Savage Pathfinder - More of a Slog Than PF1?

DrunkonDuty · 2026-04-10T03:37:17+0100

Thomas Shey said:
if Wild Cards are missing too much, chances are whatever opponents are being put up against them have too much--probably way too much Parry.

My group are all quite new to SWADE and I suspect that this is one of the issues we're having.

But how do you lower parry without lowering the attack dice?

MGibster · 2026-04-10T03:49:50+0100

Thomas Shey said:
That said, the "flow bennies like water" tends to be overrated. I never did that when I was running the system and it didn't break anything. You just have to make sure they have enough to be able to do Soak when a damage roll blows up.

Rules as writen, Bennies are given to each player every time one of them draws a Joker. In addition, I tend to give out Bennies to a player if they do something really cool, when they advance the plot, have their Hindrance affect them negatively, or they make me laugh. But they don't flow like water. I want the use of Bennies to be a source of tension. Do I use my Bennie now or should I save it for a tougher fight?

DrunkonDuty said:
But how do you lower parry without lowering the attack dice?

What's the Fighting and Parry of these enemies?

UnplayedRanger · 2026-04-10T05:37:38+0100

DrunkonDuty said:
But how do you lower parry without lowering the attack dice?

You don’t have to build NPCs by the same rules as the player characters. You just set the parry/toughness score to whatever you want. I think a good average I used was usually 5 parry/7 toughness for everyday mooks. But really could do 4 parry for people you want your players to plow through.

Average mook damage should just be a d6 or 2.

DrunkonDuty · 2026-04-10T06:36:56+0100

MGibster said:
What's the Fighting and Parry of these enemies?

Fighting looks to be d6, with a parry of 6.

I should mention I'm a player not the GM.

MGibster · 2026-04-10T06:59:54+0100

DrunkonDuty said:
Fighting looks to be d6, with a parry of 6.

I should mention I'm a player not the GM.

Sounds like the goblins must be carring a small shield to get to that Parry of 6. Still, a Parry of 6 shouldn't be especially difficult for even a group of Novice adventurers to hit. When you attack, are you rolling your Wild Die in addition to your Fighting die?

The basic mook in my SW games has a Parry of 5 (I don't typically run SW campaigns in settings where shields are common). But it hasn't been my experience that PCs have a tough time hitting enemies with a 5 or even a 6 Parry. Though, to be fair, given the swingy nature of SW, I've sometimes seen players go through a streak of bad rolls.

DrunkonDuty · 2026-04-10T07:18:14+0100

We're at novice level and are definitely using the wild die. Still seems to be a lot of missed attacks. Or hits that fail to get passed the soak.

(Shrug)

It may be nothing more than a run of bad rolls. I admit I haven't kept a proper record.

MGibster · 2026-04-10T07:37:37+0100

DrunkonDuty said:
We're at novice level and are definitely using the wild die. Still seems to be a lot of missed attacks. Or hits that fail to get passed the soak.

To soak damage, the GM should be spending from their Bennie pool. Is the GM doing that?

DrunkonDuty said:
It may be nothing more than a run of bad rolls. I admit I haven't kept a proper record.

You're playing a game for fun not working on a graduate project. It'd be weird if you were keeping proper records.

Jahydin · 2026-04-10T08:02:52+0100

I always wondered how SW PF would run. I had a lot of fun with Hellfrost and Tyrnador, so I know it can do fantasy. I think it was just the high cost of entry and already owning/playing PF already.