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Old 05-23-2020, 09:15 PM   #1
Axly Suregrip
 
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Durham, NC
Default The Whip is just wrong

The whip has too much going for it. It needs to be fixed in the game, not handled by house rule.

First let's look at the whip. The whip has a lot going for it:
- can strike at 3 to 5 hex range
- intervening figures (friend or foe) do not block it
- has no range modifier since it is not a thrown or missile weapon
- can be used to target head and hands for for increased damage or effects (aimed shots) like a thrown dagger, but without the range modifier. (NOTE: range 3 only).
- Also better than the thrown dagger since you do not throw the weapon away thus disarming yourself.
- can be used like a lasso to choke or disable, but unlike the lasso without the loss of the whip if you miss. Like the lasso, the whip is tied up while continuing to choke,etc.


These are the issues I have with it:

1) Damage is too high. Historically 40 lashes was considered a death sentence. Thus a sentence of 39 lashes was considered the most allowed without it being a death sentence. The whip does 1-1 damage, thus averages 2.5 per hit, that would be 100 damage on average for 40 lashes. A damage of 1-5 (average is 1/6 of a point) seems closer to reality. If you want to give the benefit of doubt to the whip then 1-4 (average is 0.5 per hit, thus 40 lashes give 20 damage). If you are going for realism, then 1-5. If you want it to remain a viable weapon then 1-4 at the very most.

Another way to look at the damage is to compare a dagger attack to a whip attack in real life. A single stab from a knife can penetrate the heart or even the head, so it is considered a lethal attack. A single lash from a whip is never thought of as lethal, but painful. The whip should not be doing the same amount of damage as a dagger.


2) There is no range modifier for the whip. There are for thrown weapons. But the whip can strike at 5 hex range without a modifier and it can do so with intervening figures. At a 5 hex range a thrown weapon has a -5 DX. So the whip compared to the thrown dagger for a aimed shot at range 3 (aimed shots not allowed over 3 hexes range) produce the same results and the same damage when they hit, but the thrown dagger will be at a -3 DX to hit. We are saying that at 20 feet (5 hexes x 4 feet) a man with a whip is just as likely to hit his target as he is to hit a target with a bat next to him? Seems to me that the throw DX modifier would be appropriate.


3) Intervening foes should be a problem. Okay so your team mates know not to cause a problem when you are whipping over their heads at your foes. But why would the foes that are intervening wish to cooperate at you whipping their friends behind them? You should have to roll to miss foes and a failed miss in this case results in no damage to anyone.


4) Both the lasso and whip rules need to explicitly state that while the whip/lasso is doing continued chocking damage or disabling, the lasso holder or whip holder is using their attack action to keep it taunt. If they let go, then the foe no longer needs to do a 3vDX roll to get rid of the whip/lasso. This seems implied but is an omission that should be fixed in the rules.


If nothing else, the damage should be fixed. This alone corrects most of what is wrong with the whip.



A whip is a common item through out the ages. It should be in the game. It just should not be a very effective weapon, because it just is not. As it is, I have banned it because it is just used as a weird exploit.
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