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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3326637" data-attributes="member: 4937">IMO, a high level character shouldn't be treatened by a low level one with a knife.  How many times in heroic fiction does some low level character pull a knife on the hero, and the hero confidently takes him down.  In any realistic combat system, that just doesn't happen.  A knife is serious business and even a skilled fighter will be lucky to get away without needing medical treatment.As for 'allowing' themselves to be shot with arrows, standing stock still and allowing yourself to be hit is the same thing as being helpless against the attack.  It's just voluntarily helpless as opposed to the more usual situation.  The point is that a high level character DOESN'T let himself be hit by arrows.  He expends hit points in the act of avoiding the attack, basically taking no or little physical damage.  Anyone that has read the 1st edition DMG knows that hit points are abstract and don't represent necessarily physical damage.  So call them 'hero points' if you have to.Which is why characters that wield weapons that do little base damage take power attack.Is he? If Riddlin is lethal with his dagger in combat, then he must be able to do alot of damage with it in combat.  If Riddlin can only manage 1d4+1 damage, then he IS NOT lethal with his dagger in combat.  The game says so.  He may be a skilled fighter in his way, he just doesn't know the tricks of overcoming another skilled fighters defences quickly.  If you want Riddlin to be lethal with his dagger, then give him the ability to be lethal with his dagger.so much for knowing the game.  Riddlin, lethal knife fighter, knows that the Thug is too wary and experienced to be taken down by any single ordinary attack.  But Riddlin is a canny fighter.  He uses his knowledge of 'Improved Feint' to bypass the Thug's defenses quickly, catching his less skilled opponent off gaurd.  He then uses his knowledge of 'Power Attack' to forgo some of the needless fineese, and makes a vicious thrust into the throat of the unprepared unarmored flat-footed thug (AC 10).  His total attack is a 25 of which he poured 10 into 'Power Attack', beating the AC by 5 points.  Riddlin's player rolls damage - 1d4, rolling a 4, plus +1 damage for 13 STR, +10 damage for power attack, +5d6 damage from his sneak attack for a total of 33 damage.The thug is dropped instantly (to -5 hit points), and hits the street bleeding profusely from a serious throat wound.  Now that is a lethal knife fighter, reflective of someone who knows where to hit and make it count.There are alot of complaints I have with the D&D combat system, but you aren't really touching on what I would consider a big problem.  If we really want to make for more interesting combat, how about preventing a character from completing all of his iterative attacks in a single phase of the round?  Ahh, but then there is that 'speed of play' tradeoff.  There isn't a single best way to do things.  There is just best for what you are trying to do.</blockquote>

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