So, the only real guides to what higher level characters look like (that I have) are in the NPC section of the rulebook. But it doesn't really give me a clear picture.

10th level Fighter and a 10th level Technician walk into a bar and start a fight. When the Technician pulls his +6 attack maneuver ... how does the fighter (or anyone) survive? Is the tactic really about ganking your opponent before they power up, or do the non-mystical architypes have some trick I'm missing?

Yes, I realize that they too can learn Ki techniques, but they won't have many, nor much Ki or accumulation.

And ignoring that, how does anyone go up against a wizard and survive at high level?

Just trying to wrap my head around how the game plays beyond lower levels.

Actually, I'm confused by this, as well. I'd like it if I could have the players survive past level 1-9, but i'm not sure how to get it to work, especially since I'm not the best GM to date (I mean, really, I've only had GMing experience with some of my family... the ones willing to give it a try).

Anyway, *ahem* sorry for wasting space, really.

Answer: the warrior doesn't have to spend time building up Ki or Zeon.

If he has the advantage to See the Supernatural, or if he's got a buddy who can, they will see a power-up right off the bat, and can sucker punch them before they can unleash any really serious powers.

That's assuming your the level 10 Warrior, and are well aware of these walking demigods, and their supernatural ways. I can't imagine a lvl 10 Warrior not having to deal with such things at some point in his/her career.

If I was going to do a warrior without using Ki or Zeon, I would be taking every possible Advantage to boost my initiative and resistances, and any combat modules that could help me likewise, and become a warrior who is simply faster on the draw. If metagaming was ok, and I could build in anticipation of this, then I'd also take the advantage Access to One Psychic Discipline (Telepathy) and always have Mind Reading focused on my opponents for a +30 initiative bonus.

The list could go on, but the point is, you build a talented warrior. If played well, mages and dominae will hate you.

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Well, that wasn't an answer that I was expecting, really.

Well, what about my question, hellgeist?

Tywyll said:

I find the question confusing as the answer is pretty much the same at low levels. What do you perceive has changed?

A warrior defends by:

(a) Attacking: Doing damage and forcing the caster to loose actions.

(b) Defending: Block and Dodge wok against Spells, Ki and Psychic Powers. Most Warriors will develop base Ki abilities from the accumulation of Martial Knowledge (Use fo Ki, Presence Extrusion, Aura Extension, Energy Armour). None of these require Ki to be spent.

© Armour: Heavy armour protects against Energy based attacks. All Armour protects against damage.

(d) LP: Warriors will have bags of LP normally to withstand damage.

Well, I found the answer informative, Skywalker, but what about the one that I posed, anyway?

EDIT: *Ahem* I meant the question I posed.

Xamusel said:

If none of you know the game very well, and your ok with calling it a test adventure, then you can just rewind your story to a certain point at any time, and let the players rebuild their characters based on new understandings of the mechanics. Eventually you will all be the wiser, and can reboot your campaign or start a new one 'on the record' (no rerolls).

As the GM, you don't necessarily have to figure out how they will manage it, as long as you make sure your players can educate themselves about the rules for combat, magic, ki, etc. Once they know what they have to work with, you might be surprised how resourceful and clever they will get. A GM just has to tell the story, provide the scenario, and run the NPCs.

So it basically boils down to: whoever goes first wins?

The reason things seem different is our hypothetical Ki character could have a very large accumulation by level 10 and only need a round or two to drop a scary multi-attack. All he has to do is survive a round or two. But then... the fighter has to survive 5+ attacks... which thanks to multi-defense penalties he may only be able to block a couple. That's the part I'm trying to get my head around.

Essentially it seems like mystical abilities become more of an 'I win' button. Yes, non-mystical architypes can pick up Ki and what not, but their own totals and accumulation will lag quite dramatically to a Tao or a Technician.

Well, not just the one who attacks first - there are other things to consider that were mentioned above:

High Life points, heavy armor, special moves like Pure Defense and Absorb Hits.

Warriors can use special purpose attacks like Knock Out, Disarm, Disable, Trapping and Immobilization.

There is also combat modules like Precision Attack which make it easier to set up situations like Put At Weapon's Point.

And finally, there is fighting smart. If your a smart warrior, you can start using treachery before you are old, and maneuver your duel with the ki master to a place of your choosing; like a loading dock where a friend of yours will cut the rope on your signal, dropping a couple of tons of lumber onto the unsuspecting victim while you roll away.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Special powers can be overcome with cunning, so be smart about it.

Different classes have different privileges. A Level10 technique-user Domine will almost surely have between 50-105 points less than an equal level warrior in Attack/Defense for the following reasons:

a) The Warrior has 50 points of free Block at that point.

b) The Warrior hasn't spent any point on Ki Accumulation and Ki points, while a Level 10 Domine who wants to spam techniques will have spent around 200 points solely on that...which are 100 points less of Attack+Defense.

Even without spending a single point on that, the warrior will have Wear Armor 50, plus Str bonus and considering that a Level10 character should have access to high quality stuff (consider that Lev10 is past most high-level characters in the setting...Erik Sterki which is considered the best Warrior of the World is a Lev9) the warrior might be wearing at least a Partial Plate+5 (I consider he has at least a +10 Str bonus). Compared to the equal level Technician, the Warrior will also have (not counting advantages) +100 HP, which is quite a lot. The warrior can also buy HP accumulation multiples for rather decent price (15DP is reasonable if you have 10+ Constitution, while 20DP isn't), so he might have bought even more HP.

Also, if the Warrior has somehow reached inhuman Str (11+), which is very possible at Lev10, and he has invested enough points on Feats of Strength (again at that level his base is about 60 and he spends only 1DP per point), he can perform really absurd actions, like using a giant stone as shield and throwing a chariot at the enemy.Such stratagems might seem unconsequential in a duel between Lev10 characters, but if used wisely they allow the warrior to create advantaged situations in combat.

Finally, you'll see that Dominus Exxet offers you the possibility to buy Ars Magna and Impossible Weapons. They're powerful fighting techniques that cost both DP and MK to develop. They also often have high pre-requisites of Attack/Defense, meaning a Warrior can access them EASIER than a Domine. Such abilities allow incredible combat maneuvers and transformations, sometimes at the expense of a few generic ki points. Using them the Warrior has even comparable fighting potential. Another good option for the warrior might be developing the passive Nemesis Abilities (present in Dominus Exxet) between which you find Ki Annullation...a sort of aura that reduces ki accumulations. During a duel, the Domine has the upper hand if he can use a strong technique EACH TURN against a Warrior...but can he stand 1-2 turns WITHOUT technique bonus against a character which is much more focused on attack/defense?

The same goes for a Weaponmaster...actually consider the Warrior is halfway between the Technician and the Weaponmaster.

Besides, you know there aren't JUST duels...real life is not like bleach where you always face enemies one-on-one...and so should be the RPG. The Domine is good against single enemies and against large groups of very weak enemies thanks to area attacks, but on a battlefield a Warrior or a Weaponmaster would have the upperhand thanks to superior endurance and "stability" in combat.

Hmm... that makes sense.

Thanks for the answers... and I'm not the original poster.

It should be pointed out that a character that a fighter that does not ever want to develop Ki techniques should use the Weapon Master Class. If you read the fighter description it implies that the fighter will eventually learn ki techniques even if he doesn't get them at first level. A fighter gets a good amount of MK per level, not as good as a technician but he should have plenty by 10th level.

A Weapon Master is a really nasty fighter. Their HP can be through the roof, as well as their wear armor. A 10th level ki technique user has spent a ton of points on his ki and ki accumulation. That is why he can do a really really powerful (blow the world up) attack without spending lots of time powering up. The weapon master has just spent those points on his basic combat stats. That is 750 points to spend just on attack and block. That is 375 points to spend on each if you balance them (which is not really a good idea) So you bought +187 to your attack and block with DP and get another +65 to both for you level and 10 dex (you will have a 10 dex by the time you are 10th level) Your wear armor will be 175 (that is if you don't focus in it at all and just put about 10% of your DP in it) you will wear the heaviest armor and be doing back flips in it. Those multiple attacks will not penalize his armor, he gets that every time.

I am not saying that the kit technician won't really mess up a weapon master when he uses his "Blow up the world technique" And if he makes a techniques spicifically designed to kill the weapon master he totally will be able to.

But remember the technician is not doing much of anything for at least a round. Weapon master will really mess the technician up for that round.

One of the biggest disadvantages of a technician is that all those points he spends on getting his ki up are in the combat section of the character sheet, so the dirrectly subtract from the points he spends on his attack, deffend, and wear armor.

A wizard or at least a Warlock will in some ways keep up with the attack and defend of a weapon master bedder because the points they spend on their spells do not come from the same point limit as his combat stuff.

Tywyll said:

No it isn't. At least no more than any other fight (initaitive in Anima is important). It boils down to the stuff I posted above.

Thanks, those were very helpful answers.

Now, if I could just see some PCs who made it to high level to get a snap shot of what they can do (specifically the Tao and the Technician as their ability spends and powers can be so different), that would be ace.

Hrathen said:

Out of curiosity, why isn't that a good idea?

I may have over stated my case, but in general I think it is better to focus on attack or defense.

If you fights someone with slightly better combat stats than you, you will likely have a diffcult time hitting them and they will do pretty well against you. Remember that the attacker needs to beat the defenders roll by at least 20 or 30 if they are not wearing any armor at all (I don't have my book with me). If your attack is just little bit lower than your opponants def it is pretty hard to hit them well and if you do, you aren't likely to do much damage. The first way arround this is to focus your DP into attack, if you do this then you either need a good Initiative or good armor, to protect you from your lower defense. Or you can focus on your defense. Sure you will have difficulty hitting on your turn, but you will at least be able to defend yourself, and you open your self up to an oppertunity for a good counter attack which will compinsate for a low attack stat.

Personally, since you can never know on advance if your opponents are going to win or lose initiative against you (supposedly during a campaign you should meet both...), I believe that balancing attack and defense is better, unless you have very specific objectives that require either your attack or defense to syrocket. For example I just rolled for a friend of mine a Daimah Warlock who fights using an impossible weapon from Domins Exxet (Piscis...a Yo-yo, yes, a combat yo-yo). The prerequisites for using Piscis are 120 attack, 10DP, 20MK, Use of Ki, and Inhumanity.

Being a Daimah she's already Inhuman in everything concerning Dexterity, and since Piscis is a weapon it's all about dexterity and I let her pass on that. A point of Martial Mastery was required for her to take Use of Ki (40MK) AND Piscis (20MK, provided by the Class). Since she had 300DP to spend on Combat Abilities and she had to spend 10DP for Piscis, she could still spend 290DP on Attack/Defense. She chose Dodge as Defense (both Dexterity and Agility were 11, thanks to her race). Now since she got 5 bonus to attack from class and 20 from Dexterity, she required 95 more points on attack to be able to use Piscis...spending 180DP.

This left her with only 110DP to spend on defense (for a total of 55 +20 for Agility +5 for Class). So she's got a character with 120Attack and 80Dodge.

Similarly I rolled some npcs with severely unbalanced Attack/Defense, but personally I do believe that the more you balance them, the better.