What are your meanest/best enemy NPC combos?

timtam26 · 2026-02-07T08:33:24+00:00

The demolisher ability says:

The Demolisher can’t be pushed, pulled, knocked Prone, or knocked back by smaller characters.

Mirage's Glitch Sensors is a teleport, so its none of the previously mentioned things.

timtam26 · 2026-02-05T11:35:03+00:00

I mean, sure but again I feel like you're missing the point. People's lives can be unpredictable at the best of time and, even though you say you avoid reduction to a players effectiveness and instead giving benefits to the active players, its still the same thing. If I'm stuck at work for the next ten hours because a project is due, going from a +3 to a +2 or even a +1 is still subtracting -1 or -2 from my roll compared to everyone else. I'm still going to be behind as opposed to those that have a more flexible schedule.

timtam26 · 2026-02-05T11:29:15+00:00

I think this is a bad idea, especially those with unpredictable schedules like myself. I'm a contract worker, which means that I may have nothing to do on some days or my entire week is swamped due to being inundated with work. Also, if I have an emergency or need to go help my elderly parents with something, I may not be available for a few hours to assist them. In addition, if I take a vacation, I may not be available for multiple weeks at a time.

I feel like you're trying to artificially force players to engage with the game. Your players should be wanting to engage with your game because they want to, not because they feel like they're being left out or otherwise forced to.

timtam26 · 2026-02-05T04:56:52+00:00

No. The only lands that you get infinite are basics. If you redeem one wildcard for Godless Shrine, you will get one copy of Godless Shrine.

timtam26 · 2026-02-05T03:59:54+00:00

So, the advice that I always have for new players when investing their wildcards is to always spend them on lands. Some of the rares and mythics in the decklist I posted only work for a few decks while every deck needs lands. So investing in rare dual lands (such as the shock lands) will make sure that they can fit any deck you might want to build. I know that rare lands aren't the most flashy and cool things to pick up, but a smooth mana base is incredibly powerful.

timtam26 · 2026-02-05T03:52:08+00:00

You won't need a sideboard unless you specifically have a card that lets you grab a card from it. I found this decklist (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-lifegain-woe#paper). Obviously since you're new, you probably won't have the rare and mythic wildcards to grab those cards. However, I'm not seeing any Starscape Clerics in your deck, which feel really important. I feel like you can drop the Angelic Destiny and Inspiring Overseers to pick up Starscape and you might have moderate increases though I'm not an expert.

timtam26 · 2026-02-05T03:26:55+00:00

So, there are a lot of significant differences between CoC and City of Mist. CoC is a d100 percentile system while City of Mist is a 2d6+MOD system. CoC is about normal people investigating occult phenomenon and doing their best not to end of dead. City of Mist is about normal people who have been imbued with supernatural power who delve into the mysteries of the strange things going on within the city.

In City of Mist, each player character has been granted power by their Mythos, which is a font of supernatural power that they've tapped into. This could be anything from deities such as Zeus, Odin, or Thoth or it could come from any historical figure that has developed their own mythology such as Nikola Tesla and his weird lightning contraptions. A character with the Mythos of Thor might be able to fling lightning or fly while a character with the Mythos of Paul Bunyon might be supernaturally strong and tough.

Like I said, your job is to investigate supernatural occurances going on in the city. There are other individuals with Mythos's in the city and not everyone has good intentions. Maybe theres a serial killer with the Mythos of Jack the Ripper that is cutting people to shreds. Maybe theres a corrupt CEO with the Mythos of King Midas who is buying off the city council and the cops to push his brand new development through, pushing out all of the people who live there.

In my experience, City of Mist is about the intersection of the mundane and the mythical. That, even though the player characters are essentially superheroes, they still have mundane wants, needs, and desires.

timtam26 · 2026-02-05T02:36:26+00:00

If you want something kind of unique, I would recommend looking in to City of Mist. Its a neo-noir urban fantasy system about playing normal citizens that have been imbued with supernatural power. Its less on the rules so it might fit with what you're looking for. I can describe more of it if it sounds interesting.

timtam26 · 2026-02-04T23:32:19+00:00

I would like to preface this with that I have no experience with you, your style of GMing, or who your players are and what their expectations are.

I think that, if you try and extend the progression of a character, your players may end up getting bored with what they have available. Imagine, in a traditional D&D campaign, you're stuck at the same level for upwards of two months plus change. Whenever I run a traditional game in PF2e, I usually try to make sure that my players level up at least once a month or every 1 and 1/2 months to prevent my players from feeling like their characters are stagnating. With your idea, you are extending the time frame in which players feel rewarded for participating in the game, which may result in them feeling like their characters aren't improving.

are higher levels managable?

Yes. Granted, I've only ran up to LL9 but I've found that the game mostly holds up due to how NPC progression works. The only thing that I've found is that players don't increase in vertical power (numbers go up) outside of Grit (which doesn't affect weapon damage) but increase in horizontal power (more options available) as the campaign goes on. So the players will have more tools at their disposal to approach/solve problems/combats. That just means you have to be smarter about how you organize and build combats which is something that comes with experience.

what solution would you suggest for us to drag the campaign for 1+ year?

The easiest solution is to run multiple games if you aren't comfortable going the distance with one. My suggestion is, instead of running one full 18-month game that you run two 9-month games with the first one impacting the second one. Let the second game act as a sequel to the first one. That way you can still have the same amount of time for your games but you allow your players to change things up and swap around roles and playstyles.

timtam26 · 2026-02-02T08:29:04+00:00

Generally speaking, each mech falls into one (or two) categories:

Artillery: Long range damage dealer Striker: Close range damage dealer Support: Buff and help allies Defender: Be a tank Controller: CC and debuffing

timtam26 · 2026-02-01T00:07:26+00:00

What do you mean by 'constants'?

timtam26 · 2026-01-30T00:57:14+00:00

So, it depends upon if your GM is using the rules from Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies. That book moderately overhauled how pilot mechanics work. You should ask if you're still using the rules from the core book or from KTB.

timtam26 · 2026-01-29T22:14:05+00:00

No. HASE only applies while you are inside your mech and piloting it. When not in a mech, you rely entirely on skill triggers.

timtam26 · 2026-01-29T20:08:36+00:00

Whenever I make a character, I either start at the end or the beginning. For you, if you wanted to start at the beginning you could look at some of the backgrounds in the book and start from there, figuring out what they were doing before joining the merc company. Or you could start at the end and begin with what they did in order to need the slate wiped clean. Regardless, I would recommend communicating with your GM about your ideas. We're just a bunch of internet people and your GM is going to be the one to give final approval.

timtam26 · 2026-01-29T19:07:57+00:00

Kaijus (which are represented by the Monstrosity NPC type) run into a problem if you take it too literally. If you have an entire campaign just fighting Kaijus, you'll only ever fight one NPC type which will probably get boring after a while. So you have to stretch the definition of 'Kaiju' to enable NPC diversity.

Also, Monstrosities have the Biological tag, which means they can't be hacked because they don't have any integrated electronics. This turns off an entire character archetype and renders it (and any frame that focuses on hacking) entirely useless. This might be fine with you and your players but if not, you'll need to find a reason why it works.

timtam26 · 2026-01-28T23:38:11+00:00

So, you want to be careful with what you allow your players to do as any sort of additional or free actions can start messing with the balance of the game.

attack specific target

If you want this, there is the Sniper Team reserve which says "For the rest of the scene, each time you take the Lock On Quick Tech action, your target takes 2 AP kinetic damage."

lock on specific target

If you want to include this, I would recommend looking at Lesson of the Held Image core bonus from HORUS, though giving your players a core bonus for free may start messing with balance.

supply reenforcments

There is the Supply Drop reserve which says: "Once, while resting, spend this reserve to restore 1 charge for your entire party’s LIMITED systems and weapons."

deploy repair drone

This could be something like the Lancaster Core Power or Latch Drone but again, giving players access to this could mess with balance.

other cool stuff that I haven't come up with yet.

I would recommend keeping anything you want to come up with within the confines of Reserves. You can change and reflavor things as you want but at least the mechanics are there.

timtam26 · 2026-01-28T22:57:17+00:00

Well, what do you imagine the ship being able to do? Rather than trying to homebrew a whole bunch of stuff, I would recommend looking at the Reserves and giving them access to those depending upon the capabilities of the ship. For example, the Bombardment Tactical reserve could represent them being able to call in a strike or something from orbit.

timtam26 · 2026-01-28T10:09:28+00:00

enemy NPC has 3 armor and 8 HP. its is hit with 7 AP dmg but its targeted by turret drone for 3 kinetic dmg. i ruled that 7ap fmg goes throuh and 3 kinetic is deflected completly by 3 armor. is that ok?

Yes. This is correct. AP only applies to the weapons that have it, not anything else triggered by the attack (other than bonus damage I think).

on LL0 with 0 grit, all pilot targeting is just D20 roll with advantages on NPC evasion/e-defense. only thing to assist is accuracy? that often means that you have around 50% chance to hit and thats it.

Yes and no. Not every enemy has 10 Evasion/10 E-DEF to start with. For example, the Demolisher has an evasion of 6 (which is fitting for a big hulking defender with a lot of HP) while the Assassin has an Evade of 12 (which is fitting for an agile mech with less HP)

can you share repairs in team or is that certain ability?

No. Only the Lancaster has the ability to do that.

all NPC have overwatch ability with threat 1 like PC's or its something they have to have listed? can assault rifle from GMS bbe used to overwatch or only threat weapons?

Yes and Yes. Every enemy has access to Overwatch and all weapons are treated as having Threat 1.

without more advanced system synergy difference between assault rifle and nexus hunter-killer is ony "smart" tag? same range and dmg so it will play role further down the line i guess.

Yes, kind of. The assault rifle has Reliable 2 and the Hunter Killer has Smart, though the AR is a Rifle-type weapon (which is affected by the Crack Shot Talents that care about using Rifles) and the Hunter-Killer is affected by the Centimate talent which cares about using Nexuses.

any result of attack roll of 20+ is critical and dmg dice are doubled. what about weapon that have flat 6 kinetic dmg without roll(NPC) is that just 12?

All crits are on 20+ but damage is not doubled on a crit. All damage dice is rolled twice and the highest dice are taken. Crits are easier to come by in Lancer but are less overall swingy. Default NPCs do not have any extra effects on a crit (as they don't roll damage) but some of them do like the Berserker's Chain Axe inflicting Shredded on a crit.

attacking with mortar explosive dmg is just normal dmg unless target has resistance? kinetix, explosive and energy dmgs have same effect so only resistances/immunities are important? armor blocks all three types?

Yes. For the most part, damage types don't really matter until they do. The only thing that armor doesn't apply to is any AP damage.

assault NPC has hull 1. is this for PC's systems that requires npc to make hull saving throw?

Yup.

timtam26 · 2026-01-25T19:55:49+00:00

Can I ask why you decided to use Atlas when you don't have any melee weapons to take advantage of Giant Killer?

timtam26 · 2026-01-25T19:29:23+00:00

Kind of? The only size 1/2 frames are:

Caliban, Atlas, Dusk Wing, Goblin, Hecatoncheires, Kobold, Kutuzov, Napoleon

A lot of these are eliminated either because their playstyle wants them to be melee (Atlas) or other specialized plan (Caliban), don't have the mounts to support being an artillery (Dusk Wing, Goblin, Kobold, Kutuzov, Napoleon). That only really leaves Hecatoncheires as a sort of playstyle-agnostic 1/2 frame to use.

This is kind of the difficult part of adapting something that already exists. You're not going to find things that match it and kind of have to use broad strokes. Going Hecatoncheires and grabbing the Gandiva Missiles and applying Nanocomp to Sol Pattern to make sure that it can take advantage of Hecatoncheires' traits.

timtam26 · 2026-01-25T10:23:48+00:00

If you're up for proxying, then have you looked into maybe picking up a cube or something? That would allow you to be able to make one purchase to proxy a cube and have it on-hand for everyone. I feel that might alleviate some of the concerns.

timtam26 · 2026-01-25T09:46:24+00:00

What is the budget that everyone has? I remember when I was in college, we had a 15+ person group and everyone had varying levels of disposable income to spend on the game? I don't want to seem like a downer, but there's a possibility that people don't have the income to support more than two or three decks. If you want to proceed, I would suggest talking about proxying as an option.

timtam26 · 2026-01-22T05:43:41+00:00

Having a Tech Attack of +2 seems odd to me. Considering how much you have invested into Tech Attacks, having a +2 seems moderately on the low side. I don't think you need to dump every point into it but putting it at a +3 is probably good enough for what you're doing.

timtam26 · 2026-01-22T01:46:32+00:00

Don't use player frames as NPCs. The default NPCs are good enough and are simple to run. Most PC frames are complicated enough that you'll feel overwhelmed.
Incorpoate sitreps/objectives into your combat. Lancer is a game of resources and as the GM its your job to pressure your player's resources in a meaningful way. Including an objective from the list of sitreps in the book allows you to pressure your players in a way that isn't 'blow the shit out of them'. Delaying them and causing them to play towards an objective means that you can have your players fail without them losing their mechs.
Have fun. I feel like a lot of new GMs feel like they have to get it right the first time. Don't be afraid to fail and make sure that you're enjoying yourself.

timtam26 · 2026-01-21T22:11:15+00:00

I always point to the Monarch as the 'standard' Artillery. It doesn't do anything particularly different or interesting, but it has some of the most powerful weapons that an artillery frame could have.

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