Golden Apple Rescue Squad ( Four Color to Fantasy campaign) Updated September 21th

[MDSnowman]

Pushing Attacks

The way I'm thinking of it the whole pushing/bull rush effect can be handled with a super feat I was thinking something like this.

Launch 'em (sorry for the name, I've been reading too much Darwin's world recently )

Prerequisites: 7+ Ranks in either Attack Energy (Force), Attack, Burst (Force), or 30+ effective strength for purposes of lifting

Effect: Either your force attacks, or your unarmed attacks (depending on what prerequisite you met) automaticlly initate a bull rush (as per the PHB) with either a strength of 10+the number of ranks you have in your force attack, or your effective strength -10. Unlike a normal bull rush you do not travel with your foe with a successful roll. If the bull rushed foe hits a solid object they take 1d6 points of damage for every 20ft that they have travel before hitting the object.

 

[RangerWickett]

This is still in the testing phase, and it might be too complicated. Tell me what you think:

Knock-back.
As a standard action, you may attempt a knock-back, similar to a bull rush, in which you use the force of your blow to knock an opponent backward or to the side, without having to pursue him. Though great strength is usually required to knock an opponent back like this, you must consciously choose to knock your foe back, regardless of your strength, since most hits do not provide enough thrusting power in a single direction to move your foe much.

First, determine your effective Strength for the purposes of lifting, carrying, and throwing. For most characters, this will simply be their normal Strength score, but if you are a size other than Medium, or if you have the Mighty Lifting or Super Strength super powers, this number will be different. The super powers’ entries describe how they modify your effective Strength, but use the following table to determine how different sizes affect lifting capacity.

Fine: -15 to effective Strength.
Diminutive: -10 to effective Strength.
Tiny: -5 to effective Strength.
Small: -2 to effective Strength.
Medium-size: No modifier to effective Strength.
Large: +5 to effective Strength.
Huge: +10 to effective Strength.
Gargantuan: +15 to effective Strength.
Colossal: +20 to effective Strength.

Thus, Zidi Wheatling, the “Halfling Titan,” has an effective Strength for lifting and throwing of 48 (base of 23, +15 from Mighty Lifting, +12 from Super Strength., -2 from being Small). A typical gold dragon has an effective Strength of 67 (base of 47, +20 for being Colossal). This gives Zidi an effective Strength bonus of +19, and the dragon an effective Strength bonus of +28.

Making a Knock-back Attack: You must declare a knock-back before you make your attack roll. Note that making a knock-back is a standard action in itself, so it cannot be made during a full attack action. Make your attack roll as normal, but if you hit, do not add your Strength modifier to your damage, since most of the force is being used to push back, not injure.

Then, make a Strength check, using your effective Strength for lifting, carrying, and throwing, as determined above. The DC of this Strength check depends on the size of your target.

Fine: DC 4.
Diminutive: DC 8.
Tiny: DC 12.
Small: DC 16.
Medium-size: DC 20.
Large: DC 24.
Huge: DC 28.
Gargantuan: DC 32.
Colossal: DC 36.

At the game master’s prerogative, the DC may be reduced for creatures that are lighter than their size would suggest, or increased for those that are heavier than average. A Large iron golem would probably count as a Gargantuan creature because of its immense weight, while a hollow Huge whicker monster might only count as Large for the purposes of moving it. Also, knock-backs do not work against creatures that are intangible, and the game master may rule that certain types of creatures cannot be knocked back because of their substance or structure. Air, fire, and water elementals cannot normally be knocked back, nor could a golem made of thin paper, since the mass of the creature is not solid enough to knock-back.

If you beat the DC of the target, you knock it back 5 feet, plus 1 foot for every point by which you succeeded, in the direction you choose. This direction obviously must be away from you, not toward you. You may choose to hit the target a shorter distance if you want. To determine how high the target flies, divide the total distance by four; this is the usual height of the target at the apex of its flight. When the target hits the ground, he takes 1d6 points of impact damage from falling and skidding.

If the target strikes a solid object before it travels its full distance, both it and the object it strikes take 1 point of damage for each foot of distance left. This is in addition to the 1d6 points of damage the opponent takes when he lands. If this is enough for the target to break through the object, he will keep flying, possibly striking more targets.

Knock-back Tricks: Sometimes you want to do more than just send your foe flying.

If the path of your knock-backed foe travels through the square of another creature, that creature can choose to either try to dodge, or try to stop the flying creature. If the creature wants to stop the projectile, make an opposed Strength check against that creature, as if with a bull rush, including normal modifiers for size. Instead of your normal Strength bonus, use the remaining feet in the knocked-back creature’s flight as your bonus. If the creature succeeds its check, the knocked-back foe lands prone in that square, and takes full damage as if it had struck an inanimate object. The creature that blocked the flight takes no damage.

If it fails its Strength check, then both creatures fly along the same path as the first one. The distance they travel is equal to either the amount left in the original creature’s flight, or the amount by which you beat the interposing creature’s Strength check, whichever is less. Neither one takes any damage until they land or strike a solid surface.

If the creature wants to dodge, it must succeed a Reflex save (DC 10). If successful, then it avoids the projectile, and the knocked-back creature continues its movement. If the creature fails its Reflex save, treat it as if it tried to block the flight, and rolled a natural 1 for its Strength check.

You may also try to intentionally use your knock-backed foe as a ranged weapon, trying to deal damage. After you succeed in the knock-back, make a normal ranged attack roll (usually with a –4 non-proficiency penalty). Assume that a knocked-back creature has a range increment of 5 ft. This is not a touch attack, since you could strike and still not deal damage. If you successfully hit, deal damage the same way as if the hurled foe had struck an inanimate object. If you beat the touch AC, but not the full AC, the hurled foe takes full damage, but the target you were trying to hit takes none.

If there are creatures in the way of a deliberate ranged attack like this, then they provide a cover bonus to the target’s AC, unless those creatures want to dodge. Instead of having targets make Reflex saves to dodge in this case, simply assume that since you’re trying to avoid them, and they’re trying to avoid you, they don’t provide cover.

Example One: A slumbering ancient wyrm gold Dragon is awakened when he senses a pair of kobold thieves stealing trinkets from his horde. Instead of crushing them in his lair and having to clean up the mess, the Dragon follows them until they exit his cave, then strikes, hoping to have some fun and play kobold golf. He easily succeeds a knock-back attack, and makes his Strength check against DC 16 (since kobolds are small). He rolls poorly, and gets only a 32, and thus punts the scaly thief 21 feet down the mountainside. The normal attack, plus the falling damage, easily kills the small brigand.

He chases after the second kobold as it screams and runs for its life, and this time does better, getting a Strength check of 46. With a pitiful wail, the kobold flies a satisfying 35 feet, and a new Draconic sport is born.

Example Two: While placidly playing with a group of street urchins, Zidi spots a giant Goblin charging the town’s walls. Her first attack – hurling a wagon at it – doesn’t take it down, and the Goblin is smart enough to send his normal-sized minions in first to soften up the Halfling Titan. Zidi doesn’t worry much about the small Goblins, but she can’t reach their huge leader, so she adopts new tactics.

With a fierce punch, she tries to knock a Goblin warrior into his leader. She easily hits, and rolls a 31 for her Strength check, enough to knock the Goblin the 20 feet to his boss. Unfortunately, there are too many other Goblins in the way, and after flying only 5 feet the hurled Goblin enters the same square as one of his comrades. The Goblin tries dodge, but fails his Reflex save, and is hit nearly completely off balance. The two Goblins could continue to fly 15 more feet, but there is one more Goblin right in front of the leader, who loyally tries to block his flying comrades. Since by this point they only have 5 feet of flight left in them, Zidi only has a +5 bonus to her opposed Strength check, and the Goblin manages to stop the projectiles. Both the Goblins that were flying take 1d6+5 points of impact damage from the landing, but the Goblin who stopped them is unhurt.

Peturbed, Zidi tries the next best thing the next round, and looks for a good Goblin to throw.

Next up: guidelines for throwing living creatures!

 

[RangerWickett]

By the way, since I think we figured that the Hulk has a Strength of 100, he could hit the average person a good 50 feet, easily. The PHB says that the average masonry wall (which would be equivalent to your normal building today, I guess) has 90 hit points and a hardness of 10, so you couldn't just destroy it with damage in this system.

. . .

However . . . the Strength check DC to break down such a wall would probably be only about 32, so if we make it a Strength check to break through things, instead of damage, it could work. Fairly easily, in fact. I seem to recall that, from the Star Wars rulebook, shielded blast doors have a Break Down DC of 60. So the Hulk might be able to throw someone through a ship's hull.

Blueskin, not being maximized totally for Strength, could knock a person a good 10 feet on a good Knock-back, but usually she could only knock someone back a foot or two.

Oh, and maybe I'd suggest that when you get knocked back, you can make a Reflex save or Tumble check (your choice) with a DC of 5 + the distance traveled. If you fail, you fall on your back, or face-down. If you succeed, you manage to keep your balance enough that you land on your feet, and don't take the falling/skidding damage.

 

[Horacio]

RW, I'm very happy you posted these rules in my story hour!

We are going to try them in this afternoon's session, and I'll write the result. At least, they are way more complete than my "houzrulez"

 

[RangerWickett]

Great! But if you're going to be trying them out, as written you probably won't be able to get much use out of them, since no one in the party is quite yet up to the "Throw them through mountains" level. If you do use them, though, tell me how you like them. Do they require too much math, too many rolls, or are they not cool enough.

Actually, I think I'll start a thread on the Nat20 forum about the rules.

But yes, the sooner you get around to putting up more sections on this adventure, the happier I'll be.

 

[Horacio]

Thanks, Ranger Wickett!
For the second adventure we used some additional house rules. By the time this adventure began, I downloaded Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds preview. As I've always said, the biggest virtue of Four-Color to Fantasy is being able to merge with any other d20 product. So I added it to the M&Ms preview

I love the idea of Damage Saving Throw, and I find it very superheroic (if you know what I mean and I think you know ), so we decided to test it in our second G.A.R.S. adventure. We had to do some modifications, but with a bit of common sense and the help of people at GR boards, I think we arrived to a wonderful set of house rules

A last word about it, it's wonderful how FCTF can be merged with other d20 products. Even merging it with the M&Ms free preview was easy and gave a very good result. Morrus, RW, Nemmerle, you did a wonderful work with FCTF!

G.A.R.S. House Rules

Damage Saving Throw

If an attack hits, it either does damage or has a special effect (for some super-powers). The effects of superpowers are given in the power’s description. Damaging attacks have a Damage bonus, which determines how much the attack hurts the target. A target hit by a damaging attack must make a Damage saving throw to resist the damage. Like any other check, the player rolls 1d20 and adds his Damage saving throw bonus. The DC of the check is 15 + the attack’s damage bonus. So the DC for a Damage save against an attack with a damage bonus of +12 is 27 (or 15 + 12). If the Damage saving throw succeeds, the target takes no damage, completely shrugging off the attack. If the Damage save fails, the target takes some damage. How much depends on how badly the save fails.

To calculate the Damage bonus of an attack find the average damage (round down) and make that its damage bonus. For average caculations, each numerical bonus (e.g. +3) remains as is, a d4 becomes +2.5, d6 becomes +3.5, d8 becomes 4.5, d10 becomes +5.5, d12 becomes +6.5 and d20 becomes +10.5. So a 4d6+2 attack has an attack bonus of +16 (3.5x4+2).

To calculate the Damage Saving Throw bonus, it's Fortitude Saving Throw bonus + Natural Armor Bonus (in this system, natural armor adds to Dam. Save and NOT to AC, this usually results in most monsters being easier to hit, but more difficult to hurt).

If a target’s Damage save fails, he or she takes damage. What sort of damage depends on two things:
the type of attack, and the amount by which the target failed the Damage saving throw. Attacks are divided in stun and lethal. Unarmed attacks, blunt weapons and energy attacks (with some exceptions) cause stun damage, edged or pointy weapons, firearms, claws and teeth and other nasty things cause lethal damage. Once you’ve
determined the damage type, consult the chart below:

DAMAGE TABLE
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>Damage Save…</TD> <TD>Stun Damage</TD> <TD>Lethal Damage</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Succeeds</TD> <TD>No damage</TD> <TD>No damage</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Fails</TD> <TD>Hit</TD> <TD>Hit</TD>
<TR><TD>Fails by more than 5</TD> <TD>Stunned</TD> <TD>Stunned</TD>
<TR><TD>Fails by more than 10</TD> <TD>Unconscious</TD> <TD>Disabled</TD>
</TABLE>

* No damage:
The target shrugs off the attack without any effect.

* Hit:
The target suffers a minor hit. Every stun hit imposes a –1 modifier on Damage saves against further
stun damage. Every lethal hit imposes a -1 modifier on Damage saves against all forms of damage—both stun
and lethal—since it represents a more serious weakening of the character’s resistance. This penalty is
cumulative with the penalty for stun hits. So a character with 4 stun hits and 3 lethal hits suffers a -7 penalty to Damage saves against stun damage and a -3 penalty to Damage saves against lethal damage.

* Stunned:
The target takes 1 hit as above and is stunned for 1 round. The character cannot take any actions (including free actions such as sustaining powers) and loses any dodge bonus to Defense. Attackers gain a +2 bonus to hit stunned characters.

* Unconscious:
The character is knocked out, effectively helpless.

* Disabled:
The character is conscious and able to act but terribly injured. He can take only a half action each
round (either moving or attacking, but not both), and if he performs any strenuous action, his condition changes
to unconscious after the completing the action. Strenuous actions include moving, attacking, or using
any ability that requires physical exertion or mental concentration (including most powers).

These rules are a modified version of OGC rules at the Green Ronin's Mutants & Masterminds preview. I hope nobody at Green Ronin will be bothered by my use of them here, and if it would be the case, please, contact me.

Next one this soon. Very soon.
Your comments are always welcome!

 

[Bob Aberton]

Hey, Horacio!

Cool House Rules...I may adapt the knockback one for my campaign...

Oh, and by the way (plug), my storyhour, for the first time in weeks, has been updated. No one has replied to it, though, and it could use a favorable comment or two...and a good hard *BUMP* as well...(/plug)

 

[Caliber]

Nifty rules Horacio! I haven't read either of the products you are meshing, but it still sounds cool!

 

[Corwyn]

Hee Horacio

When is the next update ?

If you don't watch out your fans will start showing withdrawal symptoms and you wouldn't want that now would you?

 

[Greg Dickens]

Horacio, Horacio where art thou Horacio?

When is the next update?