Balancing against a Retainer

[SuperSheep]

It seems not too difficult to get a Retainer up to crazy stats. Either by starting with a good undead minion or with a flesh construct with decent stats.

So ending up with a 4/4/4/4 or 5/5/5/5 spread by the end of Retainer, now you're looking at 15 or 16 Df/Wp (4-5 aspect + 2 base + 9 rank [henchman])  values making them more or less immune to all but the nastiest attackers.

First, am I reading that correctly? Second, any ideas on balancing against that? I know there are other crazy advanced pursuits, but this is the one I'm looking at now.

[Ebb]

It seems to be correct, as for balance... If it's causing a problem, then the only things that come to mind are to find more ways to attack the character controlling the Retainer (Pulses, pushes, etc), or if it's really untenable perhaps a house rule to the effect of:

"Subordinate characters of Henchmen rank or higher flip cards outside of their turn as if they were Fated, their controlling character may cheat flips for them"

[Nikshe]

Well, the Fated should be a good necromancer to become a Revivalist. He should survive the Guild's chase, live in the Quarantine Zone and find  some good body to raise. And all other Fated should help him. I see it as an interesting story of desperate dark souls. And that is the point of role-playing, making an interesting story, isn't it?

I mean, TTB concept is about accepting or denying  your Fate. If your Fated story lead them to became dangerous necromancers with a Big Bad Corpse - let them be. If they will be too impudent, let Lady J handle the situation.

[Bakuriel]

Bear in mind that when acting on behalf of a fated via order or other methods, subordinate characters flip as if the controlling player was acting. When not being commanded, the subordinate character just stands around doing nothing, and thus gets static flips like a regular FMC.

[SuperSheep]

RAW, yes they flip as non-fated. The issue is that a Df/Wp of 7 with a bonus of 9 leaves you with a sixteen. That leaves you immune to just about all non-henchmen and up. There are a few enforcers that can hit that, but it would be rare.

[LeperColony]

On 2/3/2019 at 6:37 PM, oadrian said:

RAW, yes they flip as non-fated. The issue is that a Df/Wp of 7 with a bonus of 9 leaves you with a sixteen. That leaves you immune to just about all non-henchmen and up. There are a few enforcers that can hit that, but it would be rare.

Yeah, static TNs do not make them weaker.  If they have a high TN it not only makes them strong against effective opposition, but it makes low AV values almost, or even actually, worthless.

But then again, this is an issue with the entire fixed TN system.