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Author Topic: So, a little bit about Soulbound...  (Read 4499 times)

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #15 on: September 22, 2021, 02:08:15 PM »
Ah okay.

What did you find was very deadly for the group in the starter adventure?  I note you mentioned no War Priest or other healer.  Can we get a description of what did them in?  Shaman magic and/or troll vomit/smash?
Drizzleshroom can cast spells with 8d6 and +2 Focus (he can increase the result of one die by 2 or 2 dice by 1 each). With Arcane Bolt, that's a nasty hit. He also can, once per encounter, cast a spell as a free action (on top of actions from his 2 Mettle) and he can also use a free action to give one ally another action--which is really nasty on a dankhold troggoth. Drizzleshroom also has a high awareness making it almost impossible to hide from him. Casting Mystic Shield on both himself and the troggoth in turn 3 (when they emerge into the encounter) made both of them a fair bit harder to hit. Oh, and Drizzleshroom could also Unbind spells considerably better than the PC could cast them (for comparison, the PC battlemage was casting at 6d6 with +1 Focus).

The dankhold troggoth has really high Defense, resistance to magic, and a 24 toughness (unless Drizzleshroom is not present for the final encounter, but he had previously escaped, so...) plus it regenerates 4 toughness per turn. Even though it only has armour 2 (which is still pretty good), it's a very hard target to take down. When it attacks, it grabs with 10d6 and +2 Focus (as before) and a really high Melee meaning it hits most targets on 2s. It was often hitting for 7-8 damage at a time, and then the target is grabbed (Restrained condition) which then means the troggoth can spend another action (it has 2 Mettle and gets an extra action from Drizzleshroom too) to squeeze for an automatic, armour-ignoring 5 points of damage. Characters attacked by the troggoth went from perfectly fine to Mortally Wounded very quickly.

Prior encounters were tough too. There was one with Squigs doing Boing! Smash! which is a living cannonball attack that was 5d6 (needing 5s to hit most of my PCs) and a damage of 2 + Successes...but with this attack the final damage was doubled (before armour). This means that even 2 successes was an 8-pt hit, which, even accounting for armour, took characters to Mortally Wounded in 2-3 hits.

Before that there's a shitty encounter that is all about special case rules. No, really. The rules for the encounter use Deadly Hazard terrain but in a way that is non-standard. Why the hell they choose to use bespoke rules for a special case in an introductory module is beyond me, but if the PCs didn't know exactly how to game the encounter they would have died. I ran this one with full transparency for them and helped them to understand the weird-ass mechanics. As it was, they came up with a system that only barely let them survive it (but would have totally had a cascade failure if any one of them went down). Again, this could have been much easier with a priest spamming area heals every turn.

Even in the beginning, the Tzaangors that bring the ship down were tough, but part of that is that 1/3 of my group was totally useless in ranged combat (the Witch Elf) and another was only modestly able to contribute.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2021, 02:55:33 PM by HappyDaze »

KingCheops

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #16 on: September 22, 2021, 03:00:15 PM »
thanks for the detailed break down HappyDaze!

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2021, 03:14:48 PM »
thanks for the detailed break down HappyDaze!
Much as with some versions of D&D, party composition can make a huge difference. Some characters have abilities that synergize really well with certain other characters (a high Mind character with Tactician is great with a powerful ranged attacker in the group, somewhat less so with a melee attacker buddy, and much less useful if the others rely on spells and/or miracles for their damage output). Healing spam seems almost mandatory to survive the big fights (but would probably make the lesser battles into time-wasting pillow fights).

I'll note that our Celestial College Battlemage did have a spell that could restore Toughness, but it was way less than what the miracles could do, and he even hurt himself miscasting it once.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2021, 03:18:41 PM by HappyDaze »

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #18 on: September 24, 2021, 08:43:55 AM »
I've been looking over Champions of Death, where you play a Binding of undead in service to the cause of Death under Nagash, for the last few days. It's kinda cool that this game has an option for playing monsters (Ghouls, Soulblight Vampires, Wights, Nighthaunts, and Ossiarch Bonereapers) that still work neatly within the rules given and don't show any major power creep. I'm not sure I want to run these as protagonists, but they can also be used to create a "Legion of Doom" to oppose a Binding of Order-allied heroes.

Orphan81

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #19 on: September 27, 2021, 04:32:50 AM »
Sounds thematically similar to Exalted in the sense of 'Chosen by the gods, imbued with their power, high powered fantasy ass kicking'.
1. Some of you culture warriors are so committed to the bit you'll throw out any nuance or common sense in fear it's 'giving in' to the other side.

2. I'm a married homeowner with a career and a child. I won life. You can't insult me.

3. I work in a Prison, your tough guy act is boring.

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #20 on: September 27, 2021, 09:06:35 AM »
Sounds thematically similar to Exalted in the sense of 'Chosen by the gods, imbued with their power, high powered fantasy ass kicking'.
In many ways, yes, but with WFRP stylings rather than anime. Also, as it's not WW making it, Soulbound doesn't feature as much angst such as a "must hide who/what I am & can't ever revel in my power" angle (admittendly, the Dragon-Blooded exalted didn't have this so much under most circumstances) nor a "Great Curse" to make their lives hell (closest bit is that Soulbound are sterile and they have no afterlife to look forward to...but with Nagash dominating afterlives, that isn't necessarily a bad thing).

Also, while much of Exalted assumes that players will play Exalts of the same type (all Solars, or all Dragon-Blooded, etc.), Soulbound assumes that groups will be very diverse (a Daugher of Khaine, a Fyreslayer, an Idoneth Deepkin, and a Groot-wannabe walk into a bar...). I guess you could say that each of the Grand Alliances are their own thing, but I think that's more like saying "all Celestial Exalts" than just "all Solars" in Exalted terms.

Finally, Exalted relied a lot upon Artifacts/magical items, while Soulbound does not. Sure, some characters have essential items (like Stormcast Eternals and their signature Sigmarite gear) but it is considerably less powerful that the Artifacts I remember from Exalted (primarily 1e).

KingCheops

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #21 on: September 27, 2021, 10:13:33 AM »
You could probably add Kharadron Overlords as dependent on gear since without it they are basically just normal Duardin without their sky pirate steampunk gear.

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #22 on: September 27, 2021, 10:45:40 AM »
You could probably add Kharadron Overlords as dependent on gear since without it they are basically just normal Duardin without their sky pirate steampunk gear.
Sure, and Fyreslayers need their runes too. In fact, almost all of the factions have a few nice pieces of signature gear, but I still think they are less high powered compared to  Exalted's Artifacts and Hearthstones (at least the rating 3+ ones).

KingCheops

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #23 on: September 27, 2021, 11:12:57 AM »
Fair enough.  I tried cracking open my Exalted 2e book to give it a peruse.  The curiosity didn't last longer than one evening.  I can't really remember what it was like.

Even apart from the gear all the different culture groups are just so distinct that they're very interesting.  It takes a lot of shoe-horning to get some of them together especially the weirder ones like Idoneth Deepkin, Sylvaneth, or Seraphon (coalesced or starborn) but there's just so much cool stuff in the Age of Sigmar setting.

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #24 on: September 27, 2021, 07:19:57 PM »
Fair enough.  I tried cracking open my Exalted 2e book to give it a peruse.  The curiosity didn't last longer than one evening.  I can't really remember what it was like.

Even apart from the gear all the different culture groups are just so distinct that they're very interesting.  It takes a lot of shoe-horning to get some of them together especially the weirder ones like Idoneth Deepkin, Sylvaneth, or Seraphon (coalesced or starborn) but there's just so much cool stuff in the Age of Sigmar setting.
I think they recognized that the Seraphon, in particular,  are very weird. So much so that they are in a separate pdf supplement rather than the core book.

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #25 on: September 29, 2021, 02:02:12 PM »
I read that they have an expansion coming out that will move the setting into another era of the evolving  metaplot. The default game is set during the aftermath of the Necroquake/Soul Wars (most of Age of Sigmar 2e), but the expansion will push it into the Broken Realms/Time of the Beast (end of Age of Sigmar 2e and start of 3e). The timespan between these two is not set, but seems to be centuries...but since Soulbound are immortal, you can move the same group forward if you like or play in the corebook's setting for a long time and never need the expansion.

Chainsaw Surgeon

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #26 on: September 30, 2021, 03:01:13 PM »
Appreciate the analysis.  This is in the running for our next big campaign.  I don't know a lot of the lore and this sums up the concept nicely along with the mechanics. 

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #27 on: November 20, 2021, 08:09:53 PM »
Ended the rebooted campaign tonight. I was finding some abilities to be really imbalanced, and when certain characters are built around them, the game gets really unfun (for everyone but that player) very quickly. Some of the spells don't seem bad until you realize that, unlike with D&D, they can just be spammed over and over again. This means that certain "best moves" start appearing as obvious choices, and it makes play really boring for many encounters. Sure, there are ways around it, but there are so many of these holes that show up, that you fill one in and then step right into another. Perhaps with another edition some of these ugly burrs will get filed off.

KingCheops

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #28 on: November 20, 2021, 08:17:02 PM »
Well that's disappointing.

HappyDaze

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Re: So, a little bit about Soulbound...
« Reply #29 on: November 20, 2021, 09:02:49 PM »
Busted-ass mechanics can be present, like the Witch Aelf. This character can use Stealth along with Vanish to hide in plain sight. Now enemies that can't detect her (which is most of them) have Defense reduced to Poor against her next attack. Thanks to Backstab, her attack with a subtle weapon (like a bow or pair of daggers) deals double damage and ignores armour. This meant that she was often doing 6-8 damage per turn with her bow or 10-12 damage with paired daggers. How every turn? Because she had 2 Mettle.

Turn 1
Hide, spend 1 Mettle to Attack, spend 1 Mettle to Hide

Turn 2+

regain 1 Mettle, Attack, spend 1 Mettle to Hide