Kaiju and other Leviathan-sized monsters

[zeromig]

My party went up against a god last night. Susanoo, the japanese god of storms, to be specific.

During the fight, they went up against a huge godzilla monster that Susanoo had summoned. I used this particular power, from the wiki, to help create it:

Unthinkable Size [-4] As Hulking Size, but all effects, positive and negative, are doubled. This applies for creatures larger than whales (Fenrir, Godzilla, Typhon...)

Now, the question I have is, one of my players decided to jump on it and stab repeatedly. I ruled that it was impossible for the kaiju to dodge, although he was making every effort to shake the PC off each round. They didn't do much damage until they overcame its catch, but my question to you all is: what would you have differently? How would you have this behemoth monster defend itself against every attack? Of course I had the monster attempt to slap the offending PC and shake it off, but what would you do with this scenario as a GM?

[Sanctaphrax]

I'd have rolled Athletics for defence normally. A behemoth's attempts to shake you off are probably just as good a defence as its attempts to dodge your attacks.

PS: The custom power list on the wiki is not great. One of these days I'll fix it. Meanwhile, I recommend this.
PPS: Thanks for making me look at the custom power list on the wiki, I just noticed a couple of Sponsored Magics that I missed when compiling my list of those.

[Vargo Teras]

Generally speaking, giant monsters don't avoid attacks, they ignore them.  At a certain size, they should have Physical Immunity, with the Catch including attacks against their limited number of vulnerable points and/or attacks of sufficient scale.  The other possibility is a custom stunt I've seen in a few forms, which uses Endurance either as a direct defense or, my preference, lets you add Endurance to Armor provided that you offer a Mediocre defense.

[zeromig]

Generally speaking, giant monsters don't avoid attacks, they ignore them.  At a certain size, they should have Physical Immunity, with the Catch including attacks against their limited number of vulnerable points and/or attacks of sufficient scale.  The other possibility is a custom stunt I've seen in a few forms, which uses Endurance either as a direct defense or, my preference, lets you add Endurance to Armor provided that you offer a Mediocre defense.

That's what I was doing. I gave the kaiju the catch of Weapon:4 or up, or the Kusanagi sword of Japanese myth. I gave it a slew of other powers, and thankfully the party didn't kill it, though we did end the game with them attaining the Kusanagi sword (long story).

I'd have rolled Athletics for defence normally. A behemoth's attempts to shake you off are probably just as good a defence as its attempts to dodge your attacks.

PS: The custom power list on the wiki is not great. One of these days I'll fix it. Meanwhile, I recommend this.
PPS: Thanks for making me look at the custom power list on the wiki, I just noticed a couple of Sponsored Magics that I missed when compiling my list of those.

Thanks for that link! I see the power in there, Unthinkable Size, would have been much better than what I was using. In the end, I cobbled together my monsters using a lot of other powers taken from another FATE game, Strands of the Great Kaiju War.

[Orladdin]

That's what I was doing. I gave the kaiju the catch of Weapon:4 or up, or the Kusanagi sword of Japanese myth. I gave it a slew of other powers, and thankfully the party didn't kill it, though we did end the game with them attaining the Kusanagi sword (long story).

Since you didn't finish your explanation, in case you don't know:

(click to show/hide)

Fidelacchius is actually Kusanagi.  http://dresdenfiles.wikia.com/wiki/Fidelacchius

... which could add interesting complications later, if this wasn't covered in your story.

[Mr. Death]

I'd go with Vargo's suggestion, but with an additional Mythic Toughness and a stacked catch. Make Weapon:4 weapons the catch for Physical Immunity, and Kusanagi the catch for the Toughness.

[Sanctaphrax]

Kusanagi also has an alternative writeup on the IoP list.

I've used stuff like Vargo Teras' ideas for truly massive monsters before. Seemed to work well, though I never did much testing.

[zeromig]

Ah.

My campaign isn't a Dresdenverse campaign. We're just using the system, but we're running a Scion campaign, where everyone in the group is the son of a god.

I haven't seen the IoP list, but definitely will check it out. I don't have the exact powers I gave it, but it gave its wielder a presence bonus to intimidate and command eastern Asian dragons, and send gusts of wind as a spray attack.

[zeromig]

Since you didn't finish your explanation, in case you don't know:

(click to show/hide)

Fidelacchius is actually Kusanagi.  http://dresdenfiles.wikia.com/wiki/Fidelacchius

... which could add interesting complications later, if this wasn't covered in your story.

Thanks for the link. There's a glaring error in that write-up, but I'll bother that site's moderator. I'm not sure if that's because that's canon in the Dresdenverse, but the mythical origin stated there is wrong.

[zeromig]

I'd go with Vargo's suggestion, but with an additional Mythic Toughness and a stacked catch. Make Weapon:4 weapons the catch for Physical Immunity, and Kusanagi the catch for the Toughness.

I can probably guess the answer to this, but let's say one of my characters has mythic or even supernatural strength, and they have a weapon:2 sword or other melee. They roll extremely well, and get some arbitrarily high number, let's say 8 and up. Because the kaiju doesn't dodge (or can't dodge), it's an autohit. However, its catch is Weapon:4 and up only. Even with all the shifts of success, the weapon does 0 damage, is that right? At least, that's how I saw it.

[Mr. Death]

It's up to you, but I'd say the net weapon rating is the important part, so getting there through either a honking big sword or honking big muscles ought to work.

[Vargo Teras]

It's up to you, but I'd say the net weapon rating is the important part, so getting there through either a honking big sword or honking big muscles ought to work.

I'm not sure I'd agree, actually.  No matter how strong the wielder, a two-foot sword blade isn't going to matter to a kaiju that's got toes the size of a Buick.  I'd recommend the fellow with Supernatural Strength to use it in finding a weapon appropriately sized; particularly for Scion, where Strength powers are supposed to convey superhero physics, you reach a point where merely mortal weapons can't match up to superhuman muscles.

[Becq]

For those attacks that are capable of damaging it, I would think you'd need a defense roll of some sort (otherwise the stress inflicted would be pretty immense).  Perhaps use Endurance as a "resistance" in place of Athletic's dodge?

[JoshTheValiant]

I'm not sure I'd agree, actually.  No matter how strong the wielder, a two-foot sword blade isn't going to matter to a kaiju that's got toes the size of a Buick.  I'd recommend the fellow with Supernatural Strength to use it in finding a weapon appropriately sized; particularly for Scion, where Strength powers are supposed to convey superhero physics, you reach a point where merely mortal weapons can't match up to superhuman muscles.

Using this to leverage a point that no one seems to have made:  Check the rules for Diminutive Size.  One specific aspect of Unthinkable Size could be to treat anything that isn't at least Hulking Size to play by the Diminutive rules.  i.e. one stress per hit limit without the appropriate catch.

[devonapple]

Using this to leverage a point that no one seems to have made:  Check the rules for Diminutive Size.  One specific aspect of Unthinkable Size could be to treat anything that isn't at least Hulking Size to play by the Diminutive rules.  i.e. one stress per hit limit without the appropriate catch.

That would be in keeping with the FATE Fractal idea.