SiderealsVsFandFL

In the Solar Circle vs. F&Amp;FL challenge someone mentioned whether a circle of 5 Sidereals could do it.

The setup.

In the Convention on Deathlords, there is a team whose job is to be a distraction to any deathlord who comes into creation while the troops are being martialled. One day during a meeting of said convention, they decided to formulate a training program to pontenially allow said team to defeat a Deathlord. A Caste of Battles agreed to head this circle, and they have been training for quite a while.

This means I am working with Bronze faction sidereals.

I am concerned that the lack of depth of charm trees, mean that there are very few solutions to a given problem. For example, ping reducers. Choices : Starmetal armor(ick),Shield Of Mars,Martial Arts.

I'm digging deep into Martial Arts to find charms that support the combat strategy I'm implements.

I'm going to be using Greater Sign Of Mars, which caps damage against my team at ping, therefore ping reducers become important. This is not compatible with the lesser sign :(. This basically means that the F&FL will roll 10L every hit without ping reducers. I'm looking at getting the persistant parry into the powerup squence just to generate failed parries for Death-Parrying Stroke.

I'm going to be using the Soul Fire Shaper, Lesser Sign of Serenity trick for dodge.

Sidereal perfect defenses are expensive, so I'm working on other options against perfect attacks.

The demon blocking battle pattern is exceptionally usual especially in conjunction with extra actions.

If I can cut F&FL's dice pools enough so that he needs prefect attacks to hit, I think that would be half the battle.

Another awful trick if I can make it happen: Bottomless Depths Defence and Unfolding Retribution Stance only doable with fully Independent Actions.

Are there any canon buffed knives or serpent-sting staves? Are there any items that don't count as armor for martial arts, but give the -1 damage starmetal effect?

Comments

One thing to really help them would be to throw 3 uses of Of Horrors Best Unknown which would reduce all their TN while fighting said deathlord to 4. Since it can be done on anyone you can see it would be used long before actual combat started. -BogMod

The roll will be tough to make. Difficulty target's essence. --flymolo

If you spend a WP when using this charm it automatically works. -BogMod

More specifically, if you spend a permanent willpower. I could really see a Chosen of Secrets burning herself out in this fight - using Of Horrors Best Unknown in advance, then invoking the Greater Sign of Jupiter before pronouncing "You will be brought low a second time by those weaker than you and in that moment you shall lose the favor of your dread masters." (Trancendent Hatchet of Fate) - Can you say self-sacrifice in the name of Creation? --Dakkareth

Ping reduction - Shield of Mars, starmetal armor, starmetal shields, and the Lesser Sign of Mars (Battles anima). Probably more important, though, will be Storm's Eye Stance, the Resistance pinnacle. Citrine Poxes of Contagion Form might be worth some consideration. Spiritual Perfection, from the CPoC tree, is also a spectacular defensive Charm - one mote to halve the damage of an attack after it's rolled. Many of the CPoC Charms have great potential, as do things like Water Spider Bite, but when we're talking about simply aiming for defeat, Pattern Spider Touch is probably what you'll aim for, in spite of how much more interesting the others might be. - David.

I'm actually trying to use different cheapness. Perfect defenses are going to be a serious problem. I'm planning on using a protocol to use Storm's Eye Stance, Soul Fire Shaper form, Underling Invisibility Practice, and the Greater Sign Of Mars to run him out of Willpower. Soul Fire Shaper form gets around the sidereal committed essence problem. I'm trying to figure out how to bleed to everyone CMOS form,PAOC form and Soul Fire Shaper. But with only 2 turns of prep the person invoking CMOS, can't get PAOC or Soul Fire Shaper. --flymolo

You want to go like this. Prep turn 1: Sidereal Red, who will be "the anchor", activates PAOC Form. Everybody else activates scene long charms. Prep 2: Red activates CMOS Form. Everybody activates scene long charms. Do not activate any other Form charms yet. It doesn't work that way. You see, the moment you "bleed" PAOC form to someone else, it overrides the existing Form. Anyway, Combat turn 1: Invoke Protocol. Bleed all scene longs. Somebody invokes Soul Fire Shaper Form. Bleed it. Then go as usual. Protect Red at all costs. He's your anchor. He goes down, the whole thing crashes down. Always use perfects. Brawl charms can easily throw someone out of range of Protocol, therefore annuling it. - TonyC, who despite not wanting to use Protocol had figured out how to use it.

What kind of charm is this 'protocol' thing and where is it from? Autochthonians? --Dakkareth

Player's Guide, actually. The full name is Five Directions Formation Protocol. It lets everyone use Combos as a group, and give each other access to active scene-length Charms. Very bizarre Charm. - FrivYeti

Ah. Will have to take a look at that. Thanks for clearing that up. -- Dakkareth

I think you'll want two Protocols. The multiple-Forms ability of PAoC Form doesn't allow it to be activated after another Form, and activating it simultaneously (which would be more or less what would be done if everybody bled different Forms via Protocol) may be iffy. What you need is one Protocol that first shares PAoC Form, then the various Exalts can invoke a Form of their preference (in part to enable weapon compatibility), then another Protocol could be used to bleed some of those. For example, after PAoC Form is shared, one character might invoke CMoS Form, while the others each invoke whatever Form they desire. Activating another Protocol gives these Sidereals a chance to pick and choose which Form Charm they'd like to run under PAoC, giving them access to whatever weapon they like the most, along with other benefits. Sharing Soul Fire Shaper Form with everybody isn't a bad idea, but you might want to use that one only on, say, two Sidereals who intend to go toe-to-toe with the Lion to keep him busy with heavy, scary, SMA attacks, while the other three might use CMoS to maximize a death-of-a-thousand-paper-cuts strategy while the Lion is occupied with the two guys throwing things like Pattern Spider Touch and Disjointed Essence Infectious Atemi. Share other things, too. Share Glorious Sidereal Protection. Another thought ... Disjointed Essence Infectious Atemi. If you can land that, you could force the Lion to protect one of your fighters while the others take advantage of his reduced ability to act against them. - David.