Fought 2 spiders from a spider cell culture and used 3 Release the Hounds against one of them. Got 2 instances of this technique (so the difficulty doesn't increase with multiple spiders).
EDIT 13 Dec 2014: I used *six* release the hounds against the spider pair (3 each) and only got one. odd.
EDIT 14 Dec 2014: Fixed by Kinak, it should now give two.
In the beginning, men were mortal.
After accidentally overkilling a spider and remembering many instances where underkill got me beaten to hell, I have determined the optimal Etheric Power to get this technique against one spider is eight EDIT: six total Etheric Power. This is not too much that you can accidentally kill the spider on the second Release the Hounds, but is enough that the third Release the Hounds will be a guaranteed kill. Packing your deck with 11x release the hounds (and whatever else you like) will guarantee a victory in 3 rounds.
Writing for the long-neglected GOC Casefiles canon.
Hey, good idea, that's good to investigate!
(I think there is a small chance of dealing only 39 damage at 8 EP (10+13+16) if you get worse rolls possible.)
EDIT: but looking at this more, at 8 EP you could accidentally do up to 46 damage after two attacks if you have high Will I think (10*2 + 13*2)? Would need a Will of less than 20 to ensure that your second attack doesn't kill it too quickly.
8 EP is close to the middle of optimal range from what my sleepy brain can determine.
Well, I guess I miscalculated.
Six EP would probably be better then, for an assured victory within 4 rounds.
16 + 22 = 38 maximum damage for first two attacks. No chance of overkill.
8 + 11 + 14 = 33 damage minimum for all three attacks, with a high probability of killing on the third attack. Worst case spider will have 7 or less HP left on third round , easy pickings.
Writing for the long-neglected GOC Casefiles canon.
Does this get a bonus message vs:
- Midgard SD1?
- Horrific Spider?
- Masked Spider?
- Runic Spider?
- Lurking Spider?
- Holographic Spider?
- Corrupted Spider (YES)
Nothing special for: