Savage Wednesday: Combat Ratings
Our campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition has launched into its first full-blown adventure involving elements cobbled together from Keep on the Borderlands and West End Games’s The Destiny Map. As mentioned last Savage Wednesday, what I thought would’ve been a modestly challenging encounter with a doppelganger assassin ended up being pretty much a cake walk for the heroes. During the fight against Devris Poyer, I expected that either the characters would win or Poyer would escape. The heroes beat him pretty easily.
Interesting.
Now, I expected the heroes to win. I almost always do. I also had a probability warping run of low die rolls when attacking and inflicting damage. The heroes subdued what I thought was a pretty tough customer, all without any real damage suffered and not a whole lot of effort expended, especially once the grappling started.
During the down time between sessions, I’ve read more carefully the section on Balance and Combat Ratings. I think I grok them pretty well. (Some of what follows is a repeat of a social media post; if you’ve already seen it: Mea culpa.) So, I grabbed my son Christopher’s elven warrior character and studied him with combat rating in mind:
Haldir of Elveim
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +6
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +1
Total Combat Rating: +9
There are three other heroes in the group. I don’t have their characters at hand, but it’s safe to assume they are approximately the same Combat Rating as Haldir. That means the group’s total Combat Rating is about 36. During the last session, the group tracked down and subdued Devris Poyer, a doppelganger assassin:
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +6
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +2
Total Combat Rating: +10
If the guidelines in SWDEE are accurate (and I have no reason to doubt them), this means Haldir alone versus Devris alone should be a moderately difficult encounter. Devris alone against all four heroes? No challenge for the heroes.
I next looked at a orc and a chieftan orc:
Orc
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +8
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +3
Total Combat Rating: +13 ÷ 2 for not being a Wild Card = +7
Chieftan Orc
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +10
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +3
Toughness over 5: +6
Total Combat Rating: +19
For a moderate encounter involving these orcs, I should pit the heroes against two orcs and one chieftan orc, for example. That’d be Heroes 36 versus Orcs 33. For a tough fight, add a couple of more orcs.
But back to Devris. I adapted his role from The Destiny Map. In that adventure, the assassin was from the Cyberpapacy. He had some pretty hefty stats, including cyberlegs and a really big gun. I remember running The Destiny Map while stationed in Hawaii. We had about a half dozen players in the group I gamed with most often. Those 5-6 heroes did not fare well against the cyber-assassin once he’d been cornered. If I recall correctly, he seriously injured one or two heroes, and then escaped, handily evading pursuit.
For doppelganger Devris to do the same, I guesstimate his combat rating would need to be close to doubled. That means adding 2 to 3 “adds” for each of the three categories, assuming things were spread out more or less evenly. This rougher, tougher Devris might look like this:
Devris Poyer, a Doppelganger Wild Card
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d10
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d10, Persuasion d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d8
Charisma: +0
Pace: 8
Parry: 7
Toughness: 7 (2)
Gear: studded leather vest (+2), studded leather vambraces (+1), shuriken (STR, 3RB, range 1/2/3)
Special Abilities:
Change Shape: Devris can change his appearance to another humanoid ranging in size from -1 to +1. If Devris mimics a specific person, someone familiar with that person can see through the disguise with Notice -2.
Improved Extraction: Make an Agility roll when withdrawing from combat. If successful, one opponent doesn’t get a free attack. With a raise, all opponents currently in melee lose their free attack.
Improved Martial Artist: Devris is never considered unarmed. STR+d6 damage unarmed.
Improved Sweep: Make a single Fighting attack against all currently adjacent targets. Resolve each damage separately.
Mind Reading: Devris can read another’s thoughts by opposing his Smarts against his target’s Smarts. If Devris gets a raise, the target is unaware of the intrusion.
This new Devris would be about an 18 Combat Rating:
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +7
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +7
Toughness over 5: +4
Total Combat Rating: +18
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