I've been noodling around in my head about a penalty for having a stuck weapon in you, even if you don't have a person on the other end.
Since we used a quick and dirty version of Technical Grappling, we use Control Points (CP).
I had a few thoughts. If you do have a person on the other end, they've grappled you with their weapon for 1 CP for every point of damage inflicted. 8 damage = 8 CP, 4 damage = 4 CP, etc. Perhaps if they let go, for whatever reason, those CP are lost . . . partly.
But how partly is partly?
Option 1: Just reduce the CP in half. Simple, easy. May or may not make sense. A 2-yard dueling halbered sticking out of you that only inflicted 4 damage has 4 CP, but a 1-yard pick that inflicted 5 does 5 CP? The halberd really should encumber you more.
Option 2: Inflict a flat penalty based on the weight and length of the weapon. Perhaps 0.5 x weight x yards of maximum reach, rounded up. That's 1.5 x 1 = -2 for a Reach 1, 3# pick. It's 5 x 2 = -10 for a 10-pound dueling halberd. Seems steep, but not crazy . . . it should be epicly hard to keep fighting with a polearm in you.
Option 3: Inflict CP based on weight and length. Instead of a -2 or -10, those examples are 2 CP or 10 CP. Cuts the penalties in half, quarters them for strong victims.
Option 4: Inflict flat CP based on weight. So 1 CP per pound?
Option 5: Inflict a penalty equaly to max weapon reach x -2, -3 or -4. Depends on how badly you think it'll impede the person.
I'm still debating which option I'll use. But those are the numbers I've got dancing around in my head.
I like Option 3. That means for a 10 ST victim, a halberd (Reach 2 x 10 lbs) inflicts 20 CP which is their Max CP, so their DX pen is -6.
ReplyDeleteHowever against a ST 30 Siege Beast, that same 20 CP is just barely over 1/10 their Max CP, so it's only a -2 DX pen.
There might need to be some sort of GM wiggle room on this though, as a ST 32 creature will just ignore a dueling halberd stuck into their torso, so maybe have some level of minimum penalty unless creature exceeds "some threshold".
But what that threshold is might vary by GM, like I can see a Large Dragon (SM+5 ST 50+) ignoring it, while a Medium Dragon (ST 35 SM+4) might be mildly (-1 DX) impaired.