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Old 05-03-2018, 01:40 PM   #7
Kromm
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Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: Shield Rush in DFRPG

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post

... or smaller/weaker ones, surely?
Picking on the weak is a time-honored delver tradition that needs no mention. I've yet to see a delver discard the +666 Sword of Murdering and use a toothpick just to give the kobolds a fighting chance.

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post

I assume the spider didn't dodge because it had some sort of instinctive spider tactical thought of "I can take that disgusting endoskeletal horror DOWN."
Or perhaps instinctive knowledge of "Haha, that's going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me! I'll stand here and let you smash yourself!" When I GM, I generally have massive monsters just let delvers slam them without bothering to defend, because it's like a free shot at the delvers. And there's a certain joy to watching puny two-legged humans try to knock down dragons, only to knock themselves out cold.

It's possible to build a character around shield rushes, but that calls for a large shield with a spike, plus high ST and Striking ST, plus Weapon Master (Shield) for a further per-die bonus. A knight who dumps all 60 advantage points into ST +3 [30], Striking ST 2 [10], and Weapon Master (Shield) [20] starts with thrust 2d-1 and a basic slam of 2d-3, and will be adding +2 per die with a shield, for 2d+1. With a DB 3 large shield and a spike, the rush will be 2d+5. In decent armor, the knight will probably be managing Move 3 and +1 per die, for 2d+7 (average 14) . . . which is competitive with a ST 39-40 monster rolling thrust-2 of 4d-1 and adding +1 per die for speed but subtracting 3 for DB, for 4d (average 14). Being able to productively slam dragons is kind of cool.
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