Stalo weak?

[Jean_ni]

Hi there.
I'm gming a saga and one of my player chose to be a stalo. The player is now level 16 and we both feel he is a bit underpowered. Especially compared to the berserkr and the ulfhednar. On paper, flow is nice and all but doesn't build up as fast as rage and once it's at 4, wyrd one rune and it has to build up again. By that time, the others are rage 4 since 5 rounds and everything that needs slaying is dead 3 times. How does your stalos fare?
Thanks
Jean_ni

[raleel]

I found that I had to go back and hand Craft our Stalo so that he built Flow quickly. That pretty much meant building around the flow generators right off the bat. No extraneous anything right away.

[Jean_ni]

Basically, what did you do?
I was even considering giving him 1 flow per attack...

[raleel]

so, take all 4 Insistences right off the bat. that will give you

• humility - +1 for attack with a push
• advantage - +1 for disarm or damaging equipment
• subtlety - +1 for a back attack
• time - +1 for shifting position in initiative order

then take aggressive assault (the push), disarming parry (disarm), lunging attack (move behind), and roll into position (shift initiative). that gets you 4 powers and all of them can potentially generate. Additionally, flying charge is a good one (positioning), flanking (have to be already there, but a nice backup attack), formulating attack (initiative change), disarm or strike weapon. Vengeful parry should work, but humility specifies an attack, and not a parry - a worthwhile change IMO.

I would add in war planner, because that lets you get flow during upkeep (though you have to take fairly specific skills to get 2 ranks in war tactics, but there are a couple of options there). Combat Maneuverability is also a good choice here (movement to set up a back attack).

Cloned Maneuver out of the Stalwart can help here (clone a move that meets your Insistences).

also, I don't think there is anything there that says that a magic item can't do the work of fulfilling the condition - just that you have to use an Active Power.

Edit: one I forgot - the Stalo in my group took an Ancestral weapon with a couple ranks of war tactics in it. So, ancestral weapon can help there as well.

[Jean_ni]

Thanks

[Drachenwulf]

Also as stated in an example in Denizens of the north, armor can be infused with one of your instance passives. The example was the passive that grants flow from a back attack was infused into his armor so when he attacked from behind with the active that pushes the target back he was getting 3 flow...

[andrew]

Good point Drachenwulf

Also if you have Disir levels, you can take Troll-Blooded allowing you to stack that passive again

[dafelsheim]

Good point Drachenwulf

Also if you have Disir levels, you can take Troll-Blooded allowing you to stack that passive again

So, I know my players really don't even consider Disir levels as part of builds so far. We've been doing the online game for about two years now and they are on their second set of Dwellers. For their first set, I was obscenely liberal in granting them bonus Afterlife Runes (partially because I felt bad with how terrible their demise was met at the hands of the Rusalki - tip: do not run that last encounter using the CORE rules, it's pretty much impossible for the Dwellers!) I think they all had like, 7-8 Afterlife Runes and none of them got a Disir level.

I also found the Stalo a little underwhelming ALONE. However, the Specialization that focuses on group tactics (forgot the name) can be EXTREMELY effective, Flow or no Flow, with the right weapon choice and in a synergetic group.

The first combat encounter that my characters actually had any trouble with (and would have been killed in if the plot hadn't dictated otherwise) was when they went up against an NPC Dweller of mine (Vigi, second to Hakon in Evingard, and a Stalo) with 4 elite guardsmen (Grizzled Warriors), all built for group/cooperative action, with shields and Reach weapons. It was also the first combat that was a lot about combat, not just looking at the numbers.

[Drachenwulf]

I guess this is the logical place for this question: Say for example a stalo can generate through war planner and actives 3 flow per turn: when flow gets to 4 and resets, does it reset to 0 and stay at 0 or does it reset to 0 and build the extra intensities? (Ie 2 in the case of my example)

now that I think about it that is a question for my norn....

[dafelsheim]

I would say the latter.