Saturday Night Fight Club - Manticore v Wyvern

At the suggestion of Biopunk, it’s another aerial combat.


Manticore



AC 4
Move 12”/18”
Hit dice 6+3 (average hit points of 30)
No of attacks 3
Damage per attack 1-3/1-3/1-8
Special attack Tail spikes – can fire four volleys of six spikes each, one per round from its tail , 1-6 damage per hit. It doesn’t say whether that is per spike or per volley. I’ll assume it’s per spike, since 1-6 damage for six iron spikes doesn’t seem that much. However, it means that each spike launched has to make its own to hit roll. Seems fair.
Special defences – nil
Size L
THAC0 13 and therefore needs a 10 to hit the wyvern
The manticore will save vs. poison on a 10 or better.
Aerial manoeuvrability class E – “Manticores are clumsy fliers, but they will not hesitate to fling their tail spikes at opponents who get too close”

Wyvern



AC3
HD 7+7 (average hp 38.5)
Move 24”
Manoeuvrability class E
2 atts
2-16 and 1-6 + poison sting.
THAC0 12, therefore needs an 8 to hit the manticore.

Round 1

As both the manticore and wyvern have the same manoeuvrability class, I’ll rule, as I did before, that they both attack at the same time.

I’ll also rule that since they are taken to be in combat, yet moving around and getting their attacks in when they can, they can use all their various attacks at the same time. Remember that a round is quite a long time and I can’t see why claw/claw/bite and tail can’t all be deployed during that time.

Manny the Manticore swoops in, firing off a volley of spikes as he closes and then has a go with his claw/claw/bite routine.

Let’s see how many of his iron spikes hit.

Rolls a 12, 2, 12, 15, 6, 6 - therefore 3 spikes hit, and their damage is a total of 9

His claw/claw/bite scores are 10, 12 and 19 – all three hit and the total damage is 2,1 and 1 – that bite just didn’t bite.

Let’s see what Wylie the Wyvern can whistle up in response. Oops – his bite went a little astray with a hit roll of 3. What of his sting?

5 – well, dragonkind must be hiding their collective faces behind their collective paws at this point. What a shlemiel!

End of round 1 and Manny has taken no hits. He’s down to 3 volleys of his iron spikes (I wonder if that’s where the best iron spikes are harvested?).

Wylie the Wyvern on the other hand is down to 26 hp and if ever a wyvern’s face was red, his is now.

Round 2

We’ll let Wylie have the first strike – he dives in for his attacks and rolls

7 for the bite and 14 for his tail sting. Maybe the tail can make up for the inadequacies of the mouth. Damage of 1 – hmm, maybe not. Let’s see if Manny makes his save vs. poison.

17 – things are just getting worse for Wylie.

Ah well, let’s see what damage Manny can do to Wylie’s body. He’s already done heaps to his ego.

First the tail spikes. 4,3,18,10, 7,9 – only 2 hit, for total damage of 7

Now the claw/claw/bite – 10, 5 and 4. A total of 1 damage from the claw that managed to hit. I wonder what’s happened to my D20? It seems to be rolling low.

End of round, and Manny is down to 29hp and 2 volleys of iron spikes, Wylie to 18. It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.

Round 3 and I’ll let Manny have first crack.

4,7,4,1, 15 and 5 – man, what rubbish rolls. Still, what goes around comes around. So that’s just 1 iron spike hit (not sure what happened to the other five; perhaps they landed on a hobbit – we can only hope!) for damage of 1

Claw/claw/bite to hits of 12,7 and 9 – one claw hit for damage of 3!

Okay, here comes Wylie – he rolls to hit – he gets a 4

Facepalm for the Wyverns.

What about his tail stinger? At last, a 14. Damage of 4 and let’s see if Manny makes his save. Which d20 shall I use? What about that low roller?

20! Is there such a thing as a critical save?

End of round 3 – Manny is on 25hp and has 1 volley of iron spikes left, Wylie has 14hp left. It could all change on the next round.

Round 4 – Wylie gets first go.

Wahoo! He actually hits with that bite of his. It’s been so long since he actually hit, I’ll just check what the damage is.

2d8 – he rolls 9 in total (well, he can’t roll a 1)

And his stinger? 9 – so it’s a hit – just. Damage of 4 and Manny has to save vs. poison again. He looks confident but should he be?

Alas, a 5. Well, that’s my fault, using that low roller. But as both monsters are attacking simultaneously, Manny still gets his attacks in. How will he do?

Tail spikes – the final volley – 11,17,15,15,12,4 – ha! Where were those rolls when he needed them for his save, eh? Ah well, that’s the way the luck goes.

Still, damage for five spikes – let’s make those rolls. 6,3,2,2,2 for a grand total of 15. Wylie is looking damn punctured.

Claw/claw/bite 1,12,10 – a claw and a bite hit home. Manny rolls a total of 8 on his bite (max-I-mum!) and 2 for the claw – ten in total.

That means that in round 4, Wylie has taken a total of 25 damage, and as he only had 14 left, he’ll be hitting the ground in several pieces.

Well, that’s about all we have time for, so…

Wait, wait! I’ve just taken a call from Wylie’s therapist. She says he should re-run that combat; apparently it’s good therapy for his inadequacy issues and problems with self-esteem.

Oh well, I’m up for it.


Round 1

Wylie swoops in, eager for revenge. He rolls a 15 for his bite and chomps home with a total of 9 damage.

Let’s see what his stinger can do. He rolls a 12 to hit. 4 damage and Manny needs to save vs. poison (he’s getting a bit tired of this) . He rolls a 13.


Manny swings that dangerous tail of his, picks up his d20 and rolls

18,16,17,3,8,7 – not bad. Three spikes hit home for a total of 16 damage.

Now for those claws and teeth.

8,16,7 – only one claw rips into Wylie’s scale for a measly 1 damage. Just a scratch.

At the end of that round, Wylie is on 22hp, Manny on 17. If Wylie can score maximum damage with both his attacks, he might knock Manny out of the sky, or at the very least wipe that smirk off the manticore’s bearded face.

Round 2
Wylie closes for combat, mouth open wide, teeth glinting.

Snap! He rolls a 14 for his bite, 9 damage.

Unfortunately, his tail hit roll is a less than perfect 6. Still, he’s brought Manny down to 8hp – what can the lion of the skies pull out of the bag?

It’s spike time. Manny picks a d20 at random (you can’t rely on anything this week) and rolls

18,3,16,15,15,17 – bullseye! Five out of the six spikes hit. He rolls his damage. 19!

This must surely spell doom for Wylie. And just to make sure, Manny gives it the claw/claw/bite to finish things off – or does he?

14,16,14 – good rolls! 2,1,1 – 4 damage.

And on –1, Wylie goes sailing earthward again.

Well, that’s the last time Wylie will be listening to that therapist.

In retrospect, the fact that Manny managed to save vs. poison on the second fight made the difference between them that bit more interesting. I may have made the manticore that little bit more powerful with my iron spike damage rule; that and the fact that Manny did have some splendid dice luck in the second fight. There is only 2 difference between them on the THAC0s and if they made all their hits, Manny would inflict 48 damage whilst Wylie would only do 22. If I’d ruled that Manny could only do a maximum of 6 damage with his tail spikes per round, then he’d do 18 damage maximum, which just doesn’t sound right.

Also, we have to bear in mind that Manny can only fire four volleys with his tail spikes, so if an opponent can keep the battle going longer than four rounds, the manticore’s maximum damage at once drops to 12.

That's it for this week. Join us next time for Stone Giant v Treant.