Dawn of Legends playtest scenarios (Inactive)

Game Master JamZilla

A playtest area for characters and homebrew rules for this superhero endeavour!

Hello everyone, looks like i'll start this off.

What i've been working on and what im showing you is a spirit bound hero. A deep need for revenge drew a anginet spirit(samurai master) to our hero and gave him his skills and gives him advice. Everything is down im happy somewhat im now just tweaking and happy to take advice while im sorting out his backstory points.

I also have a blaster in a metal suit. Having a little trouble with the kineticist side of the charter so it will take a little longer might have to do it on paper at the end of the day. Id also like to make some magic user like doctor strange/cloak.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks Ictoo!

So this guy is a human, out of interest where are his defensive resistances coming from? Is that a Spiritualist thing? I confess I'm not totally familiar with Occult classes

Do you gave Studied Target active in this stat block? There's a +1 damage I can't work out

Did you select 2 starting boons?

Also, shall we keep characters in discussion? So to keep things neat

Dot!

Scenario 1 - Basic Street Combat

This is a CR2 encounter so please use your level 1 versions

Round 1 - Heroes

The thugs are all armed with Beretta 92f pistols, clubs/knives and the one at the back with the blue halo has a Remington 870 shotgun

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So this is a tough one already, Melaina only has melee and 30' ranged attacks, and can't move to cover, eek!

Understanding that this gang of thugs wouldn't listen to reason, Melaina's feet leave the ground as she hovers just above the tarmac, before zooming towards the other side of the street, leaving a trail of disturbed litter and dust swirls.

She sees the thugs are holding those shiny things that like to spit out lead pellets, and turns her internal energies in to focusing on dodging those if they fire at her.

Move action for Martial Flexibility to pick up 'Deflect Arrows' for 1 minute

Move to H21 and pray Line of Sight works against the thugs! Let's see if she gets shot to pieces!

Status: hp 15/15, deflect arrows: 10 rounds remaining

This isn't going to be a normal gameplay thread, I am very happy for out of combat discussion of what is going on.

For instance, Melania are you saying that the starting range of this combat is what makes it difficult to begin with? It's a situation I can see coming up a lot.

Also, couldn't you double move behind the black car to I19? I appreciate that is a purely defensive action but it seems appropriate given you are facing five armed thugs.

Brock smashes his fists together as the thugs loom across the way. Sweeping his long black hair back into a functional ponytail, he smirks and cracks his neck from side to side. "Oh this is gonna be FUN!" With a laugh, he thumbs his nose and dashes forward, watchful for any gunfire until he can narrow the gap. Wind and dust kick up in his wake as he pushes of with his trailing foot and the monkey-like tail swishing behind him dances with excitement.

Can't see the map, as usual at the office, so I'm unclear as to what the intervening distance actually is. Regardless, Brock would spend his first action upping his defenses unless we were already in the thick of melee.

Standard: activate shield
Move: dash forward FIFTY feet - Brock is fast, yo!

Am I understanding shield correctly with regard to ballistic AC in that it's half as effective (+2 to Bal AC rather than +4)? If I'm misunderstanding that, then bear in mind my stats in the below summary are off.

That's something I wanted to discuss at some point anyway Brock. My first inclination is to say no since there are specific bullet protection - not least Bullet Shield. I'm aware that isn't on most people's spell list though but I'd be willing to just handwave that. Thoughts?

Coming from the simpler/familiar is better camp, I'd have the caster choose which AC the spell applies to at the time of casting ala protection from energy. That affords the caster some level of flexibility without punishing him or her for essentially not knowing two versions of every AC boosting spell.

Yup JZ, could have double moved to cover, probably should have either done that or else spent a round buffing, but wanted to close the gap. Plus at this low level, Melania is hotheaded and arrogant alien girl! She figures the tbugs don't pose a threat and figures her deflect feat will protect her on the off chance one is actually accurate!

As for shield, I like Brock's suggestion, after all not all 'plus AC' spells have bullet equivalents... Magic vestment for instance, so being able to select at time of casting might be good. After all there's usually a mix of gunplay and melee in any superhero fight scene! We shall see!!

No chance to post today guys, heading out all day and then seeing Civil War :)

All good JZ, my posting was on hiatus as saw Black Sabbath last night, ears still ringing 24 hours later ^.^

And no spoilers for Civil War! Hoping we can get a babysitter for next weekend!!

I'm a little unsure of the Ballistic AC too but i'll guess we'll see on JZ first go :P Im also not making a charter yet if that's ok.

Crimson dashes forward to cover, his right arm begins to glow as he charges up a blast. "Look out for the one at the back with the shotgun"

Moving to cover at I19 - I've also decided to get rid of my Elemental Annihilator archetype so unsure if it was worth it.

Sabbath, amazing!! Also, no danger of spoilers, I wouldn't dream of it. I will say, it's really awesome and everyone has really cool moments.

Blue, pistol, Crimson: 1d20 ⇒ 19 Miss

I'm happy for traditional spells to count for half against firearms for now, let's play it out

Crimson your ballistic AC is then 16 I think. Dex + half Mage Armor. You also get a +4 bonus for cover from blue

Crimson hears the whizz of the bullet passing by his head as he dashes to cover behind the black sedan.

Green, charge, Brock: 1d20 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 1 + 2 = 14 Miss

Over there, get 'em! shouts another, raising his pistol toward the onrushing Brock. It clicks with a jam and cursing loudly he throws it to one side, running forward with a flick-knife in his left hand.

He slashes at Brock but the hero dodges the clumsy thrust easily.

Orange, pistol, Brock: 1d20 ⇒ 1

A third thug hiding behind a van on the south side of the street rests his arm against it's hood, hoping to stabilise his aim but the cheap, russian-imported knock-off jams as well with an unsatisfying clunk.

Yellow, pistol, Melania: 1d20 ⇒ 18

Fire, you g*ddamned idiots! the shotgun-wielding thug shouts, running behind the van as he pumps shells into the Remingotn. The man beside him obliges, taking careful aim at the raven-haired girl at the back. To his utter amazement, she spins at the retort of the pistol and with reactions the like of which he has never seen, bats the bullet out of the air like it was a softball.

Round 2 - Heroes

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Brock drops into a wide stance, his arms bent and elbows pulled in to his ribs, and looses a low kiai that gradually builds. He bats the knife strike aside before following through by stepping in toward his opponent and throwing a heavy punch to the thug's gut. "Haaaaaaaa-AH!"
Punch (rage, power attack): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15for: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

If that drops the thug, Brock bolts to cover by dashing to the nearest car, somersaulting over the top with a single hand plant on the roof, and sticking a three-point landing on the other side in H16.

Brock bats aside the knife and draws back his fist. He drives it forward with more power than a heavyweight boxer and the man before him crumples to the ground, gasping desperately for air and writhing in agony, his knife and pistol skittering across the asphalt.

Cooly confident in her her skills protecting herself, and glad of the reinforced hand guard of her old Peacekeeper uniform, Midnight darts through the air at high speed, soaring over the cars and landing next to the thug with the blue bandanna, ready to punch his lights out.

Double move to H7

step to J19 gather power and blast P10

Crimson steps forward pointing his arm at the criminal hiding behind a car a lets loose a heated plasma bolt out at him.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7120 range touch attack i gather power so i could not take one burn
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Brock, I'm assuming you just moved around the car but in fluff text leapt over it? That's fine because it would have required an acrobatics check otherwise

Crimson unleashes a blast of superheated air toward the criminal behind the van. He ducks at the last moment and the plasma splashes over the van's hood, burning a hole through to the engine block.

Round 2 - Enemy

As Melania streaks through the air to land beside the thug in the blue bandana, he gasps in both wonder and fear.

W-what the Hell are you lady?

Nevertheless, having seen her deflect one bullet already, he launches into a series of punches. She blocks them one after the other but one sneaks through, revering the pistol to whip her across the temple with it.

Blue, Midnight: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

The two thugs behind the van continue taking pot shots at Crimson but he raises his armored hand and generates a field of dense gravitons that stop the bullets in their tracks.

Orange, Crimson: 1d20 ⇒ 10 Miss
Yellow, Crimson: 1d20 ⇒ 7 Miss

Red, Brock: 1d20 ⇒ 14 Miss

The barrel of the shotgun appears over the hood of the van, levelled at Brock. Seeing the danger, the hero turns and with a deft leap clears the car on the north side of the street just as the scatter-gun roars and sends dozens of pellets tearing through the metal of the car's door. It's alarm sounds and begins emitting a shrill screech in the street.

Round 3 - Heroes

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Midnight grimaces as the punch lands, rocking slightly, before glaring back at the thug.

My turn...

She focuses on sheathing her arm with energy and lashes out with her fist.

Move to gather power, standard to kinetic fist

kinetic fist: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
bledgeoning: 1d6 + 4 + 1 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 1 + (3) = 9

The thug ducks and Midnight's fist slams in to the ground, sending cracks spidering out for several meters.

Status: hp 14/16

Correct - I had enough movement to walk around, but a 3-panel jump sequence seemed cooler than walking =)

As soon as the car alarm begins blaring, Brock dashes into motion again, sprinting across the road. White arcs of dust spark behind him as he moves, arms pumping, as he puts all his weight into a heavy right cross to the man's jaw.

Should be able to get to M7

Punch (rage, power attack): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26for: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
crit?: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14for: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Crimson steps forward again as the others start to clear the street. His armor glowing with red light streaking up and down his body aiming his arm out again at the thug and lets loose a bolt of energy.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Brock, maptools shows that as being 55 feet away from you. So I'll switch your attack to an energy blast.

Brock charges across the asphalt, sparks blazing from his feet as he charges toward the thug behind the van and, gathering his power, delivers a massive punch that transforms into a bolt of burning energy, sending the man flying back some twenty feet and through the thin glass of a bus shelter.

Crimson unleashes his own bolt of energy that passes just past his target's head but the superheated air that accompanies it burns his neck and face.

Midnight continues to fight hand-to-hand with the thug to the north. She is clearly a more skilled fighter, blocking his haymakers and throwing her own counters but in her over-eagerness she swings a huge blow that the man side-steps in time to see it shatter the concrete of the sidewalk.

Round 3 - Enemy

1d20 ⇒ 11 Miss
1d20 ⇒ 12 Miss
1d20 ⇒ 4 Miss

All three of the thugs return to firing their weapons. Even at point blank range, Melania grabs the hem of her long peace-keeper uniform and sweeps it up before her like a shield. The bullet deforms on it's surface and drops harmlessly to the ground.

Similarly, Crimson's defensive shields hold steady, the cool steady voice of the AI that runs his suit casually informs him that their ...defensive capabilities remain at 87%

The shotgun wielder appears around the corner of the van and levels the thing at Brock. Operating solely on instinct, he grabs the door of the van and with his immense strength rips it from his hinges. The pellets smash into his make-shift shield and though he is showered with glass he suffers no injury.

Round 3 - Heroes

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Midnight's brow furrows and her eyes narrow as the thug continues his assault.

There is no respite wrongdoer, give up now and save yourself the pain!

She takes two ground-eating steps and sends her fist flying at his face

5 ft step to H5, move action to gather power

kinetic fist: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
bludgeoning: 1d6 + 4 + 1 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 1 + (1) = 7

Oh for goodness sake!

The thug ducks as Midnight swings, her gloved hand smashing into the side of the car and leaving a sizeable dent there.

Not letting the misses get to him he recalculates his tracking, then takes another step forward gathering power to his arm he aims then fires.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

There is a high pitched whine as Crimson charges his blasters before he releases the energy in a beam of concentrated gravitons that slams into the thug's chest like a cannonball. He is picked up from his feet and crashes against the wall, his pistol sent sliding across the sidewalk.

Casting the rent door aside with a smirk, Brock dashes forward in a blink and buries his fist in the shotgun toting thug's gut so deeply and with such speed that the thug is lifted from the ground briefly. When he comes back down a breath later, he sprays a mix of spittle and blood from his mouth as he crumples around Brock's hand.

Punch (rage, power attack): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26for: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
crit?: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13for an additional: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

Only blue remaining so I won't bother updating the map and he will probably miss anyway

Midnight: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14 Miss

He'll be done this round after one successful hit

.......

Well that wasn't so difficult :) Those were 5 commoners armed with guns equating to a challenge rating 2 encounter and you guys mashed them. They just couldn't hit your ballistic AC.

trying for pride now!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

o.O

ጥሩነት ወይኔ , እኔ አውሎ ወታደር ሆኖ እንደ ትክክለኛ አይደለሁም!

<Translation failed: Alien language parameters have overloaded the system with colloquial expressions...>

I feel like that had a bunch to do with the dice rolls. That shield extract of mine only spoiled one hit, the rest would have been misses even without it, and my attack rolls seemed pretty well on fire.

I was pretty worried about that shotgun fellow though.

I agree that luck of the dice has the greatest impact at low levels and that was shown here. After a strong start Midnight couldn’t land a glove on the thug she was fighting and his AC was poor. I guess that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

I suppose the question is how much of this would you like to do? I’ve been doing some number crunching at home and nothing about the guns scare me since it is actually quite easy to get a good AC against firearms with this system. Maybe when you come up against a super with levels in Gunslinger that might be different but for your average gangbanger on the street I think you guys could actually face quite a number, especially if making use of cover.

I know it was only one fight and you have a limited number of abilities to make use of at this stage, but did that feel ‘super?’ Or just a rehash?

Perhaps a scenario at level 6 would be appropriate as you would have far more powers at your disposal and also I could throw in a greater challenge to see how you got on – maybe a superpowered enemy and some ‘bots.

I agree with the luck aspect, it is more prevalent at lower levels for sure. I'd be happy keeping going, another scenario at a different level/CR would be fun :)

As you say, some of our abilities would have really taken off by level 6!

So by level 6... can our Bowling Alley base have a secret underground garage for Brock's motorcycle (he seems like a chopper kind of guy ;) plus maybe a rooftop landing pad/secret entrance for Crimson and midnight?!

Sure for the purposes of this. In a real game you could allocate resources points for that kindly thing and end up with your very own Baxter Building

I agree about the dice, As you saw from my awful dice rolling(the evil dice gods have followed me).

I also just don't think kineticist will add much in a fight, while i do have a lot of out of combat stuff I didn't feel like a hero hitting one person :P

We didnt seem to have any problem during that fight, I think level 6 combat with these heroes would shine a lot more light on my feels on the charter in combat too.

I love the idea of a landing pad :P

OK I'll prep a bad guy and map for level 6

I will put up a CR 7 challenge tonight so please prep your level 6 versions

Will there be any rounds of pre-prep for this? Can we assume abilities of a particular duration (10 min/lvl maybe?) are already in effect?

Let's go with buffs of minutes per level are in place as they would likely be at the end of a dungeon when you face a boss.

I seem to have temporarily lost the charger for my laptop somehow so I'll update asap

I have to confess - I thought Dantrian/Feral were complicated in the bookkeeping department. Brock here is WAAAAAAAAAAY more so!

With minute/level buffs active, that means Brock will have enlarge person, bull's strength, blur, shield, and his mutagen all up at the start of the fight. Oi vey. So many numbers get changed!

Well this testing stuff can only go so far. We are never going to smooth out every eventuality so at some point I guess we'll have to accept that wrinkles will occur and if anything gets out of hand we'll adjust it on the fly.

Right-o. Maybe give the boss the same concession though?

Oh yeah, he probably heard you coming, fighting through his goons and such.

For the purposes of this scenario the boss will be one of Spiderman's enemies; Kraven the Hunter

Scenario 2 - Boss Fight

You've had enough of this damned zoo. Ever since Spiderman told you Kraven the Hunter had seized the place and mind-controlled the animals within for his own dastardly schemes, you knew it wouldn't be easy to root him out.

Fighting off gorillas riding on the backs of elephants is something you aren't going to forget in a hurry, but having got here to the lion enclosure you finally come face to face with the man himself.

You seek to hunt me? he calls out. I am the Greatest Hunter Whoever Lived!

The cats beside him roar in agreement.

Did that web-headed cretin send you? No matter, he is the greatest prize and I will not rest until I have his head mounted on my wall... beside yours!

Let me know your initiative scores at level 6 please? Also, you need to gear yourselves up as you would with Automatic Bonus Progression and wealth from resource points - that is equal to 8,000gp. Bear in mind though that items that only grant a bonus to a single stat don't exist with automatic bonus progression. These are your typical belts of strength, rings or protection and so on and so forth.

OK so I have leveled Midnight to 6 and wow that's a lot of crunch! Am all done aside from spending that 8000gp those resource points, so can jump in whenever everyone else is ready :)

Midnight swoops down to land across from Kraven, tilting her head to the side.

Analysis of our long-range telemetry and archival database led me to believe you were taller...

she shrugs and waits for the rest of her team to arrive as she quickly scans the area for additional threats and hazards.

I was unhappy with the kineticist side of my hero(book keeping and i was always unsure of the class i wish it was more like the 3.5 warlock.) So i'm going to swap it out for sorcerer and i'll get a post tonight

Crimson lands with a thud his armor shimmering. He scans the room spotting the other creatures and then focus on Kraven. "Kraven we're here to stop you. Come along easy or we'll have to use force." He points his arm at the man, as it start to glow.

+10 int. Spells - Mage Armor, Shield, Barkskin, ant haul, cat's grace

That armour class is pretty sick Ictoo. Makes me a little worried actually. I'll need to take a look at Kraven and some level appropriate creatures to see just how crazy that is.

I guess it is an easily achievable AC for a plate-wearing, tower shield using fighter so maybe it is just my initial shock at seeing a number that high when I know in games we play together we never see AC in the high twenties even at levels 8+

Brock's Initiative is +6!

Brock lands beside Crimson, the ground cratering with his impact as he lands. Standing up slowly and towering over the armored man beside him, he cracks his neck first to the left, then to right. "Heh. I'm hoping you'll want us to use force."