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[empfan]

Expect me to keep looting around for stuff to throw at him.

[Draignean]

Nah, I haven't run anything yet. I just feel slightly down about it for two reasons:

1. My combat system sucks. I've said this a lot, yeah, but that's because it's true. It's abysmally made. I need to find an alternative before I continue on or anything. It's just ugh. I want to thank Draignean for programming some macros for it, but the damn thing is so retarded that it just doesn't work.

2. This boss battle was supposed to be difficult, but frankly after his performance so far I'm thinking Friar Greenmoore alone could roflstomp this guy. By himself. With his bare hands. I just feel like an asshole being all like 'I'll throw you guys a difficult boss' and then the dice are like 'nope.png'. I mean... the fuggin' werewolf at the beginning of the RTD did about twenty times the amount of damage he's doing. Other people here who have GMed and tried to present a challenging boss will know what it's like when your encounter goes completely pear-shaped.

Are you open to suggestions?

[Draignean]

Blasted connection!

[SeriousConcentrate]

Sure, if you have any.

[Draignean]

Sure, if you have any.

Can't ever guarantee they're good, but I always have suggestions.  (As I said before, if it involves "Hang on for dear life", you can ignore it.)

Shuak, currently, is just a basic monster with a metric crapton health. He isn't really all that special, he has a tongue attack and a tentacle attack, but both are fairly minor. The players, on the other hand, are all badasses. The weakest of us has three class evos and ten skills going for us.

The combat system isn't broken, (at least, not that I can see) you just have to remember that this badass destroyed the world. His equivalent should be someone with five class evos and and 15 skills, at the least. The Malakai boss had 9 (I think) attacks per turn and summoning abilities, and he STILL went down without even killing anyone. Wolf has an ability that allows her four attacks per turn, and nearly everyone else can attack twice per turn. Shuak should be able to match the best of us, in any field.

In short, build him like a player. It's why I made villains in D22 after Hake went down without even knocking one of you unconscious. Players, or things that are built like players, will always have the most power in a game, because games are built to let the players win in the end.

 He should have evos that let him spit acidic bile, tongue attacks that automatically trigger a series of bite and chew attacks, health drain abilities, nifty little things that let him spawn out minature beasts of his own flesh that are basically toothy maws with tentacles attached. You know, beastly attacks that are sure to kill us in a couple minutes.

[SeriousConcentrate]

I may still do that, but I was hoping you had ideas for an alternate battle system. >.> As odd as it may sound I think I may try converting the Pokemon Tabletop Adventures system for this. I could probably treat the players like pokemon and have it work out fairly well, but I want at least Dwar and Tar to comment on the idea first, since they've played it before too. Of course I would have to make modifications (for example, in PTA there are Base Relations, which basically mean that the pokemon's stats have to remain in the same proportion to each other as they level; I would probably change that to just say no stat can be more than ten points higher than every other stat).

[Draignean]

I may still do that, but I was hoping you had ideas for an alternate battle system. >.>

Ah, well then... Hmm.

What part of your current system is causing you to desire its death? The system has, at least on the surface, seemed serviceable (if player biased) for the last couple hundred turns.

_{((Not an attempt to avoid working on the problems of my two RTDs  ))}

[SeriousConcentrate]

It takes about two to three hours to roll a turn of combat in post form if that tells you anything, given how much I have to look-up, cross reference, and roll again for. Essentially it's way too complex for how little it does. Rube Goldbergian, one might say.

[IronyOwl]

It takes about two to three hours to roll a turn of combat in post form if that tells you anything, given how much I have to look-up, cross reference, and roll again for. Essentially it's way too complex for how little it does. Rube Goldbergian, one might say.

Well, let's see... what's the process for each combatant, and what do you keep needing to look up or cross-reference?

[SeriousConcentrate]

I need to look up accuracy, take into account what the character's base accuracy for that attack is, what modifiers the weapon has, then I have to check the enemy's defense/movement if necessary. If the attack succeeds, I have to check the character's damage modifiers, their attack's damage modifiers, roll it, determine what the base dice the attack deals, roll those, roll extra dice, and add them up, then check for elemental resistances. Then I check for extra effects if a spell or other special attack, roll those, roll their duration, and finally make all the necessary adjustments to the Status section.

That's for one attack. Obviously it's a bit simpler if the character is making multiple attacks like Zathryan or Alora, since I only have to remember everything I just did until the next character's turn, but nevertheless by the end of the turn I'll have done that five to ten times for the party alone. Then I have to do it for the villains. :X

[IronyOwl]

Alright, so the steps per attack are:

[GET_ACCURACY]
[GET_BASE_ATTACK_ACCURACY]
[GET_WEAPON_ACCURACY_MODIFIERS]
[GET_ENEMY_(DEFENSE/MOVEMENT)]
[ROLL_TO_HIT]
 IF_ATTACK_HITS:
[GET_CHARACTER_DAMAGE_MODIFIERS]
[GET_ATTACK_DAMAGE_MODIFIERS]
[ROLL_DAMAGE_MODIFIERS]
[GET_ATTACK_BASE_DICE]
[ROLL_ATTACK_BASE_DICE]
[ROLL_EXTRA_DICE]
[ADD_DAMAGE_DICE]
[GET_ELEMENTAL_RESISTANCE]
[GET_EXTRA_ATTACK_EFFECTS]
[ROLL_EXTRA_ATTACK_EFFECTS]
[ROLL_EXTRA_ATTACK_EFFECTS_DURATIONS]
[APPLY_STATUS_CHANGES]

Does this look correct?

Assuming so, I guess my first question would be if you're using simpler, quicker, mainly-combat sheets for everyone, so you don't have to go back and check their main profile. A lot of your steps are just looking things up, after all.

I'll have to think a bit more on the rest.

[SeriousConcentrate]

The character statuses on the first page of the main thread are the combat-only sheets. :\

There's no need for this thread anymore, is there? I'm not even going to bump it with a new post.

[IronyOwl]

Ah. Well, that's your first problem. You need little combat thingies.

Like, for Claire, you'd probably want something like this:


Claire Rosara / IronyOwl
35/35 HP; -2 dmg
18/18 MP
+2 Defense
+4 Movement (+1 Climbing)
+2 Moroaica Cutlass (+4 Slashing; Major/Massive leech 1/2 health)
+2 Dual Barrel Pistol (Subweapon; Piercing; 2x)
+2 Wind Broom (Wind)
Kraken's Bullets: 1 MP, augment pistol shot; 50% chance for -2 defense on target for 1d4 rounds
Shark Tooth Necklace: 1 MP, augment any weapon; Ice damage type, 25% freeze chance

Still a bit complex, but certainly easier than normal, yes?

[wolfchild]

bump?