Okay, that first battle scared me away from trying to clear this game. I'm here taking another look and refining some plans.
Plan revision:
* Walk forward to battle
* All characters hidden
* Two kobolds act, instant turn end due to everyone hidden
* Fodder kills, then moves to die to two kobolds
* Everyone else kills kobolds
* Remaining kobold walks forward, dies to attack of opportunity from Garon
Not necessarily in that order. This should wrap up the battle in one turn, with the Kobolds getting perhaps 2 turns where everyone is hidden and 1 turn only to die to us. Enemy turns should be rather minimal.
I can generate a bunch of stats and tell you what is feasible. The six stats use 4d6, discarding lowest die. The RNG resets to default every time you reroll, adjusted only by frame count, so spamming the Roll option will not give us new possibilities. This limits our freedom for what we can pull from the RNG, I'm not expecting 3 CON any time soon.
As for important stats, STR means we can possibly favor dagger over Magic Missile. DEX has a whole pile of effects, both positive and negative. CON gives us HP, something we want none of. INT lets us die smarter, though we need 10 to even pick Wizard. WIS lets us die wiser. CHA lets us die charmingly.
For sake of simulations, Garon and Wobby are always going to be present. Our two fodder are essentially protoplasm that we can mold in various ways, limited by RNG and a few racial and feat tweaks. We can generally assume any and all stats we need, just to see if the battle can work at all, then worry about whether we can create such characters.
######| Here's how combat start looks
#+----+ Numbers are kobolds, letters are us
#|54
#|213 Garon must be A or B
#|AB+--- Wobby must be C or D
-+CD|### So, four practical formations
|###
Character tasks are as follows:
Forward fodder must kill something, either by dagger or Magic Missile, then move into range of two readied Kobolds and move once more to trigger Attacks of Opportunity, to which we must die. Magic Missile is out of the question if we allow adjacent Kobolds to act first, and they're not dead yet, leaving the unlikely dagger as our only other option.
Garon must attack, needs 14+ to hit a Kobold who didn't act yet, 15+ against one who already did. If our target is Kobold #3, that's around a corner, moving the range to 18+ or 19+. Additionally, after Garon acts, a Kobold must move to a spot diagonal from Garon, then die as they continue to move and take an attack; this roll needs 15+ to hit. Damage output is 1d6+0, and that needs to kill whatever HP we target.
Back fodder must use Magic Missile. 1d4+1 should kill.
Wobby must use Magic Missile. 1d4+1 should kill.
The particulars depend on formation.
If
Garon is on B, this seriously tightens what must happen: Kobolds 1 and 4 must act first. Forward fodder must use dagger to slay Kobold 2, then do the die dance. Garon must act before Kobold 5, who must act while Kobold 4 is still alive. Garon will not be able to use an Attack of Opportunity against any other Kobold, not without moving a step first, and I'd rather manipulate than spend frames walking.
With
Garon on A, there's a lot more possibilities. Any pair of Kobolds other than 1 can be used to kill fodder, although Magic Missile is disallowed if either 1 or 2 got to act before the fodder. 3 can act first just fine, no AoO across corners. Garon can kill either Kobold #3 or #4 by opportunity, though #5 must remain alive long enough if #4 is the target.
Magic Missile can't strike Kobold #3 from position D.
Ideally, we keep it all in one round. However, it is possible that we can have someone act a bit too early, and we can just skip their turn. They can act in round 2, and skipping turns is very fast. The point is to ensure Kobolds do not get a single turn where any character is not hidden, other than the one instance where we abuse Attack of Opportunity on the Kobold's turn.
Let's look at dice rolls:
* A initiative
* A "Can Hide" check (must be 6+)
* A Hide check (if Garon, 14+; if protoplasm, 9 at lowest)
* B initiative
* B "Can Hide" check (must be 6+)
* B Hide check (if Garon, 14+; if protoplasm, 9 at lowest)
* C initiative
* C "Can Hide" check (must be 6+)
* C Hide check (if Wobby, 14+; if protoplasm, 9 at lowest)
* D initiative
* D "Can Hide" check (must be 6+)
* D Hide check (if Wobby, 14+; if protoplasm, 9 at lowest)
* Kobold 1 Initiative
* Kobold 1 HP
* Kobold 2 Initiative
* Kobold 2 HP
* Kobold 3 Initiative
* Kobold 3 HP
* Kobold 4 Initiative
* Kobold 4 HP
* Kobold 5 Initiative
* Kobold 5 HP
Just starting combat, and we can instantly trim out impossible cases. Initiative is complicated business. At least I can look at the Hide rolls and tell you what choices we've got.
_9 - 20 DEX Lf. Halfling
13 - 12 DEX Lf. Halfling, 20 DEX Moon Elf
14 - 10 DEX Lf. Halfling, 18 DEX medium race
15 - _8 DEX Lf. Halfling, 16 DEX medium race
16 - _6 DEX Lf. Halfling, 14 DEX medium race
17 - 12 DEX medium race
20 - _6 DEX medium race
Of course, the better the Hide roll, the more choices we have with DEX for whatever simulation of Initiative we need. Such simulations can also pick a weaker AC when it comes time to being hit.
Now, if we're looking at dagger poke vs. Kobold, the lowest roll we can tolerate is 8, and of course I can inform what the possibilities are there as well.
_8 - 20 DEX Lf. Halfling w/ Weapon Finesse vs. flatfooted
_9 - 20 STR Half-Orc vs. flatfooted
12 - 20 DEX Lf. Halfling w/ Weapon Finesse vs. flatfooted Kobold #3
15 - 10 STR
19 - 10 STR vs. Kobold #3 (corner)
20 - Automatic hit
As for damage, the most a Kobold Swordsman will have is 4 HP. +3 damage is all we need, so 16 STR can do it. The only failure case for damage is, after manipulating other stats, we can't get the needed Strength. In general, the Magic Missile is much more likely to get stuff done, and if so, makes STR meaningless, but if that isn't available thanks to an active adjacent kobold, we still have the dagger to test.
Finally, our forward fodder needs to take a hit. Kobold Swordsman is very accurate, bestowed a +5 Attack for some reason. Thus, our range is something like:
_2 - 4 DEX medium race (
except we need our Hide to work)
_5 - 10 DEX medium race
11 - 20 DEX Lf. Halfling
Basically, it's an automatic hit at 11+. There's no reason to shuffle armor off Garon to the fodder, if you're going to bring that up. A low roll means we must have a lower Dexterity if we're going to pass the simulation, which can have conflict with Initiative and Hide and give us a failure from that.
As for damage, here's the most CON we can have:
1 - _5 CON
2 - _7 CON
3 - _9 CON
4 - 11 CON
5 - 13 CON
6 - 15 CON
Of note, it is a lot easier to manipulate 7 CON than it is to find 5. If we really need 1 HP, Moon Elf would be suggested to turn those 7s into 5s.
Initiative probably just needs some serious simulation. Kobolds get +3, one from DEX and two because we walked into battle rather than menu-fight. If a Kobold gets to act, someone is not hidden, and does not die to Garon's Attack of Opportunity, we hit a fail case. Forward Fodder needs two Kobolds to die against, only one hit will merely be a KO instead.
Ties are handled by giving control to the side opposite of whoever just took their turn. If no one acted yet, players get the first shot. On the same side, whoever is closer to the first slot. At least, that's what I can recall from memory. The game will not give an Initiative less than 1.
I don't know the limits of the RNG. I do know that I am asking for a rather significant series of good dice rolls, all on the first battle, so whether a possible RNG state exists that clears all criteria would be nice to know.
I need to double check the rolls of different actions. I recall physical attacks needing a d20 for hitting, dice for damage, and one more for the screams. Critical hits are not implemented. Magic Missile needs a roll for Arcane Spell Failure despite the lack of armor, and another for damage. I don't know if Kobolds use the RNG if they have no targets to go after (
when everyone's hidden, there are no targets).
