyn and Wyatt both took tremendous hits. Neither of them reduced their value as combatants. An NPC familiar with lavishly equipped delvers should know that any delver with a friendly cleric that isn't dead is still an immediate threat. Knocked out? Awaken. 1 HP away from -5xHP? Full parry, full combat skill, full Block. GURPS PCs are hard to kill, DF delvers even more so, and DF delvers are potentially lethal until they're dead and/or dismembered. Fighting to disable or knock out instead of focusing on taking foes completely out of contention is fighting to lose.
This is also why I warn players not to try to make their characters incapable of defeat until death . . . because then experienced foes will fight to kill.
This is a very good point. The giants were pretty smart. We got lucky that they didn't just focus 100% on one guy at a time--six attacks, take him out, then six attacks on the next guy, etc. I would think that most giants have overconfidence on some level--how could they not? So maybe they figured they didn't need to take those guys out. Or they assumed that getting rid of the casters first was the #1 priority, which actually was a decent idea, but they didn't know about Gerry (and couldn't see him). And they probably didn't realize that Wyatt would have Walk on Air and has so many attacks per round until too late, really.
DeleteRelated: As a result of his second death experience, Ulf is going to start pestering Gerry for invisibility and/or buying invisibility spell stones if they are capable of being ordered. He just is too squishy with DR 5 to do much offensively against things that do this much damage. Lower point stuff that does 2d+ something? OK, yeah, maybe with: (1) Heroic Grace in effect, (2) casting Shield on himself; and (3) casting Might on Himself, he might be able to mop things up as needed, but clearly that is not the best use of his talents. And against giants doing 7d+11? Yeah, he should have been NOWHERE NEAR THEM at any time. He took a big risk with the giants, hoping he would divert some attacks (with the intent of keeping the only folks who could realistically injure the giants alive), but it was, in retrospect, a bad gamble (although some of that is judging the decision on the outcome; had he made the first two defenses--the second missed by one!--he would have been in better shape). But he should have cast Shield +4 or better on himself before he ever pulled out that wand. Or, frankly, he really should have pulled out his 10 major healing spell components and then deciding to cast Major Healing on Aldwyn the next round. But he might have been dead by then.
Anyhow, the goal for Ulf is to be, really, almost exclusively a healer and buffer, and trying to do that while invisible as often as he can.
It wasn't Overconfidence, it was just a tactical error. They massed up attacks when they could after that.
DeleteI think Ulf's move was an error, too - judging by the outcome I get, but look at the outcome for Galen (no where near melee range) and Gerry (rarely in melee range, never while visible for more than a split-second, and he moved to make it harder to guess where he was). The guys who took risks died.
Shield is a good choice. I suspect we'll start seeing guys not going near melee without an effective Dodge of 13 before Retreat, 16 with, which I'm not looking forward to. The real answer is don't be melee range if you're not a melee fighter. Better to cast at a high penalty and fail than cast at a low penalty and risk being killed to do it.