Dodging an army

[DugCoffin]

I talked my player into running Exalted for me and we ran into a situation we couldn't figure out.  He came up with a compromise and the session went smoothly, but I'm wondering how it was supposed to work, even if that meant tearing up my character sheet.


My Zenith, after taking his second breath in a 100 man Heroic Mortal deathmatch at high noon, rallys the surviving gladiators against the city army and escapes.  Too proud to sulk about (besides, he's glowy), yet too smart to take on the whole city solo, he charges the weakest section of the city 40' wall and makes his way up the stairs towards the rampart.  On the way up he's shot at by 40 of the wall guards, and dodges 2 volleys of concentrated archer fire using stunts and Shadow Over Water (he also has Seven Shadow Evasion-Valor FYI.) before making a leap of faith to freedom.


So... should that have been taken care of in standard combat or mass combat?  All of the archers and their leaders were extras (and passed valor rolls), and my Solar is a dodging fool with little War skill.  I was able to escape in less than 15 ticks (far less than a long tick).  I was thinking pin cushion, but the GM was not trying to kill me my first session.  I'm sure this will come up again.  How should it work?

 

[nero1]

The story first, mechanics afterwards


I guess your Storyteller played it out by the story and not by the book, and I think he/she was right. Anyway in terms of mechanics you haveto solve it through mass combat using your Zenith as a solo unit.


As noted in the box in page 161 of the Exalted rulebook: "Characters


who come into contact with aggressive units of troops will


be forced to fi ght them as solo stacks in mass combat, not as


heroes facing a large number of individuals in normal combat.


This is a part of the nature of Creation, and Storytellers


shouldn’t let characters fi ght individual members of units


once the unit is gathered together in the fi eld."


This would mean your Zenith should substitute his War rating to the Dodge rating in calculating the DV. And it would mean your Zenith had to subtract from the various value the difference in magnitude (i suppose the archers would be magnitude 2 and your Zenith magnitude 0).


In any case if i were in such a situation I would play it the way it fits the story best, and who cares for the rules: having your Zenith push through 40 archers makes a worthy Solar tale.

 

[Arthur]

Nero pretty much answered your question. It's just good to add that Mass Combat is a tool created on the 2e to make things easier while running big scale combats. If it's simply easier for your ST to use each archer separately, then it's probably better than using Mass Combat, as it looses its point.

 

[Torak]

While on the topic, could somebody explain to me how the mass combat and the related stats work? Or direct me to a topic where it's discussed?

 

[magnificentmomo]

Does War cap Dodge? I though it was only the rest of the Dawn traits.

 

[cyl]

War limits all battle traits (including ride sail and dodge and all other ability rolls made in mass combat) IIRC.


Just like ride limits melee.

 

[DugCoffin]

Yup.  Pincushion.  A solar could dodge hail, but if if arrows come at him and he doesn't know tactics, that could suck.


Curious... what about dodging in a murder storm?

 

[nero1]

While on the topic, could somebody explain to me how the mass combat and the related stats work? Or direct me to a topic where it's discussed?

Well, there is a full chapter on Exalted 2Ed. It would be quite long to repost it here on the forum: i guess the best choice is to go to your local store and peek at the rulebook.


Anyway here are the basics: instead of fighting one-vs-one you regroup armies in Units. Each units has combat traits (bonuses to attack and defense, overall Might and Magnitude, Endurance and the like) and these combat traits are worn by the commander of the unit. Basically in a fight the commanders of opposing units roll dices using their combat dice pools and adding or subtracting the Units combat traits. With one big limitations: each ability used in mass combat cannot be counted as higher the your rating in War  (so if you have Melee 5 and War 2 in mass combat your combat dice pool would be based on War 2 and not your usual Melee 5).


There are a number of special maneuvers and stuff, but this is basically how it is done: the commander rolls is attack with the whole unit against the other unit's commander traits.

 

[nero1]

Yup.  Pincushion.  A solar could dodge hail, but if if arrows come at him and he doesn't know tactics, that could suck.
Curious... what about dodging in a murder storm?

Ehm.... what's a murder storm?


In general Exalts are supposed to do stuff that mortals cannot, so i see no objection into doing out-of-reality feats such as dodging and arrow storm... if that's what you mean. It would just be difficult (let's say a penalty on your dodge trait for multiple opponent or onslaught or something...)

 

[DugCoffin]

CoCD Vol2 pg80


In the Northern Middlemarches, there is a Wyld phenomenon called a weapon storm, where it starts raining weapons (chakram storm, dagger storms, ect.).  A murder storm is when multiple weapon types meet.  


IT'S RAININ' SIDEWAYS!


BTW, in case no one else has said it, welcome!  Love the avatar.

 

[nero1]

Thanks (for all the fish

CoCD Vol2 pg80
In the Northern Middlemarches, there is a Wyld phenomenon called a weapon storm, where it starts raining weapons (chakram storm, dagger storms, ect.).  A murder storm is when multiple weapon types meet.  


IT'S RAININ' SIDEWAYS!


BTW, in case no one else has said it, welcome!  Love the avatar.

Ah, ok, THAT weapon storm. I guess in this case it's just storytelling the best thing.


BTW, thanks for the welcoming. Been lurking for a time, decided to begin post lately. Been ST for a very long time, nowadays enjoying someone else being a better ST