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Multiple Adventurers Engaging in Spirit Combat Against the Same Spirit


Arcadiagt5

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Something that’s come up a couple of times for me now when running The Grey Crane and also Crimson Petals is multiple adventurers engaging the same spirit in spirit combat at the same time.

This led to what initially looked like quite tough opponents more or less vanishing with little effort or risk. Especially given that in a tie per RQG p368 both parties do spirit combat damage to the other, but if you have 5 adventurers all getting ties on the same spirit, that spirit's magic points will melt away like a sandcastle in the rain. 

Also, in the case of Crimson Petals, I awarded the POW boost to the only one of the adventurers to win the matchup with the disease spirit, even though one of the ties did more actual damage. What are people’s thoughts on managing rewards when multiple adventurers do damage in one round that cumulatively defeats the spirit? 

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p366 says "Spirit Combat may occur between two discorporate entities  or between a discorporate entity and an embodied entity", and later "Any number of discorporate spirits may attack a single entity at a time" - so I guess multiple embodied entities can't engage in Sprit Combat vs the same foe at the same time.

p368 "Resolving Spirit Combat" says "Tie: A tie (same quality of result) means the situation is temporarily unresolved. If both participants rolled a critical success the result is a tie. Both parties do spirit combat damage to the other". I find that a bit oddly worded but I think it means that you only mutually inflict damage on a tie if criticals were rolled, otherwise no damage is done. 

Edited by d(sqrt(-1))
typos

Always start what you finish.

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7 minutes ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

p368 "Resolving Spirit Combat" says "Tie: A tie (same quality of result) means the situation is temporarily unresolved. If both participants rolled a critical success the result is a tie. Both parties do spirit combat damage to the other". I find that a bit oddly worded but I think it means that you only mutually inflict damage on a tie if criticals were rolled, otherwise no damage is done. 

It's hard to say if that was the intent, or if the second sentence is just an example of a tie...

However, given how frequent ties are in the skill opposition rule of RQG, your interpretation is IMHO better than the other.

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29 minutes ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

p366 says "Spirit Combat may occur between two discorporate entities  or between a discorporate entity and an embodied entity", and later "Any number of discorporate spirits may attack a single entity at a time" - so I guess multiple embodied entities can't engage in Sprit Combat vs the same foe at the same time.

That would return the threat level I guess. In the case of Crimson Petals it makes resolving one key aspect of the scenario somewhat terrifying as it is likely that multiple characters will have to engage sequentially, and take the associated risks, before the spirit is defeated.

18 minutes ago, Mugen said:

It's hard to say if that was the intent, or if the second sentence is just an example of a tie...

However, given how frequent ties are in the skill opposition rule of RQG, your interpretation is IMHO better than the other.

I would tend to take it as just an example. In all cases of ties (except mutual fails), both do damage. It’s just that on a critical the amount of damage exchanged is probably Mutually Assured Destruction. 

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17 minutes ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

I would tend to take it as just an example. In all cases of ties (except mutual fails), both do damage. It’s just that on a critical the amount of damage exchanged is probably Mutually Assured Destruction. 

As I said, there's a high number of ties in the Skill Opposition rules.

As an example, say both characters have a Spririt Combat skill of 60%, which means :
-3% of a Critical on both sides,
-9% of a Special,
-48% chance of a normal success.,

That means a ~24% chance that both characters will take damage in an exchange (with 60% chance only one does and 16% chance none take damage).

Edited by Mugen
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42 minutes ago, Mugen said:

That means a ~24% chance that both characters will take damage in an exchange (with 60% chance only one does and 16% chance none take damage).

I'm actually OK with those numbers. They make spirit combat brutal, and not something to be engaged in lightly.

It’s the multiple embodied entities engaging the same spirit that I am increasingly thinking is dodgy, and against the intent of the rules. 

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The way I envision it is that the (noncorporeal) spirit moves so that it's (more or less) "spiritually grappling" the corporeal foe, sharing the same physical space; because it's noncorporeal, another spirit can join the dogpile, then another, etc... all in the same physical space.  Other corporeal foes can't really discern any separate target to attack; or at least, only for split-seconds at a time, and are likely to hit the physical target, instead.

If they are sniping spells at range, then everyone (who can see the spirit) can target the spirit.

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