Vitality Damage and Damage-based Special Attacks

[swrushing]

Just because it seems like they are being confused... there is a difference between "unaware during surprise round" (which only happens when surprise occurs, a tactical or circumstantial thing) and "one the first round of combat but before you act" (which happens every combat)

I have played in fantasy games where surprise round went to con (or Wp or whatever you wanna call them) and frankly it worked very well IMO. It did shift the focus of combat and planning away from "we slug it out" and towards "we plan well" and, yes, it did serve to help balance a bit the non-armor option.

I don't have any problems with surprise round being big whammy opportunity, but i would not by default extend that to carry over into "merely flatfooted" as well.

 

[GlassJaw]

I don't have any problems with surprise round being big whammy opportunity, but i would not by default extend that to carry over into "merely flatfooted" as well.

Right, big difference between the surprise round and the 1st round. Damage going to WP/Con while flat-footed in the 1st round is even too gritty for me!

 

[genshou]

Perhaps it would be better if I were more careful with my language, simply referring to a target's state as an unaware combatant during the surprise round as opposed to being first in the initiative order.

What I meant when I referred to the "first round is always a surprise round" variant is that the first round of every combat counts as a surprise round, even if all characters are aware. Thus, characters get only a partial action in the first round, weakening the impact of initiative. If combatants took wound damage when unaware in the surprise round, sneak attack would be far too powerful (unless you used an alternate rules method for sneak attacks; see this thread)

I need to stop posting after midnight...

I suppose I should extend that to anytime past 17:00...