Feeling real theorycrafty this week, I suppose, so let's go with another one. This one has a bit more of a backstory to it, too.
This build is actually a spin-off based on the mech I pilot in my bi-weekly Lancer game. In that one, I put together a sniper-type using a combination of the SSC Death's Head frame and the G&S Anansi's Anti-Hyperfauna Rifle and a small dip into HORUS Pegasus. All basically to be able to do a really big shot on crit and fairly consistent high damage in general beyond that.
As part of that concept, it also has things like the Overpower Calibur Core power and the pilot has Crack Shot and Infiltrator talents, with plans to delve into Guerrilla so it also has a bit of a stealthy aspect to it. Hide, line up the shot, and shoot. The end result is - on a crit from hidden once the build is done - the suit doing the following:
8d6+5 damage... PLUS the enemy rolls saves vs Slow and Impaired with no reactions (Infiltrator), Prone ("Roland" Chamber), and Immobilize/limiting sight (Crack Shot). Oh, and the AHF Rifle in Leopard Mode gets to reload for free on a crit. Even without setup it still can manage 4d6+2 damage with the Prone roll on a Skirmish. So pretty nice and I'm looking forward to getting the other tools.
That said, the free reload is only on crits so if those don't happen, there's downtime where I don't have the Big Gun. I can stabilize and reload, but oftentimes I do other things. And, since I invested heavily in Systems (a common thing for my builds, I think, since I have so many things I want crammed into one suit) and it has huge Sensors, it's also pretty good at doing Tech Attacks. Which resulted in a recommendation to dip into doing more of those.
In looking into that, I also got to thinking about how many conditions my suit can already do... and started wondering how many I could apply in one turn. The combination of stealth, status conditions, and hacking potential resulted in the following.
Status Quo
The Resources
- Castor & Pollox
- Field Guide to Suldan
The Build
-- C&H SAGITTARIUS @ LL12 --
[ LICENSES ]
C&H SAGITTARIUS 3, HORUS PEGASUS 1,
HORUS MANTICORE 1, PI-OF FENNEL 3,
HORUS GOBLIN 1, SSC DEATH’S HEAD 2,
SSC SICKLEWING 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
ENHANCED SYSTEMS UPGRADE, HYPERTUNED INTERFACE,
The Lesson of the Open Door, Neurolink Targeting
[ TALENTS ]
Infiltrator 3, GUERRILLA 3,
Crack Shot 3, Centimane 3,
Stormbringer 2, Brutal 1
[ STATS ]
HULL:2 AGI:6 SYS:6 ENGI:0
STRUCTURE:4 HP:16 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEATCAP:5 REPAIR:3
TECH ATK:+6 LIMITED:+0
SPD:8 EVA:18 EDEF:14 SENSE:15 SAVE:18
[ WEAPONS ]
Integrated: Blackjacket Combat Bow
FLEX MOUNT: 'APOTHECARY' MARKSMAN RIFLE (PARVATI-CLASS NHP)
[ SYSTEMS ]
Core Siphon, Hunter Lock,
Echo Cloak, H0R_OS System Upgrade I,
Beckoner/Lensmaker Codex V.08, VIPER DRONE
The Breakdown
This is a suit that can apply every condition in one round if it crits. Don't believe me?
Start Hidden, Protocol to activate Core Power and Take Aim (Crack Shot)
Step One: Hit with Blackjacket Combat Bow with EMP Capacitor Arrow (Stun along with Slow, Impaired, and no reactions from Infiltrator)
Step Two: Eject Power Cores (Jammed and 2 extra heat because of Enhanced Systems Guide)
Step Three: Overcharge and crit with 'Apothecary' Marksman Rifle (Immobilized from Crack Shot and Shredded from Centimane)
... Also, thanks to Lessons of the Open Door, all these saves are harder to hit and failing even one adds two more heat. Oh, and they have one of them at +1 difficulty on top of that which results in 4 energy damage if they fail thanks to the Viper Drone if you have that out. Also there's already potentially four conditions on the target when you shoot with the Rifle, so that's doing four extra damage... and then you can also just infect the unit with the Parvati-Class NHP to cause more problems.
The damage for this doesn't look very impressive at first until you start crunching the numbers. Two damage from Invade, the Combat Bow only does 1d6+3 (+6 if Hunter Lock is applied first, say the same round you set the Viper Drone), and the Rifle would do 8+1d6 on its crit. Add that to the Viper Drone and the two Talents mentioned before, it's "only" 2d6+20 and four heat. On top of basically pulling the equivalent of a Malboro's Bad Breath from Final Fantasy on a target.
Not bad... but it can get better. Because if you're willing to drop just one or two conditions off the list (Stunned and Jammed, in this case) and do a bit more set-up, the damage actually gets even higher - and it's all thanks to the Blackjacket's other specialized arrows and the option to draw back the bow as a quick action to bolster its damage.
In this case, if you spend a full action to attack (and land a crit) on a Hunter Lock target with the bow equipped with a Hyperdense Penetrator arrow, that's 4d6+6 damage and applying Slow, Impaired, Immobilized, and Shredded. Then you can add in the 8 from hitting with the Rifle on overcharge, plus 4 from Viper Drone, and that's 4d6+18 damage. And two heat.
If you don't care about the conditions from attacking from Hidden, you also can Echo Cloak the round prior and add another 1d6 damage. Trading four conditions for an extra 3d6 damage isn't too shabby, especially if you activate Hypertuned Interface to make the damage done unable to be reduced. Oh, and if you popped your Core Power again, you can prep a Fuel-Air Explosive ahead of time to do up to 3d6 additional damage and Prone to all targets in a Blast 3 as a free action. Suddenly there's a set-up/payoff chance for 8d6+6 damage with Shredded and Immobilized applied (which means 6 damage from the Rifle on Overcharge plus 4 from the Viper Drone. And two heat.).
Oh, and another option is using a Fragmentation Bolt instead of the Penetrator to ambush a Blast 1 area for half damage along with Stormbringer antics. Honestly, Sagittarius is a pretty fun suit for sneaking around and just causing problems.
Of course, a little bit of this hinges on if Rifle/Launcher talents apply to the Blackjacket. It's identified as both but COMP/CON doesn't seem to apply Crack Shot and Stormbringer talents to it on the Active Mech Sheet. Bug? Or undocumented attribute to the bow where it can't benefit from weapon talents?
Either way, it's not a deal-breaker or anything. The Crack Shot stuff is covered by the Apothecary rifle, and Stormbringer's just there for added fun and could always be swapped out for other Talents - like Skirmisher or something.
... Now if we could just have it ride the other suit I thought up this week (like somehow finagling a Lancaster's Mule Harness on the other one or something), then we'd have some Dygenguar and Aussenseiter nonsense going on.
Which I am all for.