"Necessary Evil" - supervillains save the world!

Game Master ZenFox42

Champion must be adapting to Enkidu's attacks, because he manages to twist and turn out of their way.

Will post Champion's attack tomorrow...

Champion's laser eyes focus on Enkidu, since he's currently the primary threat :

Shooting & Wild: 1d12 ⇒ 51d6 ⇒ 6

Which just barely hits, doing

Damage: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 5, 6) = 14
ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 6
ACE! ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 6 OMG...
ACE! ACE! ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 1 = 27, 2 Wounds

Seeing the bubble of darkness on the ground disappear, he targets...

Who?: 1d2 ⇒ 1 Alphabetically, that's Flare.

Shooting & Wild: 1d12 ⇒ 121d6 ⇒ 1
ACE!: 1d12 ⇒ 2 = 14, Raise

Doing

Damage+Raise: 4d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 6, 1) + (1) = 14
ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 4 = 18, 1 Wound

Everyone gets 2 Bennies for fighting the good fight.

Round 4
Paradigm : JH
Flare : 6S
Enkidu : 5S
Champion : 5H

Everyone is up again, in any order!

Flare will attempt to overcome the Shaken effect.

Spirit roll: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Okay, spending a benny to overcome it.

Shaking off the effects of Champion's blast, Flare scowls and regroups. She blasts Champion with another shot (this time not attempting to go for the eyes).

Shooting: 1d12 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 wild: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Damage: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 3, 5) = 11

That puts me up to four bennies I believe.

Seeing that his power was able to get through, Paradigm focuses the beam more intensely.

Shooting Plasma Blast: 1d6 ⇒ 11d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) + (4) = 10
10 to Hit, using a Benny to increase damage to d10s like before, 3 left.
Benny Boosted and Raised Plasma Beam, AP4, Lethal: 5d10 + 1d6 ⇒ (1, 7, 4, 6, 9) + (1) = 28
Barely better than the last hit, Benny to reroll damage, 2 left
Damage Reroll: 5d10 + 1d6 ⇒ (8, 2, 7, 5, 9) + (5) = 36
Better. 10 to Hit, 36 Damage, AP4.

Flare, before I proceed, remember that you took 1 Wound - are you spending a Benny to try to Soak it, or living with the -1 penalty?

Soak: 1d10 ⇒ 91d6 ⇒ 2

Is Champion still in the air, and if so, what's the altitude? I'd like to change shape into something stronger, but I'm limited if I need to maintain a flying form.

Bennies, I was down to 1, got the bonus 2, used one, leaving me with 2 at present.

Sorry. I'll live with it.

Paradigm's plasma beam pierces Champion right in the chest, punching a hole thru him. Enkidu sees his eyes glaze over, as he drops from the sky.

And here I was worried that he'd be too much for y'all...but it did take some exceptional rolls to do it!

Immediate combat is over, but don't forget that there's a large group of some kind of creatures approaching you on foot. You can just barely see them on the horizon of the tiny planet that you're on, several hundred yards away. It'll take them 2-3 minutes to reach you.

What do you do?

Paradigm, for once in his life, is stunned. Champion, scourge of villains people who have strong ambitions, was dead. The V’Sori were soon to be next, but first, they had another problem. A massive horde of creatures were headed their way.

”Alright, as much as I would like to celebrate a long awaited victory, this isn’t over yet. Apparently our new ‘friend’ has some more challenges for us to face first.”

With that, he checks to make sure his force field is active and then does something he usually doesn’t do, he boosts his comrades defenses as well.

SuperSorcery Deflection (6pts, 4 Deflect, 2 Protection): 1d12 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 1 - 2 = 71d6 - 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) - 2 + (4) = 8
That should give both Enkidu and Flare a Deflection of -2.

Flare, Enkidu - are you doing anything in particular?

Enkidu lands on the ground near his comrades, shifting back into his man-shape.

"Are we staying to fight? Flare can fly, and I can probably carry the two of you as a giant hawk or a gryphon. If we do stay, any particular strategy we want to employ? We don't exactly have the numbers for a shield wall here. Professor, could you manage an earthwork of some sort? A ditch and a hill can make a big difference if they come up at us. If we could find a natural choke point, that might help as well."

He shifts quickly to an eagle in order to get a better look at the approaching hoard, then back in order to describe it to the group.

Notice: 1d12 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 81d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

"Air superiority may be our best bet. I'm betting that will reduce the number of attackers significantly."

Enkidu reports seeing about 20 V'Sori moving toward you. Because of the Raise, you recognize them as Warlord troops.

Everyone please make a Smarts roll at -2 for knowledge of these creatures...

Smarts-2: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (3) - 2 = 1 Wild: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -1

Smarts: 1d8 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -11d6 - 2 ⇒ (4) - 2 = 2

”I might be able to cook something up along those lines. As long as they don’t fly like us, it shouldn’t be too difficult. I will have to drop the shields on you two to make something big enough that they can’t just go around.”

He listens to Enkidu’s description of the oncoming soldiers, trying to get an idea of what they are up against.

Smarts -2: 1d10 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 01d6 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 0

Apparently none of us have ever encountered them before…

So, everyone do what you want to prepare...

Enkidu shifts back into a giant hawk, and waits for any ally that cannot fly on their own to secure themselves in a riding position. Once that is done, he launches up in the air, trying to get out of easy range of the attackers.

Flare also takes to the sky, seeking to get out of range.

Paradigm, you doing anything special to prepare?

Paradigm can fly already and he put the shields up on Enki and Flare. After the first volley, he will then attempt to redirect them with Enki’s idea. His plan is to drop the shields and then use 5 of his 6 points on Earthquake, Basic+Deep, to have them fall in. When they get within range, here is the roll.

SuperSorcery Earthquake, 5 pts: 1d12 + 1 - 2 + 1d12 ⇒ (12) + 1 - 2 + (11) = 221d6 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -1
I’ll take that 22, that should catch a lot of them.

Paradigm starts focusing and you can see streams of blue power starting to flow around him.

Whoa, slow your roll (pun intended)! :) We haven't even entered melee yet. I'll make a post tomorrow to get the combat started.

Sorry, I'm still here, work has slammed me, and it will continue for another couple of days. Please hang in there, and check here often...

In preparation, please post your current Ranged Attack Target Number (usually 4, but various Powers can modify that), and how high in inches you are above the ground.

Paradigm RAN is 4. He is flying 10 inches above, in range for his powers and readied quake. His force field, as always, is active. It gives a Heavy Armor bonus, but it is not Deflection. Enkidu and Flare should have Deflection -2 until I come up in the round to break some ground.

RAN is 4. She will also be at 10", to stay in range for her powers.

Enkidu?

Enkidu will maintain height with the others.

10" sounds pretty low to me. Are we fighting or avoiding this group?

RATN in this form would usually be 6. If Paradigm's effect stacks with my own deflection, it'd be 8.

Enkidu, thanks for mentioning Paradigm's Deflection. So Paradigm's and Flare's RATN are also 6.
Enkidu, where is your Deflection coming from? Your current form (which is what, BTW?), or your own Power?

Enkidu, thanks for mentioning Paradigm's Deflection. So Paradigm's and Flare's RATN are also 6.

Enkidu, where is your Deflection coming from? Your current form (which is what, BTW?), or your own Power?

My own power; Deflection 2: Animal Reflexes

I said I was going to use the Giant Hawk shape, but I think I changed my mind and will go for Gryphon, since it's toughness is a little better.

Yeah, unfortunately bonuses from the same Power don't stack. So your RATN is also 6.

Yeah, unfortunately bonuses from the same Power don't stack. So your RATN is also 6.

That's fair.

"What's our plan up here? I have no range capacity in this form. I can try to draw fire while you pick them off, or if one of you holds the pixie, I can dive into them and shift to something heavily armoured..."

”Let’s see how many are still standing when I take the rug out from underneath them, then you can have at the rest. We’ll provide fire support from up here.”

Paradigm - the description of Earthquake describes it as a "small" rend or crack, so I'm thinking maybe 2 feet wide at best. But it is 12" long, which would run thru the whole squad. But being narrow, I'd roll a d20 as a percentage of how many of them the crack passes under. Do you want to change your action, or are you good with this as an opening salvo?

I am spending 5 (2 core, 3 add-on) points on it to also give me the Earth Shake modifier to turn it into a Large Burst. That should catch, at minimum, 4 of them.

Sorry for the delay...

The earth trembles under the feet of the enemy, and

Result: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (3, 5) + 6 = 14

of them are Shaken.

I just realized that by the book, there should be 20+ enemies in the group. They're not as powerful as y'all are, but handling 20 attacks is a bit much on my side. I can either reduce their numbers but make them more powerful, or we could do something like a Mass Battle (the rules of which I do not like, but will do it if everybody wants to).
Thoughts?

I have a powerful dislike of mass combat in this system (and I'm not too fond of the dramatic task rules either). They might work better in a live game, but online, there is zero tension or way to get invested. Feels like basing the outcome on a coin toss. So with that in mind, I'd rather just toss all the dice for all the baddies, or replace them with tougher guys.

I like the mass battle rules, but as Enkidu says, they really don't work well online. I'd say roll the bones or replace them.

Mass Battle is nice if you want to simulate stuff that the PCs are NOT part of, just for story reasons, but with that many attacks, I would use group rules combined with support. We know that a max of 4 people can support, as the max bonus is +4, then you can assume that the rest add to the group roll, so they get the Wild Die. Then just group them as needed. That’s how I do it when I have a horde.

Sorry, it's taken a while to spec out the newer, fewer soldiers.

Round 1
Blaze 8C
Enkidu 7S
Paradigm 3H
Warriors 2H

Everyone acts!

All the warriors are currently Shaken from Paradim's quake

Flare attempts to blast a warrior within her range.

Shooting: 1d12 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 Damage: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 5, 2) = 13

Seeing that the quake was only mildly effective, Paradigm gets ready to end the fight more dramatically. He starts the mental calculations and says the incantations to open a portal to the elemental plane of fire.

Fireball, Area, Level One, 6pts: 1d12 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 71d6 ⇒ 1
Fire Damage, Large Blast: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3

I don’’t think that will hurt them near as much.

Without any range attacks, Enkidu waits to see what happens to the hoard when his companions attack.

Sorry, I had to have enough time to handle all the enemy's actions...

Flare's shot misses her mark, Paradigm's attack fizzles out (literally), and Enkidu takes no action.

The eight V'Sori-like aliens on the ground all open fire on you with blasters that seem to be built-in to their arms :

Summary :
Enkidu takes 1 Wound, and then another 2 Wounds (either or both of which can be Soaked).
Paradigm is Shaken.

Round 2
Enkidu : KH
V'Sori : KD
Paradigm : 9D
Flare : 7C

Enkidu is up!

These guys can do real damage on a good roll (that last attack would have done 3 Wounds to Flare or Paradigm), so everyone should hit them with your best attacks...

Are their blasters heavy weapons? Paradigm's personal force field has the heavy modifier.

Yes, they are. These guys are tough! Y'all might want to consider strategies as well as just attacking them head-on.

Have our Bennies reset? If they have not, I'm not sure I have enough to try to soak both.

Sorry, yes, Bennies were reset at the start of the encounter.

Is everybody in brain-lock, trying to figure out how to handle this encounter? Or is everyone just busy with life?