Friendship is Dragons
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Page 54 - Pony Kombat
Author Notes:
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41 Comments:
FIRST!
Anyways, yay updates! Don't worry about being too specific about stuff... it's interesting looking at the show from a perspective i"m unfamiliar with
Anyways, yay updates! Don't worry about being too specific about stuff... it's interesting looking at the show from a perspective i"m unfamiliar with
Obviously, Nightmare Moon has never DM'd. Minions can usually screw the players over, while great big Solo Elites tend to go down via the fact that they'e the ONLY monster on the field, and the players just focus fire on them. Ideally, you should use a balance of both.
Well of course it is going down fast! You have three strikers in a six-pony team fighting one solo monster, which is statistically built to be mildly challenging to a group of five. Hmm...no defender though...
It just occurred to me that this party simply does not have enough Psion for my tastes. Namely, there are party members that are not Psions.
Also, this manticore has at most 62 health, probably a little less. Twilight's right, that thing has nowhere NEAR the HP a solo should have!
...Hey, wait a second. Isn't her character a first-time player? Granted, she's read the rules, but did she go through the DMG or a Monster Manual, too? She must either be a bit of a munchkin, or really dedicated to absorbing D&D knowledge in general. Probably the latter.
Also, this manticore has at most 62 health, probably a little less. Twilight's right, that thing has nowhere NEAR the HP a solo should have!
...Hey, wait a second. Isn't her character a first-time player? Granted, she's read the rules, but did she go through the DMG or a Monster Manual, too? She must either be a bit of a munchkin, or really dedicated to absorbing D&D knowledge in general. Probably the latter.
Or twilight hasn't played, but has heard her friends talking about their other games all the time, so knows about solos and other game mechanics.
At most 62HP... assuming the creature started at full health ;)
@Pav Feira That's a good point. I've never started a monster below its base HP, so that never occurred to me!
I have but usually only when the characters have walked onto the bloody aftermath of monster vs NPC or monster vs monster combat.
And then Fluttershy uses the ability her character's based around, stopping combat before the manticore can really beat up any of the party.
Yeah, if there were more combat scenes in general in FIM I would definitely agree you're being a bit TOO detailed on the mechanics here. Not that detail about mechanics is necessarily bad in and of itself, but too much can drag things down. Fortunately, I believe you've hit just the right amount here.
Eh, it's a fallacy of 4th edition. It's so combat focused that dictating combat can't be so streamlined like Darths and Droids was. Big Monsters take several hits, of course, but even some of the smaller ones don't die to a well placed sword.
(Obvious prediction: Fluttershy crits a Nature Check come her turn)
(Obvious prediction: Fluttershy crits a Nature Check come her turn)
Also Bull Rush targets Fortitude.
At-Will
Standard Action Melee 1
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: You push the target 1 square and then shift 1 square into the space it left.
You should've seen my one of my player's faces when I told them you could technically Bull Rush *without* charging. They forced me to go look up the relevant details right in front of them because they'd never heard of this heresy. Thankfully, the handy-dandy DM screen doesn't lie. Much. Errata has been taped over previous information in most relevant places by the previous owner.
I always have a hard time hard time wrapping my mind around the 'not needing to charge to bull rush' thing... I see nothing WRONG with it, it just... seems WEIRD, in a way. Maybe it's all my previous experience with it being charge-only.
DM screens are handy. I've got two 'cheat sheets'/cliff notes for the rules that I keep open in a PDF during every game. Between them, they cover about 98% of every rule I have to use as a DM. =P
DM screens are handy. I've got two 'cheat sheets'/cliff notes for the rules that I keep open in a PDF during every game. Between them, they cover about 98% of every rule I have to use as a DM. =P
What's not to get? Bull Rush is a glorified shove. It makes sense that you could use it as part of a Charge, but there's nothing to say "I want to give him a hard shove."
Though that's not to say I didn't think the same at one point as well - that you could only Bull Rush while charging.
Though that's not to say I didn't think the same at one point as well - that you could only Bull Rush while charging.
It'll get edited. Eventually. Unfortunately, it's final exams season around here.
Also besides the initial "shift 2 squares," Escape Artist Trick allows her to shift 2 more squares, once, as a free action at the end of her turn. I wonder if she used it?
yo newbiespud in mah opinyun justabout any 1 page o yoyrs is werth ten peges o dm of the rings. so keep it up!
No matter what your keyboard is like, it can't be responsible for spelling "I" as "ah".
I'm amused that of all the dialectal differences to pick on, you chose the one which Applejack consistently uses in this comic :P.
i like to spell words like i say them and i am from the south. so sometimes "i" becomes "ah".
I like the way you're handling combat here, putting the available screenshots together in a way that makes the combat flow well and give the characters the chance to beat stuff up. I sometimes feel bad for Rainbow Dash in the cartoon, because she's a physically agressive and effective character in a show where you're not meant to teach kids to solve their problems with violence. I can't wait to see what kind of move she pulls on the manticore.
Now I'm interested in seeing this webcomic deal with Secret of My Excess.
I'm still waiting on Lesson Zero. My bet is still that Twilight gets angry over some minor thing the DM does, and starts trying to derail the campaign.
My guess for Lesson Zero was an insanity effect of some sort, maybe due to a botched ritual or curse?
for secret of my excess i see the DM geting pissed and spike being his way 2 vent ingame.
but thats just me.
but thats just me.
And then the DM starts flirting with whoever plays Rarity?
ha! now i want 2 see that. that would be a hoot as my mother would say.
If rarity used escape artist's trick, he'd have to actually be a thief, since normal rogues can't use thief tricks. :I
Yeah but Thief is just a name for a type of Rogue. (The Essentials build, specifically.) It's in the Rogue section of the relevant books, it qualifies for things that require one to be a Rogue like feats, etc.
Also, the trick that gives you combat advantage automatically is just stupidly broken. Someone actually thought that it was balanced to have the class that gets +2d6(/2d8 w/ a feat) damage when they have combat advantage a level 1 move where they can just get it whenever they want. It's an At-Will. It's silly.
Also, the trick that gives you combat advantage automatically is just stupidly broken. Someone actually thought that it was balanced to have the class that gets +2d6(/2d8 w/ a feat) damage when they have combat advantage a level 1 move where they can just get it whenever they want. It's an At-Will. It's silly.
None of the tricks grant combat advantage "automatically." One gives you CA against isolated enemies (a situation which Rarity just specifically avoided) and one gives you CA in not-quite-flanking position (one that Rarity could have potentially used at this point as well, except that the Trick is rather selfish in use). The balance comes in deciding which Tricks you're going to take. If you take both of those, then your mobility in large groups is reduced. Alternatively, you could pick one of those and some of the Tricks that give you more Controller aspects (such as one that gives you an opportunity attack when a flanked enemy shifts and one that lets you inflict extra damage to a different adjacent target on a hit). Rarity, here, has opted for a Trick that grants her mobility in favor of utilizing traditional, "safe" Rogue tactics.
Besides, it's the Rogue's play style. The Rogue is straight damage with little defense - it's a tactical Barbarian basically.
Besides, it's the Rogue's play style. The Rogue is straight damage with little defense - it's a tactical Barbarian basically.
Compared to other strikers, rogues are balanced around always getting their sneak attacks off. Their weapons and powers inherently do less damage.
I saw the analysis done for the base 4e rogue, but I doubt they changed that dramatically with essentials.
I saw the analysis done for the base 4e rogue, but I doubt they changed that dramatically with essentials.
The main difference is that instead of multiple different attacks, they have different Movement powers that have bonus effects towards Melee Basic Attacks (which automatically use Dexterity for Thieves). They're a more mobile version of Rogues, essentially.
Then I realize that this is MLP:FiM, and these combat scenes are few and far between.