Nerfing sunder and disarm

[hong]

Hey KQQl, someone resurrected this thread. You don't read rgfd, do you, MerakS?

Another bright idea: Any attempt to sunder or disarm automatically fails unless the opponent is at 10 hp or below. IOW, you'd have to beat them down to the point where their defenses are spent, before you can make them drop their sword.

In-game explanation? Analogous to the way you can't kill someone with tons of hit points with one swing: they luck out, or it barely nicks them, or their skill allows them to evade, or whatever. Similarly, if someone is on top of their game, you can't swipe the sword out of their hand, or smash their bow, with one swing either. You have to wear them down first, to the point where they start getting careless.

 

[MarauderX]

Analogous to the way you can't kill someone with tons of hit points with one swing: they luck out, or it barely nicks them, or their skill allows them to evade, or whatever. Similarly, if someone is on top of their game, you can't swipe the sword out of their hand, or smash their bow, with one swing either. You have to wear them down first, to the point where they start getting careless.

Ohhh...I like that idea very much. I think it's kinda weird for fighters to be able to swing an axe all day long the same way no matter what their HP is at, and should be showing when they are getting whittled down. After all how many HP of damage do you take before you lose a quart of blood? I would be staggering around a battlefield if I had lost a pint, wearing armor and carrying a heavy weapon and such. I will have to ponder this while mowing the lawn...

 

[ruleslawyer]

Dunno. I think that messes a bit much with the nebulous idea that is hp. I prefer hp to be abstract to the point that an interplay with sunder/disarm would just raise weird flavor issues.

I like PlaneSailing's idea; a -5 penalty to the attacker's roll to sunder or disarm sounds about right. I'd still let the feats remove the AoO rather than negate the penalty; automatic AoO is a pretty harsh penalty for these actions, and I'd like to see some use of these tactics IMG. I guess you could have a pair of feats, the first of which removes the penalty and the second of which removes the AoO.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Hey KQQl, someone resurrected this thread. You don't read rgfd, do you, MerakS?

What's that?

 

[DonAdam]

A bonus for the defender isn't a bad idea.

You might also consider the same thing that I do with grappling now: it's a standard action.

Therefore, at high levels, you get one chance a round, period.