"I managed to contribute slightly to the defeat of our foe in the combat of the evening, even dealing the finishing blow. This was actually too bad, since another player was all set to start beating on the giant robot with its own severed leg before I incapacitated the thing, and that would have been pretty cool."
I'd probably have missed anyway, leading to further beatings. The extra high variability introduced by using D20 makes it hard to expect even seriously cool moves to work out well. And technically all my combat skill ranks are in "unarmed combat", which might not count towards mecha leg attacks - though I hope M. wouldn't have ruled that way.
I think you contributed more than slightly - with ten points of armor, your chi blasts are hitting for a straight 1d8 each against it. Bill's single attack does 2d8+11, which against the armor is effectively 2d8+1 - so if you hit three times you're doing somewhat more damage per attack sequence than I am. And since each defence is 2 points harder to block than the previous one, multiple small attacks hit more often overall. With the bad guy rolling at -0, -2, -4 to avoid them, it's mathematically the same as one attack for 3d8 with him rolling at -2. Over long enough for the averages to come into play, anyway.
I don't know what your to hit bonus is with the chi blast, but if it's the same as Bill's with the claws (+5 or +6, I think) you average a bit more damage per round - Bill's raw damage averages 10 points after armor, while yours averages 13.5 after armor. Before the net Plus giving everyone else a better chance to hit due to forcing the thing to dodge more attacks - though there's not much glory in that.
Part of the problem (if there is a problem) might just be that the chi blasts don't lend themselves as much to wacky stunts as being the big brick does. Same problem I have with archery in Exalted.
Anyway, I just didn't want you to feel useless just because of my glory-hounding ways.
"I keep wishing I'd taken ranks of Diplomacy or some other social skill. I really envisioned my character, Arkady, as being a bit more talkative than many of my other characters, but there's nothing to really back that up in his stats."
Bill's got some ranks in Diplomacy, but we'll see if I ever get a good chance to use it. Part of that whole "nice guy when he's not tearing things apart" schtick.
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Date: 2003-08-29 08:41 am (UTC)I'd probably have missed anyway, leading to further beatings. The extra high variability introduced by using D20 makes it hard to expect even seriously cool moves to work out well. And technically all my combat skill ranks are in "unarmed combat", which might not count towards mecha leg attacks - though I hope M. wouldn't have ruled that way.
I think you contributed more than slightly - with ten points of armor, your chi blasts are hitting for a straight 1d8 each against it. Bill's single attack does 2d8+11, which against the armor is effectively 2d8+1 - so if you hit three times you're doing somewhat more damage per attack sequence than I am. And since each defence is 2 points harder to block than the previous one, multiple small attacks hit more often overall. With the bad guy rolling at -0, -2, -4 to avoid them, it's mathematically the same as one attack for 3d8 with him rolling at -2. Over long enough for the averages to come into play, anyway.
I don't know what your to hit bonus is with the chi blast, but if it's the same as Bill's with the claws (+5 or +6, I think) you average a bit more damage per round - Bill's raw damage averages 10 points after armor, while yours averages 13.5 after armor. Before the net Plus giving everyone else a better chance to hit due to forcing the thing to dodge more attacks - though there's not much glory in that.
Part of the problem (if there is a problem) might just be that the chi blasts don't lend themselves as much to wacky stunts as being the big brick does. Same problem I have with archery in Exalted.
Anyway, I just didn't want you to feel useless just because of my glory-hounding ways.
"I keep wishing I'd taken ranks of Diplomacy or some other social skill. I really envisioned my character, Arkady, as being a bit more talkative than many of my other characters, but there's nothing to really back that up in his stats."
Bill's got some ranks in Diplomacy, but we'll see if I ever get a good chance to use it. Part of that whole "nice guy when he's not tearing things apart" schtick.