[projectaon] Re: Book 13 Erratum
- From: Amarande <amarande@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:29 -0400
On 5/7/2012 12:19 PM, David Davis wrote:
Ben are you not confusing two things there?
It's just that when you say "because at a minimum they had to use
Helshezag to fight Darklord Gnaag and probably lost a hefty amount of
EP that way" that makes me think you're not restoring your EPs to the
original level at the end of the book, before carrying them forward to
the next?
The official updated ruling, as reflected in the Mongoose editions, was
that the per-round EP loss as a result of Helshezag's "evil drain"
effect is /permanent/. So you'd get back your EP from actual battle
damage (yeah, this is a bit of fridge logic too, seeing that Gnaag and
Nadazgada are made of the /same /evil stuff as Helshezag, but ...
gameplay's sake!), but not the EP from the per-round loss, and the fight
with Gnaag is long: he has 70 EP and your Combat Ratio is bad, let's see:
* starting 19 CS (if you even made it this far, you /probably /have this)
* +5 from the Lore-circles, assuming you chose all the ones that benefit
CS (you probably haven't made it this far if you haven't)
* +6 from potion (I seem to remember there is an Adgana available in
book 12 so you at least have that choice).
* +6 from Archmaster Psi-Surge (to which Gnaag is not immune)
* +12 special bonus from using a Darklord weapon in this specific battle
* +4 from Weaponmastery
* +2 from a Shield (only if you started with book 5, if you started with
Magnakai you don't have this, as the Shield stopped being offered after
the Kai series)
Thus, the /maximum /possible Combat Skill you can have against Gnaag if
you are in the must-use-Helshezag book situation is either 55 (if you
started with book 5) or 53 (if you started with the Magnakai). Thus your
best possible Combat Ratio is +5 or +3; there is, as far as I know, no
possibility at all of a +7 or better CR, so there is no chance to
auto-kill Gnaag and you must burn through his enormous Endurance pool.
Thus, assuming you made all the best decisions towards your Combat Skill
for this particular fight, you'll be fighting on the +5 column at best
(19 CS roll, have Shield), the -6 column at worst (10 CS roll, don't
have Shield).
Here are, thus, interesting numbers:
Best possible defeat time for Gnaag, starting with book 5: 4 rounds
Best possible defeat time for Gnaag starting with the Magnakai books
only: 5 rounds
Average defeat time with best book 5-12 stats (19CS, with Shield): 7
rounds (+5 CR = 11.1 mean damage output per round)
Average defeat time with best Magnakai-only stats (19CS, without
Shield): 8 rounds (+3 CR = 9.8 mean damage output per round)
Best possible defeat time in worst case scenario (i.e., 10CS, without
Shield): 8 rounds
In other words, you're losing at least 3 EP for good no matter what, and
may be doomed to lose at least /7 /(if you began with The Kingdoms of
Terror with a roll of 10 CS, you /will /be entering the Grand Master
series with at least that much shaved off the top end of your EP).
Mind you, it's not like it makes that much of a difference in the end,
since you'll be forced to use Helshezag many more times during books
13-16 if you don't want to die left right and centre upon the enemies
that Dever throws at us in the Grand Master series where sometimes even
"random encounters" can be tougher than Gnaag (3 Ruel Giganite,
anyone?). By the time you lose Helshezag in book 16 you might even see
your maximum Endurance nosedive into the single digits (it /is /probably
possible in books 12-15 to actually finish the book with an unusable
Lone Wolf - I think there are times where you are forced to take 3 or
more points of damage, and even with the small per-book boosts in the
Grand Master series, you can technically find yourself with a maximum
Endurance score of 3 - i.e., 1 point left after wasting health on
Helshezag + 2 fresh points for the new book ...). Ouch.
And that's not even minding the fact that you realistically aren't going
to make it after you lose Helshezag either even if you kept costs down
to a minimum - book 17 will probably take care of that for you even with
a new book 13 Lone Wolf with the higher starting stats and no Helshezag
loss, and you've got books 18 and 19 to look forward too before you see
another magical weapon again (Skarn-ska in book 20).
I guess it just comes down to "ouch."
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