[Resolved] Please Delete

[Si Long01]

I originally meant to merely ask a question of my own, but felt that changing this into a broader topic might help others as well (more about that at the end of the post).
I am having difficulties thinking of ways to fight a mind-reader (let's call him "S"). My character--let's name him "D"--isn't especially smart, though he has occasional moments of intuitive perception. "D" wields a short sword and a revolver, while "S" is weaponless. "S" is, overall, better than "D" in every physical aspect, but is more susceptible to iron than "D".
"D"'s companions are a mind-reader, who might help "D" if her mind isn't taken over; a woman of strength relatively equal to "D"'s capabilities (also my character); the mind-reader's brother, who hates "D"; a shapeshifter; a winged cat; and a water demon with multiple personalities.
However, there's a possiblity that "D" may have to fight "S" alone; I'm fairly certain that "D" has to deliver the killing blow, at least.
Advice for fighting a (mostly, if not completely) solo battle against a stronger opponent would be greatly appreciated.
((I don't know if this matters, but "D" is a dhampir, while "S" is a full-blooded vampire. The mind-reader and her brother are also full-blooded vampires; my other character is a vampire weakened to a dhampir's equivalent.))

Anyone is more than welcome to post their own battle concerns from their roleplays; hopefully we can all get some answers.  

[Lance Hertz]

Well, from a writer's perspective the style of the story is very important. For example if this was an anime-style story, D is the likely hero (as he's the underdog with friends) but would most assuredly lose his first battle with S! All the better to have a story arc elsewhere, licking his wounds, discovering something about S's past and eventually finding a -good- reason (and some mentorly advice) to eventually have a grand finale and a chance to win. (Preferably with S close to completing a nefarious scheme - for the greater good of man/vampirekind)

The underdog usually wins when he has a good reason to, ne?

Mechanically for the grand finale, this 'several friends vs fiend' strikes me as the sort of fight where some of the friends being defeated one by one (any chance S could have a few lieutenants there?) and a bloodied S with an evil-and-unstoppable-grin facing D near the end, with one little subtle something (overlooked by S as pointless) done by a friend turning the tide near end of fight... The multiple-personality demon strikes me as a key helper, multiple personalities are a telepath's bane since half their thoughts are effectively clouded at any time. And it makes sense they'd be resistant to mental powers (two minds in one, and not normal ones either)
Though from a storyline perspective, I'd keep the angry bro along for the finale; There's no finale like a family reunion.

Soo let's picture an assault on S's mansion: mindreader friend faces off a jester illusionist vampire; strong gal faces off some muscular black bald seems-nice-guy vampire (bet they end up dating post-story); flying cat gets chased by Bones the undead dog; water demon faces some oddball blood demon... Then the shapeshifter-hero-angry bro trio faces S... at some point S causes D to shoot the angry bro (mind control) big moment of angst for D "I shot my frieeend!" while S cackles manically, then controls shapeshifter to attack S... Coup de Theatre! The water demon and shapeshifter had switched places and breaks out of control!

...To be continued...  

[Novama]

I'm more of a soloist than a team player myself, so if it was a one on one fight, I would say D stopped thinking of what he was doing and started using reflexive movements and letting his training and experience fight for him rather than thinking of what he would do. Since S is probably using his mind reading to stay a step ahead of D, he would be realistically caught off guard and not used to actually having to use his own skill to fight rather than his ability to anticipate what will come. This would realistically drop S's battle performance to an equal or lower level than D who is used to fighting without knowing what his opponent will do.

S has no weapons. Without his ability to anticipate D's actions it would be much harder to dodge bullets and sword slashes even if S is some high level vampire.  

[Si Long01]

Sorry for not responding sooner--I didn't realize I'd gotten replies until today. sweatdrop

It looks as though the mind-reader, "N", is the key to defeating S (through imprisonment of the mind), so things seem to be running more smoothly, for now.
Lance, would you please elaborate on 'the style of the story'?
Novama: Even if S can't read D's mind, wouldn't his enhanced abilities allow him to dodge or block D's attacks with ease?  

[Novama]

Think of it like this: You are good at basketball. You have played basketball for years. Now imagine that on game day of the championship your coach tells you to play with the opposite hand (if you are left handed, you would play right, and if you are right handed, you would play left). Realistically, you would do horrible.

S would be used to his way of fighting. To suddenly be unable to fight in the way he is used to, it would be like switching hands on him. Even with superior ability, S would be caught off guard and perform more poorly. Who is to say that S's superior abilities don't actually come from his ability to read minds and seem to act with lightning precision and power when in fact he just knows where and when to go and strike.  

[Rapidity]

Hm, I've seen this happen in anime where the main character just goes "I know! I'll just stop thinking about what I'm doing and attack madly!", firstly I think that's cliche, and surely any mind-reader would have seen that trick before and have some kind of counter-measure for it. If they didn't I'd be surprised anyway. The same happens with invisibility in anime, probably roleplay too since roleplay is often based off anime, the character just goes "I'll just attack everywhere!", often ignoring the fact that the invisibility user can just back off or something like that, or that their attacks aren't really focused enough to do much damage when they do hit, although that's only generally speaking.

I'm also not clear on what you mean by mind-reading, you mentioned "D"'s mind being taken over, I'm not sure if that's related or not, but I'm just going on the assumption that mind-reading only means that "S" will be able to predict what "D" is thinking.

Under that assumption, there's just a couple of points, but it does depend on the roleplay style in play here and the details. Firstly, you mentioned a water demon with multiple personalities, can those personalities interact with one another or are they practically unconcious of one another? Is only one active at any given time? And can the mind-reader read all of their minds, or just one, and if so, is it the active one or another one? Better than providing no information at all by not thinking, one of the personalities could think false thoughts and feed the mind-reader false information, which could make for a pretty easy win if you can end it quickly. Either that, or each personality could scheme differently, and change around at crucial moments, essentially changing the demons mind without prior planning of the active conscious, meaning again that the mind-reader acts on false information until it could be too late.

Secondly, the use of a revolver could be quite straightforward, but it's so straightforward I think I'm probably missing something. The thing about guns and aimed projectiles is that they are hard to dodge, theoretically. At an ideal range, any large distance the victim moves, the attacker only needs to make a slight change in their aim. There's of course a balance between being close enough to hit, and far enough that the opponent can't dodge. Under that theory, even if "S" can read "D"'s mind, if caught in an open space, mind-reading is practically useless, since no matter how quickly "S" dives for cover, from "D"'s point of view "S" is basically stationary. In mathematical terms, "S" is nearly guaranteed to have a low radial velocity in any direction about "D". Of course, I don't know what your rules on bullet dodging are, or deflecting with swords like I've seen done before, but I've heard that you can get around that by firing more than one bullet at once.

Anyway, I hope that was clear enough, but it's likely it wont be. If not, tell me what you understand and what you don't if you want me to try and clear that up.

P.S. This is my first post in this forum. Hi everyone.  

[Si Long01]

As it happens, the dual-minded water elemental used the separate personalities--who are aware of each other--to confuse "S" and trap him in their mind until "S" fled.
The fight isn't over, as "S" keeps running away, but with the recent introduction of new, strong characters, I think the situation can be easily resolved.
To be honest, I never considered using the revolver unless "D" was rather close to "S", mostly because it's too likely that "S" will simply dodge the bullet, or take a minor hit. A fatal wound is probably too much to hope for, unless the two are nearly point blank.
I'm closing the thread now; I think what's been said here is enough to deal with the situation.

Thanks to everyone for the advice!  

[Valkern]

The fact that this has sat with delete ontop of it for four days makes me laugh  

[Si Long01]

Valkern

The fact that this has sat with delete ontop of it for four days makes me laugh

Hardly; I changed the title this morning.  

[IndulgentGlompingSwamp]

I think one of the things I will work on if I become crew is deleting threads that ask to be deleted. Good threads are getting bumped back because of the space being taken up by the threads that should go 3nodding