[Sorcerer] Defending: with penalties, or without?

[James_Nostack]

While trying to familiarize myself with the combat system, I ran into a question:

Let's say you have Stamina 5 but have taken 8 lasting penalties.  You flub your Will roll to use dice this round, so I guess you're still dazed and staggering.  But the bad guy still wants to rearrange your face.

How do you make your defense roll?  Do you use your full Stamina, even though you've taken massive damage?  Does the attack automatically succeed?  If so, how much additional damage do you take?  (In theory he could only give you 2 additional penalties, so you could still fight if you get lucky.)

If it's not supposed to be your full Stamina, and you failed your Will roll, how many dice do you use?

[Trevis Martin]

You always get to roll one die.  As for your extra penalties, use the basic currency eqation.  1 point = 1 die =  1 success = 1 penalty.  So your extra penalties become bonus dice for the opponent.

So Stamina 5 with 8 lasting penalties.  Say your opponent is rolling Stamina 4.  You roll one die defense, he rolls 8 dice (his stamina + 3 bonus dice + the one to balance out the one you rolled for defense)



Trevis

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Trevis is right.

Fighting successfully in Sorcerer is very much a matter of "setting up the finishing blow." If there's any emotional commitment going on around the table, you can bet the announcement of the next action will have a certain grunty, anticipatory, gesture-y quality, meaning at least one more bonus die to the attack as well.

The character in the current example is about to get an eight-dice-minimum roll against his single defensive die, and he's already walking around with eight lasting penalties. This could be a skewer-through-the-heart moment.

... which is why those successful Will rolls are so sweet. Here's this guy with eight lasting penalties, looking at the moment as if he's taken enough damage to kill him, and let's say he does make that roll ... bam. A ton of suddenly competent dice, back in the attacker's face. Cue trumpets.

James, I'm assuming that the example is coming after the defender's chosen moment of action in the round. Because the Will roll is made during the resolutions, not before the whole round starts. If I'm right about that, then your example is all fine and Trevis' explanation is correct.

Best,
Ron