Domhani Bairdéir [OOC]

[Mattress]

Okay, so... hrm.

So instead of doing what I did, I should have rolled 2d6 for damage instead of the 3d6?

So it'd look like:

Athelstan rolls 3d6, getting [1,2,1] = (4) to hit

Athelstan rolls 2d6+4, getting [3,1,4] = (8) to hit location (chest cavity/trunk/what-have-you)

Athelstan rolls 2d6, getting [3,5] = (8) to damage

But what am I rolling 2d6 instead of 3d6 like I had been? A difference between my opponent already being dead or what?

-M

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

The difference is in the kind of damage you are choosing to do with your flail.

The damage weapons (or fists/feet/etc.) do is calculated by Damage Classes (DCs). All weapons (fists/feet/etc.) do primarily either Normal or Killing Damage. With weapons that do primarily killing damage, you can choose to 'Club' your weapon, doing Normal rather than Killing damage. Your flail is a Killing Damage weapon, but you chose to 'Club' the ghouls with it, thus reducing the chance that you would kill them.

When you do Normal Damage (Stun Damage primarily) like you were doing with the Ghouls, each damage class equates to 1d6. The number you roll on the dice is the STUN damage, and BODY Damage is calculated by looking at each die roll (1=0 BODY; 2,3,4,5=1 BODY; 6=2 BODY) and on the average you'll do 1 BODY for every die you roll. There are other adjustments depending on your Hit Location Roll, your targets armor, etc., but that's where I get the base damage.

When you do Killing Damage (which is the default for your flail) it takes 3 DCs to equal 1d6 (DC 1 = 1 pip, DC 2 = 1/2d6, DC 3 = 1d6, DC 4 = 1d6+1, etc.) but the number you roll on the dice is the BODY you do, which is then modified depending on your Hit Location Roll to get your STUN damage. Because of the way defenses are calculated, Killing Damage tends to do more BODY damage than Normal Damage does.

With me so far? OK, now for the rest . . .

On page 3 of your character sheet, at the bottom right, is a list of Combat Maneuvers. Each of those maneuvers includes a Phase (which you can mostly ignore), a modifier to your OCV and DCV, and an effect. The ones you've been using (per my assumptions) are Martial Strike and Offensive Strike. Under the Effect column, you'll see that Offensive Strike says 'Weapon +4 DC Strike.' This means that you add 4 Damage Classes to the damage the weapon normally does. So, your flail moves from DC 3 (1d6 Killing Damage) to DC 7 (2d6+1 Killing Damage). There is a hard and fast rule that you can NEVER more than double the base damage class of an attack, so your flail is capped at DC 6 (2d6 Killing Damage).

Clear as mud now? It seems like a lot to figure, but believe me, once you've done it a few times it gets lots easier . . .

After you've absorbed this part of the lesson, I'll go into the Hit Location modifiers, and how they figure into Normal and Killing Damage.

 

[Mattress]

Okay. I'm kind of understand some of that stuff, though I'm wondering how I'll know when to change a roll from one thing to another. So far I've been doing okay with the usual "hit them in the head/ribs and take 'em down method". I don't want to do nothing but that, just "hack/slash hack/slash" all the time... but so far it seems to be working on the skeletons.


Update:

Oh, and did I give a correct example above of what I should (and chances are very likely) will do again with this other skeleton?

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

Your example of what you should have done to the first skeleton is correct. Do it again! For this combat (until we get a chance to talk at length about them) I'll also assume you're using the Offensive Strike Maneuver and make the modifications to your OCV/DCV appropriately, unless you tell me otherwise.

As far as which type of damage you'll be doing - If you're using your flail, YOU get to choose to do either Normal or Killing Damage, but since the default is Killing Damage for that weapon that's what I'll assume you're doing if you don't specify otherwise. Don't worry . . . if the rolls look hinky I'll ask about them!

Your sling also does killing damage, but I'm going to rule that you can't 'Club' your sling and choose to do Normal Damage - you just don't have that kind of control. I made a similar ruling for Deasaigh's bow - no way to use a pointed 3 foot long spike going 200 MPH to do subdual damage, though we've talked about arrows with special tips.

If you are striking with hands/feet or with a club, you do Normal Damage.

Good luck with Phase 3! I'll check again tomorrow AM and see how things turned out for you!

 

[Mattress]

Indeed, I am using the offensive combat modifier. I think I'd get alot of this stuff more if I had an example of it, so as I slowly do things on here I'll figure out more by actually doing it (or seeing it done).

Thanks again!

 

[Pan]

hey mike

I will be out of town till sunday, do you mind posting for me?

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

Magic and Healing

Magical healing works a bit differently in this campaign because I'm using a few optional rules to make it a little more rare/difficult. At this point, one of the characters (I'm not calling you a party yet, because no agreement has been formed for you to adventure together after this one is over) is capable of magical healing, and you have no potions/scrolls/items for that purpose as yet. However, all healing other than that accomplished by mundane care and the passage of time is subject to this rule.

Any particular wound may be healed only once by magical means, and any particular magical healing attempt is effective for only one wound. Players may specify against which wound they wish a particular healing attempt to be used.

For example:

Gavril took a wound from the Shadow Demon for 7 BODY. Let's say Skáth offers to heal it for him (by no means a certainty, given Skáth's quirky personality and the effort it takes for him to heal), and heals 5 of the 7 BODY taken in that wound. The remaining two points of BODY may only be healed by normal, mundane means - no other magical healing of any nature will be effective for healing that wound. Note that it's the first SUCCESFUL healing that counts - unsuccesful attempts may be retried. Now, had Gavril taken another hit for 3 more BODY, Skáth may attempt to heal THAT wound as a separate attempt. Again, points healed over and above what will completely heal a given wound may not be applied to the body from another wound. They may, however, be applied to any STUN damage the character has taken (STUN is not wound specific for purposes of healing).

Clear as mud? If not, post questions in this thread, or e-mail/call me.

This may eventually become a bookkeeping nightmare for me, but I like the idea and we'll stick with it for a while at least.

Now, for another lesson in magic.

In this campaign, the use of any magic requires a skill roll (magic skill, healing skill, alchemy skill . . . the particular skill required is determined at the creation of the spell, and cannot be changed thereafter). This skill roll has a negative modifier equal to -1 per 5 Active Points used in that particular casting - high power spells are darned difficult to cast succesfully. Characters may choose to cast at a lower Active Point cost than they are capable of to improve their chances of a succesful casting.

 

[Scotley]

Mike, I will be out of town and likely unable to post until Friday, please npc my character as needed.

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

Healing Explained

The target number for Skáth's supernatural healing ability is his Healing skill (which I have at 17-) less 2 for every dice of healing he wishes to attempt.

If he chooses to examine/prep the wound before your magical healing attempt, this number can be modified by using his Healing Skill for examination of the wound and bandaging, etc. before the magical attempt is made - preparing the wound for the attempt at magical healing, so to speak. For every 2 full points by which he makes his Healing skill check on this attempt, he may add one back to the target number for his supernatural attempt. In this case, the Prep Check was 15, making the target of 17- by two points, thus adding one point back to the target number for the magical attempt.

Since he used 3 dice, the target number for this magical attempt was 11-, with one added back for the Prep Check (making the final target a 12-). He rolled a 13, just failing the attempt.

This system makes it important to examine the wound first so as to determine how many dice of healing to use, and to use only what you deem necessary to heal the wound.

BTW, had the check succeeded, you would have healed 2 BODY (0 points for each one rolled, 1 point for each 2-5 rolled, and two points for each 6 rolled in the final check). Using this ability at full power heals a range of 0 to 10 BODY.

Once you get some experience points, we can talk about whether you want to spend them on this ability to make it easier to use, or on something else . . .

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

Character Pic

For anyone interested, there's a pic of Gealach posted in the Characters Thread. I can't take credit for it -- I modified a picture from a popular video game.