First question:
Imagine a skirmish is going on. Lady Elsebeth and her two allies, the bowmen Varric and Michaela have taken up an advantageous elevated position along a gorge, and are lying in ambush, waiting for a black-armoured orc, and his raiding party of goblins. As they spring the ambush, Varric and Michaela start peppering their enemies with arrows, while Lady Elsebeth spurs her steed towards the fight, charging the orc. Let’s say Varric and Michaela are one team, Lady Elsebeth is another team, The orc is a team, and goblins are a team. What happens if Lady Elsebeth and the orc enter Too Close to Shoot range? The book says we change to Fight!, but is this true for the other teams as well? If so, how do we account for the vast distance between the teams, or the fortified position of the bowmen? Do only Lady Elsebeth and the orc change from Range and Cover into Fight! ? If so do we finish one of the fights before we cut to the other, or do we cut back and forth? If so, how many exchanges in Fight! to an exchange in RoC?
Second question:
I ran a test-fight the other day, just to get a taste for it. In the fight, I put a knife-wielding thug up against a sorcerer. The sorcerer was going to cast white fire, and the thug was, as mentioned, armed with a knife. The sorcerer won positioning, which as far as I could tell, meant the thug was at +5Ob for everything but defensive actions, none of which would help her against the sorcerer’s spell. The thug did not even have an applicable skill for the fight that went above 4. At this point, is she just doomed? Doomed to try and fail to Charge/Tackle or Beat the sorcerer for advantageous position, so she can try to stop his casting, while he casts for 3 actions and then strikes her for a mark 9 VA 4 hit? When I ran it, I thought it was pretty cool. But I thought I should check with you guys and see if I missed something. Something that would let the thug avoid getting blasted, or get into a better position while her enemy is casting? Or is she just doomed to suck up the +5Ob until she can vie for position again?
Charge or Beat until you can close and interrupt the casting. If you cannot get it done in time due to the high Ob, have an Avoid scripted (and pray) for when you think that White Fire will go off. Once it does, IIRC the advantage goes to you after it is cast. Here is your chance to stab the crap out of them! Then in the next Vie for Position, you’ll have a higher chance to win that, since they are now at Disadvantage against your knife.
Edit: Looks like you can’t Avoid a spell; you have to just hope they roll poorly on their Ob4 Sorcery test. Don’t bring a knife to a White Fire fight, I suppose!
Yup. I would switch everyone to Fight and use the Rules for Shooting in a fight, which means the archers will be spending a lot of actions aiming, while the goblins will quickly charge there position.
However, I might hard edit the scene. She charges forward. We shift focus to the archery groups for an exchange or two. Then jump back to the lady on the horse and switch everyone to fight. Very much dependent on the fictional situation.
cant check the math on the knife v. Sorcery obs without my book but sorcery is brutal. Unless the sorcerer fails the forte test of course…
But, if the thug has some time before the casting, pretty sure he should be able to find a way to interrupt it.
In the case of your thug, you have hit upon the importance of ambushing a sorcerer so the initial positioning is not random but to your advantage. Also if all things are even and you think the sorcerer is going to use a spell, position with a knife for throwing so the ob penalties are not as bad.
Yeah as far as I’ve been able to tell, you’re pretty boned in this situation. Thanks for the advice on the RoC to Fight! trouble, and for confirming the sorcery stuff. Much appreciated.
You could also keep the goblins vs archers as a separate Range and Cover and switch back and forth, exchange to exchange.
As for the knife vs white fire, you really only have one hope of winning that fight and it’s in the initial positioning roll. Otherwise, you’re going to be running in slow motion toward the sorcerer…as she nukes you.
The number one takeaway from this thread is the fact that you should never attempt to fight fair with a sorcerer. Poison their tea, throw coughing dust in their face, strangle them in their sleep, or bring a wizard of your own… but never fight fair!
