Unarmed vs. Knife

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Icelander

And 1d-1 cut. Unless it's a modern knife, in which case it's 1d-1 imp/1d cut for a normal Long Knife (1d-2 imp/1d-1 cut for a Cheap one) and 1d-1 imp/1d-1 cut for a bog standard Large Knife.

For the cheap Long Knife, say a very light brush or survival knife from Africa, that's an average of 3.67 injury to an unarmoured person on a thrust or swing, ignoring random vitals hits and critical hits. For a normal modern large knife it's an average of 3.67 injury on a cut and 5.83 on a stab.

Meanwhile, the unarmed character is doing an average of 1 injury with a punch or 1.5 injury on a kick, hitting only rarely with kicks (and sometimes falling down) and risking injury on a parry with every attack.

The knife has a decent chance of a fight-ending Major Wound within a few seconds and even if not, will cause enough smaller wounds for the unarmed character to fall down in shock and eventually bleed out.

Yep good point, I hadn't even included the default fine quality for TL8! (sorry my brain defaults to TL2-4)

For me a big issue is those 1d-3 cr strikes, even on a successful hit 50% of the time you will do no damage, but the 1d-1 imp knife will always be leaving at least a 2 point imp injury on a successful stab, and 50% of the time a major wound.

And of course even though a 2 point stab wound doesn't by itself end the fight, it's a 2 point shock penalty. Which for someone with only 1 point in their combat skill and DX10 is a big thing.

Originally Posted by Icelander

The unarmed character cannot cause a Major Wound without a critical hit or a strike to the skull, which is essentially impossible unless he more skilled than his opponent or very lucky.

yep to get a major wound they have to kick (-2) to the skull (-7), and roll a 6 on damage, unless wearing heavy boots in which case needs a 5 or 6.

Although at DX10 and 1 point in the skill, -9 needs a critical hit anyway unless they're AoA(D) / telegraphing!