many wolves > one chimaera O.o

[Dr Divago]

hi all

tonight something "a bit strange" happened

 

they are investigating a crater surrounding a big "meteoric rock" that's really a "qliphotic chaotic warp mutating stone"

so this area is filled with strange mutated beasts

(here the sheets)

 

while traveling to the rock, they are ambushed by 2 "alpha" qliphotic wolf and 6 radiant wolf. The fight last almost the entire session and was really a big fight: one of them gone stunned 3 or 4 times, the priest finished his END and start using STUN to power his spells, the mage "with unbreakable armor" gone down, a NPC almost died and they all finished the fight with a big effort.

wolf tactic was simple: the qliphotic attacked the biggest one with tentacles and aimed shots and 2 radiant wolf too attacked the same guy (knight with a glaive, plate armor and growth to 4m) while the other attacked 2 PC

 

after recovering from this fight, and few minutes of traveling, they arrived to destination. Here they are attacked by the qliphotic chimaera

she attacked with a flyby move throug and goat's horn knocking down one of them, then multi attacked with wolf's bite and dragon's breath. this one got a lucky shot to the head and result was 18 BODY and a shitload of STUN damage

then the archer shot 2 lucky hit (one on the dragon head, one on the vitals) and chimaera goes down

 

so i'm wondering... there is something i did wrong, or it's normal they had a very though fight against 8 wolves (well... 210 points mutated wolves) and no-fight against a chimaera?

 

i'm planning on sending them to an hydra's nest... i need to change something, like using some lower level adds (ie magic snake, miniature dragon with multiple heads, or using 2-3 hydras) or the multiple head of the hydra is enough to be a fair challenge?

[Old Man]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

You should probably edit the naughty words out of your post.

 

That's not unheard of. If you're playing with hit locations, and you score two or three hits to the head or vitals, that can end the fight pretty quickly. Fantasy Hero is kind of known for that.

 

Also, Fantasy Hero combat tends to favor the side with the greater numbers. The outnumbered side usually has to fight defensively and that puts them at a disadvantage. It can be even worse if the outnumbering side uses appropriate tactics, such as grabbing a target to make it 1/2 DCV and then have several buddies attack, or outflanking to negate the DCV bonus of a shield.

[Lucius]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

so i'm wondering... there is something i did wrong, or it's normal they had a very though fight against 8 wolves (well... 210 points mutated wolves) and no-fight against a chimaera?

?

 

Sounds to me like they just got lucky.

 

That and the difference between being outnumbered, or being innumbered.

 

wait, that's not right - I mean, the difference between being fewer than the opposition, or being more than the opposition.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary smells a neologism that's unlikely to catch on

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

Most of this traces back to HERO's core axioms.

the system default is Heroic, with high survivability and most of the grit turned off.

 

This fact accentuates some tactical proverbs in unexpected ways.

 

As Stalin once said, "Quantity has a quality all of its own". This fact is VERY true in HERO, as ties in with my next point...

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Fallacy

Basically, it states that one combat unit with 10 times the fighting power of an opposing unit fails to equal 10 of those units because the one heavily armed troop can only die once, and has less ability to divide for parallel problem solving.

 

So a group of opponents will often be far more effective than even a much more powerful single opponent.

[Dr Divago]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

You should probably edit the naughty words out of your post.

ouch x_x

what "naughty words" did i wrote?

sorry, english is not my native language (just got 2 ranks...) so sometime i fail my INT check and write something... uncorrect...

 

btw, ok, you're reassuring me that's "work as intended" and not my fault

[Dr Divago]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

Ok ty all

so now i see it's working "as intendend" and more low power enemies is better than a single powerful enemy

 

so, next question: planning they are going inside an hydra lair, i need to make hydra more powerful (like adding fire breath or something nasty) and leave just one ('cause multiple head is similar to multiple foes) or just leave the hydra as intendend and adding more "adds" (like another hydra, some magical snakes, etc)

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

Post copies of characters and enemies? I am not familiar with either.

[Ice9]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

It also depends how the characters and enemies are built:

* If you want one powerful creature to defeat an army of weak ones, then go with static defense like DEF and DCV, and make AoE attacks widely available - including melee AoE's like Whirlwind Attack.

* If you want numbers to be the deciding factor, focus on "ablative/limited" defenses like Blocking, Ablative or limited-Charge DEF, Triggered powers, or just high STUN/BODY. Also, make AoEs rare and/or more costly.

[Dr Divago]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

here there are monster's sheet: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B-IsgUjMIv20ZDQyYWMzMzEtYTZhNy00ZDU3LWEyNGEtNzQxYWVhNDdiYWE0&hl=it&authkey=CJ23xrsD

 

as for player's sheets, i got no publishable version

 

i use 5ER and Fantasy 5

[phookz]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

ouch x_x

what "naughty words" did i wrote?

sorry, english is not my native language (just got 2 ranks...) so sometime i fail my INT check and write something... uncorrect...

 

You wrote:

this one got a lucky shot to the head and result was 18 BODY and a ****load of STUN damage

then the archer shot 2 lucky hit (one on the dragon head, one on the vitals) and chimaera goes down

 

Except you didn't have asterisks in it. Personally, I'm not offended, but some might be. Old Man is just looking out for you so you don't get in trouble by violating forum rules.

[Dr Divago]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

Except you didn't have asterisks in it. Personally' date=' I'm not offended, but some might be. Old Man is just looking out for you so you don't get in trouble by violating forum rules.[/quote']OUCH

thanks for pointing me that x.x

 

i was not thinking...

ok...

i need to stop seeing Misfits for a while u.u

[dmjalund]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

Ways to make a single monster more effective against a group

 

Higher SPD

Area Affect attacks

Autofire + Autofirre Skills

+OCV (in combination with multiple attacks)

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

Ok, looking at the monsters, I'd say the chimera needs about +4 speed, +10 dex, +3 DCs, and 50% DR. That's a guess since I have no idea what the PCs are like in terms of defenses and damage. I'd also move the breath to an AOE cone to let it threaten multiple PCs.

[Dr Divago]

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o

 

Ok' date=' looking at the monsters, I'd say the chimera needs about +4 speed, +10 dex, +3 DCs, and 50% DR. That's a guess since I have no idea what the PCs are like in terms of defenses and damage. I'd also move the breath to an AOE cone to let it threaten multiple PCs.[/quote']

mmmhhh ok

so the final results is: chimaera was too weak for them and it's NATURAL got pwn'ed