midichloriless
First Post
Our group has been playing together for a little over a year, and is made of two groups that lost some players and have now come together to form one.
One of the groups had a house rule regarding subdual that consists of declaring you want to subdue before rolling (you have no idea if you are close to taking out all of the opponents hit points at that point). Once you declare, you roll two dice and must take the lower roll for the subdual hit. If the lower roll is horrible, you can use the higher die if you want but it will no longer be a subdual blow. This mechanic is rationalized by thinking that it would take great finesse to deal a blow on purpose that knocks someone unconscious but does not kill them, and therefore would be rather difficult.
When the two groups came together we all discussed this mechanic and agreed to adopt it. We now have a new player who has joined the group and has been playing with us for a few months. He thinks this mechanic is the worst thing he has ever encountered in playing D&D for 20 years and has declared that the rule must go or he will.
I'm not really interested in opinions on this players attitude, but whether or not others think that this mechanic is really that out of line in terms of fairness.
Thanks for your input
One of the groups had a house rule regarding subdual that consists of declaring you want to subdue before rolling (you have no idea if you are close to taking out all of the opponents hit points at that point). Once you declare, you roll two dice and must take the lower roll for the subdual hit. If the lower roll is horrible, you can use the higher die if you want but it will no longer be a subdual blow. This mechanic is rationalized by thinking that it would take great finesse to deal a blow on purpose that knocks someone unconscious but does not kill them, and therefore would be rather difficult.
When the two groups came together we all discussed this mechanic and agreed to adopt it. We now have a new player who has joined the group and has been playing with us for a few months. He thinks this mechanic is the worst thing he has ever encountered in playing D&D for 20 years and has declared that the rule must go or he will.
I'm not really interested in opinions on this players attitude, but whether or not others think that this mechanic is really that out of line in terms of fairness.
Thanks for your input