Alright, so this was a good, straight-up combat against a beefy uptiered foe. Good test of the combat differences, the primary of those being:
* Resisting a Complication is beefier than standard Blades (basically the action/adventure form of it) w/ Resist equaling the equivalent of 2 ticks rather than 1 (so 2 Harm goes to 0, 3 Clock Ticks goes to 1, or a Risky Position Complication w/ a 4/5 result can be outright resisted).
* Load Limits are increased + less Stealth and more action so folks are going to be loading out a bit more toward the Medium spectrum where Blades loads out more Light.
* Characters are going to be fundamentally beefier because they start w/ 3 Abilities rather than just 1.
Alright, I'm going to break this down in Gamestates (eg #1/#2 etc) as that is easier to explain the changing fiction and mechanical implications.
GAMESTATE 1
* 40 * 30 hewn stone bunker/laboratory (the size of a very large studio basement) except with very large ceilings; 15 feet. Why? Because the Necromancer has a big, scary, stitched-up abomination that looks like The Butcher from Diablo (12 ft tall, 800 lbs, chain and sickle w/ near reach, massive bone "stick"; Near, Reach, Forceful, Messy).
Here is a nice picture. Its hulking in the center of the room over a massive vat of disgusting goop. The Necromancer has a huge paddle and he's stirring it while adding stuff from various sacks. The Necro himself is your run-of-the mill trope. But he's like American Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy (inspired Buffalo Bill in TSotL) wearing all manner of stitched skins as a full set of gnarly "leather" armor, replete with a face-mask.
Butcher - 8 Tick - Skilled Threat (so I'm going to be taking the initiative)
Necro - 6 Tick - Master Threat (so I'm just going to be delivering Consequences)
The PCs enter via the chimney/vent system on the far side of the room. The large amount of caustic materials are all burned in a large burn pit here. This is where the PCs spill out.
Right next to them are 5 tanks lining the wall w/ smaller Golems basically "recharging" in viscous green liquid baths, each with a cable/pump system hooking them to big table w/ alchemical equipment and various machinist equipment, surgeon tools, and dehydrated scraps of...."real bad stuff."
There are piles of bones randomly throughout the room.
Flesh Golems (5) - 4 Tick - Normal Threat
Skeletons (5) - 1 hit Mooks w/ Forceful melee...innert, waiting to be animated by Necro.
Alright, so they're Controlled Position and most Effects are going to be Limited because this is a Tier 2 Threat (while they're a Tier 0 Company...even when deploying Fine equipment, they're Tier 1).
Except for the Wizard and Thunderwave (at Quality +2) + Fine Implement = 3. Remember, this isn't straight D&D where you fire off the spell and lose it. That may be the Volatile complication, but it may not be. I'm immediately sensing that Quality +2 AoE spells (Scale of a small gang, so up to 6 targets) w/ Fine implements may be a problem....even with Volatile Complication embedded in them.
@hawkeyefan had a similar situation where he nearly took out 4 guys a Tier above him (would have with a 6). But he had to expend a lot of resources to get that done (a bandolier of bombs and some Stress). Some of you guys thought that the Wizard would be too weak so they needed reliable Cantrips...not_so_sure. We'll see. Anyway, this puts the Wizard's Thunderwave default Effect at Great.
So the Wizard wants to Thunderwave these 5 tanks and the Flesh Golems in them. Even though its a short area Cone (basially a Close Blast 3 in 4e terms), its going to have a problem with Scale (5 targets and a lot of space to cover), so I'm going to reduce Effect 1 because of that. So Controlled/Standard.
So they want Great Effect to hopefully wipe all 5 of the Golems out with a single Thunderwave. To accomplish that, the Fighter goes to Wreck the table that all the cables are up to, destroying the apparatus that empowers the tanks; Setup to get +Effect. The Fighter Pushes (2 Stress) for an extra 1d.
The ArcDuel (I'm shortening Arcane Duelist to this) helps the Wizard cast his Thunderwave by augmenting it with his own Arcana. The Wizard is leading the Group Action so best result sticks and any 1-3 and the Wizard eats 1 Stress. ArcDuel is also spending 2 Stress to Push for an extra Attune die.
Order of Operations:
Fighter Setup - Controlled/Limited w/ Wreck 2d6 = 4. Success (Wizard Thunderwave Great Effect) w/ Controlled Complication. The Fighter doesn't manage to destroy the table (its still going to be a hazard/something the Necro can use later), but she doesn't enough damage that the hoses are disconnected from the tanks, no longer empowering their restoring liquid.
The Butcher reacts enormously fast while his master is paddling the gook in the vat. He unchains his chain and sickle from his huge arm and flings it at the Fighter. The Fighter gets out of the way, but in order to do so, he has to throw his entire body backwards (Matrix-like) and fall on his back. This is the Forceful Tag. The Butcher will inevitably be charging right behind this initial attack.
She's got a few options here. She loaded out Heavy Armor (5 Load) so she's basically a tank. She could spend 1/3 Special Armor (Armor + Heavy Armor + Shield) boxes to shut down the Complication or Resist w/ 3d6 (because her Body Resist is 3). She goes with the latter and gets a 6. So no stress.
The sickle glances futilely off the hauberk and clangs on the ground, Auril ready to meet the beast's charge with her halberd (they both have Reach).
Wiz + Arc/Duel Group Action. Arc/Duel = 6. Wiz = 3. 1 Stress to Wizard. Result is 6 w/ Great Effect.
The Golems and the tanks they were in are obliterated by Thunderwave.
However, Controlled Complication from Thunderwave's Volatile drawback. The Necro perceives the magic the moment it is cast, drops his paddle, and uses the latent arcana from the Wizard's magic to animate 1 Skeleton at the Wizard's feet. It grabs the Wizard (Forceful) as it animates, locks it up in a grapple. The Wizard isn't terribly concerned about this, because the ArcDuel is right there and should be able to put the skeleton away quickly. However, the problem is that (a) at least one of the two characters is going to have to spend time dealing with this thread and (b) if the ArcDuel fails at their action (or gets another complication), things might spiral in terms of complications to be dealt with and action economy. And The Butcher and The Necro are both extremely dangerous even by themselves.
So the Wizard Resists (w/ +1 because this is Volatile complication - so Implement applies) for 3d6 Spirit Resist to basically "Counterspell" The Necro's magic. Rolled a 4 so 2 Stress. Wizard already has 2 Stress from the Ritual + Group Action so 4/9 Stress.
That is where I'm going to end it. Quality 3 AoE (Scale of a small gang) Spell w/ Forceful is absolutely deadly w/ 6 roll and Great Effect, even against beefy 4 Tick Flesh Golems. Volatile was a big nothingburger because Controlled Positioning. Yes, this was everything cued up and going right (mostly), but this is the apex sort of power for this thing. I'm not going to nerf it yet (eg - tie Spells to Special Armor to make it limited use), but too be monitored.
The Action Economy disparity comes up big shortly (Master Threats just deliver Complications outright and get to "act" more than PCs and Skilled Threats are a step down from that).
I'm going to end it there for the night. This was a lot of typing.
- Tier 2 Flesh Golems * 5 obliterated.
- The Necro about to unleash a horrific AoE Necro spell which also starts a Clock 4 to "revive" the Flesh Golems.
- The Butcher barreling toward the Fighter w/ a big smashey + chemicals on the table about to happen.
- The Lair coming alive.
- Wizard 4/9 Stress.
- ArcDuel and Fighter 2/9 Stress.