02-14-2018, 01:13 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
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True, although a good HT score pays dividends here (but not so much if it's a major wound to the vitals, face or skull) Last edited by Tomsdad; 02-14-2018 at 03:18 AM. |
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02-14-2018, 05:51 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
High HT is really not much of a problem without high HP and, even then, HP is a finite resource. It really does not matter if a character possesses HT 16 and HP 20, other than that they might actually require 120 points of damage to avoid dying (even with HT 16, they will go unconscious in under a minute after they reach -HP).
What really matters is how effective they are in incapacitating their enemy before their enemies. In a TL5+ campaign, skill and speed matter more than HT and HP because a large caliber bullet can deal between an average of 21 (4d pi+) to 63 (6d×2 pi+) points of damage to a target without armor (and you can easily take 3 hits a turn from a gun with an RoF above 3). It is much better to have a dodge of 13 and avoid 83% of attacks than to have HP 20 and just accept five attacks before dying. |
02-14-2018, 06:14 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
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However for me high HT is most definitely a huge advantage because it keeps you on your feet. You drop unconscious and potentially you're a coup de grace at your opponent's whim away from dead with not much input into the outcome. Additionally IME in hand to hand being knocked down is pretty much a fight ender under most circumstances, high HT can prevent that *of course some TL's provide their own answer in having personal armor that keep up with hand held weapons. IME setting where you have high damage firearms and no armour are particularly lethal e.g wild west (which is even worse as high skill is in keeping with the genre at times as well) and large chunks of the C20th (7d rifles vs. no body armor worth mentioning = "yikes I'm rolling to stop bleeding at what penalty!"), Last edited by Tomsdad; 02-14-2018 at 12:05 PM. |
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02-14-2018, 06:42 AM | #14 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Cockeysville, MD
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
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02-14-2018, 07:10 AM | #15 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
The note about putting your opponent on a timer is a good one. Unless you have ranged weapons, I can move away from you and you won't be able to close the distance. You'll eventually loose consciousness.
If ranged weapons ARE on the table, dodge becomes much more important and your dodge is now in the nether regions.
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02-14-2018, 07:16 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Feb 2018
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
Hi everyone,
Thanks so much for all of the information. I have a lot more insight now as to how movement can affect combat. In my mock combat, I basically had 2 fighters toe to toe slugging it out, so to speak. But if the unslowed character moves out of range of the injured character, isn't it a Move & Attack at -4 to get back into range without being attacked herself? Otherwise, they are back on even footing again, as long as the injured party keeps making HT rolls. I will definitely look at the effects in the Martial Arts books, and I'm already considering some house rules around repeated shock. In my combat, the injured party was kicked for at least 3 points of damage every turn for 5 rounds, but missed in the 6th round, so no penalty to his attack after that. I'd think he'd be reeling for more than 1 second after being kicked 5 times in a row. |
02-14-2018, 07:31 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
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02-14-2018, 07:51 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
Another critically important thing to remember is that combat doesn't occur in an infinite flat plain with no walls or obstacles. I mean, unless you really want it to, but generally roleplaying games (like real life) have more interesting settings.
Having more mobility means even more when you have terrain features to work with, as you can often maneuver your opponent into an area beneficial for you. Many people at 1/3 HP or less are going to be picking options like Retreat to make up for substantially reduced defenses - when you have better mobility, you can push them back where you want them to be and always have the option to withdraw, or you can kite them around obstacles, or attack and then step back, leaving them two hexes away after their retreat. Superior mobility means you can circle around behind them and attack from behind, stacking further defense penalties or even avoiding them entirely (see Runaround Attack for details). Even just circling to their side to make use of the -2 to defense for a flank attack is useful - with dodge halved any additional penalty becomes a major impact.
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02-14-2018, 07:53 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
Yes, it just becomes a matter of having patience. It actually works in the favor of PCs when facing opponents without Bloodlust, as they will ignore PCs who are severely injured unless they are obviously up to no good (charging the NPC, drawing a throwing weapon, positioning for a flanking attack, etc). In the case of a severely injured character using a Move and Attack, the receiving opponent only has to use a Stop Hit to make that into a bad idea (since Initiative is determined by Basic Speed, a severely injured character is likely going after an uninjured character).
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02-14-2018, 08:00 AM | #20 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Cockeysville, MD
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Re: Negative Hit Point effects
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Another good option is Evaluate which is allowed for any target that you can reach with a Move and Attack. If they make it into step space after a turn then all the better. The last thing that I would purpose is that when you GM enemies... don't make them suicidal! Most people that are fighting to stay conscious are going to loose their will to fight. They will offer surrender, try to flee combat, or just collapse and feign death. Fights don't have to go on to the bitter end.
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