Thread: Beats Suck(?)
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Old 12-19-2010, 04:42 AM   #37
Kuroshima
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Default Re: Beats Suck(?)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Full disclosure, I also use the 'Beat acts as Defensive Feint as well' and 'success by 5+ Unreadies the weapon, success by 10+ disarms it'*.

Playtesting reveals no problems so far. After all, this takes up an attack that could have seriously wounded or killed the opponent and the best you can gain is that the enemy's main weapon is taken out of play for one turn. Given that most serious combatants have either a shield or a back-up weapon, this is not the be all and end all of fight-enders.

Against an opponent with similar levels of skill, but slightly inferior ST, it's a nice option, but rarely used by my players. I'll have to inquire about it more closely.

It could be terribly effective when used by giants or ogres, but given that I have other house rules that make blade-to-blade contact with much heavier weapons a bad idea, the PCs tend to Dodge against massively strong foes.

*Two-handed weapons receive a +2 to make and resist Beats in my house rules, as well.
Personally, I have my house rules for beats, but I'm going to steal some from you too ;)
  • Beats are both offensive and defensive feints at the same time
  • Beats require a second roll against the skill of the beaten weapon, with a penalty equal to how much the beat was successfull (Meaning that if you won the contest by 5, then he rolls skill-5). Failure unreadies the weapon, critical failure disarms, for handheld weapons, and becomes a full damage attack against the item for items that can not be disarmed (strapped shields, etc). The defender can again choose to use either ST or DX for this roll.
  • Even if a shield is not unreadied by the beat, it's ability to boost your defenses is reduced. Reduce the DB bonus granted by the shield, to defenses other than block, by 1 per 5 points the beat was successfull.
  • Beats are also weak (-2 per dice) attacks against the beaten objects.
  • Two handed weapons resist beats at +2
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Last edited by Kuroshima; 12-19-2010 at 04:52 AM.
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