Kunimatyu
First Post
Those of us who've been following the Iron Heroes threads on ENWorld for awhile will remember this question:
How does an Iron Heroes party, without magic, manage to defeat a dragon in a field?
It's a tricky question, because the dragon can just fly and breathe on the party, while always staying out of melee range. Well, Iron Heroes actually does provide a clever means to deal with this.
First, I direct you to the Disrupting Attack stunt, available on the Iron Heroes webpage, so posting here should be okay.
Disrupting Attack (Full Attack)
You fire an arrow into a dragon's maw, leaving it unable to breathe fire for a short time. You splash ink onto a basilisk's face, nullifying the effect of its gaze to turn your friends into stone. These are example of disrupting attack stunts.
The disrupting attack stunt works a bit differently from the other offensive stunts. You must bid on the Fortitude save DC your target must beat to continue using a supernatural ability or an extraordinary ability. Once you pick the DC, you then must make a skill check with a DC equal to the chosen save DC + 10. If you succeed, your foe loses the use of the attack mode of your choice for 1 round. If the creature randomly determines how often it can use an ability, increase the time it must wait by 1 round. For example, a dragon might be able to breathe once every 1d4 rounds. If you successfully used this stunt against it, it would have to wait 1 extra round before breathing again.
Failure: If this stunt fails, the creature continues to use its special ability as normal.
Special: If you use a base attack check to complete this stunt, you inflict your attack's damage without any bonuses. In this case, you trade brute force for accuracy and precision. If you use an improvised weapon, you do not gain this benefit.
Examples: Use a base attack check to injure a creature's eyes, preventing it from using a deadly gaze. Use a Spot check to target a gorgon's throat before firing so that your arrow disrupts its breath weapon.
...
Okay, so Disrupting Attack can disable a monster's supernatural or extraordinary ability. Now, let's look at a specific monster ability from the SRD:
Flight (Ex or Su): A creature with this ability can cease or resume flight as a free action. If the ability is supernatural, it becomes ineffective in an antimagic field, and the creature loses its ability to fly for as long as the antimagic effect persists.
...
So, a character with a longbow bids on a Fort save DC, then makes a Spot check of 10+that number. If they succeed, they fire an arrow at the dragon's wing, disabling its flight for one round, and causing the dragon to plummet towards the ground, giving the fighters at least a round to attack it, and probably more, if one character is willing to disable its flight every round. This is theoretically also useful against powerful outsiders like pit fiends and balors.
Thoughts?
How does an Iron Heroes party, without magic, manage to defeat a dragon in a field?
It's a tricky question, because the dragon can just fly and breathe on the party, while always staying out of melee range. Well, Iron Heroes actually does provide a clever means to deal with this.
First, I direct you to the Disrupting Attack stunt, available on the Iron Heroes webpage, so posting here should be okay.
Disrupting Attack (Full Attack)
You fire an arrow into a dragon's maw, leaving it unable to breathe fire for a short time. You splash ink onto a basilisk's face, nullifying the effect of its gaze to turn your friends into stone. These are example of disrupting attack stunts.
The disrupting attack stunt works a bit differently from the other offensive stunts. You must bid on the Fortitude save DC your target must beat to continue using a supernatural ability or an extraordinary ability. Once you pick the DC, you then must make a skill check with a DC equal to the chosen save DC + 10. If you succeed, your foe loses the use of the attack mode of your choice for 1 round. If the creature randomly determines how often it can use an ability, increase the time it must wait by 1 round. For example, a dragon might be able to breathe once every 1d4 rounds. If you successfully used this stunt against it, it would have to wait 1 extra round before breathing again.
Failure: If this stunt fails, the creature continues to use its special ability as normal.
Special: If you use a base attack check to complete this stunt, you inflict your attack's damage without any bonuses. In this case, you trade brute force for accuracy and precision. If you use an improvised weapon, you do not gain this benefit.
Examples: Use a base attack check to injure a creature's eyes, preventing it from using a deadly gaze. Use a Spot check to target a gorgon's throat before firing so that your arrow disrupts its breath weapon.
...
Okay, so Disrupting Attack can disable a monster's supernatural or extraordinary ability. Now, let's look at a specific monster ability from the SRD:
Flight (Ex or Su): A creature with this ability can cease or resume flight as a free action. If the ability is supernatural, it becomes ineffective in an antimagic field, and the creature loses its ability to fly for as long as the antimagic effect persists.
...
So, a character with a longbow bids on a Fort save DC, then makes a Spot check of 10+that number. If they succeed, they fire an arrow at the dragon's wing, disabling its flight for one round, and causing the dragon to plummet towards the ground, giving the fighters at least a round to attack it, and probably more, if one character is willing to disable its flight every round. This is theoretically also useful against powerful outsiders like pit fiends and balors.
Thoughts?
