Sunday, March 22, 2015

The Endless Legions: Impalers

I ran a combat last session involving Impalers, and while effective at taking on the weakest combatant who was in the fight, they didn't exactly pose a significant threat to the players.

So as I go through introducing you all to the Impaler, I'll likely talk about the failing points they had last session.

Impalers


Impalers are part of the Endless Legions of Hell. Used primarily to crack defenses as shock troops, Impalers are characterized by the black tar that seeps from their bodies constantly. This tar hardens, covering their entire body in a protective shell and forming the claws and spines for which they are named. Impalers can fire spines from their bodies, allowing them to attack at range.

ST: 13        HP: 13         Speed: 7
DX: 15      Will: 13        Move: 7
IQ: 13        Per: 13         Weight: 200lbs
HT: 12       FP: 12          SM: 0

Dodge: 11  Parry: 13     DR: 20 (Ablative)

Traits: Claws (Long Talons); Combat Reflexes; Damage Resistance 20 (Ablative); Regeneration (Extreme, DR Only, Requires Ready)*; Spines Innate Attack (Detailed Below); Spines (Long); Unfazeable
Skills:Innate Attack (Projectile)-16; Karate-18; Wrestling-19;

Claws (18): 1d+2(5) cut or impaling; reach C.
Spines (21): 1d small piercing damage; range 100, Acc 3, RoF 30, Shots N/A, Rcl 1


*Restores 20 DR/second due to scaling effects of having DR 20
 

Impalers originally had only 10 DR. While enough to prevent the less damage heavy characters from immediately cracking through and dealing HP damage to them, Fiona swinging her great axe for 5d+3 had no issue getting through to the gooey center. Increasing this DR to twenty both ensures that two or more attacks will be required to start affecting the Impalers' HP, and that regenerating the shell for a turn is more of a worthwhile investment.

Now, for combat options, Impalers can actually make decent use of Spraying Fire, and Quick Shooting. I decided to give their claws a very high armor divisor to ensure that they could target the most beefy member of the PCs, without needing high damage to punch through DR.

The high RoF of spines is what really makes Impalers dangerous against unarmored targets. On a skill roll of 16, an Impaler is still going to score 5 hits against a target within 2 yards. That requires a margin of success of 4 to completely avoid the attack, which most characters with a dodge at or below ten will fail- consistently. Given that a roll of 10 is hitting with 11 shots, it's clear why armor is important while fighting them.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

The Endless Legions: Mayhems

The Endless Legion is the seeming mass of demonic beings that aren't powerful enough to claim their place within the meritocracy that is demonic nobility. A large portion of it is effectively a caste system enforced by which species a demon is- it's a rare imp that survives long enough to overcome the weakness of its birth.

One such species, used as troops by the nobility, are Mayhems, named because of the chaos of limbs and weapons that ensues when they enter a melee.

Mayhems look a great deal like a normal human, at least until they reveal the two extra arms that are generally hidden inside the chest cavity. At this point, it becomes obvious that their spines and arms are elongated (SM +1, arms have SM+2, a reach of C-2), and that they can use all fours arms to attack separately. Once they reveal their arms their height increases to almost seven and a half feet tall.

The spine of a Mayhem is exposed and can be attacked from the front. When the spine is crippled, the upper torso breaks free of the legs, reducing the Mayhem to crawling about on four arms to move around. This effectively gives them the horizontal disadvantage, making it impossible for them to move and hold more than a single weapon at the same time.

 Mayhems frequently use weapons with extended melee reach to enable themselves to attack foes who cannot close in to attack without risking a thicket of sharp death.

Mayhem

ST: 13            HP: 13           Speed: 5.5
DX: 13          Will: 10          Move: 5
IQ: 10            Per: 10           Weight: 200lbs
HT: 9             FP: 9              SM: +1
Dodge: 8        Parry: 10       DR: Only skull and spine

Fright Check: -2 (Experienced monsters hunters quickly acclimate to fighting these)

Claw (14): 1d+1 crushing. Reach C-4.
Grapple (15):  No damage. Gains +2 to ST per extra arm used to choke/strangle, up to +4.
Spear (14):  1d+3 impaling (1d+4 if held by two hands). Reach 1-3 (One-handed), 1-3,4* (two-handed)
Long Spear (14): 1d+3 impaling (1d+4 if held by two hands). Reach 2-4 (One-handed), 1-4,5* (two-handed)
Halberd (14): 2d+10 cut. Reach 2-4,5*.
Halberd (14): 2d+9 imp. Reach 2-4,5* May get stuck.
Halberd (14): 1d+4 imp. Reach 3-5*

Traits: Claws, blunt; Extra Arms 2 (Long 2; Extra-flexible, Switchable); Extra Attack 3; Injury Tolerance (No Vitals; Independent Body Parts (Upper Torso Only; No reattachment)); Night Vision 5; Striking ST 1.
 Feature: Spine can be targeted from the front, different crippled spine effects

Skills:
Brawling-14; Climbing-18; Polearm-14; Spear-14; Wrestling-15