D&D 4E Disarming in 4E

[TarionzCousin]

I'm gearing up to run 4E again.

Is "Disarm" done in 4E? How are the PC's going to try to get my Ogre's nasty flail away from him?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

No regular disarm powerbesides one paragon fighter encounter power.

Sounds like an improvised strength attack vs Reflex or An athletics check vs. a Hard DC.
Add an arbitrary modifier depending on roleplaying and you are good to go.

Afterwards reduce ogre´s attack bonus by 2 and damage dice by one category.

 

[LostSoul]

My favourite topic.

There's a lot of disagreement on how disarms should be handled. Let me run down a few popular ways:

No disarms unless you have a power that explicitly states the target is disarmed.
Reduce the target to 0 HP to disarm him.
Require an Action Point.
Dominate someone.

My own preferred method is different but it's not very popular.

 

[TarionzCousin]

My own preferred method is different but it's not very popular.

Should I guess?

"Successfully haggle the weapon away from the monster using a combination of Diplomacy and Monster Knowledge. Essentially, you are buying the weapon from the beast."

Did I get it right?

 

[Aegeri]

Reduce the target to 0 HP to disarm him.

This is also my opinion, disarming can represent just being unable to fight any further and hence to disarm = 0 HP. Other methods result in horribly silly situations and especially harsh punishment on PCs in particular. Basically if you introduce this prepare to deal with the consequences.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Mostly disarm is most easily handled as fluff. The problem with tactics that 'defeat' enemies without reducing their HP is they are either invariably better than normal fighting or worse. Some ways that disarm can be fluffed in are:

1) Enemy reduced to 0 hit points
2) Enemy forced to surrender with an Intimidate check (which can be made to work off STR with a feat).
3) Plot specific mechanisms that the DM may introduce for story reasons, in which case it could be a skill challenge or use page 42 (stunts).

Those are the most reliable, though if the page 42 method is TOO easy, then PCs may want to do it all over the place. Given that 4e also has things like minions that are defeated in a single hit you can definitely get in a decent amount of "disarming" without needing to make it a standardized tactic.

It is notable that doing it consistently via hit points also means it is unlikely you end up with PCs getting disarmed randomly as well. Especially in 4e losing your weapon at higher levels is bad news.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Okay, so I have opened a can of worms here. Oops.

I just thought I couldn't find the rule in 4E. Now I see that it could be very problematic.

How about this:

Strength -2 vs. Reflex. You provoke an Opportunity Attack and grant Combat Advantage until the End of your Next Turn. If the OA hits you (or does damage, or something...) you fail to disarm your opponent.

That leaves open the possibility of taking a feat to remove the -2 penalty and another feat to avoid provoking an OA--leaving the option of another feat to avoid granting Combat Advantage.

Yeah, I can see where this can get messy fast.

As an aside, my Undead Ogre has +2 to resist being disarmed. "There is a large nail sticking out through the back of the ogre’s hand, helping him keep a good grip on his flail."

Edit: Oh yeah. If you have a free hand, you are now holding the weapon. Otherwise it is sitting on the ground between you and your opponent.

 

[Klaus]

I'm gearing up to run 4E again.

Is "Disarm" done in 4E? How are the PC's going to try to get my Ogre's nasty flail away from him?

Exorcism of Steel, epic tier Fighter exploit.

But if you boil disarm down to numbers, it is a -2 to hit with weapon attacks (whose damage is weakened, ie halved) until the disarmed creature takes a standard action to pick up its weapon (or a move action to draw a new one). You could even have it be "save ends", representing a weapon knocked off-balance and the creature fumbling about trying to regain its grip.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Exorcism of Steel, epic tier Fighter exploit.

They will be 11th level, so none of them will have this power.

I was just trying to figure out ahead of time what crazy stunts they might attempt.

Hey, are laniards against the Law of Nature in D&D?

 

[Klaus]

If you don't mind house ruling, try this:

Disarming Maneuver
Attack: Melee Attack vs. AC.
Effect: You grant Combat Advantage to the target until the start of your nest turn.
Hit: target suffers -2 to weapon attack rolls and is weakened (save ends).
First Failed Save: target drops weapon in its square (standard action to pick up). While disarmed, target takes -2 to weapon attack rolls and is weakened. If target picks up weapon or draws new weapon, it is no longer disarmed.