Prototype vs. Eldritch

Prototype has been dispatched on one of his first missions with Project Javelin: He is to bring in Eldritch for an interview, screening, threat assessment, and analysis. Eldritch has not been answering the letters he has received, and Project Javelin has upped its game – Prototype is to bring him in, willingly or unwillingly.

They meet high over the city, where Prototype has called him to avoid a big crowd… “we need to talk”. Despite his persuasive efforts, Eldritch refuses to come in – the apprentice to the Overlord of the Mystic Veil and Keeper of the Eldest Gate answers to no mortal.

Sigh. That’s what he was afraid of. It’s initiative. Prototype wins.

Round 1

They are distant 60’ from each other. Prototype is going to emit a volley of energy bolts: He rolls 16, 26, 11, 13, and 15. He hits twice. He rolls damage, getting 14 and 12 damage, for a total of 26 points. Eldritch is already down to 14 hit points left. Hmmm. He didn’t have a chance to get any protections in place with spells, so I think that’s a big deal. He could spend resolve here to soak some of that. Actually, he will do that, spending 2D8 to soak damage, and he neutralizes 8 points of that. He is down to 22 hp.

Eldritch gets to go (those resolve points were free). He has magic… he’s going to cast a spell, erecting a barrier that will soak damage that comes at him. He is effectively solidifying eldritch energy, so he must attempt a PWR check CR 24 (but he has +22, so this should be easy), and gets 10 on the die. No sweat. He rolls 6D6 and gets 18 points. The barrier will soak the first 18 points of damage that should affect him, and then the rest will carry over to him. Okay, now he feels safe to attack. He casts 4 eldritch bolts, 23, 14, a natural 20, 18, and 11. He hits three times, one of which is a critical hit. He rolls damage, and gets  10, 13, and 7 points of damage from the three attacks. After invulnerability, Prototype suffers 6, 9, and 3 damage, a total of 18 points. He is down to 37 hp remaining.

At the end of round 1, Eldritch has 3D8 resolve and 22 hp left; Prototype has his full 4D6 resolve and 37 hp.

Round 2. Prototype wins initiative again.

He opens fire on that barrier, attacking five times and getting 21, 27, 22, 14, and 26. He rolled really well. He hits with 4 out of 5 attacks. The barrier will soak the first 18 points, but then Eldritch suffers the remaining damage. Prototype deals 8, 9, 16, and 8 damage, a total of 41 points. The barrier spells soaks 18, but 23 get past it. Ugh. Eldritch uses a resolve die to soak some of that, soaking only 1 point (eek). He uses another resolve die, soaking an additional 7. He now has 7 hp, and 1 resolve die left.

Hmmm. Options, options, options. Eldritch is thinking about either teleporting away (seems a legit option right now), or doing something dramatic. The best defense is a good offense, they always say. Okay. He’s going to cast a stun spell, effectively dazing Prototype and causing him to plummet to earth. Well… He has to attempt a PWR check, and he gets 8+22=30. That’s fine. Now, it’s a stun effect, so Prototype attempts a Feat, CR 26 (20 base +6 from Eldritch’s power modifier). He rolls and gets 10+12=22. That would fail, but he has resolve he has not used… and this seems like a good time to leverage that. His first resolve die gives him +2, so he needs more; his second resolve die gives him +6, so he’s good. He shakes off the stun effect. That was his spell option for the round, so now it’s just attack or run. He will attack; he throws four eldritch bolts, rolling 27, 23, 13, and a natural 1 (but not a botch, since he recovers with a natural 20 from it). He hits twice, dealing 12 and 11 points… the invulnerability soaks 4 from each, meaning Proto suffers 8 and 7 points of damage, leaving him at 22 hp.

At the end of round 2, Eldritch has 1D8 resolve and 7 hp. Prototype has 2D6 resolve and 22 hp.

Round 3 begins; it is initiative. Eldritch wins by 9… Prototype considers spending his resolve to try and win initiative here, but is not sure it’s worth it. He has less than a 50% chance of winning, and then would be completely out of resolve. He’s going to let the wizard go first.

Hmmm. Eldritch could try a stun spell again… I mean, there’s no rule saying he cannot keep trying the same spell until it works. But… let’s try something more creative. I think that maybe he will try to charm Prototype, convincing him to go back and tell everyone this was a bad idea. Or, he could go all in on the fight and try to win. I feel the competitive juices flowing. He’s going to go with multiplicity here; he casts a spell to create 6 duplicates. He attempts a PWR check and gets 13+22=35. Easy peasy. There are now 7 of him. He still gets 4 bolts, and each of his duplicates also gets to fire 1 bolt. Daaaang. That may be overpowered. Ah well. That is 10 attacks. 6 of those are only at +4/1D6, but it’s still a lot of dice being rolled. Okay, bolts away: Results are 10, 26, 22, 26 (for him) and 6, 8, 15, 19, 10, 13 for duplicates. All of the duplicates miss (but they are mostly there as a distraction, anyway). He hits three times, dealing 13, 8, and 10 damage. After invulnerability, this is 9, 4, and 6 damage, for a total of 19 points.  Prototype is down to 3 hp… hmm. He will bank those resolve dice, but he’s getting anxious.

Prototype has to make a sense Feat to see which of the 7 sorcerers facing him is the true Eldritch. He rolls 15 against a CR of 26. That is a big fail. He could use his resolve to try and get there, but he needs to roll 11 or better on 2D6. Not. Gonna. Happen. He just hopes he hits all 5 and then wins initiative next round. He attacks and gets 26, 26, 23, 25, 17. He rolled GREAT; too bad these were all against phantoms. He takes out 5 of the duplicates, and there is one remaining with the true Eldritch.

At the end of round 3, Eldritch still has 1D8 resolve and 7 hp. Prototype has 2D6 resolve and 3 hp. I think that initiative will decide the winner.

Round 4

They both roll; Eldritch gets 18 and Prototype gets 21. Eldritch has 1D8 left in resolve. He could try to bump up his initiative, but he knows that Prototype has more available resolve, so he probably can’t win. He’s going to wait and try a last-ditch stunt with his final resolve, if possible.

Prototype can fire 5 times. He does so. I forgot about his automatic repair system… he has recovered 3 hp and is now at 6 hp. He attacks 5 times, and gets 18, 28, 27, 13, and 23. He hits 4 times. Ugh. Okay, Eldritch uses his final Resolve to try a stunt; he wants to throw up another quick barrier to try and block these attacks as they are coming at him. He uses his last resolve die to do this; he wants to use the resolve for the result (how many hp it soaks) and not the action. This seems reasonable, so it’s allowed; He casts a spell and gets 25 on the check vs the CR 24! Ugh. He rolls for the value of the barrier, and gets 13 hp. That. Is. WEAK. Oh well. For damage, Prototype rolls 8, 15, 13, 12 – a total of 48 points. The barrier soaks 13, but as the barrier shatters, Eldritch is peppered with energy bolts. He is defeated, and Prototype brings and unconscious Eldritch in for questioning, as ordered.

Analysis:

Again, the fight was dynamic, and had a lot of options for the players. A few rolls one way or the other changes things dramatically… there is a lot of resource management that goes on during a fight like this. I like that. You have meaningful decisions to make every round. If you lead off and burn your resolve early, you can be in real trouble later on. If Prototype botches on that resist roll against the stun early in the fight, it’s over right there – it’s possible he doesn’t have enough resolve to offset it. It was a good, close fight (which it should have been between two level 4 characters) that went into round 4. I like how sorcery works and how battlesuits work. I made a few tweaks to the rules as I was play testing, which was good – I think this ended up being balanced. Originally, multiplicity was too powerful, and battlesuits were too weak. Now, I feel like they are both about where they need to be.

Good fight between two moderate heavyweights. I was rooting for Eldritch, but it just wasn't his night.