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Dueling Value Battlecard

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2022 11:04 pm
by RogerCooper
Dueling Value can only be assigned to heroes but there are situations it might make sense to give to non-hero units. Consider a monster powerful to fight an entire normal unit single-handedly but vulnerable to hero's special attack skills. Such a unit would always be vulnerable to challenges from heroes as it has no comrades to shield it.

You could also have a card "Invulnerable" where a unit can't be adversely affected by normal combat, but must always accept challenges to duels.

Re: Dueling Value Battlecard

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:46 am
by David Kuijt
RogerCooper wrote:
Sat Oct 08, 2022 11:04 pm
Dueling Value can only be assigned to heroes but there are situations it might make sense to give to non-hero units. Consider a monster powerful to fight an entire normal unit single-handedly but vulnerable to hero's special attack skills. Such a unit would always be vulnerable to challenges from heroes as it has no comrades to shield it.

You could also have a card "Invulnerable" where a unit can't be adversely affected by normal combat, but must always accept challenges to duels.
Hm. Maybe. In the last four or five years we played with a bunch of things that blurred the line that divides heroes and units. And they were all really complicated, difficult to playtest, and tended to make the game more of a Hero game, and less of an army battle game with heroes.

So what you're suggesting is to allow Heroes to attack some units. But not all of them. That's a disadvantage to the unit, being killable by heroes. We'll think about that.

But the second one, no. Making a unit that cannot be killed by other units, only by heroes? Nope. Armies without heroes cannot defeat it? Big nope.

Re: Dueling Value Battlecard

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:35 pm
by RogerCooper
Vulnerability to heroes is a definitely a problem for some monsters. Smaug was taken down by hero who probably had a dueling value of 2. A definite issue for monsters tough enough to take on an entire military unit.

You can actually experiment with this on the site https://www.dndcombat.com/dndcombat/Welcome.do. Monsters with area affect attacks can be devastating to mundane foes, but they are still vulnerable to a band of mid-level adventurers.

Re: Dueling Value Battlecard

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2022 12:31 am
by David Kuijt
RogerCooper wrote:
Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:35 pm
Vulnerability to heroes is a definitely a problem for some monsters. Smaug was taken down by hero who probably had a dueling value of 2. A definite issue for monsters tough enough to take on an entire military unit.
Smaug was taken down by a Thrush telling Bard about the hole in his armor. That and deus ex machina. :)

More seriously, nobody ever wrote fantasy fiction where the "big bad" was taken out by an army unit. Fiction is about individuals. All fiction is built for skirmish games and special rules.
RogerCooper wrote:
Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:35 pm
You can actually experiment with this on the site https://www.dndcombat.com/dndcombat/Welcome.do. Monsters with area affect attacks can be devastating to mundane foes, but they are still vulnerable to a band of mid-level adventurers.
That's a D&D simulator, right? I'm not sure that is a good general purpose fantasy simulation tool. (although there's some clear links in the fiction of Elizabeth Moon).