Is there anything to stop a monster blowing all of its Aggression and Expertise on one roll? For example, a creature might be quite weak, and you know it's going to get killed with one blow, so you can choose to use all of its dice on its one attack.

Seems a little weird doesn't it?

the "one blow weaklings" usually won't have Expertise no ? I'd save at least 1 Agression for Defence.

Anyway, i don't remember anything limiting use of A+E on one attack. Maybe you could limite the number of A or C being used on a single roll by the "Expertise level" (number of E) of the creature ?

You can only use one expertise (yellow dice) dice per round. It says so in the ToA. but that usually isn't a problem since most weaker monster only have 0 or 1 expertise dice.

While understanding the question, I don't get the point.

Agg/Exp dice are used by the GM, and since it's not his job to "win" over the players, but instead create a fun experience, it seems like it matters little wether or not he can blow all aggression dice on one roll.

If it serves the story, go ahead, but these dice were not given to monsters/NPC's for the GM to blow up PC's. They're given to allow for some versatility for the GM, so he could save an NPC if he wanted him to survive one extra turn, or give the PC's a good scare, or simply to make a monster a little stronger.

You're not obligated to spend all dice in each fight either... having a full dice pool left when the monster dies, doesn't mean you failed

Spivo, my PC's somehow are so strong, they usually take down mosters before the monsters got a chance to use their A/C/E. So, whenever possible, I try to use A+1E on the first roll. Just to make things a bit interesting.

[These are the PCs that managed to kill Shulman on extreme range. He never had a chance to use his spells that i spent 2 hours learning how to use them]

plutonick said:

But then you've just justified it. Because without doing it the game would seem incredibly boring to the PC's. So in this case it's the "right" thing to do.

My problem comes from GM's seeing the number of dice, and think "Wow, I can kill a PC with this", and then proceed to blow all dice on one PC, simply to chuckle inside at how easy he goes down.

It has to have a purpose. Like a cornered goblin, that the GM describes looking extremely frantic, and then describes how it launches a totally crazed attack on the PC's. Now the PC's has a chance of blowing all their defences.

But if you just say "It attacks", and the player then knows no better, till you pick up 3 yellows, 4 reds, and 7 whites, vs. 1 purple and 1 black... then I think you actually cheated the PC's.

This is also why I mainly use the dice to defend, and rarely to attack. Unless I describe monsters/Npc's being insane and doing insane stuff.

Thing to remember is, that when a PC does something crazy, it's often at a cost (red dice, using an attack that can backfire if chaos dice turns up etc...). But when a mob uses all the dice, there's no drawback... yes it wont have it the turn after, but that matters little if said monster does 3 crits on a PC, or if it lands a rank 3 nurgle spell with attached diseases, etc...

I can see what you mean, but I still wish there was a bit better guidance on this issue. There are so many things to keep track of already, it's sometimes difficult to decide this in the heat of battle. Since my PCs seem to be plowing through the monsters pretty easily, I feel I should add a lot of Agression dice to their attack just to make them more of a challenge, but I don't necessarily has an in-game justification for this. Also, adding 5 fortune dice to an attack seems a bit weird, of course, but if I know the creature is going to get killed next turn, and I need it to put up a bit of a fight ...

Maybe the balance (number of monsters) as given in The Gathering Storm isn't quite right in some of the battles. I just not sure why creatures are given this budget of dice, and then there's no guidance on whether they can be blown all in one go, or should be parcelled out at - what, 1, 2, 3 at a time? - whatever.

I do forget to use Aggression dice to add black to dice to PC attacks though - must remember that.

I think the guidance is implicitly "use as you see fit to make the monster play its part, move as fast, attack as hard, defend as well as you see fit/need at this point in the story". This isn't D&D or some other system where the monster is worth xxx in "experience" and if you "play it weak or hard" the game balance falls apart.

I always use at least 1 A dice on attacks and the E dice as soon as the attack being used looks like it can benefit from it. I try to save an A for defence (physical, I use C dice for defence against things targing Willpower etc.) though make a point of using Dodge, Parry etc. with monsters if warranted (and will use improved versions of those for more advanced monsters, nemesis types etc.).

The exception is gangs of henchmen types, where the multiples in gang give fortune dice already, there I save A for defence.

I find having to spend the A for movement to close in on PC's often eats up a good part of the A budget in any event (I've got an archer and wizard who are quite happy to stay at range).

Rob