Pulling out someone elses weapon.

[Artoomis]

I like the Disarm-with-a-healthy-bonus-to-the-fighter option. The fighter will, in all likelihood, see what's going on and attempt to stop it, thus the opposed disarm. Since the fighter would likely just grab his weapon (and/or smack the goblin - AoO for that) to prevent the disarming, it might be easiest to do this:

Standard disarm attempt, no bonuses or penalties. This represents the goblin actualy getting to the weapon (since it is not yet drawn)

Followed by an opposed strength roll which the goblin needs to win to snatch the weapon from the fighter.

Maybe not the best answer, but at least it's easy for the Player and DM to do it.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Why would that be? It's just in an open sheath and readied to go so the fighter can pull it out. If the Goblin gets his hand on it then it's out of the sheath, there shouldn't be an attack roll on that.

First of all pulling it out of the sheath is a MEA for the fighter, so it definitely will be for the goblin, too, if the DM is generous.

Touching it at all is a striking an object. I would not assume just because because you touch something you get your hand firmly grasped on it. So big minuses there.

How I would do it:

I would model this as a Striking an Object (provoking AoO) at the hilt with a -6 penalty to get a firm hold. Then the goblin needs to spend a MEA to draw the weapon.

So if the goblin's timing is bad he finishes his turn with his hand on the sword still in the hilt. The fighter would drop his spear and also make a strike an object roll to get a good grasp on the sword. I would give him big bonuses and not provoke an AoO. Now I would let them make opposed disarm rolls to decide who gains control of the sword.

 

[mayonnaise]

Well, the figher also has quick-draw. That doesn't matter too much though because the fighter is the one that has it. But it still has to be VERY easy to pull from the sheath. And it should be a target number because the fighter doesn't really even have any say in the matter. He's using a different weapon and he shouldn't get any sort of opposed roll because it's just tucked in his belt, or in his sheath, etc.

Why wouldn't quick draw matter? It's a free action to drop an item in your hands, and a free action to draw a weapon with quick draw. So the fighter in question can have both weapons out in the blink of an eye. He drops the spear and pulls both swords while the goblins tumble towards him.

Situations like that are exactly WHY you blow a feat on quickdraw.

 

[IceBear]

But he can't do anything until his initiative count.

IceBear

 

[Dr. Zoom]

You can only use Quickdraw when it is your turn. You cannot interupt the goblin's action unless you Readied against him. IIRC, you cannot use quickdraw to make an AoO because without the weapon in hand you do not threaten him with it to begin with.

 

[Gromm]

Why would that be? It's just in an open sheath and readied to go so the fighter can pull it out. If the Goblin gets his hand on it then it's out of the sheath, there shouldn't be an attack roll on that.

Its also angled so the fighter can get it out easy, meaning its higher than the goblin's and angled wrong. Not to mention all the fighter has to do is turn his body and the sword wont come out of the sheath easily.
I'd personally think a grapple check isn't too far out of line, but then again there are the disarming an object rules above.

 

[dr_nukem]

Drawing a weapon is a MEA unless you combine said action with a move and have a +1 BAB *OR* you have the Quickdraw feat.

Getting a hand on the sword in the sheath will require either an attack (Attacking an item or Touch Attack depending on how you see it) or a skill check (pickpocket in this example). Either of those constitutes a standard action.

So, in this case, the goblins COULD NOT tumble in (MEA), grab the sword (Std Act), and draw (MEA) it all in one round.

If the goblin was hasted, acting on a surprise round and had a higher iniative, or had quickdraw then he could do all of this in one round.

As to the mechanics of how this could be done, the comments above give a good idea. My thoughts:

A successful touch attack to physically grab the weapon...unless the goblin has Improved Unarmed Attack this would provoke an AoO.

A successful pickpocket check (DC determined by the size of the weapon) to pull out the weapon without an opposed attack/disarm roll. Tiny Weapons DC 20, Small DC 25, Medium DC 30, Large DC 35.

If the Pickpocket failed then an opposed Grapple check to determine who get's the weapon.

THem's my thoughts...

 

[mayonnaise]

But he can't do anything until his initiative count.

IceBear

Does it say somewhere that you can only take free actions on your turn? I thought since it didn't really require an action, you could perform free actions (like talking, dropping something held, etc.) at any point in a round.

 

[hong]

Does it say somewhere that you can only take free actions on your turn? I thought since it didn't really require an action, you could perform free actions (like talking, dropping something held, etc.) at any point in a round.

PHB, p.121: "You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action". In this context, "action" is 3E jargon for the stuff that you do on your turn: attacking, casting a spell, running away, etc. Note that there's a distinction between "free action" and "not an action"; the latter can be done any time, even when it's not your turn. There are some consequences to this: eg, casting a quickened spell is a free action, rather than not-an-action, so you can only cast a quickened spell when it's your turn. Similarly, if you have Quick-draw, you can still only draw a weapon when it's your turn.

If you want to be completely anal, this also means that since talking is given as an example of a free action, characters are mute until their turn in the initiative order comes up.

 

[0-hr]

Does it say somewhere that you can only take free actions on your turn?

Yes, it does.

One thing to keep in mind for all of the suggestions given above: it should be easier to disarm the fighter of a weapon in his sheath as compared to a weapon that is in his hand.

Personally, I'd just make this a plain old disarm attempt, but give the fighter a -4 penalty for wielding the weapon with his hip rather than his hand