State of England in the opening salvos of the Minion War...

[Alrik Vas]

The numbers and training to get the job done vs supernatural horrors?

[Axelmania]

Zazshan is also a supernatural horror. He has the ability to animate dead bodies with essence fragments. If any knight of camelot ever died and Merlin's forces were able to cover it up, he could in theory bring them back as a lesser entity like a Nexus Knight or a greater entity like Merlin/Lady/Gwen. He's also got earth elementals guarding camelot, who knows what the limit on using them is?

[Alrik Vas]

Usually PPE, range, that sort of limit is pretty normal.

[eliakon]

Don't forget that as an Alien Intelligence he has all Prototypical Deific powers now.
AND that he can make witches (and possibly other forms of the various "granted powers" sorts of people.
Remember AIs are not just 'a blob with bigger stats' They have a fundamental qualitative difference.

[Alrik Vas]

Gottav stretch those tentacles to get an extra 50ft range on that Call Lightning after all.

[Axelmania]

Don't forget that as an Alien Intelligence he has all Prototypical Deific powers now.

Just because that's part of the alternate template in Dragons and Gods doesn't mean it applies to all AIs.

[eliakon]

Don't forget that as an Alien Intelligence he has all Prototypical Deific powers now.

Just because that's part of the alternate template in Dragons and Gods doesn't mean it applies to all AIs.

When they brought the powers over to exist in Rifts then yes the all Alien Intelligences have these powers bit applies to all of them.... So unless there is text excluding him from having the normal abilities of being an AI, then he has all of the abilities of an AI. All of them.

[Axelmania]

I don't see why deific powers existing in Rifts means we should retroactively give them to beings listed without them. A good example would be how the Russian Gods only had a few of them, even though the standard in Dragons and Gods was that everyone could do everything.

Being the normal powers of the random template is not the power of all AIs. The template does not dictate the abilities of "race" AIs like Vampires, Zllyphan, Splugorth or Space Hive Queens.

The page 70 stuff is just a general way to create generic alien intelligences. While page 73 says most alien intelligences have the full range of all prototypical deific powers at standard cost, we do not know that the race AIs or any AIs in particular are part of that most. They may be part of the AIs who lack them. Until we're explicitly told they have them it would be an optional GM decision to impart added abilities.

Just looking at the AI race templates versus the general template:
*Zllyphan can roll MA 13, minimum on generic is 14
*Zllyphan are beautiful, generics are ugly
*Zllyphan have no applicable strength/agility/endurance (so much for magic saves, enjoy your pathetic +2 Zazshan, keep that invulnerability up)
*Vampires can be Spd 2, Splugorth can be Spd 10, generics are minimum 20

Not being constructed from the template we can't apply template assumptions to them

[HWalsh]

While I agree, the demons aren't a threat by and large, they are able to do some damage if they use guerrilla tactics.

They'd need a low key Hell Pit, one that's not easily reached, and some way to pop large numbers of Forces in and out. Like someone who can open a portal for others.

So, fighting the CS for example, it would be:

1. Get your transporter into Chi-Town.
2. Get them near a section of wealthy civilians.
3. Pop the portal and send in 1,000 troops.
4. Those 1,000 troops kill as many soft targets as possible in a 1 minute period. (4 melee rounds)
5. Teleport the force back out.
6. Assuming your teleporter isn't uncovered, move to a new location and repeat steps 3-6.

Even then, assuming each member of your 1000 denizen strike team can kill 3 people per 15 second round. Which is fair assuming MDC vs unarmored SDC non-combat persons. Each "Terror Attack Death Raid" is only worth 12,000 kills.

Yes it'd be scary but a small nuke is easier to use and much more effective.

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

While I agree, the demons aren't a threat by and large, they are able to do some damage if they use guerrilla tactics.

They'd need a low key Hell Pit, one that's not easily reached, and some way to pop large numbers of Forces in and out. Like someone who can open a portal for others.

So, fighting the CS for example, it would be:

1. Get your transporter into Chi-Town.

Substantially harder than it seems. Dog boys at every entrance, plus sensors that can detect magic. You can't just walk in. If you have a VERY specific set of spells, you can MAYBE get in - but you have to be fast and know exactly where you're going.

2. Get them near a section of wealthy civilians.

Areas flooded with foot patrols, which includes Dog Boys. Good luck.

3. Pop the portal and send in 1,000 troops.
4. Those 1,000 troops kill as many soft targets as possible in a 1 minute period. (4 melee rounds)
5. Teleport the force back out.
6. Assuming your teleporter isn't uncovered, move to a new location and repeat steps 3-6.

That's a lot of PPE. And once you do it once, Dog Boys will be EVERYWHERE.

It aint that easy.

[HWalsh]

That's a lot of PPE. And once you do it once, Dog Boys will be EVERYWHERE.

It aint that easy.

That was kinda the point.

I gave best case scenario for minions possible, then ended the statement by mentioning that it still wouldn't accomplish much.

[Axelmania]

Usually PPE, range, that sort of limit is pretty normal.

If Merlin were to control an elemental at the time of publication it would need to be via the Summon Lesser Being spell. Since that has a duration.and the guardians are always there, I think Zazshan dealt with it directly due to being a Summoner. At the time Shifters did not have indefinite minion control like them.