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How many people who play FH like combat? Do you come to FH for the battles and fighting? If you do, what type of combat would you like to see?

Do you like simple creatures and enimes that just swing 1 damage and have limited abilities?

Do you like enimies that use the full rule set and have some special abilites. Taunt, Root, booms, fears, parry, resists, etc.. Enimies that use the same rules as PC's do and have the same limitation also? Aka, have limited soak, use PC timing counts to use special skills, etc..

What type of enimies would you like to fight against? How challenging do you like combats?

I think it depends entirely on the situation. If it's a single roaming monster, it should have some limited but challenging abilities to use, like taunt, or a crush melee attack, etc. Scaled to the encounter, of course. A monster that is a challenge for 4-6 players should pull a couple punches/fewer crush attacks if it's attacking one, two or three people instead, (or at least give them some sort of an out to retreat).

But packs of roaming monsters should be weaker to even out their numbers, but yet still have character as they fight. Like at WH, we have fought spider goblins that are pretty weak individually, but come in waves and tend to root people when backed into a corner and then run around them to attack the rest of the group. That's cool, because it make them feel like more than just faceless dual-wielding target dummies.

I think it would be even cooler(but tougher on the GM/NPC staff) to have monsters that are specifically weaker to attacks by some sort of weapon, which is roleplayed by the NPC. For instance, after taking several sword swings which damage it as normal, a rampaging troll "announces" that the players see that some of their earliest struck wounds appear to begin to heal. But when struck by a large blunt object, like a fist/staff/club/hammer/Trusk's Q-tip of doom, it roars in obvious pain, (hopefully) giving more observant players the idea that blunt objects hurt it more.

Because while it's fun for some to be the He-Man beast slaying Kratos-hero and kill the monster solo, working as an effective group is more fun for me. In the earlier example, the troll could still be swarmed to death like normal, but by working together some of the more RPG-minded of us get more pleasure from the characterful experience. I don't want to be a stick-jockey. That's for Dagorhir/Belegarth. I want to experience the RP in LARP. For an in-game example, the zombies in the House of Chance at the November event, for example, were an exemplar combat to make me feel like I was really part of a world. there were parts where I beat the hell out of the zombies, but then I would suddenly have to change gears and block for a comrade who could cast magic so they could kill the melee-immune ones. It was total immersion.

So really, I want to see all kinds of combat! A rampaging Troll, a group of goblins/kobolds/human brigands accidently stumbled upon scavenging in the woods as we head somewhere, etc.

Heck, if we're somewhere with a place for a cave, how about a complete full stereotypical rescue mission instead of just a boss fight? A townsperson/etc has been captured, and brought to a cave system by orcs. But instead of just fighting hordes of Orcs, the place has locked doors and traps to aid in securing it, so we need more than just people with huge soak and melee damage to get to the person.

Is yes an acceptable answer? All except the NPC's being limited to only PC stuff, I don't mind powerful NPC's having special abilities or higher soak, as long as there is a way around them. Some fights should be easy, some fights should be hard, and some fights should have us fleeing the scene and trying to come up with another solution as opposed to a frontal assault. That's the thing I miss most about combat from the earlier days of this LARP, there were fights we ran from. Now someone slaps on 9 or 10 crafted items, takes a potion or casts a spell and solo's things that would have sent a decent sized group running.

I always viewed the combat system of FH as team orientated. A single peson might be able to take on 1 or 2 creatures, but anything larger you need support. It is not fun to have a huge powerful person stomping the monsters and everyone else just sit there twideling there thumbs.

One thing I disliked about the monsters before I left was they all where simple , swing X damage and have X soak. Very rarely did I see the use of the other combat and defensive skills used.

At the last 1 day event 2 NPC's where using all the combat skills and working together. I found it fun and had a blast. Others did not.

The reason I ask is I will be at this event NPCing and looking for feedback on what type of combat the PC's would like to see. I enjoy FH combat system and would like use it to it's fullest, but at the same time make it fun the PC's. I'm just bouncing ideas around which still needs to be approved by the GM's.

I personally like combats that have us leaving to regroup and come up with an actual strategy instead of just trying to pound monsters in like a nail.

I personally think that most players who would have a problem with NPC's using some tactics are the ones that just like to run in and swing away with high damage abilities and/or items like a tank. And that gets boring. I don't feel like I'm "in" the world when fighting like that. I want to have a quick huddle and come up with a plan of action (when possible, anyway).

I think that lower level monsters/groups of monsters, should keep with the formula of x soak and swing x damage, with maybe a single ability to make them unique. Otherwise it's too complicated to keep track of damage calls and combat-related worries in the middle of a fight.

But lone monsters should be different. Then, because there are less of them to keep track of, it's possible to up the "encounter level" and make them stand out. But one caveat: Many times it seems like most monsters are suicidal; in a state of perma-rage. If they are going to have better abilities, they need to act like they actually care about dying.

I'd like to be able to end a fight by driving a big monster off for the moment, rather than having it fight until it's dead. I know I would feel much more heroic driving off an Ogre and send out a scout to track it back to it's lair than ganging up 5 on 1 on that last goblin.

I think in the next year we should see a couple of such 'repeat offenders' - relatively mundane monsters that keep coming back only to be driven off, and maybe even some NPC's occasionaly reporting of attacks elsewhere to force the player base out of the tavern to do some pacifying around Far Reach.

I like the thinking and feedback. I feel the same way Rhul

Yeah, I totally dig the idea about tracking monsters back to their lair's and taking care of the problem. It's the perfect thing for newer players because it let's them get involved. I like monsters who have character. Monsters who will occasionaly talk some crap while trying to kill you or swing slower because they are huge. I also like monster who have crazy weird abilities because it makes you have to think instead of mobbing on the monster. I don't think any npc really likes getting mobbed on by like 8 people because mainly it's not safe. If the npc turns to strike another pc they will probably get blasted in the face because there are a bunch of weapons coming at them in rapid succession.

Rhul wrote:I personally think that most players who would have a problem with NPC's using some tactics are the ones that just like to run in and swing away with high damage abilities and/or items like a tank.

WHAT, THERE ARE ITEMS THAT MAKE YOU LIKE A TANK! i always thought it was just my good looks.

its true, i have a harder time fighting npc's that use tactics, but really, its not even much of a fight at that point, because once they surround trusk he dont know what to do at all, so i usually go down, but thats all just rp, for me at least, then again it would seem like major cheeze dickery if players that arnt savage orcs complain about things like that, freekin power gamers.

but i dont mind the little squishies that come into town to get crunched under mah boot, and im pretty sure the gavin dont mind it either, makes us as players get into the role of being gigantic brutish thugs, ego pumping if you will.

so thats what id like to see, more of the just random squishy monsters, ones that dont have some kind of unique crazy ability, cus i didnt see hardly anything at the last fh that didnt have some kind of crazy special ability, not counting having something like parry or dodge, but something like infinite regeneration or only hurt by one kind of thing.

remember that the warriors are SUPOSED to be able to stomp them under there boot, monsters must be set up so a sage could kill them, my favorite thing to do is go looking for wandering monsters on my own or with one or two people, but there usually arnt any wandering around and if they are there plot specific and badass, that said i wouldnt mind them being pc level, with at least a path, let them pary and if there swining 2 i know there using rage

Personally, I think I enjoy more of the roleplaying side of the Larp. That said, I'm not playing rock, paper scissors at another game.

While I understand that some people like beating on things, I enjoy the kind of 'monster' that you can talk to or bargain with. I don't like the baddies that come in swinging for no apparent reason other than just to give us something to fight. I would like there ALWAYS to be an option other than fighting.

For instance, perhaps a pack of hungry animals come storming in, if I throw a few food tags at them, maybe they would go after that rather knocking me down and eating me - heck I might be able to escape while they are munching on the food tags.

A few goblins come down the road and see I have shineys. They want to kill me and take my shineys! But wait - maybe I can convince them to not kill me and I can show them where they can find (or who has) more shineys.

I like villains that force you to think how you're going to take them down. Not necessarily on the battlefield either.

So far, my favorite battle was the town against the Evil Dragon.

It sounds like people like it when the monster are roleplayed and are not just target dummies. It also sounds like people do like to see the use of some skills by the monsters (as long as it is done in proprtion).

Thanks for the feeback.

I'm looking forward being your friendly wandering monster this event.

oh i wouldnt say we neccisarily dont ever want target dummies, at least us fighters dont. as players we subconsiously anylize every fight we come across, but as brutish characters we have to actively try to not do that, so target dummie monsters make that easier for us, since we dont have to think, true that it doesnt exactly make for exemlplar talky talky roleplay but rp isnt all about chating it up with every npc you come across, sometimes its good to justgo in hammer first, and i know id like to have more of those kind of encounters since i didnt see hardly any at the last event, situations where the barbarians of the town can actually do some barbarianing without being lead around by the collar by townspeople who do the talky talkying to fights that we knew nothing about.

Don't worry, if you want to fight, I'll provide you enough oppertuites. It will be a mixed bag of interesting stituations and creatures you have to deal with. I hope you enjoy them

celegar wrote:oh i wouldnt say we neccisarily dont ever want target dummies, at least us fighters dont. as players we subconsiously anylize every fight we come across, but as brutish characters we have to actively try to not do that, so target dummie monsters make that easier for us, since we dont have to think, true that it doesnt exactly make for exemlplar talky talky roleplay but rp isnt all about chating it up with every npc you come across, sometimes its good to justgo in hammer first, and i know id like to have more of those kind of encounters since i didnt see hardly any at the last event, situations where the barbarians of the town can actually do some barbarianing without being lead around by the collar by townspeople who do the talky talkying to fights that we knew nothing about.

Wait, you can always just go and attack something if you wanna play the hammer first barbarian. Sure you might attack something that's gonna kill you but those are the choices each character makes. Whether the NPC's are squishies shouldn't matter. And how can you say you want "ego pumping" monsters and then turn around and bag on power gamers.

Angie I know where you're coming from but sometimes there just aren't any other options than fighting or running away.

Why do people think sages are weak? Sage can be arguably the second best combat class, ask Aaron how you can tweak a sage for combat.

I think costuming and theme are highly desierable.

I think it is better to have less variety, but due the few things you do well, instead of people running around in Jeans with a bunch of crazy stuff.

I thought our undead battle we did last event was one of the best we ever did.