So prompted by Shimmering Heat Mirage Tactic, I went and looked up trivial opponents in the book again. It mentions non-combatants and trivial opponents in the same breath, as mostly background characters for stunt fodder. However it also mentions as an example a mortal character on a battlefield with celestial exalts and fair folk nobles is considered to be a trivial opponent, and treated as a battle group size zero.
So, is this how like, a dragonblooded Dynast and her handful of bodyguards are meant to be represented? Like say you’ve got a DB, her blood ape, and three bodyguards as a battle scene. Normally I’d run that with all of them as individuals, the DB, demon, and each bodyguard as their own initiative. In this case should I instead be treating them as trivial opponents? They don’t take decisive damage to defeat, but neither can you farm initiative off them. Somehow that FEELS better to me. You can’t just slam dunk the mortal bodyguard and then explode that 45 initiative all over the boss, but likewise you don’t need to risk resetting to base initiative to get rid of the annoying but not overly dangerous bodyguards.
So, is this how like, a dragonblooded Dynast and her handful of bodyguards are meant to be represented? Like say you’ve got a DB, her blood ape, and three bodyguards as a battle scene. Normally I’d run that with all of them as individuals, the DB, demon, and each bodyguard as their own initiative. In this case should I instead be treating them as trivial opponents? They don’t take decisive damage to defeat, but neither can you farm initiative off them. Somehow that FEELS better to me. You can’t just slam dunk the mortal bodyguard and then explode that 45 initiative all over the boss, but likewise you don’t need to risk resetting to base initiative to get rid of the annoying but not overly dangerous bodyguards.
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