Close Combat Stress Test

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

I wouldn't have animal monsters go for the eyes or face, unless it was either their shtick, or they were trained.

Great Cats going for the neck? Yes. Giant Spider biting at your eyes? No.

I know. "Best attack" is not the same as "what the monster will actually use." However, from Argua's perspective, doing threat analysis, you can't just assume that the spiders will use a bad attack. "The bite won't inflict injury" caught my eye as overly optimistic.

I'm still trying to work out a philosophy on how smart to play the monsters (and how kamikaze). I'm almost to the point of knowing what the good tactics are; next step is to figure out how much to dial things down in the interests of fun and realism. I'm considering stealing a page from Pieter Spronck's research on dynamic difficulty and having monsters that are color coded not so much by POWER as by NASTINESS. E.g. white spiders just Move up to you and Attack next turn, red spiders retreat when they Dodge, orange spiders move into close combat, yellow spiders cooperate to use up your retreating and grapple you in close combat, blue spiders get behind you so you can't retreat and go for the face and try to Shove you in webs, ultraviolet spiders Wait until another spider is in close combat and you've no room to retreat and then do All Out (Determined) attacks on the eyes, etc.

Especially not in a fight where it looks like Close Combat is a terrible factor and with PCs not designed to be able to handle it decisively.

Oh, I don't believe in pulling punches based on what the PCs are ready for. Only based on the current difficulty level, however that's measured (and which players should have visibility into and some control over, although the DM needs control too in order to not get bored).

The first fight of the game is the ideal time to crank up the difficulty and start killing PCs (or trying to do so). It sets player expectations.

How is this a Win/Win? The foe can simply Step back out of Close Combat on their turn.

In part I'm thinking "not getting your face parried for something that wouldn't do much damage even if it landed." But I'm also thinking "target doesn't get to move out of close combat" which could lead to them still being in close combat next time they would like to attack, block, or parry.

For example, if someone shoots an arrow at their eyeball, they can't block. That won't happen in this scenario but I wasn't thinking exclusively of the spiders in the cellar. Another example that could very well happen in this scenario: not retreating allows a spider or another PC to get behind you, precluding retreat later in the round before your turn, and opening you up both to next-round rear attacks and to close combat frontal attacks (because now you can't retreat). Another example: other spiders might get to step and Attack instead of Move and Attack.

Allowing the enemy a free retreat to a better tactical position in exchange for negligible damage potential is a lose/lose I think; avoiding a lose/lose is a win/win.

Form my understanding (having read a fair few blog reports and PbP games of I Smell A Rat), it's mostly that first battle catching parties flatfooted, and a few "special trick" monsters later that make the adventure particularly deadly for new Players. If a group is an old hand to GURPS (or just used to "puzzle-solving" for monsters and understand Close Combat rules) or has a GM who isn't being [evil], then it seems pretty straight forward.

Clarification: I meant "potentially deadly," per discussion above about ultraviolet spiders. I Smell A Rat does encourage GMs to throw up to 18 huge spiders at a 6 man party and that's potentially deadly in its own way, but I'm more fascinated by the potential for truly evil tricks with only six to eight huge spiders and four or five big spiders to set the stage. Having a real and realistic tactical dimension to play is... well, it's a big change (for me) from D&D 5E and even in many ways from AD&D (which is more about the strategic dimension and resource management).