Thrawn
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Posts: 2
Joined: Fri 01 Apr 2022, 12:34

High parry rating

Tue 23 Aug 2022, 11:32

Coming from 1. Edition I noticed that the PCs have much higher parry ratings but the NPCs still use combat ratings of 2-3 and there is no flat out bonus from favoured abilities anymore (I know hate can be used to get a bonus die)
At the moment the combat scenes in my adventures have what is known as whiff factor (NPCs usually miss or roll "the eye"). I think the problem can be fixed jbuy using out higher cambat ratings for the NPCs, but I'm curious has anyone else had a simmillar problem?
 
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Harlath
Posts: 597
Joined: Sun 19 Jul 2020, 10:40

Re: High parry rating

Tue 23 Aug 2022, 12:24

I haven't found hitting PCs a problem.

- Enemies in TOR 2e can spend Hate for 1d on attacks, unlike in 1e as you note.
- Enemies in TOR 2e tend to have combat proficiency 3, which gives them good odds of hitting. Against a Wits 4 Barding with a Great Shield (Parry 19) you've got a 32% chance to hit with 3d, 58% with 4d. Same odds against a Ranger with Wits 4 and a Buckler. Good chance to hit if you chuck enough foes at the PCs.
- Appropriate Fell Abilities like Fierce Folk and Denizen of the Dark for Favoured attacks. Making an attack Favoured moves our example attacks above against Parry 19 from 32% (3d)/58% (4d) to 49% (3d) and 75% (4d) to hit.
- Fell Abilities like Great Leap can help too: target low parry scores. Typically archers/characters using two-handed weapons.
- Other kinds of threat: particularly Shadow (Dread) for Valour tests, as a high Wits and good Parry often means lower Wits.
- Combat advantage for 1d or 2d bonuses. This also prompts creativity from players, leading them to use their Skills to remove the 1d bonus. Or try to kill enemies quickly to face attacks with 1d or 2d bonuses.

I tend to go with more enemies rather than chucking Hate in to attacks, gives things more of an epic feel and the misses help make Parry useful. Although I tend to use Fierce Folk as that helps give an enemy its particular flavour, while Hate spending is generic for I tend to leave that for Fell Abilities and bosses.
 
Dunheved
Posts: 529
Joined: Wed 11 Mar 2020, 02:07
Location: UK

Re: High parry rating

Fri 26 Aug 2022, 10:27

I sort of get this as a perceived difference in the feel of a combat, however, a couple of comments:

For early-in-the-career adventurers, I often feel the need to go Forward in order to have at least a good chance of hitting the opponent with the bonus +1d6. And the corollary of that of course, is the Adversary gains 1d6 as well, WITHOUT SPENDING HATE. It's a nice balance, going aggressive like this gets results but, to be honest, you need that high basic Parry to have even a fair hope of winning close combat. If you were almost always badly cut up by the first orc or goblin in a fight, how are you going to ever replicate Tolkiens heroes who are always fighting against bad odds? So maybe the Designers chose the base Parry scores for that reason.

Another way of looking at this, is the following:
the Adversary might not be so likely to land a blow on a player, but if they do it's likely to be with a high number on the FEAT die... and so the proportion of actual blows landed by adversaries are going to feel like many Wounding/ Protection rolls. As several have said (elsewhere) about TOR 1e and 2e, even a relatively weak foe can be deadly in this game. Overall, I don't see the need for upping the Combat skill values for these beast's. (In fact, I would like to see a few more with skill 2, to act as minions. )

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