Pyramid #3/89: Alternate Dungeons II

[PK]

Originally Posted by Anthony

As a side point, 2 x Crushing Striker (Limb, -20%) [8] gives you Thrust+1/die damage and means you count as armed when punching or parrying, which seems pretty solidly better than knifehand.

(A) Knifehand 2 lets you do cutting damage, not just crushing, for the same cost. So I'd call that balanced. (B) I haven't discussed the exact reasons with him in detail, but I know that for the purposes of DF only, Kromm has ruled that the only benefit of Striker (Limb, -20%) is the +1/die damage; it isn't treated as an armed attack in DF.

[Ternas]

Originally Posted by PK

(A) I haven't discussed the exact reasons with him in detail, but I know that for the purposes of DF only, Kromm has ruled that the only benefit of Striker (Limb, -20%) is the +1/die damage; it isn't treated as an armed attack in DF.

Really?

Oh goodness, if that is really true then that's really gonna mess some things up for the campaign I'm a part of, such as the Unarmed Master power-up from Pyramid 3-61 pg. 13, More Power to Dungeon Warriors that it appears Sean co-wrote, which seems to imply just the opposite. Including the benefits of weapons not getting free damage off of you on a parry. Some of our Martial Artists were really hoping for that, or at least the Natural Weapon version we had houseruled in.

Though I guess that might just be another side effect of the cosmic mod other than Stackable.

Guess that means that our MAs are gonna have to sink cash for Cestus and points into Judo to offset the Bad Grip penalty.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by PK

I know that for the purposes of DF only, Kromm has ruled that the only benefit of Striker (Limb, -20%) is the +1/die damage; it isn't treated as an armed attack in DF.

Weird. I'd think that DF would do the reverse and cause any sort of natural weapon (including claws) to count as an armed attack; monsters need a way to attack without being shredded by parries...

[Pseudonym]

Hey, outta curiosity is there a list of notes on what was corrected on the new release of this issue?

[PK]

Originally Posted by Pseudonym

Hey, outta curiosity is there a list of notes on what was corrected on the new release of this issue?

Two power ups from Eastern Adventures were updated: Aggressive Defense and Knifehand.

[Pseudonym]

Originally Posted by PK

Two power ups from Eastern Adventures were updated: Aggressive Defense and Knifehand.

Thanks, friend.

[Ternas]

Hate to pop in again, but I got into another conversation about this issue with one of the players I know.

Is there a real difference between Dragonbone from DF8 and the Spirit Wood weapon modifier from this issue? I mean other than the latter being +5CF more expensive and allowing for bows to be made unbreakable from taking Spirit Wood?

I can absolutely understand it fitting in with the whole Eastern Adventure theme, with a good portion of the Eastern culture myths I know revering dragons, it's probably more unlikely they'll be killing them for bones than such western adventures which consider dragons to be little more than overgrown reptiles that double as a firestarter. But hey, at least with this material, Bow Fencers won't have to worry about breaking them on a parry.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Ternas

Hate to pop in again, but I got into another conversation about this issue with one of the players I know.

Is there a real difference between Dragonbone from DF8 and the Spirit Wood weapon modifier from this issue? I mean other than the latter being +5CF more expensive and allowing for bows to be made unbreakable from taking Spirit Wood?

I can absolutely understand it fitting in with the whole Eastern Adventure theme, with a good portion of the Eastern culture myths I know revering dragons, it's probably more unlikely they'll be killing them for bones than such western adventures which consider dragons to be little more than overgrown reptiles that double as a firestarter. But hey, at least with this material, Bow Fencers won't have to worry about breaking them on a parry.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. in most eastern mythology you don't fight a dragon you worship or run from it. And if you kill it (good luck!) you've probably irked off the gods.

More mechanically - it's never set right with me that you couldn't use Dragonbone for bows. I know WHY it was done (it'd be hard to shape the stuff) - but it always felt weird to me. I've always been of the mind that as long as it's not unbalanced just make it cost more. So a spirit wood bow does pretty much what you say: it won't break easily when used by someone with a Bow Fencer power-up. That's essentially it. (Under the hood it's just Essential Wood with a cost factor.)

I suppose if you wanted you could say that spirit wood bows cost +16 CF more and give the effects of elven because of their tensile strength. The GM would need to decide if this could stack with elven and/or the Strongbow perk - I personally would probably allow it since the cost would be prohibitive as hell.