Lancer NPC - Barricade
Core Detail Overview
Stats
The Barricade has the stats of a utility NPC that can survive some exposure to danger, with high Engineering, Heat Cap, Save Target, and Sensors; low Hull, Agility, and Evasion; average HP, Armor, and E-Defense; Speed that starts low but becomes average in Tier 3, and Systems that starts out average but falls off somewhat after Tier 1. This leaves it fairly resistant to tech attacks and Burn but somewhat weaker to more straightforward damage (although Shock Plating helps with this) and most forced movement effects. The low Speed can hurt, since the Barricade’s terrain effects are placed adjacent to it, but aside from that, the stats are mostly fine for a unit that tends to be treated as a low priority.
Base Systems
Graviton Lance is almost more of a hack that gets used with Skirmish than a weapon. The damage is mostly superficial, but the range is decent, having 1 Accuracy built in is always nice (and can be an angle to give the Barricade some unexpected offensive presence if it picks up any critical hit traits), and very few NPCs are able to cause Slowed directly. That effect can have a lot of situational value, essentially being Immobilized aside from allowing standard movement (note that Slowed is ambiguous about how it interacts with involuntary movement; my interpretation is that involuntary movement is unaffected unless it is mechanically using the target’s own movement capabilities, like the Puppet System invade from Goblin 1). It also allows the Barricade to force a Prone PC to choose between staying in place or having halved movement while granting Accuracy to all incoming attacks. Since the Barricade is Size 2 and most of its terrain effects require free spaces, using Ram followed by Skirmish is often a viable routine if a PC is in close range, allowing it to get in some chip damage while making room, followed by backing up to use its desired terrain effect on its next turn. Once it’s able to attack twice in Tier 2, the damage potential becomes a little less pathetic (though really only against PCs with 0 Armor), and the ability to inflict Slowed on two targets for a single quick action can let it have more impact. This is not a weapon likely to win a fight by itself, and Immobilized (which is much more common among NPCs) mostly being a strict upgrade of Slowed hurts its value, but like many of the Barricade’s systems, this is a way to subtly deny PC actions if you’re able to plan ahead about how to further leverage it.
Mobile Printer is the signature ability for the Barricade, letting it create Size 2 hard cover as a protocol. Having Recharge 5+ on this sucks, because it always feels like that leaves it unavailable when it’d be important to have another use, and while not needing a quick action to use this is incredible, having it as a protocol means that the Barricade needs to pick where it ends its turn with some consideration for if it’s where it would want to be to make a cube on the next turn. Personally, I would’ve rather had this be Recharge 3+ and increase to 5+ with Extrudite (similar to the Engineer’s Power Deployer), but I didn’t make the rules. Those complaints aside, this is one of the few ways to make hard cover during combat other than a destroyed mech chassis, and Size 2 is big enough to noticeably impact freedom of movement and line of sight (unless the PCs are all riding big beefers), especially for slow mechs. One or two cubes in the right spots can make what was initially an open area feel cramped and confining, especially if the Barricade has a melee ally like an Assassin or Specter nearby. Note that the cubes do not count as deployables or characters, only as objects, so abilities like the Electropulse Quick Tech from Hydra 1 or Invigorate from Drone Commander 3 have no interaction with them, though conversely, they are susceptible to abilities like Jager Kunst 1 from Atlas 2 or the Siege Ram damage to objects from Tortuga 1. This is the sort of ability that can seem weak at first, but when you actually play with it and notice how often this protocol can make multiple PCs spend quick actions dealing with it or cause them to waste attacks from the hard cover it provides, the limitations start feeling more justified. I tend to make use of this whenever it’s available, unless I feel like there’s a much better place I could put the cube on the next turn instead. I’ll say more about it when I get to how the Barricade can work in various sitreps, but this is the type of ability where it feels like there are always more ways to use it because terrain interacts with so many other mechanics and considerations beyond just the act of printing the cube, and the better you get at planning ahead and predicting PC actions, the more you’ll be able to find effective uses for it.
Shock Plating, in contrast, is an extremely simple passive ability, but it’s still pretty good, since Resistance to what is generally the most common damage type helps the Barricade often last much longer than its stats would suggest. Most of what the Barricade does involves being close to where the PCs either are or will be moving, and between being Size 2 and Mobile Printer having Recharge 5+, it’s often going to be out in the open. Having Resistance (along with low damage output) is a big part of discouraging the players from focusing on the Barricade and helps it stick around if they decide to do that anyway. However, it’s still just Resistance to one damage type, and PCs have access to reasonable damage from all three types with just GMS options, let alone whatever else they might have from licenses. This is not a complete defensive solution; I prefer to think about keeping the Barricade active in other ways and let this be a bonus on top.
Bulwark Mods is another pretty good passive ability, if situational. Ignoring difficult terrain helps the Barricade get the full use of its Speed when it wants to, and while its Speed is not good, I’d say that actually makes this more valuable since there’s much more relative difference between moving one or three spaces in a single action than there is between moving three or six. Being a Size 2 mech also makes moving around difficult terrain not as easy as it would be at a smaller Size, so getting to just ignore it makes planning exact movement paths appreciably simpler. Ignoring dangerous terrain is typically a more niche advantage, since it doesn’t come up as something any PCs or NPCs can create to the best of my knowledge, so unless it’s on the map, this is useless. When there is dangerous terrain, though, not needing to worry about the damage from it is certainly advantageous, especially if the Barricade can use that to set up cubes blocking safer routes for the PCs. On the whole, this ability is about letting the Barricade move more freely so that it can go where it wants, ideally while reducing how many actions it spends doing so by Boosting less, once again being a quiet way of having the NPCs have more efficient turns than the PCs. Because of Mobile Printer being a protocol and thus requiring the Barricade to move where it will want to be for its next cube prior to the system recharging in order to maximize how many cubes it can make, this is a bigger deal than it would be for most mechs. Still, I don’t want to go overboard in praising this. The Barricade is usually fairly flexible in its action use (largely thanks to Mobile Printer being a protocol), so much of the time, the actual impact of this is one or two times where it got to do a tech attack or Graviton Lance instead of a Boost; a nice benefit but realistically unlikely to be the difference between victory or defeat by itself.
Optional Systems
Drag Down is the one system the Barricade gets to make use of its high Sensors, and it’d be my favorite optional system if Extrudite didn’t feel so necessary. With the fairly low HP totals in Lancer, 2 AP damage per space moved becomes a big chunk quite quickly, and it’s not uncommon for players to forgo doing any voluntary movement while effected, which feeds back into the Barricade’s general desire to slow down the pace and limit PC movement. This is at its most threatening in sitreps where the PCs are pressured to move a lot (like Escort or Recon) and/or when backed up by other NPCs that pressure their enemies into moving (like the Rainmaker with its delayed missiles or the Specter), but even just using it to add some pain to moving around the Barricade’s cubes or other map terrain can be effective. Just be wary of using it on characters that can teleport, because any distance of teleportation counts as only 1 space moved. Also, it may be worth mentioning that I rule this as being an instance of damage per space moved instead of a single total based on overall movement, which is mostly the same end result but can make a difference in some edge cases, such as being better at draining the charges of Aegis Shield Generator from Drake 2.
Seismic Repulsor is ostensibly the Barricade’s attempt to protect itself from close-range and melee enemies and the primary way of using its high Save Target (which helps to still make this somewhat reliable despite calling for a Hull save). Burst 3 around a Size 2 mech is a very big AOE (though that can make this tricky to use without targeting any allies), and Bulwark Mods allows the Barricade to walk out of the difficult terrain afterwards. Note that, as-written, this would still effect PCs with Rapid Burst Jump Jet System and those who have continuous flight systems but didn’t end their turn flying, which is different from the Demolisher’s similar Seismic Destroyer. That all said, Recharge 6+ means you’re unlikely to get more than one use out of this if you’re using it for the implied intention, and even then, the Barricade needs allies to take advantage of the Prone effect because its own damage output is so low (and it’s only going to set up the Prone/Slowed combination on two PCs at most). However, this has an alternative use for just setting up a big area of difficult terrain instead of using Hunger/Pursuit Limpets, since both have the same Recharge value but Seismic Repulsor is far easier to actually place due to not needing a free area. Burst 3 makes it just big enough to completely surround any cubes the Barricade is adjacent to, and using this freely before engaging with the PCs gives it more chances for a lucky Recharge. I don’t think highly of this system for either approach, but setting up a large area of difficult terrain to compliment the cubes isn’t the worst use of a quick action if nothing is in range for a tech attack, and a mass Prone can be a big shift in momentum if the Barricade has allies like the Assassin or the Breacher nearby to capitalize on it.
Extrudite is a system that I consider almost mandatory for the Barricade. While there will be times when you want only one cube (like if that’s enough to close off a choke point and the only other free spaces would block in the Barricade or if having a clear path would let another NPC get more value than the cube would cost for the PCs), for the most part, this just doubles how much use can be gotten out of Mobile Printer. Which I’d say more than doubles its usefulness, because making more terrain becomes stronger as the available space is reduced (for a practical example of this, setting just one cube in an open space only blocks line of sight on the Barricade in a fairly narrow cone, while setting two cubes adjacent to each other can block it for somewhere between about a third to three-quarters of the map, depending on the exact layout and whether squares, hexes, or no grid are being used). It’s not a perfect counter to being unlucky with Recharge rolls, but it goes a long way towards mitigating it, and if the PCs are close enough for their movement to reach the cubes, there’s a strong case that getting to make two cubes at once is better than having two consecutive turns of making one cube each, like this can instantly turn a six-space-wide passage into two choke points too small for a Size 2 mech to move through. Mobile Printer was already an ability that gets stronger as you get better at using it, and Extrudite cranks that up even further. This is among the highest skill-ceiling abilities of any NPC, though it’s also among the lowest skill floors (even without considering various ways that PCs may undermine the cubes, which I’ll elaborate on in the General Use section). Expect that your early experiences with it are going to involve a lot of wasted turns from being in bad position for a second cube and/or accidentally blocking off spaces that would’ve been better off left open from the mental pressure to use the second cube for every Mobile Printer protocol. If you stick with it and get better, though, you can be rewarded with possibly the best NPC for feeling like a mastermind thinking several steps ahead of everyone else.
Hunger/Pursuit Limpets is a system that might seem interesting at first but is ultimately weighed down by mechanical flaws. Sure, it seems great for creating a large area of difficult terrain that also has a chance to inflict Slowed on hostile characters (with the Barricade’s good Save Target) and has no duration or other way of being cleared, but it requires an adjacent free Size 4 area (which is either 16 squares or 12 hexes) to deploy. As-written, “free” means that the entire area must not contain any characters or objects, which is something of a tough ask on its own given that objects includes any terrain features, but it becomes even harder to find for an NPC that moves slowly and frequently wants to make Size 2 cubes as a protocol. If it had only required a free adjacent space and then spread out in a Size 4 zone excepting characters or objects, it would be much more usable, but as-written, the conditions required to actually use this system are so difficult to fulfill on the sorts of maps I’m used to that it also being Recharge 6+ is mostly academic because I often don’t even get to use it once. And the effect isn’t even particularly impressive, considering Seismic Repulsor covers a much larger area (up to 64 squares or 48 hexes) for the same action cost and Recharge value, and while it lacks the lingering chance to caused Slowed, it can hit PCs in its deployment area with Prone, which I’d consider a stronger effect, and it doesn’t get blocked by having objects in its AOE. For that matter, even if you want to argue that Hunger/Pursuit Limpets can cause Slowed at any time while Seismic Repulsor only has a chance to cause Prone when it gets used, the raw size difference of Burst 3 on a Size 2 mech compared to adjacent Size 4 means that Seismic Repulsor would only miss covering a maximum of 7 squares or 4 hexes that Hunger/Pursuit Limpets can turn into difficult terrain, while simultaneously covering several more spaces in total (48 more squares or 32 more hexes). I don’t think that the lingering chance to cause Slowed is worth that much less coverage on top of the hurdles with actually using this ability. It is an unfortunate victim of having bad mechanics and competing against another optional system that does much of its same purpose better. I usually try to keep an open mind about various NPC systems because my play experiences are not the universal truth, but in this case, just use Seismic Repulsor instead if you want to make difficult terrain.
Titan-Snare Drone is actually pretty good, being able to inflict Immobilized with no save, no duration limit, and a larger zone of coverage than most similar drones (note that there is some ambiguity on whether or not it requires line of sight, but given that it is presented as Range 3 rather than Burst 3, I assume it follows the general rules for valid targets and thus would need line of sight). Being Limited 1 is regrettable but entirely fair for how strong it can be. Immobilized is generally a useful effect to cause, and considering that the Barricade is among the best NPCs at creating choke points to funnel PCs where it wants them to go, it’s fairly easy to set up terrain that would make this impossible to move around, so the drone would take at least one action to destroy in order to free whoever it snared (and potentially more; while it has low HP, at each Tier, its Evasion is almost twice the Barricade’s and its E-Defense is one point higher, so it isn’t automatic to swat this down). The main issue this has is that Extrudite and Drag Down also exist, but in the right compositions (such as with the Assassin), Titan-Snare Drone can be a good optional to pick.
Templates Overview
Grunt can seem weird on the Barricade since it usually has decent durability and Shock Plating becomes pointless with that template, but simply having several more of them to muck with the map is pretty strong, plus the cubes can provide hard cover that also breaks line of sight to stretch out how long that 1 HP lasts. RPV is also good on it; while the Impaired would cancel out the built-in Accuracy of Graviton Lance and Drag Down and thus make those less consistent, nothing else about the Barricade cares about being Impaired, Shocking Plating makes Bonus HP twice as effective against Kinetic damage, and its high Heat Cap provides some protection against Vulnerable To Tech.
Since the Barricade doesn’t do much damage, it’s a strong candidate for Realspace Extrusion from the Exotic template. That will make Drag Down less oppressive, admittedly, but any amount of AP damage is still something players tend to prioritize avoiding, gaining Resistance to all damage is a large boon to the Barricade’s overall staying power, and the inability to body block can be mitigated by using Grapple to Immobilize someone else in the space that the Barricade wants to seal off. Keep in mind that Chronotorus can’t be used while Grappling, so that system is less attractive than usual.
Pirate can make the Barricade into a more substantial offensive threat. Its built-in Accuracy on Graviton Lance works well with Deadly and Splinter Rounds, Boarding Leash does decent damage on top of being a way to Grapple from a distance (also benefiting from the Barricade’s good Save Target), and since the Barricade’s main ability is a protocol, it typically has the action flexibility to use any of the Pirate’s full action systems for even more disabling. Mercenary is less attractive to me, since the extra Accuracy traits are mostly wasted on the Barricade, though Favors Owed can give a one-time punishment to a group and Scout Drone can counter PCs using the cube maze to enable Hide. Spacer can be interesting, since its weapons give the Barricade more direct control of PC positioning and using Gravity Rifle to pull someone into a fresh cube and knock them Prone is a cheeky tactic.
Vehicle doesn’t give the Barricade much, since Bulwarks Mods is a better version of Treads Or Hover already, its low Speed means Transport is mostly wasted, and I think No Manipulators is more of a hindrance than Flier would be a boon in most cases. Ship brings a bit more since the extra Size combined with Flier can make placing cubes much easier and makes Seismic Repulsor huge, but I still don’t think it’s generally worth giving up the option to Grapple and also losing out on using the cubes for cover.
Commander and Veteran are both good options, although remember that Voice of Authority can’t be used while Grappling. The former gives some support potential, and every one of its optional traits can be useful aside from Press The Attack (though it would be a chance to inflict Slowed with no downside if stacked with Exotic’s Realspace Extrusion, so even that can have some marginal use). Veteran offers several defensive options to stick around longer, while Acrobat can greatly increase the Barricade’s movement range, Headshot can trigger with both Graviton Lance and Drag Down to make those into much better debuffs, Hacker can let Drag Down threaten both HP and Heat, and Feign Death can give one last chance for more cubes. I think Limitless is a weaker option than usual for the Barricade, though, since Mobile Printer is a protocol and thus can’t be used twice via Overcharge.
As an NPC with high reliance on Recharge, getting additional turns from Elite and Ultra is a big boon for the Barricade, and Specialist Kit/Advanced Kit help offset the mandatory feeling of Extrudite. Among the Ultra optionals, Supreme Melee is the only offensive one I find appealing unless I’m also picking up Hellfire Projector or Ravager Turret (between the two, I favor Hellfire Projector for the Barricade, but either one is a big offensive upgrade over Graviton Lance). Lead The Charge can be very interesting as a way of repositioning if you aren’t in a Grapple, but I think the real winners are either Repulsion Field (to make its Grapple more dangerous; best combined with Supreme Melee), Siege Shield (to counter PCs choosing to stay away from the Barricade’s terrain), and Wolfhound Missile (as yet another way for the Barricade to tilt action efficiency in favor of the NPCs).
General Use
Overall, the Barricade is a set-up-based NPC that influences positioning and action efficiency primarily by restricting movement and has gradually increasing impact the more it’s able to shape the terrain to suit its side. It does little in the way of direct damage, but that’s a ploy to keep attention on its allies while it sets up more hard cover, disrupts line of sight, and generally tries finding ways of making the PCs accomplish less on their turns than they could otherwise. This is an NPC that is usually at its best when it can turn the fight into a quagmire and make the players feel like they’re never quite doing enough to get ahead.
Now, the big elephant with the Barricade is that PCs have several ways of dealing with the cubes. Damaging them is mostly an exercise in futility unless using abilities specialized in destroying objects (such as Breaching Charges from Raleigh 1, Unstoppable Force from Juggernaut 3, Sherman’s core power, or most of the Kobold license), though strong AOE attacks (like the Pinaka Missiles from Monarch 3 or the Siege Cannon from Barbarossa 3) can wear through them as a side benefit of their main intents. More simply, though, flying or teleporting can bypass them entirely, or the Intangible effect allows free movement through them, and most PCs that would consider High-Stress Mag Clamps from Death’s Head 1 or the SSC core bonus Kai Bioplating will have the Speed to skip over Size 2 cubes with those. Size 3 or larger PCs can just walk over them, too. The fact that several of these movement options can also let them zip through difficult terrain or move around Titan-Snare Drone (though that’s somewhat less automatic) does little to help matters. Mobile Printer can still be useful against high-mobility PC compositions for its hard cover (assuming the PCs don’t all have Arcing or Seeking weapons) and potential to block line of sight (assuming the PCs aren’t all big enough to simply see over the cubes) as support for long-range allies, but the Barricade’s effectiveness takes a big hit if Graviton Lance and Drag Down are its only meaningful control tools. It’s important to accept that sometimes the Barricade is going to feel like an awkward support mech that is very unlikely to be compensated for with skillful play. And while it’s true that most NPCs do have some hard counter PC builds, the sheer amount of mobility enhancements that PCs broadly have access to can be especially rough for the Barricade (I haven’t even mentioned stuff like Ferrous Lash from Black Witch 1 that can let one PC fling another past the cubes when they’re Immobilized and it’s not even their turn).
That all said, there is some space for the Barricade to use its Size 2 frame and lack of damage to fight back. Grapple and Ram are often more useful for the Barricade against nearby PCs than Graviton Lance, and Mobile Printer being a protocol gives it the advantage of still being entirely usable while the Barricade is holding a fistful of PC. Use the cubes to limit how Size 2 PC mechs can move (because the Barricade is not good at maintaining a Grapple against fair opponents), and use Grapple and Ram to bully anything smaller into a position where they’re Immobilized and giving away free Accuracy to all of the Barricade’s allies joining in on the beatdown. This is even entirely compatible with Realspace Extrusion from the Exotic template, because while the Barricade’s own bulk can’t be used as an obstacle with that trait, it can still Grapple a PC to inflict Immobilized and use their body as an obstacle. If the PCs have a Size 3 mech or something with Synthetic Muscle Netting from Blackbeard 1, though, the Barricade mostly has to accept that its allies will deal with that.
In theory, playing the Barricade is a fairly straightforward affair, though the actual execution is a complex dance that is influenced by the map, the sitrep objectives, the PC builds, and the NPC composition. Before acting at all, you want to identify the closest area of the map where the PCs are likely to move though. Sometimes this is pretty easy, like a sitrep with a single control point (such as Gauntlet), other times it’s a messy mix of knowledge, intuition, and gambling (such as Recon, especially with the way I play that sitrep where whether a zone is the true control zone gets rolled when a PC scans it in order to avoid having my play give any indication of where it is). Get the Barricade there as quickly as possible (including using involuntary movement from allies that can spare the actions for it; the Mirage is great for this) and start using Mobile Printer to create advantageous walls, choke points, and cover. From there, buy time with Graviton Lance, Drag Down, generic Quick Techs, and/or using other systems until Mobile Printer recharges, when you get to print more cubes. There is some nuance in picking targets for Graviton Lance and Drag Down; if you have a read that a nearby PC wants to rush in, it can be worth leaving them alone to let them separate themselves from their backup; but making those predictions is a matter of experience and risk acceptance; but it’s far too reliant on the actual context for me to give much general advice about that. If a PC gets close, use Grapple/Ram to isolate them from their team by breaking line of sight and/or adjacency, and focus them down with whatever damage support the Barricade has while it tries to continue delaying any other PCs.
It may sound simple in words, but pulling that off effectively in practice is not easy. Much like with the Archer, there’s a lot of psychological sparring involved to bait the players into making worse decisions, but unlike the Archer, the Barricade doesn’t have the stats or systems to function as a mini-striker as a backup plan. There will be plenty of times when your cubes seem to either do nothing or end up actively working against you, especially early on, but the long list of ways for the PCs to undermine the cubes means that risk never goes away entirely. Learn from those experiences, try to also identify cases when the cubes do stymie the PCs, and be patient with getting better. The Barricade is not an easy NPC to use well, but when things come together, it can be very rewarding.
As touched on previously, the Barricade’s play is influenced heavily by the sitrep. If the PCs are forced to come to the Barricade (Gauntlet is the best example of this, but something like Escort or Extraction where the Barricade is deployed ahead of where the PCs are going can also fit), it will usually have some time to shape the terrain and be ready to disrupt them. If the PCs are allowed to camp out (like with Holdout), the Barricade will probably be relying more on leading the charge as a damage sponge (ideally with defensive support, whether from template traits like Realspace Extrusion or from ally abilities) while making cover and doing generic Quick Techs. If the PCs are likely to spread out (like in Control or Recon), the Barricade will generally want a high-damage partner and ideally also some artillery with whom it can isolate a target and provide Immobilized, Prone, Impaired, and/or Lock On, though its high Sensors can let it also keep one PC pinned down with Grapple/Ram while tossing tech attacks across the map at others.
Compositions of Note
Regardless of exactly how you want to play the Barricade, Mobile Printer will tend to be something that you want to use often. Even if the PCs have good abilities for dealing with objects, the cubes can still provide cover and often block line of sight, and using protocols in exchange for getting the PCs to spend quick/full actions is usually a winning trade in action efficiency even if the PCs are getting some extra value out of it (like making use of Forge Clamps from Kobold 1 against an NPC composition heavy on involuntary movement). Thus, the Barricade generally wants allies who can ignore line of sight and/or get value out of restricting PC mobility even with reduced line of sight. Good damage output to make up for the Barricade’s weakness in that regard is also usually desired, though a few exceptions exist for that.
Most strikers fit those criteria well. The Ace fly freely over the cubes or just lean on the Seeking tag for its weapons, while being able to Barrel Roll or Rapid Response into hard cover helps keep it safer from retaliation. The Assassin loves having a partner who wants to Grapple and Ram to set up big Heated Blade hits, the Barricade can Invade to help set up its save-based abilities, and either Devil’s Cough Shotgun or Spinning Kick provide the pair with some more positioning control. The Cataphract has plenty of Speed to move around cubes, can drag PCs around with Impale to further separate/isolate them, can punish PCs flying over the cubes with Electrified Bola, and can further confound PC damage potential with its own Resistances via Capacitor Discharge (while also adding its own Heat to any the Barricade might score via Invade). The Lurker thrives when the PCs can’t avoid being funnelled into Shroud Zones and provides more positioning control with its pulls; just mind that Shroud Zones require a free Blast 1 area and Mobile Printer requires a free Size 2 area, so the two abilities can interfere with creating more of either. The Specter also benefits from the Barricade’s ability to set up isolating walls; though this pairing provides a little less direct positioning control since the Barricade can’t Grapple without disabling Hunt, but a Ram and Graviton Lance Skirmish is almost as good for locking a PC in place alone to get ripped up. Really, the only striker that I’d be a little hesitant to use with the Barricade is the Engineer, since having two NPCs that want to spend some time setting up can be vulnerable to being rushed and taken out before they can snowball. However, if you can buy some time via Graviton Lance and Drag Down (and maybe also getting lucky with a quick Recharge of Mobile Printer), they can also compliment each other well with the Engineer’s turrets tending to focus their fire without needing to use Engineer’s Mark just because of the restricted mobility (for PCs) and vision (for the turrets) that the Barricade provides, plus Flak Cannon can punish overeager flyers, and the Engineer’s Shepherd Field makes any adjacent cubes very difficult to destroy.
The Seeder is in a similar spot to the Engineer; there’s a risk of getting wiped out easily if you can’t stall, but if those mines start getting set up, the cube maze can become absolute hell for the PCs, the Barricade can toss around Invades to weaken the PCs’ saves against the mine effects, and Grav Spike brings even more control with a decent helping of AP damage on top; note that the Seeder’s mines explicitly only affect characters, so any cubes are completely safe from Explosive Mines planted next to them. Similar to both the Lurker, the Hive enjoys having someone else funnel PCs into Razor Swarms (though mind the same potential problem of having too much terrain, since Razor Swarm also requires a free Blast 1 area), while its Burn damage helps cover for the Barricade’s lack of offense, especially with both being good at stalling to let those Burn ticks add up, and Grind Maniple puts further pressure on most PC builds to be less efficient with their turns. For defensive sitreps, the Aegis can also be a similar partner, with a faster set-up phase in return for weaker offense; hard cover cubes and the bubble can stack to make an encampment that’s extremely tough to crack, and the Barricade’s fondness for Grapple and Ram can provide anti-melee support if the PCs are on the weak side in that area; though I’d recommend against taking both the Aegis and the Barricade into any sitrep requiring NPC mobility.
As usual, the Mirage is a fantastic teammate, with ample systems to keep its allies alive while the Barricade sets up the cubes, and Glitch Scanners/Blip is great for off-turn repositioning, allowing far more freedom in where Mobile Printer can be used than any other NPC can provide. I’d tend to shy away from other dedicated support NPCs; the Scout suffers greatly from restricted line of sight (even if Expose Weakness could add some damage to the Barricade’s attacks), the Priest is usually best in more aggressive compositions with offensive partners for Investiture to buff, and the Support can have trouble navigating the cubes due to being Size 2. The Demolisher also has the latter problem compounding its abysmal Speed (unless there’s a Mirage in the mix as well).
Joining the list of NPCs that suffer significantly from line of sight issues are the Sniper and the Witch; the Sniper especially hates all of the extra cover that PCs can use to avoid Structure damage from Sniper’s Mark. The Hornet is also a notable bad fit; although it can fly over the cubes and Jammed can help with stalling more, it just has no damage, and the Barricade doesn’t benefit much from Impaired.
To end on a positive, though, aside from the Sniper, artillery NPCs are all pretty great with the Barricade. The Bombard can just shoot over the cubes, with a large AOE to further punish PCs who aren’t able to split up much from all of the Slowed and terrain that the Barricade dishes out (plus it can be a no-win situation if Drag Down is also dealing damage to them for moving), and objects count as targets for triggering Cluster Munitions; just avoid Bunker Buster for the obvious anti-synergy. On the other hand, the Rainmaker likes having a partner with high Sensors who can hand out Lock On to trigger Huntsman, the combination of Drag Down and Atlas Missiles can set up no-win situations, and the Barricade is great for funnelling PCs into Javelin Rockets (especially with Endless Rain to place them more liberally) and/or making it hard to escape from Hound Missiles; keep in mind that Hound Missiles doesn’t navigate around terrain like the Ultra’s Wolfhound Missile, though, so you’ll want to Grapple or Ram someone into it rather than trying to send it through a cube maze. The Operator can teleport on top of the cubes (or other terrain) to get clear shots, then teleport back into cover for protection, with either Fade Generator and/or Skirmisher making that tactic even better, and Nova Missiles can provide supplementary damage with Seeking to ignore the cubes. And while it’s not a traditional artillery NPC, the Spite is a Size 2 (and thus can look over a cube while still benefiting from its cover) who doesn’t mind staying in one place and cooking the PCs with Imprison and Seize, can pull attacks away from the Barricade via Crush Targeting, and enables the Barricade do damage reliably with Drag Down due to how Imprison works (plus an initial Invade by the Barricade can both get the Heat train started and help Imprison land even more often); it’s one of the few pairings that can do a lot of damage despite not really using their weapons.
Comments