The first combat scenario of Mekgirl Talyin, was against a mass of Giant Spiders that were soon to threaten a nearby village. the rest of the party were in close defense of the Sorceror's Wife who is currently traveling with the party on a trip inland, but has no combat experience. As such everyone short of Talyin was protecting her from this threat, And Talyin was on the offensive. I should point out that Talyin is a PF human with sick rolls. 18+2 int, 18 dex. Her starting feats are Visionary Prodigy and Progress Regen (bonus feat), so she has 20 standard PP a level and 15 progress regen overall, which is clearly overkill at the minute, but I felt it was worth it just in case I need to gen a high end weapon and use additional tech at the same time (or recover manuvers). with visionary prodigy I'm pretty much immediately wiring each levels bonus points into HP for the suit. further notes about the suit below.
Talyin's suit, the E.H.S. 001, is essentially an Ork Mega armour suit that can retract and shift to fufill various functions. mechanically speaking its currently tuned to 10 HP, with a Tank mode and an integrated d6 bludgeoning cannon. i took a few liberties here. im not sure if Talyin can move in tank mode as herself and drag the suit the extra distance or not, so when she went into tank mode during the encounter (there were a LOT of Spiders...) she for all intents hunkered down, shifted her integrated d6 cannon into twin-linked d8 cannons with her progress points and with the aide of the Ace Pilot Close Quarters ability, shot her enemies to scrap and stood still. I took your idea for a short flame thrower config if needed, but i prefer my scatterfire model a bit more- trades fire damage for a longer of line bludgeoning. Of course, I also made my B.F.G. which sounded off battle with a high roll by nega-HPing one of the attackers. I assumed that making a weapon using her suit would convert it into a Cannon with the cannon mods, in order for this to work. in order to keep the suit running. i took no motion, and fired only the energy less weaponry- feel free to call me out if I played it incorrectly.
I can safely say without tank mode, plating or otherwise, the suit is no doubt flimsy due to no base armor (but then we were fighting a mass of things with 3 HD..). I feared for her survival starting so I talked it over with my player as well as the guy who taught me to DM, and we all agreed to let her take the Arsenal size super robot upgrade in order to let her armor up with Chokabam. this saved her because without it even with tank mode her suit would be dinged up hard now, and there's a boss fight still to go where even with it the E.H.S. may buckle and break. It is odd to have this armored frame- that provides no armor whatsoever at the start. if its any consolation, I do feel bad about Allowing it now that im speaking of it, even though when i took it i told myself she could not take it again until she was able to take the next round of it. the base 15 arsenal went to a machine gun, because there was no armor i could afford. if you find my action was to improper, i know if she lives she'll survive to level 2, and ill allocate progress points to getting her spare Arsenal needed and swap the machine gun out along with that upgrade to something else instead. i just didn't find the plating bonus as much help without tank mode, and combined with my mobility issue... well. With a few levels it can be an effective "damage sponge" set up, but theres no doubt that it's specialty is for doling the hits, not taking them.
She made it through her first encounter with flying colors with those things considered- the suit has some dents and wear on it, and they still have a monstrous mama spider to take out, but the party respects her Firepower ( Dakka or Danmaku.. Dakkmaku?). if there's anything clunky about a YE, it might be between the levels, not during if you take the proper time- I wrote down a few configurations of weapons and i refer to them as i need. a few for range, a few for line, and one for melee. At first level with my basic Progress recovery alone, I can generate any of those i wish at my current level if i devote the progress there. The clunkiness comes from getting started- like making a Summoner-centric caster in 3.5. Theres so many starting choices and things that made me question if i could could do a particular thing with a custom option or interaction.
for example i constantly balk and what I can make with Custom Tool, because I read it basically as a minor-creation vending machine within reason depending on the situation. and while making Caltrops with it is sensible, could you buy crap tasting rations to denote the fact its probably being made with mystery meat? Talyin keeps A journal, which inking can be costly, unless you can explain for how she can write with her suit active and letting the ink go away after the fact. I figure without a suit, a YE cannot regain maneuvers, so that's a worry, especially when this next encounter breaks out.
Overall though, the waiting was well worth it- I have a petite girl with midlength blue hair and glasses that is pictured as French/Asian by my player, stomping about in Mega Armour firing cannons, quoting Rip Van Winkle from Hellsing Ultimate. it honestly feels better than some other classes ive run in the past, and its not a referential nightmare to figure out what move does what, OR trouble to DM for personally. I'm swimming in the options and gleeful as i orchestrate the glorious thunder of Dakka. I'm plenty happy with the results. Credit to you, this hits one of my sweet spots.
Let me know if you think I've made any particular errors. its safe to say I feel out of my league hanging here.
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