Sweeping Attack

[JimmyPlenty]

There is only one polearm and one axe that can do sweeping attacks. Swords has four.

Wondering about only allowing it for ST 14 and up (two handed and great sword)

This would make high ST more valuable. It would also even out the benefit between the weapon classes.

This is more of a "gamey" thing than a realistic thought.

[hcobb]

Giant's spiked club.

[Skarg]

I think of it more as a conceptual thing. Specifically, it would seem odd to me to let a 2-handed sword sweep, but not a two-handed bastard sword.

I might however be inclined to house-rule ignoring the cutting requirement and allowing great hammers to sweep... or possibly halberds.

And yeah, probably giants' weapons... though they kind of want some more DX than RAW give them before that's liable to be more than an embarrassment.

Jackson's Lord of the Rings films showed a compelling-looking example for a very heavy/strong crushing weapon being able to swing, IIRC... eh, well it's pretty crazy exaggerated Hollywoo and world-class magic, but still... https://gfycat.com/uglywindingeidolo...hting-swinging

[JimmyPlenty]

Originally Posted by Skarg

I think of it more as a conceptual thing. Specifically, it would seem odd to me to let a 2-handed sword sweep, but not a two-handed bastard sword.

I might however be inclined to house-rule ignoring the cutting requirement and allowing great hammers to sweep... or possibly halberds.

And yeah, probably giants' weapons... though they kind of want some more DX than RAW give them before that's liable to be more than an embarrassment.

Jackson's Lord of the Rings films showed a compelling-looking example for a very heavy/strong crushing weapon being able to swing, IIRC... eh, well it's pretty crazy exaggerated Hollywoo and world-class magic, but still... https://gfycat.com/uglywindingeidolo...hting-swinging

Thanks. Yeah that makes sense.

Actually, scratch all this. When I was looking at the swords, which has 3 not four. Still more than the others at 1, but not THAT much of a difference I guess.

[TedT]

Request for clarification: with sweeping blows, you "roll separately for each target figure, at the time of the lowest adjDX applicable to any of them." Does this mean that since one of the three foes in front of Rhondaw is protected by a blur spell, that the sweeping blow attack happens 4 DX points later than it would have, in turn order, had the foe not had the blur protection? I find the second part of the rule, from page 126, a bit hard to understand in terms of its wording.

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by TedT

Request for clarification: with sweeping blows, you "roll separately for each target figure, at the time of the lowest adjDX applicable to any of them." Does this mean that since one of the three foes in front of Rhondaw is protected by a blur spell, that the sweeping blow attack happens 4 DX points later than it would have, in turn order, had the foe not had the blur protection? I find the second part of the rule, from page 126, a bit hard to understand in terms of its wording.

I think it does say that, leading to a possible situation where you roll to hit the middle figure before rolling to hit the figures on your left and right front hexes which is, well, odd. (Did not read carefully enough and misread TedT's question, misremembered the rule and generally got everything wrong.)

But there's quite a bit of discussion about ignoring DX adjustments due to the target rather than the attacker when figuring order of attacks. Some ignore them, some play as RAW requires. I tend to ignore them, partly for simplicity's sake.

Welcome to the forum, by the way. I'm a newb here myself.

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by TedT

Request for clarification: with sweeping blows, you "roll separately for each target figure, at the time of the lowest adjDX applicable to any of them." Does this mean that since one of the three foes in front of Rhondaw is protected by a blur spell, that the sweeping blow attack happens 4 DX points later than it would have, in turn order, had the foe not had the blur protection? I find the second part of the rule, from page 126, a bit hard to understand in terms of its wording.

Hi TedT,
It says that you do the sweep attacks (the two or three separate rolls) at the same time, which is the time of the lowest adjDX.

Now a separate topic is which DX adjustments are use to modify attack order. As phiwum pointed out this varies by GM. It comes down to three basic approaches:
- adjDX (after armor) is always used without further adjustments
- only modifiers that apply to attacker himself affect attack order (eg. DX loss due to injury attack received would affect order, but not DX loss due to target being blurred or target facing)
- all modifiers affect attack order.

The first two methods make it much simpler when the attacker attacks. The third method means your attacker may have three different attack times (not talking about sweeps here) depending on which target he attacks.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by JimmyPlenty

Wondering about only allowing it for ST 14 and up (two handed and great sword)

I generally dislike step changes (ST 13 can't, ST 14 can) because they are gamey and create magic numbers. I'm not sure what you're trying to do but I'd generally be OK with letting almost anything do a sweeping blow.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

I generally dislike step changes (ST 13 can't, ST 14 can) because they are gamey and create magic numbers. I'm not sure what you're trying to do but I'd generally be OK with letting almost anything do a sweeping blow.

Whataboutism a ST 6 goblin witch with a two-handed staff against a half dozen rats (two to the hex)?