Hi all !

First please apologize my english, this is not my native tongue.

Second, I want to thanks the community here for all the explanations about the rules of Warhammer v3 ; you help me a lot!

Here is my question : in the tome of adventure, it is written that NPCs have all the basic actions as characters do. So assuming this, if the prerequises can be done, a NPC can have dodge, parry or block. But since there is no cards for the GM, how do you handle it? And how to handle this for Henchmen?

I'm taking scan of the cards for the moment, but am I wrong to act like this?

zuzul said:

Hi efidm.

I handle it like this:
I use actioncards as a GM only to read the costs and the result of the actions. Players have to place them on the table but me as the GM just say which action the npc uses.

Thank. So NPC can have reaction like PC for you?

zuzul said:

Yes I handle npcs like pc. And I don't use the henchmen rules as described in the book. This is a little more work but it feels a little more "realistic" for us.

I just scanned the cards for my reference-

It takes a little more work to track which NPC did what (Oddly enough players tend to get upset if you don't follow the same rules ), but I don't run "Big" melees with lots of NPC's much.

We don't use henchmen (In the words of one of my players "We want real bad guys, not cardboard cut outs"-But I don't see them being more difficult to run this way, since they "Share actions" (Although it does to create a weird mental image "Quick Guys, everbody DODGE!")

The way I'm handling it is this. If a creature wants to use Assess the Situation, Guarded Position or a Basic Ranged attack, you just need one copy of each of these cards for reference since there is no recharge. The only Basic actions that have a recharge are the active defenses. To simplify things, I'm treating these just like any of the other special abilities with recharge. Only one use per group and remove a recharge counter at the end of the round, not each creature's turn. Only need one copy of these now too. Since all basic actions have the same results on both sides, stance doesn't matter either. You can make a scan of all 8 basic action cards on a single sheet of paper and keep it next to the other page from the Bestiary (I made copies of these too).

For those that want to have each creature have their own active defenses, you can still do this with a single copy of the cards by using different color tokens assigned to each individual. You'll need something other than the counters provided with the game for groups of creatures larger than 4 and you'll have to remember which color goes with which creature during combat, but it takes up less room that multiple copies of the cards just so you can have one per creature (and you'd still have to know which card went with which creature). That's too much effort AFAIC and I'm content to just have one use per group. It may make things a little easier on the PCs since each individual Goblin can't Dodge an incoming attack, but it's quick and easy.

According to p46 of the Tome of Adventure, you're supposed to use the A/C/E pools to add misfortune dice to player actions.

Not totally convinced about the A/C/E mechanic from a speed & tracking point of view though. I think you'd be better off raising the stats of the monsters a bit and having a small pool of extra GM dice per encounter, rather than per enemy.

Off Topic, But-I don't know if I'd raise stats on creatures. They are pretty deadly RAW. Characters as well as Creatures tend to get hit a lot more often in this version. The last combat I ran could have easily gone either way, and it was even odds (one creature per PC). But, that is what my players want from the game. Deadly fights that come down to either tactics or luck.

Parzival said:

The hit chances are typically a bit higher in v3, but damage per hit is generally lower. However, this depends heavily on the starting wealth of your PCs - if they skimp on equipment they may take four wounds from a goblin hit, making combat a few times harder than if they bought some decent kit. Soak is essentially the most important stat for a melee fighter.

jaj22 said:

I was also under the impression that the ACE pool was per enemy but was corrected about this assumption on this very forum.

The ACE budget is per enemy group. So if you have a gang of 1 Orc, 4 Goblins and 6 Snotlings, you'll have 3 ACE pools... doesn't matter how many individuals are in a group, the budget stays the same. Same applies to Actions: If an Action is recharging for Goblin 1, Goblin 2 can't use it.

Doesn't really make sense but there you go.

HorusZA said:

Well, the rules don't actually specify either method for ACE pools, although that reading seems much more likely as it's consistent with the action recharge rule. They should add that to the errata/FAQ, along with all the ambiguities about multiple-combatant engagements. I'm also having some trouble believing that they intended all monsters to have their own active defense actions as indicated by RAW.

jaj22 said:

Well the rules actually do specify the correct method. Page 42, Encounters with Multiple Enemies,

"When more than one NPC or monster is present in an encounter,
each type of NPC or monster shares a single allotment of Ag-
gression, Cunning, and Expertise dice for simplicity – you do not
multiply these values by the number of creatures present.

For example, in an encounter with six snotlings, three goblins, and
one orc, all six snotlings would share one pool of Aggression, Cun-
ning, and Expertise dice. The three goblins would share a single
pool..."

mac40k said:

Oh yeah, they really do. Yet another case where they put the rules in the wrong place :-)

jaj22 said:

Agree that if Encounters with Multiple Enemies had followed directly after Tracking Enemy Abilities and before launching into the discussion of Henchmen, Minions and Underlings, it may have flowed a bit better.

So if I have four groups of henchmen Giant Wolves, do they all get a seperate A/C/E, or do they only get one A/C/E pool?

Reclusiarch said:

Just one pool. Whether they are individuals or Henchmen split up into four groups doesn't change the fact that they are all of the same type (Giant Wolves).

Great, thanks! That keeps the micromanaging to a minimum. So, one pool from one creature, not four pools pooled together to make one big pool, right?

I read the forum and page 47 of ToA and still I don´t understand how the active defenses work for creatures and NPCs.

When a active defense is recharging, other creatures can use the same defense?

thiagotogbr said:

The two relavant sentences on page 47 are:

"In addition to the standard Basic Actions available to all characters (assuming they meet the individual action's
requirements), creatures and NPCs have access to some specific, thematic actions."

and

"One special distinction is how these special actions recharge."

By a strict interpretation of those two sentences, each creature would have have their own "copy" of each Basic Action that they qualify for since Basic Actions are not the same as these special actions. However, I personally think that is too much to track. Keeping with the fact that each creature type only gets one ACE budget to share regardless of how many of the same creature are in an encounter and the fact that they share access to the special actons, I'm opting to keep it simple and treating Basic Actions the same as the special actions and only using one copy.

Thanks!!

What confuses me is the next sentence: "When a creature or NPC action is recharging, no other creature can use that action".

It not specify special action, just action.

But, I think you are right. Otherwise the first sentence of the paragraph makes no sense.

The same phrase brings me another question: If two groups of different creatures have the same special action (like the "dangerous when cornered" of boars and giant wolves) and one creature uses that action, creatures of second group can use the action?