Thus Spake Zaraborgstrom/SolarVsSiderealDefence

On Solar v. Sidereal defenses

rebeccaborgstrom - 10/15/2003 01:38:56

Ignore both Fivefold Bulwark Stance and Perfection of the Visionary Warrior for the moment.

Suppose you have 10 dice to attack with, a very high-damage weapon, and 10 motes to spend on Excellent Strike. Since we're looking solely at parry Charms, you're attacking an Exalt who can't do anything but pick a parry Charm to use each turn.

You can do the following:

• Each turn make a Solar with DSD and HGD burn 3m 1W or 8m.
• Each turn make a Sidereal with ItF and SiB burn 12m.

To make the Solar burn 3m 1W, make a 20-die attack. To make the Solar burn 8m, make four 7-die attacks. To make the Sidereal burn 12m, make four 7-die attacks.

An attacker who can force the Solar to spend the Willpower can easily make a Sidereal hemorrhage motes---fast enough that the Sidereal is likely to run out of Essence before the Solar runs out of either.

The difference between 2m and 3m may not seem like much for the benefit of not having to roll---but remember that Sidereals don't *have* a 2m version. If you split your pool, they're not spending one extra mote---they're spending 150% of what a comparable Solar is. The proportional difference is huge, and that matters on a Charm where the *attacker* decides how many times a turn you need to use it.

If you have a persistent Dodge up, the situation favors the Solar to a greater degree. A persistent Dodge means that the Solar can parry significantly larger attacks with just DSD.

Rebecca