Kamau finished a dungeon! He can gain one new ability from this list:
Adrenaline I: +1 Atk if HP is 5 or lower.
Cleave: If an attacked enemy is killed, can make another attack at -3 Atk against another random nearby enemy.
Counterattack: When HP is reduced by one or more nearby enemies, has a 20% chance to make an extra attack against a random nearby enemy.
Dauntless II: Once per dungeon when reduced to 0 HP, regain 2 HP at the end of the turn.
Heavy Armour Proficiency: +1 Def when wearing armour with a base Def bonus of +3 or more.
Heavy Strike I: Once per dungeon can make a melee attack with +3 Atk.
Heroic Effort II: +2 Atk against enemies with twice as much HP or more.
Light Sword Proficiency: +1 Atk when wielding a longsword or similar weapon.
Shield Bash: Gain an Atk bonus from a wielded shield equal to its Def bonus -1.
Shield Proficiency: +1 Def when wielding a shield.
Throw Shield: Can use a shield as a ranged weapon, dealing damage equal to the shield’s Def bonus. The shield must be retrieved afterward.
Shield Bash. Even though the only shield we’ve seen is the Rusty Buckler, that just means we can attack at a +0 for 3 Atk while maintaining the tankiness.LSN confirmed that there’s no reason we can’t attack while using a shield already, so bucklers are change nothing. We’d want to wait for a bigger shield before taking this.
With that in mind, I think we should pick Heavy Strike. It would let us very quickly take down any one dangerous threat, which would save us time, health, and other resources. Other options are good but we don’t have the gear yet to make use of them.
Yeah, I’m reluctant to take a once-per-dungeon ability with how long we’ve been spending on each dungeon, but most of these are gear-dependent.
if we’re talking danger, maybe try heroic effort?
that IS what it seems to be there for.
Shield Bash! He has one arm, so let’s turn his shields into weapons so he only needs to carry it. Like a dwarf.
I understand “a wielded shield” as: Needs to hold it with his arm, not just have it in his inventory.
Adrenaline I: +1 Atk if HP is 5 or lower.
-> can be a game-changer, once he lost t least 10 HP. However, we need to actually let that happen and be comfortable with it, not like in dungeon 2, where we had him drink the health potion when he still had 8 HP left.
Cleave: If an attacked enemy is killed, can make another attack at -3 Atk against another random nearby enemy.
-> this would have been super useful to have in dungeon 1 AND 2, we would have gotten groups of enemies (rats, dogs, drunks) down much faster. Also, since Kamau has 3 Attack innate and always will carry his hilt (+1 Attack), that means this will always yield at least 1 more damage (before subtracting the def value of the enemy, mind you), more if he has a more powerful weapon. Also, this has HUGE potential in combination with “backstab” from Ricki (she could backstab whichever enemy is getting attacked by cleave, after Kamau finished the first one), but even without backstab, she can still whittle down enemies faster with Kamau’s 1 attack point aiding her to get through the enemy’s def value, than on her own.
Counterattack: When HP is reduced by one or more nearby enemies, has a 20% chance to make an extra attack against a random nearby enemy.
->I’m not sure if I understand this. Whoose HP are we talking about, Kamau’s or the enemies? I’m going to assume it’s Kamau’s because of the name “counterattack”. If that’s the case, I’m not so happy about this, because it means we have to let him lose HP in order for this to trigger and even then it’s only a 1/5 chance (statistically) to work.
Dauntless II: Once per dungeon when reduced to 0 HP, regain 2 HP at the end of the turn.
-> I’m not super thrilled about this. I would like to avoid him hitting 0 HP altogether. Him getting back 2 HP instead of 1HP also seems less attractive than e.g. dauntless II allowing him to gain back 1 HP (after hitting 0 HP) twice per dungeon, but that is apparently not how this skill works/tiers. Bummer.
Heavy Armour Proficiency: +1 Def when wearing armour with a base Def bonus of +3 or more.
-> would be super useful if we had any heavy armour (the rust chain mail would have qualified, but Ricki broke that one 😛 )
Heavy Strike I: Once per dungeon can make a melee attack with +3 Atk.
->not a bad skill, IMHO, but the “once per dungeon” sucks. I’d rather pick something we can profit from more often.
Heroic Effort II: +2 Atk against enemies with twice as much HP or more.
-> similar to “adrenaline” we would have to let Kamau’s HP drop significantly – or fight truly scary monsters with LOADS of HP in order to profit from this.
Light Sword Proficiency: +1 Atk when wielding a longsword or similar weapon.
-> would be super useful if we had any light sword that will not likely break the next time Ricki so much as looks at it.
Shield Bash: Gain an Atk bonus from a wielded shield equal to its Def bonus -1.
-> would be super useful if we had any shield.
Shield Proficiency: +1 Def when wielding a shield.
-> would be super useful if we had any shield.
Throw Shield: Can use a shield as a ranged weapon, dealing damage equal to the shield’s Def bonus. The shield must be retrieved afterward.
-> would be super useful if we had any shield.
In summary/vote: I think cleave is the best option we have atm, as we fulfil all prerequisites and it will probably give us an advantage more than once per dungeon.
Side notes:
1.) YAY, we get to pick a skill for Kamau, too! I was quietly hoping for that, because of “dauntless I” kind of indicated that there are more tiers to this skill, but it’s amazing that my hope is now confirmed.
2.) I am a bit bummed to see that the “bond” value on Kamau’s character sheet is still zero. I honestly would have hoped that Ricki opening up about her dungeon eyes, not to mention them braving the dungeon together would have served to get them closer. Makes me wonder what exactly will be needed to improve that stat.
3.) I think we might have seen a “preview” of adrenaline I/counterattack/heavy strike I or any combination thereof – with probably “heroic effort I” also playing a role in the mix – in action at the very end of dungeon 2, when the guard ran his great-sword through Kamau and Kamau just pummelled him senseless in retaliation.
Cleave would’ve done basically nothing to the drunks with their 2 Def… but it would also allow clearing an entire group of rats in one turn if it chains. The -3 Atk hits this one hard, as 1 point of damage to a random enemy is usually going to be absorbed with no effect (though yes, if Ricki wasn’t needed to drop the first enemy then she’d be able to capitalize). The moment we get a better weapon, this gets much more powerful.
My concern is that Cleave makes us better in a situation where we’re already winning, and makes winnable fights faster rather than turning an unwinnable fight around. I’ll also note that Cleave does specify a “kill”, and we’ve been knocking out a lot of enemies.
Agreed that Dauntless II makes me more worried about Dauntless I. I figured the “end of turn” disclaimer there was to indicate that even if Kamau was overkilled, negative HP isn’t tracked and he’d be given the 1 HP at end of round to still be alive. This is probably still the case with Dauntless II simply resetting you to 2 HP, but yes, 1 HP of recovery doesn’t seem likely to help in the situation where we’re that close to the edge. Getting another extra life would’ve been much more appealing, but even then a Dauntless trigger likely means we should be abandoning the dungeon to avoid death.
The penalty to cleave is huge, and without a better sword would have been basically useless this dungeon, with the number of enemies with any defense. One of the things reliant on better gear, which is why I didn’t suggest picking it.
Also, LSN confirmed on the discord that “nonlethal takedowns aren’t a mechanical thing, it’s a story thing” so cleave would still have worked.
I say Counterattack. It’ll trigger when we most need it: when there is too much incoming damage to avoid getting hurt. It does say an “extra” attack, implying Kamau needs to be attacking… but if this works with Intercede then it’d be really nice, getting an attack in while defending.
Not too enthused with this skill selection, at least with the selection of gear we have.
I do like counterattack, especially with how often Kamau is in combat
but he never hits the 30%, we know thisShield Bash, our current lack of a shield is troubling but once we get one it’ll be a perfect weapon for him.
If not? Counterattack.
Cleave is decent but needs to wait until we have a better weapon I think.
Shield Bash looks really good in the long run for making up for having only one arm, but it depends on how good shields are. I’m thinking no for now. The possibility of going for that eventually makes me to not chose Light Sword Proficiency.
I’m thinking Counterattack, Cleave, or Heavy Strike. I’m not sure if Kamau is strong enough for Cleave to be useful yet and I’d rather have Counter Strike than Heavy Strike because I think it’s likely to happen at least than once per dungeon.
Counterattack: There were a lot of fights where Kamau was taking damage while fighting multiple enemies. A chance to reduce them faster results in reduced damage potential that his Defense can absorb. The skill is also more likely to be usable more than once.
Counterattack is the best bang for buck and most useful
Not saying this is the best option, but do the two Dauntless abilities combine, or do they give two separate instances of “come back from 0 HP”?
It’s just an upgrade of Dauntless. I’d view it as a skill that just gives +1 total HP.
I think Counterattack is the best choice right now as well. The once per dungeon abilities are cool, but the ability to deal damage while interposing in high stress situations is critical. Its a shame it doesn’t upgrade though.