Return of the MNSH (Murderous Ninja Sniper Halfling)

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

I've had players take a lasso or whatever for fun, but they were all 'normal' sorts of PCs with a balanced set of abilities and stats rather than a monster engineered around delivering the perfect attack at range 10 hexes or whatever. I think the game doesn't really have any balance problems for these sorts of 'real world' PCs

Almost ANY rules/stats problem can be dismissed or ignored by players who don't know/care/notice, or who don't use them in play. All that says is that you don't have to use those things. It doesn't mean they're not worth discussing and fixing/house-ruling to get a version that does not have those problems. Also, the more you understand a problem, the more you can avoid or rule against it before it becomes a problem. If a GM does not understand a problem and then it shows up in play, it can mess up their games before they realize it.

I too have had zero MNSH's in actual campaign play, and I only remember one significant sha-ken user, who was moderate and unique enough (and saw little enough use in play) that it didn't become a big problem. IIRC, she settled down and mostly retired with Nerp the miner's pick & rope/lasso-user, who got just enough play to also seem like a fun creative character without abusing the lasso powers too much.

But I would prefer to explore, discuss, and fix the rules so they don't have inappropriate exploits, than dismissing them. I'd like a lasso-using character or a sha-ken specialist to be something people can try out and get reasonable results from, without results that are way too good and massacre their victims because the rules are broken.

It seems to me it should not be a powerful tactic to have all your melee fighters put 1 point in Lasso and be able to start a battle by toppling and trussing up most of their foes, and then moving in to slaughter them as they're still messing with ropes. I don't think a fix is rocket science, either. Something like giving a target a 3/DX roll to avoid a lasso/whip/bolas they can see coming, unless they're surprised and have no idea what to do. And limiting sha-ken damage as I mentioned.