Topic: Questions about Combat Actions

[Zut]

A new topic to get things going in the HARP forum! 

Upon reading the combat actions in the Combat chapter, I feel a few rules need some clarification.

Fencing Slash
Allows to do a Tiny Slash Crit. The weapons associated with Thrusting Blades are rapier, foil, and sai. The rapier does medium puncture, the foil and sai small puncture. I think it would be more interesting for the rapier to have this action inflict a critical one size smaller than the normal one instead of a strict tiny. Thus, a rapier could do a small puncture instead of a tiny one.

Full Parry
If I understand well, if rolling OE (high), you get a free attack and you get to parry? However, it looks like the "parrying" character can't decide whether or not to attack his opponent.

Hold at Bay
How long does this action last? How many rounds?

Multiple Parry
Same comment as for Full Parry: free attack? Can't decide to parry only with a high roll? And with multiple parries, if the character gets that "free attack", he can't parry whatever remaining foes until the end of the round? He won't last long if he harmed the first opponent, but there are still three of them next!

Power Strike
I don't find it very useful. You get -20 on your OB, but if you manage to hit, you get a +10 on the crit table. So in the end, you have a ... -10 bonus! You can exceed the damage cap, but it doesn't look like it worth it. (?)

[Thom @ ICE]

Fencing Slash - Agreed, -1 size in new crit type.... similar to other similar combat actions.

Full Parry - With OE (high) you manage to not only defend youself well, but also get an attack in.  For my games, they can always decide not to perform this attack, or can apply it as another parry (further increasing their defense).

Hold at Bay - It lasts one round, and each round the person holding his foe at bay will need to re-roll their maneuver roll.

Multiple Parry - See my answer on Full Parry.

Power Strike - At low levels this may not seem worth it - how often do you get to max out and reach the damage cap..... but as you get to be higher in level you start hitting that damage cap a lot more often. Use Power Strikes and you greatly improve your ability to take out that foe with 1 strike.

[Maelstrom]

Fencing Slash - Agreed, -1 size in new crit type.... similar to other similar combat actions.

I don't agree.  A fencing slash is performed with the tip of the weapon and would result in the same type/severity of wound regardless of the weapon size since it's a surface wound.  The medium puncture for a rapier is due to the length of the blade penetrating deeper into the body.  The tip of the blade will do the same as the other weapons, just from a little further away from your opponent.

I would argue that a fencing slash would be available to sabre type weapons as well.

[Falenthal]

I agree with Maelstrom.

I think the use of the Fencing Slash is not that of hurting the enemy (it wouldn't make sense to diminish your critical), but to mock him. The idea behind the maneuver is most likely the El Zorro and him slashing a Z in the chest of his enemies, not killing them but marking them for all to see.

Therefore, a tiny critical for all is right.

[GrumpyOldFart]

Anything with a sharp tip, Tiny crits throughout. Mace with a spike on the end, 2 handed sword, halberd, doesn't matter. To be sure, it takes a lot more skill to tip slash with a halberd than with a dagger... not sure how to model that one...

[Thom @ ICE]

Sabre weapons are already Slashing weapons - no need for a Fencing Slash maneuver to be applied.

Sai do not have a fully sharpened tip or edge and are designed signficantly towards defense.  This is why they are Small Puncture, and reduce to Tiny.

Rapier and Foil are very similar, however Rapiers are far less flexible and deliver a much more firm strike. It is a Medium damage normally, and with a fencing slash it is far more damaging then a Sai would be.

Foil is much more flexible than a Rapier and this makes a puncture less damaging (thus the Small puncture normally) and a case could possibly be made for Slash being as damaging as a Rapier - if the foe is armored it would do far less - and since HARP is not Rolemaster and will not get into different weapons doing different damage against different armor.... the Fencing Slash foil should be less than a Rapier.

In regards to the intent of why the Fencing Slash is done, that is up to the player to address with role playing and by pullling back on his strike and using less OB.  The reduction in damage size is due to the weapon being used in a way other than standard and normally trained.  Perhaps we should state that a player can announce that they are going to "pull their punch" and therefore reduce the damage by -20 but it requires a -10 on the attack roll.

Fencing slash does not work for mace's with spikes, two-handed swords or halberds.  It would be entirely alien to use the weapon in that manner.  Fencing Slash, Stave Jab, and Blade Slap are all attempts to use the specified weapons in a non-standard manner that causes a different form of crit.  Due to the non-standard manner all of them have penalties (which I hope to have standardized at -10) and yield similar results (again I'd like to see them standardized - different crit at one size smaller).

Note - this is not official at this time.