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Old 11-10-2014, 01:40 PM   #1
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default [Technical Grappling] Removing a Stuck Pick

This was originally part of a response to the More versatile rules for ST-Based Innate Attacks thread, but I felt it a bit of a sidetrack so decided to make a new thread instead.

Now, there's an old debate on how one might go about changing the "ST check on your next turn" for removing a stuck sw/imp weapon with some sort of attack roll, in order to allow a character to use Rapid Strike to, say, swing a pick into one foe's skull, then pull it out and thunk it into another foe's chest, all in one turn.

It occurs to me that Technical Grappling may well give us a pretty solid mechanism to pull this off. In that, impaling weapons can (or must, if sw/imp) inflict Control Points equal to basic damage. Such CP can be increased by grappling attacks, but the initial CP cannot be spent. It occurs to me that simply allowing a grappling attack to remove CP would work perfectly well for removing the pick - once CP are down to 0, the pick has been removed. Assuming no armor, every 2 CP thus removed should inflict 1 impaling damage, working out to every 1 CP removed causing 1 HP injury to a typical target. If armor is in play, this "1 damage per 2 CP" only applies while the pick is in the target's flesh. Probably the best way to game all this out is actually to just say that CP of damage must match or exceed the CP of the weapon's grapple, but the character can spend any accumulated CP to negate "impaled CP" on a one-for-one basis. If the weapon got stuck on a swing, it may be best to use Swing damage to remove it, using it as a lever.

As an example, let's take an ST 15 Weapon Master with Polearm-19 (DX+7), Armed Grappling (Polearm)-19, and a dueling halberd up against a fellow in DR 5 plate armor. He takes a swing against his opponent and scores a hit, dealing a whopping 4d+1 damage. He rolls 12, dealing 7 damage past his foe's armor and thus 14 injury. His foe drops, failing his roll against Stunning. Our halberdier now has 12 CP on the foe, but would rather attack someone else this next round. He makes a 2-hit Rapid Strike and rolls against Armed Grappling (Polearm) at -3 and succeeds; his foe's measly defense has no chance (stunned, prone, and grappled for 12 CP). He rolls 5d-1 (high skill gives him +2 Trained ST), this time getting a 20 - enough to pull the weapon out. His initial target takes an additional 7 HP injury (1 HP for each CP removed until the 5 for armor came into play; or just half the original injury, if you prefer) and he can take a swing at the next foe.


How does this sound? Note it's actually fairly similar to TKD's suggestion from his blog, but with the explicit inclusion of TG and making it into an Attack.
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