I don't know if this is the original intended use of Arms Law / Claw Law. The version I have is 5th edition, and the charts my uncle had lacked any rules for usage. But these would work pretty smoothly:
So you need to hit by 5+ to get an A critical, and by 13+ for an E critical. This makes high-level fighters absolute murder against lightly armored foes, for sure. A 9th level fighter needs only a 2 to hit AC 10, so any roll of 7+ is a critical and 15+ is an E critical. And that's without bonuses from magic weapons or exceptional strength. They'll be absolute hell on lightly-armored thieves and magic-users, who don't have a lot of HP to absorb the effects, either. Meanwhile a level 1 fighter with no bonuses can only critically hit AC10 - AC5, inclusive, and AC 4 or better is out of their reach. Normal Men are even worse off - don some mail (AC 5) and you'd fine.
If you don't know Rolemaster, the critical levels largely describe their lethality, but even an A can kill you outright and an E can be only a small additional effect.
I'm assuming "Natural 20+1," "Natural 20+2," and "Natural 20+3" are used in a similar manner as they are in the Progression on the Combat Tables rules in the AD&D DUNGEONMASTERS GUIDE page 82. So that would mean a natural 20 and +1, +2, or +3 in additional bonuses. It's interesting that they have no meaning against S-M sized monsters, but against L and "Super Large" (defined in Rolemaster, but not in D&D or AD&D) they are required.
I think it's interesting that a "Natural 20" is meaningless unless it's also 5+ over your "to hit" roll. The idea that a "natural 20" is a critical hit of some kind, or a special roll, is pretty embedded in D&D memes but it's not actually true. Much like how "A vorpal blade cuts off your head on a natural 20!" is embedded, but it's not strictly true, either (see DMG p. 166).
The bonus hits inflicted for a critical, and the special effects, are largely in line with AD&D numbers. Rolemaster hit points - actually Concussion Hits or just Hits on most tables - are higher but if you used the tables for weapons, not just the critical charts, you'd inflict those as well as the bonuses.
The main issue is that some effects are undefined in AD&D, and you'll need to figure out what "foe is at -20%" means. -20% in Rolemaster has a clear effect. In AD&D, it probably means -4 to hit, but it's not clear if that also means worse AC (4 worse is more than 20% against some foes), or worse movement, or what. Or how you'd overcome stunning with AD&D magic, say.
Knowing what critical type is an issue, too. You'd have to say if you were stabbing or swinging your sword, and in Rolemaster at least you could get slashing, puncturing, or crushing criticals from the same weapon depending on the roll and the armor type.
All in all, though, it does answer the fairly basic question of, how do you use Arms Law / Claw Law critical hit tables with AD&D?
Maybe Jon Peterson will know? I'll have to ask.
(Actually, that's the bottom half of the sheet - the top half and its interesting rules I'll discuss another time.)
I seem to recall that the large critter crit tables in RM had a special column for magic weapons, and another one for "of slaying," so I expect 20+n refers to magical weapons specifically.
ReplyDeleteThere are columns for Normal, Magic, Mithril, Holy Arms, and Slaying. So it's possible that +1 covers magic, and the others are just GM judgement, but I'm not sure. This is especially odd because the table above lists A-E critical against L and SL creatures but the actual critical hit table doesn't use A-E, making them meaningless.
DeleteSomeone wrote A-E on the L and SL charts in my uncle's notebook, but they appeared to be photocopied just like the charts, so I have no idea who did that.
It looks to me like he ignored the attack tables (which would not translate easily) and just eyeballed the numbers where the crit tables would come into effect.
ReplyDeleteI think he means in most cases the criteria is rolling 5 or more over your target number. A natural 20 only appears to have an effect if (a) you are 5 or more over your target number, (b) your modified roll is at least 21, AND (c) the target is large or super-large.
The fact that he has letters assigned for the large and super-large creatures suggests he only used the ordinary crit tables, and did not use the large or super-large tables, because the large and super-large tables don't have lettered columns. Which means it wouldn't matter if your weapon is magic, mithral, holy or slaying.
Yes, they only apply if you roll 5 or more than your require "to hit" score - that's pretty clear from the chart and the notes. The notebook contains none of the Arms Law attack tables at all.
DeleteYour idea on the L and SL tables might be right, but then what counts as L and SL outside of those charts? In other words, those terms have no meaning in D&D but a lot of meaning in Arms Law, and they're appearing here on a rule meant to bring those charts into play . . . and like I said, someone wrote A-E on the L and SL charts in my uncle's notebook, and those handwritten letters seem to be photocopied along with the sheet. All of this looks like a house rule usage for further house-ruled charts.
The pedantic in me cautions against saying "he," though. We don't know who made these charts. Odds are it's a male, given the nature of the hobby, but who knows? I will ask my uncle, but he gave away this notebook almost 40 years ago, give or take, when he stopped gaming altogether, so we'll see if he remembers who or where he got this from. I think it's doubtful he wrote it himself - he generally hand-wrote his notes and wouldn't have typed up a bunch of house rules. I'd bet that he got this chart from whoever he got the critical hit charts from. We'll have to see.
My copy of Arms Law has the attack tables as unstapled inserts, which could easily get separated from the booklet.
DeleteThe SL table is actually "Dragons, Super Large Creatures", which is probably a hint as to size.
I missed your comment on the handwritten letters, now I don't know what to think about how to interpret it. I guess they must have used the L and SL tables, but substituted letters in place the magic weapon types, which would still suggest that the magic of the weapon didn't come into play.
We never tried to combine the systems. We had one DM who ran Rolemaster (and now runs D&D 4e), while everyone else ran AD&D with stripped down combat rules, or a 1e/2e hybrid.
Looking at the Crit Tables from the L and SL creatures, it appears that some of the lower level criticals against them can do things like break your weapon, which wouldn't really be possible against S-M creatures. Mainly the 01-05 row.
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