Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5861163" data-attributes="member: 42582">Doesn't this depend heavily on the opportunity cost of taking the small chance (which is [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s point, at least as I read him).One memorable moment in my game involved the PC wizard taking an oppy attack against a gnoll with his Tome (an improvised weapon), needing a 20 (excatly) to hit, rolling the natural 20 which (in 4e) is also a crit, and then killing the gnoll with the bonus crit damage from his Tome - the Tome is a Tome of Replenishing Flame, and the bonus damage is fire damage, and we narrated the Tome bursting briefly into fire as it struck the gnoll.But the opportunity cost of taking this oppy? Zero - because the PC in question has nothing else to do with oppy attacks, and there is no fumble system or other way (within the mechanics) that taking an oppy can backfire.Likewise, perhaps (at least judging from what you've written) for hurling your javelin.But for manoeuvres like grappling, tripping, disarming etc in 3E there is an opportuntiy cost, namely, forfeiting a standard attack that would wear down an enemy's hit points. This is what is said to make them traps for maths-weak players, and why encounter powers offer one viable alternative to attack penalties for rationing them.A different alternative again would be to have some sort of Fate Point mechanicsm, or "Now I'm Really Desparate!" card, which can be played to open up some sort of opportunity for a workaround the normal hit point attrition mechanics when it is obvious that hit point attrition isn't what is needed.In Rolemaster and similar games, the pressure to find a good way to handle these sorts of attacks is reduced by the existence of a crit system - even a standard attack can deliver a solid debuff on a lucky crit roll, and disarm, sunder etc are just ways of slightly increasing the odds of a debuff at the cost of a chance to do fatal damage. But in a hit-point based combat system like D&D, these melee debuffs live in the same design space as "save or suck", and give rise to some of the same design problems.</blockquote>

Verification