Oddcog's Steam Suit, possible replacement w/Pardo

[Samuel Cole]

So my party just threw down with the Danorans during the Coup Ex Machina scene, and it was pretty astonishing. Ulrik and Inez went down really quick from the bomb. Merton and Rush stayed up through most of the fight but ended up getting dropped as they tried to run. Lya activated her gatecrasher charm, but we have a fey-pact warlock with a power that basically says, "you now look like someone you can see, and half of the damage you receive is transferred to that person." So the warlock uses that power to impersonate Lya, and then hexes herself to death in the hopes that it will do enough damage to take Lya out, too. It was incredibly badass.

The fact that they chose to not team up with the Danorans, however, meant that by the time Pardo came out, they really didn't stand a chance against him. We ran out of time, so I had the remaining duplicants self-destruct, figuring that their mission to assassinate the Bruse had been completed, and there was no point in sticking around and risking capture.

So now we're gearing up for the assault on the gnoll's island, and I have a decision to make: should I have the Lvl 16 Elite version of Pardo be there instead of Tinker Oddcog? They seem roughly equal in terms of difficulty, but they have a reason to hate Pardo whereas they're actively trying to recruit Oddcog for Risur. I don't know whether there's a ton of synergy between the dragon and Oddcog, though, that would be lost by changing it to dragon + Pardo.

Secondly, if I do use Oddcog, I have a question about how he interacts with his steamsuit. I see three distinct possibilities:

1. Oddcog and his steamsuit both take an action on every turn of the fight. They're two separate enemies, and they act independently of one another despite the fact that they move together.
2. The steamsuit takes actions until it's destroyed and Oddcog ejects from it, at which point Oddcog starts taking actions, instead.
3. Only the steamsuit takes actions at first, because Oddcog is completely shielded by sealed hatch. Once the suit is bloodied, however, Oddcog starts taking actions because the broken hatch gives him line of sight and effect.

What do you think?

 

[RangerWickett]

The intention with Tinker was that the suit acts as an independent entity, and Tinker also acts (though while inside the suit all he can do is shoot his ray gun and use Friend of Machines). He might also hop out of the suit and let it keep fighting without him, though that would probably only happen if the suit was imperiled and he wanted to get out before it gets thrown into lava.

Maybe just shift 'super Pardo' to the previous encounter, guarding the entrance.