Restrictive Armor
- Optional Rule -
Conan tends to favor combat unencumbered, where he is light on his feet, able to side-step a thrust and quickly follow up with a counter move. Thick types of armor tend to impede Conan's actions, though the mighty barbarian has learned the value of armor. In the story
Beyond The Black River, Balthus asks Conan how he escaped a hoard of howling Picts. The Cimmerian replies, "'If more borderers would wear harness there'd be fewer skulls hanging on the altar-huts."
But, in the story
Black Colossus, Conan is presented with full plate armor.
Yasmela disappeared again through the curtains and clapped her hands for her slaves.
At her command they brought harness to replace Conan's chain-mail – gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses and sallet. When Yasmela again drew the curtains, a Conan in burnished steel stood before his audience. Clad in the platearmor, vizor lifted and dark face shadowed by the black plumes that nodded above his helmet, there was a grim impressiveness about him that even Thespides grudgingly noted. A jest died suddenly on Amalric's lips.
"By Mitra," said he slowly, "I never expected to see you cased in coat-armor, but you do not put it to shame. By my fingerbones, Conan, I have seen kings who wore their harness less regally than you!"
But, before the battle with Natohk's army, Conan swings off his horse and...
There Conan halted, swinging off his horse. He had discarded the plate-armor for the more familiar chain-mail.
There is little in the Conan RPG to represent this preference mechanically. This optional rule will bring that Conan flavor to your game.
- CRITICAL FUMBLE -
On page 169 of the 2E Conan rules, it is stated that a natural one rolled on an attack throw is an automatic miss. This Critical Fumble rule adds to the Automatic Miss rule by also indicating that a natural one on the attack throw
may also be a Critical Fumble.
The GUSTUD rule is discussed earlier in this thread, and here, with this optional rule, the GUSTUD rule is slightly modified.
When a Critical Fumble is thrown, the attacker has opened himself up to a particular type of free attack by his enemy. This only applies to melee. The Restrictive Armor rule is not incurred by thrown weapon or missile weapon combat.
Critical Fumbles are akin to Critical Threats. Armor dictates a Critical Fumble number in the same way that weapons dictate Critical Threat ranges. Critical Fumbles can be scored on a natural roll of one, two, or three (or more), depending on the amount of restrictive armor worn.
Characters wearing no armor are not subject to Critical Fumbles. A natural one thrown on the attack die is regarded as an automatic miss, per the rule on page 169. As a character wears more restrictive armor, the character will gain higher Critical Fumble numbers, making it easier and easier for him to stumble and give his enemy a free attack.
Any Critical Fumble attack is made as an Immediate Action as defined on page 181 and does not count against an opponent's number of attacks for the combat round.
- GUSTUD -
When a Critical Fumble is thrown, one of six randomly chosen outcomes can happen. This is the GUSTUD rule. "GUSTUD" is an acronym for the six possible types of Critical Fumble attacks.
Attacks of Opportunity: Normally, with most of the attacks described below, the character is given an Attack of Opportunity first before his opponent is allowed to attempt the attack. With Critical Fumbles, characters do not benefit from the usual appropriate AoOs (as is the case with the optional Weapon Breakage rule described on page 174). Thus, if a character rolls a natural one, giving his opponent a free grapple attempt against the character, the character does not get the usual Attack of Opportunity before the grapple attack is made.
1. Grapple - The character opens himself up to a grapple attempt by his enemy.
2. Unarmed Attack - The character opens himself up to a punch or a kick by his opponent. The normal Unarmed Attack rules aplly. Any damage delivered will be non-lethal unless a -4 attack penalty is used.
3. Sunder - The character defends himself in such a way that his opponent gains a sunder attack against him. If the character is usuing a shield, then the Sunder attempt must be against the shield. Otherwise, the Sunder attempt is made against the weapon the character is using.
4. Trip - The character moves in such a way that his opponent can easily trip him. If the opponent is not using a weapon capable of trip attacks, then the trip is made using an Unarmed Attack, as described on page 212.
5. Unarmed Attack - The same as described in result #2 above.
6. Disarm - The character's opponent is given a free attempt to disarm the character using the rules on page 206.
- A GOOD IDEA? -
It is not always in the best interests of an opponent to take advantage of the free attack offered by the Critical Fumble rule. An opponent may not find it advantageous to change the nature of a fight by attempting a grapple with a strong character while losing the potential damage delivered by his weapon (only light weapons can be used while grappling, and thus a broadsword, doing 1d10 damage, is reduced to the 1d4 damage of its pommel while the wielder is striking with it during a grapple situation). If the opponent's trip attempt fails, then the character is given a chance to trip the opponent in turn, per the rule on page 212. When opponent's disarm attempts fail, the character can try, in turn, to disarm his opponent.
Rolling a Critical Fumble does not automatically indicated a hindrance to the character. Opponent's Unarmed Attacks fail to hit. Sunder attempts fail to damage the targeted item. And, sometimes, a Critical Fumble can become a benefit to the character, as when an opponent's trip or disarm attempts fail, and the character is successful in turning those attacks around, instead tripping or disarming the opponent.
- CRITICAL FUMBLE NUMBER -
A Critical Fumble number is created for a character in a like manner to the character's Critical Threat Range. Where the threat range is determined by the weapon the character uses, the fumble number is determined by the restrictiveness of his armor.
Restrictiveness is determined by the total Armor Check Penalty (including any helm) suffered by the character. Where the Armor Check Penalty applies to Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Slight of Hand, and Tumble tests (and where double the penalty is applied to Swimming checks, while helmet-only penalties are applied to Spot and Listen checks), a third of the total Armor Check Penalty creates the character's Critical Fumble number (drop any fractions).
For example, Cimmerians are sometimes seen wearing a helm, loin cloth, boots, and shield. This result in no restrictiveness at all. The Cimmerian's total ACP is 0 for the steel cap plus 2 for the targe. Divide by 3 and drop fractions results in zero restrictiveness. If the Cimmerian rolls a natural one on an attack, then it is an automatic miss only. The Critical Fumble Rule does not apply.
But, if that same Cimmerian adds a Leather Jerkin, then his total ACP becomes 3 (Steel Cap is 0, Targe is 2, Leather Jerkin is 1), meaning the character now has a Critical Fumble number of one. Whenever the character rolls a natural one, the attack is an automatic miss, and the Cimmerian moved in such a way that he opened himself up to one of the GUSTUD attacks (determined randomly) by his opponent.
If the Cimmerian encounters a Vanir warrior wearing a scale corselet and great horned helm, using targe and axe, the Vanir's Critical Fumble number is 2 (+4 Scale Corselet, +2 Great Helm, +2 Targe = 8. 8/3 = 2). If the Vanir throws a natural one or natural two on his attack, then the Cimmerian will gain a free GUSTUD attack upon him.
When the Nemedian knights take the field, they are in full plate armor, visor down, using lance and large shield. These knights, as encumbered as they are, have Critical Fumble numbers of 4 (+6 Plate, +2 Visor Down, +4 Large Shield). They are so encumbered that, each attack, they have a 20% chance of giving their opponent a GUSTUD free attack against them (but, the GUSTUD attack is likely to do little damage because the DR rating for these nights is DR 12 plus the +4 Parry AC they get from the shield!).
- CONAN'S PREFERENCE -
Yes, it's quite a bit of text I wrote to explain this optional rule. But, I endeavored to be complete. Once you read it and understand it, though, you'll see that the rule is as easy to implement in a game as the usual Critical Threat rule that you use every time an attack throw is made.
Plus, the rule gives characters something to think about when choosing armor. Like Conan, character will balance the protection armor brings them to the disadvantage of the GUSTUD rule, which simulates a penalty to restrive movement on the battlefield.
