Epic Battles

[Glorelendil]

Rather than hijack the "Enemies as Groups" thread (any more) I thought I'd start this one.

I wrote a simulator to test out my idea about weak enemies missing their turns while fighting strong heroes. I tested out a couple different heroes fighting against waves of Orc Guards and Orc Soldiers.

My best so far (out of two builds) is a Barding with 5 Body, 5 sword, 5 valour, 4 Wits, Swordsman, Resilience, Mail Shirt, Great Shield, and a Fell, Keen, Grievous Great Sword. Fighting in defensive stance of course.

The rules were:
- 3 Orcs can engage at a time
- When one dies, another takes its place but not till the next round
- The Hero always attacks an injured Adversary, if there is one
- Adversaries can only attack if they roll higher than (hero valour - adversary attribute level)

Against Orc Soldiers he averages about 30 kills before he succumbs, and against Orc Guards it's about 17.

I don't have rules in the sim for called shots yet (Adversaries attempt called shots when Heroes roll eyes, but Heroes can't yet use them) but I wonder if an elf with really high parry making called shots with a spear every round would be the most effective yet.

EDIT: The more I think about this, the more I think something along these lines could be the perfect House Rule for those who want TOR heroes to be a little more bad-ass. The biggest drag on power-scaling is that heroes don't really become much tougher as they gain experience. Their ability to cause damage scales much faster than their ability to take it. Increasing Parry only has so much effect, because not only do Eyes always hit but they always cause Pierces, too.

[zedturtle]

It's interesting, but I'm not sure that I want to running a combat for a group of heroes that can manage 30 orcs each. That's a lot of rolling... I'd rather give some sort of automatic ability (spend a point of Hope to vanquish any foes that you're engaged with, if their Attribute Levels are lower than your Valour, that sort of thing).

[Glorelendil]

Totally fair, but the purpose of the test was mostly to see what a "fair" matchup might look like. I don't think you'd ever actually throw 30 Orc Soldiers at a hero, but it's useful to know what the limit is in terms of calibrating fights.

[jamesrbrown]

I don't think you'd ever actually throw 30 Orc Soldiers at a hero...

I have a couple of players who would beg for this. Lol.

[Scrollreader]

Are you just using the Mattock as your Great Sword? Or did I miss a step somewhere?

EDIT: No, he has a great shield. A longsword for the Swordmaster benefit, then?

[Scrollreader]

If you are interested in trying the Elf, might I recommend a Made in Anvil Way, Fell Spear? The reroll seems pretty potent with the ability of spears and bows on called shots.