A series of questions - some may be FAQ / errata

slaughterj

Mongoose
- Regarding Quick Draw feat (p.124) and Drawing a Weapon (p.169):

Drawing a Weapon says "If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you may draw a weapon as a free action combined with a regular move." The Quick Draw feat allows you to "draw a weapon as a free action instead of as a move action", and requires a BAB +1. So basically the Quick Draw feat allows you to draw quickly without doing it during a move action (which a BAB +1 allows), thus with Quick Draw you can take full round attack actions, unlike with Drawing a weapon?

- Akbitana is on the book cover in Corinthia, but is described in Shem, and moved to Shem on the downloaded map. What are the other major fixes on the downloaded map?

- The Reputation modifier by distance seems pretty high, a -10 for a neighboring town means that an average 10th level character will be virtually unknown??

- Weapon size (p.132) versus weapon weight (p.133) seems a bit confusing. Weapon size says a light weapon is 2 size categories smaller than the wielder, a 1H weapon is one size smaller, and a 2H weapon is the same size. Weapon weight says that the weight given is for a Medium version of the weapon, 1/2 for small weapons, x2 for large weapons. Taking these two together, a broadsword is a 1H weapon thus is in the small category (as such are 1 size smaller than the user, and the typical user is Human, thus medium size), with a 2 1/2lb weight, but since it is small, its weight is supposed to be halved? This makes no sense when reading these two sections together - I'm sticking with the weight on the chart being the weight of typical weapons weilded by humans and not worrying with those two sections.

- Range Increment (p.133) says that each full increment imposes a cumulative -2 penalty on the attack roll. Some weapons such as Poinard, only have a 5ft range increment, so it would seem there is a -2 penalty to throw it at someone in an adjacent square, yes? And a dagger with a 10f range increment gets the -2 if someone is one further square away, yes?

- Flatfooted (p.161, and see p.158) seems to indicate that even if two people are facing off against one another, with weapons drawn, intent to attack, that whoever was the second to act (lower initiative presumably) would be considered flatfooted and therefore easy as hell to hit?! That seems excessive, should instead be an awareness thing. (This also seems like a D&D holdover, and maybe just isn't written up too well.)

- Armor (p.163) takes 1d4 damage when it takes massive damage, and each 1 DR to repair costs 20% of the armor - this means that upon taking 2 20+ hits, any armor on average with have taken 5 damage, thus 100% the cost of the armor?! That seems excessive, is that correct?

- How do coup de grace and the massive damage rule work together?

Thanks for any help on these!
 
slaughterj said:
- Regarding Quick Draw feat (p.124) and Drawing a Weapon (p.169):

Drawing a Weapon says "If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you may draw a weapon as a free action combined with a regular move." The Quick Draw feat allows you to "draw a weapon as a free action instead of as a move action", and requires a BAB +1. So basically the Quick Draw feat allows you to draw quickly without doing it during a move action (which a BAB +1 allows), thus with Quick Draw you can take full round attack actions, unlike with Drawing a weapon?

- Akbitana is on the book cover in Corinthia, but is described in Shem, and moved to Shem on the downloaded map. What are the other major fixes on the downloaded map?

- The Reputation modifier by distance seems pretty high, a -10 for a neighboring town means that an average 10th level character will be virtually unknown??

- Weapon size (p.132) versus weapon weight (p.133) seems a bit confusing. Weapon size says a light weapon is 2 size categories smaller than the wielder, a 1H weapon is one size smaller, and a 2H weapon is the same size. Weapon weight says that the weight given is for a Medium version of the weapon, 1/2 for small weapons, x2 for large weapons. Taking these two together, a broadsword is a 1H weapon thus is in the small category (as such are 1 size smaller than the user, and the typical user is Human, thus medium size), with a 2 1/2lb weight, but since it is small, its weight is supposed to be halved? This makes no sense when reading these two sections together - I'm sticking with the weight on the chart being the weight of typical weapons weilded by humans and not worrying with those two sections.

- Range Increment (p.133) says that each full increment imposes a cumulative -2 penalty on the attack roll. Some weapons such as Poinard, only have a 5ft range increment, so it would seem there is a -2 penalty to throw it at someone in an adjacent square, yes? And a dagger with a 10f range increment gets the -2 if someone is one further square away, yes?

- Flatfooted (p.161, and see p.158) seems to indicate that even if two people are facing off against one another, with weapons drawn, intent to attack, that whoever was the second to act (lower initiative presumably) would be considered flatfooted and therefore easy as hell to hit?! That seems excessive, should instead be an awareness thing. (This also seems like a D&D holdover, and maybe just isn't written up too well.)

- Armor (p.163) takes 1d4 damage when it takes massive damage, and each 1 DR to repair costs 20% of the armor - this means that upon taking 2 20+ hits, any armor on average with have taken 5 damage, thus 100% the cost of the armor?! That seems excessive, is that correct?

- How do coup de grace and the massive damage rule work together?

Thanks for any help on these!

Here are a couple of answers.

You are right on the Quick Draw, it means you can draw a weapon and also do a full round action (generally an attack).

Thus section seems confusing. From other d20 sources weapons are classified in two different ways. All the weapons listed are "sized for medium beings" - and thus their weights are as on the table. However, a dagger is much smaller than a human and a greatsword about the same height - thus both are different sizes but are both sized for medium characters. It is these differences that classify the weapons as Light (the dagger) or 2Handed (the greatsword).

If a greatsword was sized for a Large being then the weight would increase.

Range increment is for every increment after the first (so for the poinard -2 for 6-10', -4 for 11-15' etc.

I have to dash off now so hopefully someone else can help with the rest of the questions.
 
Re: Drawing a weapon. Your interpretation is correct as far as I can tell. This is why I have never seen a player take the quick draw feat in a d20 game. It only helps you if you 1) don't have a weapon ready and 2) are adjacent to an enemy. This usually only happens if you have lost initiative and the enemy has closed with you. Thus most warriors would prefer to take Improved Initiative.

Re: Flatfooted. In the situation you describe I would rule that combat has "already started" with each opponent choosing to "delay." Thus neither character is flat footed when the action really starts. It should also be possible for players to ready actions durring a face off. For instance a player might say: "I keep my eyes on my opponent, ready to strike should he attempt an attack."
 
I'm by no means an expert, but I would say if both combatants are aware of each other at the beginning of combat, then there is no surprise round, and therefore neither combatants are flootfooted.
 
slaughterj said:
- The Reputation modifier by distance seems pretty high, a -10 for a neighboring town means that an average 10th level character will be virtually unknown??
I agree, this seems unusually high. Any playtesters want to comment on this?

slaughterj said:
- Range Increment (p.133) says....
<points up a few posts to Phil> What he said.

slaughterj said:
- Flatfooted (p.161, and see p.158) seems to indicate that even if two people are facing off against one another, with weapons drawn, intent to attack, that whoever was the second to act (lower initiative presumably) would be considered flatfooted and therefore easy as hell to hit?! That seems excessive, should instead be an awareness thing. (This also seems like a D&D holdover, and maybe just isn't written up too well.)
Sort of what he said.

In d20, a combat is considered to start when one opponent become aware of the other. At that point, the combat begins and he has the option to take offensive action. Up until the opponent becomes aware of him (or fighting actually begins), the opponent is flat-footed. The first round in which they are aware of each other, that's when the initiative part happens.

So in your example, since they've spent more than one round since they became aware of each other, neither one is flat-footed.

Note that "aware of your opponent" can also mean "aware that someone *is* an opponent". If someone you thought wan't hostile to you attacks out of the blue, you would be flat footed as you weren't aware that he was an opponent!

slaughterj said:
- How do coup de grace and the massive damage rule work together?
They don't work together at all.

A coup de grace deals damage as if it were a critical hit, and forces a fortitude save (it the target is still alive) to prevent death. This save takes the place of any massive damage save.
 
Elfman said:
slaughterj said:
- The Reputation modifier by distance seems pretty high, a -10 for a neighboring town means that an average 10th level character will be virtually unknown??
I agree, this seems unusually high. Any playtesters want to comment on this?

Keep in mind that in those times, most people did not get out of town much - many people never went farther than ten miles from home in their lives. All news would come from caravans and wanderers - and they don't talk about everyone that has a reputation. Only people with extremely high reputations would get discussed somewhere other than in their home town. If we, in our day and age, had to rely on merchants and soldiers for our news, would we all know about Janet Jackson's breast incident or some minor politician's scandal? Probably not. Unless we happened to actually hear Janet sing, we probably wouldn't have a clue who she was - for there wouldn't be recordings either.

I think it is a fair modifier.
 
VincentDarlage said:
Elfman said:
slaughterj said:
- The Reputation modifier by distance seems pretty high, a -10 for a neighboring town means that an average 10th level character will be virtually unknown??
I agree, this seems unusually high. Any playtesters want to comment on this?

Keep in mind that in those times, most people did not get out of town much - many people never went farther than ten miles from home in their lives. All news would come from caravans and wanderers - and they don't talk about everyone that has a reputation. Only people with extremely high reputations would get discussed somewhere other than in their home town. If we, in our day and age, had to rely on merchants and soldiers for our news, would we all know about Janet Jackson's breast incident or some minor politician's scandal? Probably not. Unless we happened to actually hear Janet sing, we probably wouldn't have a clue who she was - for there wouldn't be recordings either.

I think it is a fair modifier.

Well, it seems a bit tough for someone to travel around and build a rep in multiple locations, maybe I just need to read the rules a bit better on that...
 
As far as quick draw goes, you are correct. Now Mighty doesn't seem to play many polearm or archer types who once engaged usually need to drop one weapon and draw forth another thus making the difference of one attack or full attack.

Reputation bonus, well as great as Conan was, he was hardly known by name until after he got somewhere until he became King. The times he is known in a strange place is usually when it is by an old "acquaintance" (i.e. The Scarlet Citadel). Until the 19th century over 90% of the world's population had never been farther then 10 miles from their place of birth.

With flatfoooted in d20, the best way I can describe it is a tennis match. The server always wins initiative. Even though the servee knows the basics of what is going to happen and when it is going to happen, he doesn't know exactly where, and so there are Aces. That is all being flatfooted basically is, it means the opponent(s) made their decision first and now the flatfooted one must react to that intitial move. After the initial move, then there is an ebb and flow of battle which the more skilled or luckier will get the upper hand.
 
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