Darkest Angel
Sep 8 2003, 12:16 PM
| QUOTE (Greyfoxx) |
| oh, curugul, ever tried reuthenium (+12), thermal damp, and traceless tracks (+4), plus your stealth 12? That can make you pretty hard to detect. |
Just to set you straight Greyfoxx, it's a common error, but Ruthenium only adds to the test to spot the target, not to the test to hit the target. This is the key difference between Ruthenium and Invisibility, with the former characters get to roll to spot the 'cloaked' person, with the latter, they don't - they just get a resistance test against the spell, which if they fail, they don't see the person under it. It also serves to put a lot more sense into the 'how come he's on +12s to be hit and not actually invisible, whereas the guy under the invisibility spell only has +8s to be hit' quandry.
In my game, if the character is spotted using Ruthenium, then they get +1 per pair of sensors the Ruthenium is attatched to, giving a maximum bonus of +6s to any ranged attack against them. If the character is not spotted, then the normal +8 'blind fire' modifier applies if they heard them or otherwise were alerted to them being 'out there'. Obviously, if they have no means of knowing they're out there, they're not going to try to shoot.
Back on topic though, my opinion of the matter is simple - as Admiral John Fisher said: "Speed is armour." The basic premise is, it's better to not be hit in the first place than to be able to take a hit.
The White Dwarf
Sep 8 2003, 04:22 PM
Think about the movie Predator with Ruthenium. It makes him hard to spot, but once you see it you see it. With invis, either theyre totally not there, or the npc resists the spell and sees them as normal. At best, Id give a ruthenium covered player the +4 camoflauge modifier, because his profile is being broken up like camoflague would break it up. But really once youre seen with it, youll get shot. Just like a hidden sniper relies on not being noticed to be safe, same deal here.
Tiralee
Sep 9 2003, 02:15 PM
Fast is a sweet thing - but so is thinking fast and being able to read and react to changes in the scene.
Fast elf (Yeah, I Munched the "racial attribute" and "Max Racial att" for dex) with boosted reflexes 2 and after a long while, enhanced articulation.
This, and a few hundred thousand karma (it's how it felt, anyhoo.), eventuated in a Reaction of 11.
Big deal, so I get to act fast, and tend to pop off a couple of rounds quick.
I run with a troll mage, who manages to do as much or a little more with her lowly 6 + 1d6 simply because we know what works.
She'll do something downright evil that will disrupt people in a group while I keep her back clean. If she manages to be involved in melee, well, that's why she's got a dikoted claymore. (Useful for vehicular combat - runs it through the door, spikes the driver AND passenger/s.) and a Dikoted Katana (troll-sized.)
I'm able to take heads at 200m+ one at a time, each combat round, but she'll drop a "shape earth" on the group that has us semi-pinned and well, looky, we're out without a scratch.
Speed is good, no doubt. But the "look, I'm a totally-tricked Sam wih the microwave crotch extra" will run into something at will slow it down. Magic tends to be rather horribly effective in that way.
Take the Tricked-Troll ganger, (the "unstoppable melding of man and machine, 0.000001 of being a Cyber-zombie, etc) from whom we needed info. I got him off the bike, but didn't have anything decent enough to slow him, let alone stop (Note- AV rounds ARE YOUR FRIEND.) and/or knock unconcious.
So she drops a Shape-earth on him. Sorta messy, in the whole "Look, it's tooth-past man! On the wall!" genre. Admittedly, we didn't get the info, but I was about ot die, so I'm cool with that.
Mages DO have the option of increased Reaction and increased reflexes don't forget - believe me, the screams of pain caused by a mage with THOSE cast and sustained will echo long after the smoking bodies are carted away.
And for GM's looking fo balance, toss a "cripple attribute" on one of the more tricked chrs. Makes them sweat. And cry. And beg. And burn karma, Burn I say!