Steve Lieb asks
>if you have 10x14-skill creatures, treating them as a mob would
>give them 140 ap correct?
Yes
>Despite having this wellspring of ap, they could
>never bid more than 14 AP for a single contest, could they?
Yes they could, IMO. A high bid for the mob indicates they are charging you recklessly. If they win you will be overwhelmed by the numbers involved, if you win then you will probably have taken out a number of them - either a sweeping blow, impaling 4 of them on your spear, or merely frightening them off when they get to see you in action close up! (Every 14 AP lost by the mob is effectively one of the mob out of the fight)
Mikael Raaterova suggests
>This assumes that the swarm is meant to be a _threat_ to the player
>heroes (otherwise what's the point of having a contest in the first
>place?).
It might just be designed to slow them down... Unless you have 2 levels of mastery on the mob you can still fail, and you need a 3 mastery advantage before you always critical. The mob will always have a chance of criticalling, or getting a success, giving it the chance of taking some AP off the heroes (and/or inflicting wounds), and unless the characters take risks (ie make high bids) it will take them time to drive off/cut through the hoard. And while the characters are dealing with the hoard of Trollkin, the Mistress Race Zorak Zoran Death Lord is busy enhancing with her Close Combat ability with her Death Magic feats...
>Hence, give the Horde a rating that can actually contest
>somewhat against the player heroes' ratings (at least within 20
>points of the heroes' applicable ability ratings), and add enough APs
>to make them fearsome. Otherwise it's just a waste of session time.
-- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tim Ellis EMail tim_at_... | | Facts! They demanded facts from him, as if facts could explain anything!| +----------------------(Joseph Conrad "Lord Jim")-------------------------+
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