Lancer NPC - Bastion
Core Detail Overview
Stats
The Bastion is described by the book as a beefy bodyguard, but its stats seem like a mixed bag for that role. High Hull, Engineering, and Armor all makes sense, but it has low HP, Agility, Sensors, and Save Target; average Speed and Heat Cap, and its Systems, Evasion, and E-Defense start out below average and then end up even worse (relatively) in Tiers 2 and 3. The end result is an NPC that’s good at absorbing small hits that can’t bypass Armor, passing Burn checks (though suffering from the initial Burn damage), and resisting most forced movement (assuming there’s a non-Agility save or check involved) or breaking out of Grapples, but it’s terrible against any large hits (a single superheavy or heavy+main Barrage can have a good chance to take it out without Resistance, even with LL0 PCs) or AP damage, susceptible to tech attacks, unlikely to save against AOE damaging effects, and bad at using both tech attacks and save-based abilities (not that it has any of the latter, but picking any up from templates won’t tend to work out well). Some of this gets patched up with its systems, being Size 2 gives it some support capacity with Grapple/Ram, and certain templates can go a long way towards improving it as well, but as a foundation, a bodyguard that’s fairly easy to destroy or disable by general NPC standards, let alone defender standards, is an odd start.
Base Systems
Rotary Grenade Launcher may be the worst NPC weapon in the game; I’d say it is the absolute worst among base systems, but there are a couple of pretty bad optional ones that give it competition for the overall title. The numbers are an exact copy of the Assault’s Underslung Grenade Launcher except for having a smaller AOE at only Blast 1 (reducing its target area by 14 squares or 12 hexes). However, the Assault can get away with using that as a situational option while relying primarily on its generally-much-better Heavy Assault Rifle. The Bastion has a glorified Ram that deals some damage instead of causing Prone as its other weapon, so this is all it gets for ranged combat, a low-damage weapon with no extra effects that’s saddled with Loading. Now, granted, the Bastion has bad Sensors and only one non-reaction system that has an action cost (and it’s an optional), so it can have the action flexibility to Stabilize without much opportunity cost, but that still leaves it with an average Skirmish damage per turn on the same level as the Barricade or the Hornet, which are NPCs that have a tech attack pretending to be a weapon. Unless a PC is at low enough HP for this to deal Structure damage, the best thing you can hope for from this is destroying a drone (and a more realistic goal is just damaging one for another NPC to finish off). Again, the Bastion has action flexibility, so you’ll find a chance to take a shot at some point, but then this is generally best forgotten.
Heavy Assault Shield is also a pretty bad weapon, but at least Knockback gives it some utility use, and if you’ve already got a target Prone and Grappled, smacking them with this (and declining to inflict the Knockback) can do some damage without much downside. It’s not much damage (the same single-target damage as Rotary Grenade Launcher, +/-1 depending on the Tier), but at least it isn’t Loading, so you can actually use it every turn if you wanted to. You probably won’t, because Grapple, Ram, and Lock On are going to be more useful things to do in melee most of the time, but if you really are somehow engaged with the same PC for multiple rounds and don’t have any weapons or systems from templates to help with that, using this weapon can be better than doing nothing.
Friendly Interdiction is where the Bastion finally gets something worthwhile. This grants Resistance to all damage from one PC (or one drone, but that’s mostly a bad idea), as a protocol, only requiring line of sight when used, and it even grants the same to an adjacent ally for as long as they can stay next to the Bastion. While this doesn’t have the save bonus and irreducible damage of the Assassin’s Mark, it only takes a protocol to use instead of a quick action and the Bastion can change who the Resistance is against and/or which adjacent ally also gets the benefits freely by using another protocol, so the Bastion can regularly adapt to the greatest threat its facing (which can be even better as an Elite or Ultra getting to adjust this on multiple turns per round). With this effectively doubling the Bastion’s HP in theory, it goes from having to fear a single chunky Barrage to usually being able to survive one and maybe even two with lucky rolls. That said, this only works against a single PC, so describing the effect as I just did is an exaggeration of its practical impact, which is usually just to make that one PC attack someone else while another focuses on the Bastion (or more likely on its protected ally, since the Bastion itself isn’t an offensive threat by default). Thus, if the PCs are in a cluster, this isn’t likely to be much more than a mild inconvenience. However, if the PCs are split up and the Bastion is facing only one or two of them instead of their whole team, this does actually become good at making it tanky, especially considering it’s only a protocol to use; even better if the Bastion is adjacent to a high-value ally who doesn’t need to move much to be effective (this will be a common theme for the Bastion). Needing to have line of sight to pick which PC this works against when it can only be used as a protocol can be limiting, but otherwise, this is one of the main defining abilities for the Bastion, and it’s a big piece of what makes the Bastion one of the best users of the Transport trait from the Ship and Vehicle templates.
Guardian is a simple trait, working exactly the same as it does for PCs, but with the Bastion having several abilities that work on adjacent allies and an optional reaction that lets it move, it’s a nice bonus to have. Since the Bastion presents one of the lowest offensive threats of any NPC, players will generally choose to ignore it in favor of focusing on its allies. Being able to grant them hard cover just by standing between them and their attacker is often good. It’s got all the usual limitations of cover (applying only to ranged attacks that aren’t Arcing/Seeking, can be negated by moving, etc.), of course, but still, this works better on the Bastion than it does on other NPCs that can use it; the Aegis and the Sentinel are only Size 1 by default and thus easier to move around, the Goliath usually wants to be targeted over its allies, and the Spite is too slow (and Immobilized too frequently) to consistently stay between its allies and the PCs without help (either from terrain or allies).
Optional Systems
Near-Threat Denial System is a decent system that unfortunately tends to be a bad fit for the Bastion. The PCs are usually going to ignore the Bastion in favor of attacking its allies already; giving them more reasons to not attack the Bastion just makes that more likely with no real downside. Now, if someone is stuck next to the Bastion (due to a Grapple, for instance), they might decide to just attack it and end up getting a faceful of AP damage for that, but that’s something which usually doesn’t happen more than once per combat because the other PCs aren’t going to just stand around watching a one-on-one deathmatch. If this worked when someone attacked an adjacent ally, it’d actually be useful, but as it is, even Rotary Grenade Launcher is more likely to contribute meaningfully to a fight than this.
Siege Guardian deals with the most obvious issue from staying adjacent to allies. On the plus side, this doesn’t require benefiting from cover, so even attacks that ignore that will still be reduced by this Resistance if they use an AOE template. It’s also notable that this is not restricted to ranged attacks; melee attacks with an AOE template (like the Impact Lance from Vlad 1) also get resisted, as would AOE template tech attacks (I can’t think of any that deal damage in official Lancer content, but it can potentially be something I’m unaware of or a homebrew idea). If the Bastion happens to be adjacent to more than one ally (which can include drones), they all get to benefit from this, unlike Friendly Interdiction or the other protective optional systems. Do note that this does not protect the Bastion itself, though, nor does it protect against multi-target abilities that don’t use an AOE template (like the Avenger Silos frame trait for Monarch) or AOE damage that isn’t an attack (like grenades). This is another system that makes the Bastion great at using Transport, but I find myself having a hard time picking it over Pause Engine or Fearless Defender because they’re usually even better at that on top of their other uses. For a non-Transport Bastion, though, I find this roughly on even ground with Fearless Defender, assuming the PCs are using some AOE primary weapons.
Pause Engine is far and away the strongest optional system for the Bastion. Complete Immunity to all damage is even better protection than the Trueblack Aegis core power from Napoleon because it isn’t reducing damage (and thus capable of being bypassed by effects that mandate an attack’s damage cannot be reduced), it’s unambiguously stopping the damage from happening at all. The only thing that can get through Immunity is Ushabti Omnigun from Pegasus, since it doesn’t deal damage, it just decides the target is damaged and makes that into reality. On top of that, complete Immunity to all effects means that there is no way for the PCs to force the protected ally to break adjacency with the Bastion, so it is guaranteed to keep this effect all the way until the Bastion’s next turn. And Pause Engine is somehow amazingly only Recharge 5+ instead of 6+ or Limited 1. Because of how turn order works in Lancer, there is never a good reason for this to not grant the ally two full turns of complete invincibility, or even more if it is an Elite or Ultra. As if that all wasn’t great enough already, the downside isn’t even that bad and has ways of being mitigated if not outright negated. In its most straightforward use, the Bastion acts before its protected ally in a given round and activates Pause Engine. The protected ally has its first invincible turn in that first round, then goes before the Bastion again in the second round for its second invincible turn. The Bastion waits as long as possible (ideally after all of the PCs have acted) to have its turn in the second round, becoming Stunned. In the third round, after one PC turn, the Bastion goes again, clearing the Stunned effect at the start of its turn and thus still getting to act however it wants, including potentially using Pause Engine again if it hit the Recharge (which, since it will get to roll to Recharge on both the Stunned turn and the turn where it can act again, there’s about a 30% chance for the Bastion to be able to Pause Engine again immediately). If you want to make this even less risky, a Support with Empowered Cloud can nullify the downside by standing next to the Bastion before its second turn; Stunned happens, then the Bastion gets to clear one condition, which can be Stunned, allowing its turn to proceed as normal. Or, if you want an even more guaranteed option (which I’d usually suggest since using the Bastion and the Support means the NPCs are iceskating uphill to do any damage), use templates; a Ship Bastion is immune to Stunned thanks to the Flier trait (and the Bastion is a great Ship already because being Size 4 and having more HP both help it a lot, while Transport has all of its usual synergy), and an Ultra Bastion can clear one condition for free at the start of its turn via the Juggernaut trait to self-cleanse the Stunned (and, if you’re even too risk adverse for that because you might want to cleanse something else, an Ultra with Superior Reactor is outright immune to Stunned, though I think it’s overkill at that point). Granted, using Pause Engine with an Ultra Bastion does add a little turn sequencing complexity in order to maximize its value and can dissuade the immediate reactivation since it would still end on the Bastion’s next turn, not its first turn of the next round, but in any case, that’s all just putting the Bastion back in the same position (being able to reuse Pause Engine with potentially just one PC turn in between if it gets a lucky Recharge). I think this is the single strongest defensive ability for any character (PC or NPC) in all of Lancer, and considering most combats have only three or four key rounds while the rest are either preparation or cleanup, being able to give an ally almost two whole rounds of invincibility can completely turn a fight by itself, to say nothing of being able to pop this near the end of a control point-based sitrep to have two NPCs on the point that are immune to everything. Oh, and I didn’t even point out yet that this doesn’t have any interaction with Friendly Interdiction, so that Resistance will still be up (potentially on another ally as well) even while the Bastion is Stunned, if you don’t want to negate that downside. Pause Engine is the main reason to use the Bastion. That all said, there is some counterplay to it. For one thing, Pause Engine doesn’t end effects on the Bastion or its protected ally from before it was activated. If the Bastion or its ally is being saddled with debuff effects that wouldn’t end while their invincible turns happen, the Immunity would suppress them temporarily, but they’d kick in again as soon as Pause Engine ends. For another, even if the Bastion has Immunity to Stunned and gets the Recharge on its turn when Pause Engine ends, there is a gap of time between starting its turn and activating the system that is enough for the PCs to strike with Prepare, on either the Bastion or its ally. Third, depending on the sitrep, the PCs may be able to simply back off and divert their attention elsewhere while Pause Engine is in effect, especially if the protected ally would struggle to anything meaningful without breaking adjacency. Even with how powerful Pause Engine is (and as I said before, I think it’s the single strongest defensive ability in the game), it can’t win a fight on its own; it will temporarily force the PCs to find answers that aren’t just trying to maximize their damage output every turn, but those answers do exist.
Fearless Defender is a good ability that mostly suffers by contrast of not being Pause Engine. The Bastion is very likely to be the least offensively-threatening member of any NPC composition it’s in, so having it take damage in place of an ally is usually a winning trade for the NPCs. There are some important things to pay attention to with the mechanics of this. The trigger only requires that the ally takes damage, not that they take damage from an attack, so this can be used to redirect non-attack damage such as grenades, but it would not be usable against a tech attack that inflicts only Heat and/or other non-damage effects. Second, the Bastion only takes the damage in place of the initial target; being able to redirect other effects (like becoming Shredded from a critical hit by the Chain Axe from Blackbeard 1) is not included as-written, which can get really weird with situations like the Bastion taking the Energy and Burn damage but the initial target taking the Heat from being hit by a Cutter MkII Plasma Torch from Lancaster 3. As strange as that can be, I think it’s an important part of Fearless Defender’s mechanics because the Bastion is technically never attacked or hit when it uses this reaction, which brings me to the next important thing that taking damage from Fearless Defender does not trigger Near-Threat Denial System or Deathcounter because both of those explicitly require the Bastion to be attacked. Fourth, there are no requirements about how the Bastion uses the movement other than that it needs to end up in adjacent to the ally; this gives some freedom in trying to still maintain Friendly Interdiction or Pause Engine on another ally, or in trying to position for Guardian to grant its hard cover from the best direction, or in just using this reaction as a way to move the Bastion into a better position (maybe a spot where it can have line of sight on the PC it wants to use its next Friendly Interdiction on, for instance). Lastly, doing some movement to an adjacent space is a clear requirement for this reaction, even if the Bastion is already adjacent to the targeted ally. Aside from the risk of triggering reactions like overwatch (since there is no clause about the movement not provoking reactions), this can also potentially force the Bastion into a hazard like a mine or even deny being able to use Fearless Defender if it is completely unable to move to a valid space (which I interpret as qualifying as “otherwise cannot move” in this context). Having gone through all of that mechanical complexity, overall, I think this is competitive with Siege Guardian for being my favorite Bastion optional aside from Pause Engine. Ultimately, the Bastion contributes to fights by keeping its allies alive, and taking damage in their place is a solid way of doing that, particularly while buying time for Pause Engine to recharge. The Bastion does still get to benefit from Armor and Resistance (such as from Friendly Interdiction) when it uses this, too, and off-turn repositioning is generally a useful option to have, even with the restrictions Fearless Defender has for its movement. This is great to use with Transport since the Bastion is always adjacent to any allies riding on it, they won’t need to worry about reactions being disabled by Grapple, and just having the option to take a big hit in place of an ally can mess with player decision-making. For a non-Transport Bastion, assuming the PCs have a typical mix of single-target and AOE weapons, I do slightly prefer Siege Guardian because of the conflict Fearless Defender has with Grapple and the reaction being limited to once per round; that said, Fearless Defender is more reliable because it’s not dependent on what the PCs choose to attack with.
Deathcounter has some of the same problem as Near-Threat Denial System, in that the Bastion is already a low-priority target most of the time, so having something that punishes the players for attacking it isn’t likely to have much impact, especially if the players figure out that this is easily neutralized by just tapping the Bastion with a weak weapon first before committing to blowing it up when they do want to give it attention. In the majority of cases, having the Bastion take damage is better having an ally take it; even if that means the Bastion gets destroyed before it can use Pause Engine, that’s still a better for the NPCs than having the ally it would’ve used that on die first, because a Bastion that has no allies left standing is almost always a worse situation for the NPCs as a whole than an ally that no longer has the Bastion’s protection. Granted, there are some exceptions (mostly in the form of using templates to give the Bastion some actual offense), and Deathcounter can be worth considering in those cases, but this is often just an ability that encourages the players to do what the NPCs don’t want them to do. That all said, I run Lancer with a high degree of information transparency, so it is a low hurdle for players to learn the mechanics for this; if you run it in a more opaque way, you may get more value from Deathcounter than I am giving it credit for.
Templates Overview
It should go without saying that Grunt is a terrible template for the Bastion. Sure, its high Armor can let it survive hits that get reduced to 0 damage, but a single Fragment Signal will still blow it up. In theory, having a Grunt Bastion horde to spam Pause Engine might sound good, but with their lackluster E-Defense, they’re likely to all end up toasted before they can even use it once and certainly before they can use it twice. If you want a minion-feeling Bastion, RPV is far better. Their Armor (and Resistance from Friendly Interdiction) stretches out the value of Bonus HP while that also makes Fearless Defender a bit less risky, and being Impaired isn’t so bad for a unit that is mostly attacking in a supportive way; particularly, if you’re using Pause Engine, there’s a decent chance the Bastion will never make a roll where Impaired matters.
As an NPC with bad damage output, Exotic can be attractive for Realspace Extrusion, but it’s not as big of a deal on the Bastion as on other support/utility NPCs because of Friendly Interdiction. Note that Guardian and Siege Guardian are still entirely functional while incorporeal, and being able to overlap other characters also stops the PCs from body blocking against Fearless Defender, plus its universal Resistance would allow using Friendly Interdiction exclusively to support allies, so Realspace Extrusion still has benefits. More than that, though, I like Blinkspace Carver to make Fearless Defender more versatile, Chronotorus as an alternative reaction that’s always useful, and/or Regenerator to pressure the PCs into committing when they start to damage the Bastion, lest whatever scratches get through be healed away (which has further synergy with Pause Engine guaranteeing the Bastion recovers half of its health if used well and not accounted for by the PCs). On the other hand, Pirate lets the Bastion be more offensive with Boarding Leash giving it a decent weapon that can also initiate a Grapple from range (though don’t expect it to work often, as a Hull save using the Bastion’s bad Save Target), and the Bastion is a good user of Coreworm Rockets due to its flexible action availability outside of Pause Engine. I don’t like Mercenary on the Bastion, since all of the extra Accuracy isn’t worth much on an NPC that’s bad at attacking and Last Word mandates moving your full Speed when it triggers, making it likely to break adjacency from an ally you’re trying to protect. Spacer doesn’t bring much, either, although the Bastion is among the best users of Concussion Gun (due to the low opportunity cost of having it do an attack with no damage because that’s not much less than the Bastion’s other weapons) and Maneuverable can keep Fearless Defender from being automatically disabled in zero-G (though that’s obviously situational).
Appropriately for its lore, the Commander template is a nice fit for the Bastion; Voice of Authority can compliment Fearless Defender as a second supportive reaction (especially if used mainly on ally turns to avoid most conflicts between them), Military Discipline is free universal Accuracy for any ally doing what the Bastion typically wants them to do (standing next to it), and Quick March can help an ally get into adjacency on top of its general use for repositioning. Press The Attack is typically bad, though since it only requires an attack, it could be used for a Grapple or Ram. Veteran, on the other hand, has surprisingly low benefit compared to most NPCs; Feign Death can potentially let the Bastion hold on for one more Pause Engine, and Self Repair can be useful to stall between Pause Engine uses or to heal after Feign Death, but that’s about it. Steel Jaw is mostly useless with the Bastion’s high Armor (except against AP aux weapons), Shock Armor doesn’t stack with Friendly Interdiction, Slippery doesn’t work with Fearless Defender because it’s explicitly for standard moves, Acrobat technically does but would mostly go unneeded for that purpose because Fearless Defender naturally limits how far the Bastion can move, Limitless isn’t very useful when your best actions are a protocol (Friendly Interdiction) and a full action (Pause Engine), Lightning Reflexes discourages PCs from attacking the Bastion with heavy or superheavy weapons (which, as I’ve said repeatedly, the Bastion usually wants to be a target), and the offensive stuff is mostly wasted with bad weapons and low Sensors.
I don’t like Elite on the Bastion, either, because although getting twice as many turns for Pause Engine to Recharge is good, the extra turns when it’s not available would be used better by nearly any other NPC, and Elite doesn’t grant the extra reactions that Ultra does.
Speaking of which, despite how awkward Elite and Veteran could be, Ultra actually does have some interesting uses. Taking an Ultra weapon and/or the combination of Repulsion Field and Supreme Melee can make the Bastion an offensive threat, and its natural bulk can justify picking further offensive abilities (like Devastator or Sight), though Superior Frame is a good choice if the PCs can caused Shredded since the Bastion relies on Armor and Resistance. Supreme Maintenance can enable the Rotary Grenade Launcher as a primary weapon, if you’re hesitant to use the Ultra weapons, which isn’t a great choice but at least turns that weapon into a slightly worse version of the Ace’s Missile Launcher. Unstoppable is an obvious choice for helping maintain adjacency to its allies, though of course it does nothing to protect any of them from involuntary movement.
As I’ve mentioned a number of times, the Bastion makes for a good Transport, given how many of its abilities benefit adjacent allies on top of the Bastion itself being Size 2 and average Speed, so Ship and Vehicle can both work well with it. However, keep in mind that those both disallow using any melee attacks except for Ram, so that means no more Heavy Assault Shield (small loss outside of Tier 3) or Grapple (much bigger loss). This makes the Transport Bastion play in a fairly different way from the mech version, where it often wants to run away while carrying a friend capable of long-range combat and using Friendly Interdiction against the PCs’ artillery.
General Use
Overall, the Bastion is a wall of armor who contributes to combat by protecting its allies (usually one in particular) and relying on general options to control the PCs. While not the absolute toughest NPC by raw numbers (it’s outclassed pretty directly by the Pyro in that regard, and I’d argue that the Demolisher, Goliath, and Spite are also generally more durable by stats), Friendly Interdiction can significantly boost its staying power if it’s only being engaged by one or two PCs, and Pause Engine is the ultimate defensive ability. And even if those measures fail, if the Bastion soaked up damage instead of its allies, that usually means it was doing its job. Aside from some exceptional cases, the Bastion should not be surviving longer than its allies if it having a positive impact on a fight.
How the Bastion is best used depends on the rest of the NPC composition (as well as how the PCs play), but speaking broadly, it usually wants either to be on the front to support close-range NPCs with Grapple, Ram, and Lock On or to hang back with mid/long-range NPCs and rely on Guardian, Siege Guardian, and Fearless Defender to protect them until a PC gets close enough to engage. In either case, since Friendly Interdiction and Pause Engine both only work on one ally, the Bastion will usually want a main baby to bodyguard, though with Guardian, Siege Guardian, and/or Fearless Defender, it can give some help to others. The forward style of Bastion usually feels better to play, because its low Sensors, bad ranged weapon, and lack of abilities requiring quick/full actions aside from Pause Engine mean that having it guard something like the Rainmaker or Witch can often leave it with nothing to do on its turn, but if the PCs are avoiding a dangerous NPC because of the Bastion standing next to it, that’s usually a good thing overall for the NPCs. Just use a quick action to Prepare something and consider it a good turn.
As mentioned at the end of the templates section, a Vehicle Transport Bastion is its own, fairly different style. On the surface, it can seem similar to the long-range Bastion, but because it doesn’t need to worry about breaking adjacency with its rider, it ends up with much more freedom to move around, with the ideal case usually being to move next to a Size 3+ object and then Prepare to Boost into cover after the rider takes an action (if the rider would have a spare quick action to Hide) or ends its turn. While the Bastion is still mostly dedicated to protecting its ally when played like this, it gets to actually do more on its turns and opens up some strategic complexity of using the Bastion’s turns for movement to set up its rider to take actions without moving on their turn. I wanted to at least say a little about that because the Bastion is one of the best NPCs for the Vehicle template, being big enough to carry a wide variety of allies, fast enough to often match or exceed their Speed, slow enough that Limited Handling can usually be accommodated without feeling wasteful, and inactive enough on its own turns that dedicating it to being a taxi doesn’t feel too wasteful, on top of having a suite of abilities for supporting an adjacent ally. It all comes together to be rather reminiscent of the IFV from Red Alert 2.
Playing the Bastion is fairly straightforward. Aside from keeping up Friendly Interdiction and being mindful of how it moves to maintain adjacency (either using Grapple to pull an ally with it or using Prepare to Boost for a little scoot after the ally moves are the most typical tricks for this), the Bastion mostly wants to stand wherever is good for its ally and, if it has its best optional, use Pause Engine as much as it can. Templates can add more, and of course the actual context of its turn can change things, but on its own, it doesn’t have much in the way of difficult decisions to make for its actions because most of its abilities are passive or a protocol. The toughest part is understanding when it’s worthwhile to break adjacency for a moment and then reestablish Friendly Interdiction on the next turn, which is largely a matter of judgment and experience. Beyond that and some magnification of the typical considerations of turn sequencing, the Bastion is about as simple an NPC as there is to actually use.
Friendly Interdiction becomes stronger as there are fewer PCs who can juggle their offense to get around it, so in terms of sitreps, the Bastion is usually at its best when the PCs are pressured to split up (like Control or Recon) so that it can anchor a mini-team on one side while the rest of the NPCs focus on the other side. Excepting that, I find it’s usually more consistent at deterring fire towards long-range NPCs than at supporting on the front because there are fewer chances for bad dice luck to mess that up, so any sitrep that’s good for artillery NPCs who would like an extra shield while they sit still and bomb away is one where the Bastion can be that extra shield (like Gauntlet or Holdout). Having a number of abilities that rely on adjacency, with the best two requiring active reuse to establish them again on the ally if adjacency is broken, means that the Bastion’s movement options in practice are often more limited than its Speed would suggest, so it tends to be subpar in sitreps that reward mobility (like Escort). That said, it can do better on those if the rest of the NPC composition has relatively durable units (like the Archer or the Breacher) who don’t need constant protection from Friendly Interdiction to avoid getting wiped out quickly, and a Transport Bastion is much more comfortable being mobile.
Compositions of Note
Given how little damage it can do and how most of its abilities are about protecting allies, the Bastion is very reliant on the other NPCs to actually bring enough threat for its defensive strengths to matter. If that ally is also squishy enough to benefit from the Bastion’s protection, all the better.
Artillery NPCs tend to fit that profile, and the Bastion does work well with most of them. The Rainmaker exerts a lot of pressure naturally, with long range Arcing attacks that also work well from on top of a Vehicle (especially if the PCs also have to worry about avoiding incoming Hound Missiles), and Javelin Rockets can set up spots for the Bastion to Grapple or Ram PCs into for more damage. The Sniper appreciates having someone else move it around (either via Transport or just Grapple movement) to get sight on a target without losing a chance to use its Ordnance weapon. The Strider fills a similar fit while using Marksman Kit, and Siege Kit gives it immunity to involuntary movement to help it stay adjacent to the Bastion. The Bombard can be more of an awkward fit since Siege Armor covers much of the value of Friendly Interdiction, but the latter still protects against damage that isn’t from attacks or that originated close enough to bypass Siege Armor, and there’s also a fun synergy with the Bastion and an ally being protected by Pause Engine but still counting as additional targets for triggering Cluster Munitions.
Curiously, I find that controller NPCs don’t tend to benefit nearly as much, aside from the Archer (which is more of a striker/controller hybrid) and the Witch (which is basically a tech attack artillery). The Barricade’s Mobile Printer can interfere with being able to use Fearless Defender, along with it also both having low damage (aside from Drag Down) and being Size 2 (thus being unable to ride on a Vehicle Bastion). The Hive is already fairly tough and usually prefers Size 1 allies to give it more freedom in placing Razor Swarms. The Hornet and Seeder both want to move around a lot, to maintain overwatch threat and to obfuscate where they’re placing mines, respectively, and they also run into the problem of being another NPC with low damage.
For a close/mid-range Bastion, about half of the strikers work well as allies. The Assassin loves having a Size 2 friend to Grapple/Ram to set up Heated Blades, plus Friendly Interdiction and Pause Engine can cover its defenses enough to let it be more aggressive with Assassin’s Mark. The Breacher and Ronin benefit greatly from an ally able to inflict Prone for them, and their high damage output when they hit (for the Breacher) or critical (for the Ronin) are good at covering for the Bastion’s low damage. For a defensive sitrep, the Engineer can set up turrets at a key location that can benefit from Guardian, Siege Guardian, and Fearless Defender (and theoretically also Friendly Interdiction and Pause Engine, although I can’t imagine much argument for using those on a turret instead of the Engineer itself). Because the Bastion likes to Grapple, it can be decent at holding a PC in place for the Scourer to Focus Down, and Flash Lens can offer some supplementary defense between Pause Engine uses. That said, most of the others clash with the Bastion; the Ace has many good abilities that require movement and thus is unlikely to stay adjacent, the Berserker’s Aggression makes it a liability to stay adjacent, the Cataphract wants to move a lot to drag around its target of choice and also suffers if it can’t Trample clustered enemies, and the Specter can have a hard time setting up Hunt while there’s a Size 2 puffball that the PCs can crowd around. The Avenger can seem like a good ally because the Bastion can make for a good sacrifice to trigger Revenge, but in practice, PCs will tend to figure out that focusing on the Avenger first and then cleaning up the Bastion makes the pairing relatively easy to disrupt.
Defenders mostly don’t do well with the Bastion, either. The Demolisher is plenty tough on its own and struggles to move with Size 2 blocking it, and likewise for the Goliath and the Pyro. The Sentinel usually wants to be mobile for threatening overwatch on multiple PCs with Eye of Midnight, and Bodyguard is largely wasted on the Bastion, plus Pause Engine would conflict with putting Bodyguard on the Bastion’s baby because the PCs just won’t attack it.
Supports are a mixed bag, mostly from collectively suffering from a lack of damage, so the rest of the NPC composition needs strong offense to work well. The Aegis can be interesting; a Vehicle Bastion driving around the Aegis while Defense Net is active is a mobile fortress that can still fit in another Size 1/2 (like the Witch) while the Aegis is tough enough to not need the Bastion’s help beyond the automatic Guardian and Siege Guardian, but even a mech Bastion can be good for dragging the Aegis around while it’s Immobilized and providing further protection inside the Defense Net. The Mirage can be a worthwhile baby and is amazing at supporting most NPCs, though it doesn’t do much for the Bastion in particular aside from granting Invisibility. I don’t typically like the Priest or the Scout as allies for the Bastion, but they have some notable exceptions. The Priest is a good rider for a Vehicle Bastion because it can use Investiture on another Size 1 rider benefiting from Friendly Interdiction while protecting itself with Dispersal Shield (or vice versa); just mind that Pause Engine will suppress Investiture as-written because its effect immunity doesn’t discriminate between helpful or harmful. The Scout, on the other hand, goes a long way towards enabling a Pirate/Ultra Bastion to be unexpectedly potent with Spotter (to double-down on benefits from adjacency, flowing towards the Bastion this time) and Expose Weakness (to add damage to Grapple/Ram); it’s a gimmicky pairing, but it can make for a nice surprise to players who’re used to taking out primary damage-dealers first.
Comments