On the effective early use of Pretenders in combat

[Huzurdaddi]

Astral 5 vs astral 1 is a near guarantee that the wyrm will win every duel.

Let's see what happens against a cheap astral 1 mage. Let's assume that on a tie the attacker wins. Let's also assume that the die is not open ended (if it is open ended, and I hope it is not, then the chances of dying are always quite high and there is no defence).

Given you roll a 1, then if he rolls a 5 or 6 you die.

Given you roll a 2, then if he rolls a 6 you die.

Total probability of death: 3 / 36 or 8% of the time your SC will die. Or put another way it takes on average 12 level1 astral mages are required to kill you.

For level 2 astral mages the chances of dying are 6 / 36 or 16%, and it takes on average 6 mages to kill you.

If on a tie nothing happens then you are pretty safe, only a 1 / 36 chance of dying against level 1 mages and 1/12 chance of dying against level 2 mages.

So level 5 is not great defence. Level 6 defence is great. And level 7 is SUPER.