Unkillable Bloodletter on Prison Planet Leading to Game Over = Game Breaking Mechanic

[RazorKitten]

Edit - Rewritten to be more clear. Some comments refer to an earlier version.

I just went to the prison planet which is the second location I've been to since being able to move around freely. First room there were some prisoners, a guy throwing grenades from behind a gate and Idira summoned a Bloodletter that was impossible to fight and wiped out my entire party in a couple of turns. He has more hp than my whole party combined, counterattacks every melee attack and only takes 1hp damage from my ranged attacks. Plus it appears in the middle of my party so I can't get to shooting distance without getting attacked and instantly killed.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY OF THE GAME, it is about having a situation where the ONLY option is to reload a save file and hope it doesn't happen again. And I shouldn't have to read an Encyclopaedia to get a hint that I might suddenly Lose The Game without warning.

I don't think I explained this properly before:

The Bloodletter is IMPOSSIBLE to defeat at this stage of the game. It has nothing to do with tactics, skill or understanding how the game works. It would still be impossible even if I had read every single word of the wiki instead of yknow playing the game I bought to play (which already has a LOT of text to read).

All I wanted to do is ask the people who made the game if this was their intention or if it might be an oversight. There really shouldn't be unwinnable situations in narrative games that are purely RNG determined. Or maybe there should, I don't know any more.

[Draken]

First, I would agree that it was a bad idea if it would happen frequently. My experience is just completely different.
Can anyone else who uses Idira and her psychic powers regularly chim in? How often do you get demons? What I just lucky to only get two?

Second, it's not just Idira. There are some maps where Veil Degradation is set high enough to trigger perils even for sanctioned psykers. Like the forge fiend ship. Funnily enough that was actually the place where Idira both summoned a demon and went unconscious at the same time. So it might have just been the regular chance and not her 5%.

Third, + 1 psy rating is very strong. Most psy powers scale heavily and multiplicative with psy-rating. If I had to guess I would set 1 psy rating equal to 2 to 4 bonus points, or 20 to 40 characteristic points.
Idira is 10 levels ahead in psy-rating compared to sanctioned psykers.
I also disagree with that psy powers aren't strong. Idira can, with 2 buffs, use a Lightning Arc that deals over 100 damage to a target. And she can hit 4 at once if they are clumped up. I didn't even really build her for damage, she was more intended to buff/debuff.

Fourth, the mechanic was apparently taken from the tabletop game. And Owlcat already toned it down quite a bit. From a 10% peril chance to 5%. As well as removing such fun effects as permanently losing the character to possession.

I do agree that a summoned demon shouldn't be the cause for an instant reload. So maybe scaling the power and type of summoned demon to the chapter would be a good alternative.

[Nox]

Dude roll your own mage. Idira is a useless pos.

She's a problematic agent with no weapon skills and a crappy bg.

Make a mage/officer/tactician voidborn, with be smart.
buy tech/logic base skill right away so you can invest in them during skill feats

spike wp/int and nothing else. no weapon skills, nothing. Burn stat pts on tough if you have to.

go bio/sanct and give them the blood staff which heals and does damage.

1000% times better than problematic mage that will screw you over.

[G Willikers]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Draken:

First, I would agree that it was a bad idea if it would happen frequently. My experience is just completely different.
Can anyone else who uses Idira and her psychic powers regularly chim in? How often do you get demons? What I just lucky to only get two?

Second, it's not just Idira. There are some maps where Veil Degradation is set high enough to trigger perils even for sanctioned psykers. Like the forge fiend ship. Funnily enough that was actually the place where Idira both summoned a demon and went unconscious at the same time. So it might have just been the regular chance and not her 5%.

Third, + 1 psy rating is very strong. Most psy powers scale heavily and multiplicative with psy-rating. If I had to guess I would set 1 psy rating equal to 2 to 4 bonus points, or 20 to 40 characteristic points.
Idira is 10 levels ahead in psy-rating compared to sanctioned psykers.
I also disagree with that psy powers aren't strong. Idira can, with 2 buffs, use a Lightning Arc that deals over 100 damage to a target. And she can hit 4 at once if they are clumped up. I didn't even really build her for damage, she was more intended to buff/debuff.

Fourth, the mechanic was apparently taken from the tabletop game. And Owlcat already toned it down quite a bit. From a 10% peril chance to 5%. As well as removing such fun effects as permanently losing the character to possession.

I do agree that a summoned demon shouldn't be the cause for an instant reload. So maybe scaling the power and type of summoned demon to the chapter would be a good alternative.

I also got blood letters on the prison planet, exact same fight. It may be location based?

Edit: I don’t mind that the mechanic’s there, it’s in the tabletop game too and much more punishing in that. I wish they’d explain it a bit better but the warp is meant to be extremely dangerous to mess with.

When demons get summoned I try to fight them, it’s part of the setting.

[tank16365]

Yeah uh....sometimes things happen when you use warp powers lol. I tried to use lightning yesterday and she botched it, instead made a shockwave that sent everyone in my team flying to the ground and it turned 2 enemies into weird little blue monsters.

[RazorKitten]

When demons get summoned I try to fight them, it’s part of the setting.

I tried to, I thought it was exciting. But now its the canonical ending of the story.

[G Willikers]

Then don’t use Idira, there’s a reason most of the other characters want her dead. The warp is incredibly dangerous and an unsanctioned psycher is like a bright, neon sign to an all you can eat buffet for daemons. Even sanctioned psychers are dangerous to be around.

[ThomasARK]

daring should be the default difficulty. normal is too easy

[G Willikers]

Ursprungligen skrivet av ThomasARK:

daring should be the default difficulty. normal is too easy

I agree with this, it should go normal, easy, beginner, story

[UltrawideGameGuy]

Ursprungligen skrivet av ThomasARK:

daring should be the default difficulty. normal is too easy

Or you can just get used to whatever arbitrary words they use for difficulty and not worry about it ever again.