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Old 05-20-2018, 09:25 AM   #1
Dalin
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
Default Traps and crippling

Scenario: A character with 16 basic HP sets off a trap that has four blades striking his hand for 1d cutting damage each. He wears DR 1 gloves.

Following the crippling rules on Exploits, p. 61, the minimum injury to cripple his hand from a single wound is 6 (16/3, rounding down). Taking into account his DR 1 and the 1.5 wounding modifier for cutting, he'll receive a crippling injury on a roll of 5 or 6 for any one of the four blades (5-1 = 4x1.5 = 6). Indeed, since that is the maximum damage that he could take from an attack, a roll of six wouldn't be any worse than a roll of 5.

As it turned out, I rolled 4, 4, 4, and 3, doing a total of 15 points of injury after adjusting for DR and cutting. His hand was not crippled, but because he was already reeling from prior injuries, this put him near collapse (at -11 HP). No single blade did more than HP/2, so none of these counted as a major wound.

Is this correct by RAW? This is how we ran it, and it went fine, but it did feel a bit strange that he could lose so many HP from his hand.

If the first injury had crippled the hand, would the following blades have continued to cause additional injury? I assume yes. (The injury cutoff is just for single attacks that exceed the minimum crippling threshold.)

Would it be reasonable to consider all four blades as a single attack? If I were to run the scenario again, I might do this but count the DR for each, making it 4d-4. This would increase the odds of crippling (≈90% chance of rolling 10 or more basic damage), and give an appreciable chance for dismemberment (≈34% chance of rolling 16 or more basic damage). On the flip side, the trap would do no more than 6 injury total.
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Old 05-20-2018, 07:29 PM   #2
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

I approve. It's mean and just the thing to do for traps when your players laugh off that non-crippling injury.
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Old 05-20-2018, 09:14 PM   #3
Dalillama
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

It's a pretty garbage blade trap if it won't mangle the hand of someone foolish enough to reach into it, IMO.
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Old 05-20-2018, 09:48 PM   #4
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

The main reason cumulative damage to a location doesn't count for crippling is because it would require you to track damage by location.
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Old 05-21-2018, 01:12 AM   #5
DocRailgun
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

He didn't lose the HP from his hand. He lost HP from his total. The blades just happened to hit his hand. HPs aren't tracked by location.
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Originally Posted by Dalin View Post

Is this correct by RAW? This is how we ran it, and it went fine, but it did feel a bit strange that he could lose so many HP from his hand.
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Old 05-22-2018, 03:10 PM   #6
martinl
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
The main reason cumulative damage to a location doesn't count for crippling is because it would require you to track damage by location.
However, in this specific case the location is known, (all four blades hit his hand at in one "attack") and using the damage total for crippling purposes would be fine.

Taken to extremes, if there were 100 blades doing 1d-2 (blender trap) by RAW the fighter dies. If you use the damage total not RAW approach above, he instead, and more realistically, just loses the hand.

GM judgement is a thing to be encouraged.
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Old 05-22-2018, 06:40 PM   #7
Bruno
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

If you add them together into one attack, it makes it easier to cripple but it won't kill because damage above the crippling threshold is lost.
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Old 05-22-2018, 07:13 PM   #8
dcarson
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

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If you add them together into one attack, it makes it easier to cripple but it won't kill because damage above the crippling threshold is lost.
Which is a better result normally.
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Old 05-23-2018, 08:51 AM   #9
Joe
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalin View Post
Would it be reasonable to consider all four blades as a single attack? If I were to run the scenario again, I might do this but count the DR for each, making it 4d-4. This would increase the odds of crippling (≈90% chance of rolling 10 or more basic damage), and give an appreciable chance for dismemberment (≈34% chance of rolling 16 or more basic damage). On the flip side, the trap would do no more than 6 injury total.
That strikes me as a great solution. To my mind this is an excellent example of a situation in which it's more fun to have fiction trump the rules (or at least have the fiction encourage the GM to interpret the rules in a flexible manner). If you stick your hand in a blender-like blade trap, and it turns out to be very nasty (i.e. it rolls up a ton of damage), then the effect is going to be to cripple your hand.

Counting all four blades as one attack, but counting the DR four times, seems like a good way to model this mechanically.

Now different people have different play styles; this may not work for some. That's cool. Your solution certainly appeals to me, though.
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Old 05-23-2018, 10:03 AM   #10
Dalin
 
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Default Re: Traps and crippling

Thanks, all, for your feedback. Next time the swashbuckler impulsively sticks his hand in a blender, he'd best hope it's his off-hand. ;)
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