[CONAN] Exposive Power on an Unaware enemy

[LucaCherstich]

Yesterday's game has been great.
But its happened a situation which I do not think was properly rules-OK, but I let it happen since PCs co-ordination in combat tactics has been great.
I would like to know your ideas about it.

Situation:
A very nasty Giant-kin enters the room where 4 pcs are hiding.
One of them fail in the Hide roll and get discovered.

Surprise round:
Weapon drawn

1st round:
-the discovered PC 1 runs towards another exit, trying to be followed by the monster.
- the Giant kin follows him
- the others follow behind the Giantkin, but still hiding (Hide & Move silently vs Giantskin Spot: he still does not notice anything)

2nd round
- the discovered PC 1 attacks Giantkin
- One of the PCs, "PC 2", gets nearer in hiding to the GIantkin (other Hide roll vs spot = he is not been spot yet by the Giantkin).

Here come the dubious part.
The GIantkin is still UNAWARE of the second PC and (in theory) the hidden PCs is at his shoulders.
OK, I know that:
- after surprise you should be ready to everything,
- Conan rpg HAS NOT facing, and therefore no "behind the shoulders" space
BUT the action was described so well that I allowed the stealthy "PC 2" to attack the giantkin as if the Giantkin could not Dodge or Parry, which means Defense= 10.
With a lucky use of Explosive Powere PC 2 kills the Giantkin.

Do you think I've acted according to the rules or have I been over-generous with the PCs?

 

[Supplement Four]

Surprise round:[/b]
Weapon drawn

That's all the Giant could do with his Surprise round?

Was the Giant surprised, too? If he didn't have his weapon out, that tells me he was probably unaware of the PCs. If so, both sides were surprised.

- Conan rpg HAS NOT facing, and therefore no "behind the shoulders" space

Conan is a d20 game, and you can use the Variant d20 Facing Rules.

With the Facing Rules, PC2 would have an attack at +4 to the back. The Giant would not be AC 10, though, uness he was unaware.

With a lucky use of Explosive Powere PC 2 kills the Giantkin.

I think Explosive Power should be banned from the game, just like the Feat's author says. It's way too powerful.

Do you think I've acted according to the rules or have I been over-generous with the PCs?

If you and your group had as good a time as you indicate, then, no, you played it just right. It's more important to have a good game than it is to enforce the rules verbatim.

Don't let your players know that you might have run a rule not exactly to the letter of the text and bask in the glory that everyone had an excellent time.

 

[LucaCherstich]

Surprise round: one can do just a standard action, not a move action.
The giantkin was not surprised, he had already his weapon drawn, he just readied an action (but it wal later useless since PC 1 prefered to run aways instead of charging him ...).

Facing: I do not use those, at least for the moment

Explosive Power: I allow it. My interpretation (as I have explained elsewhere) is that since you use Power attack at your HIGHEST bonus (=bab) you both suffer the Power Attack Penalty and receive PA bonus to dmg.
Furthermore it is a full-round action: you can forget your otehr attacks or actions.
In other words: you make a very effective blow, but with an effective BA of +0. Not very good in serious combatm unless you want to risk a lot for a great advantage. But very good vs a flat-footed man.

Good times: Yes! They easily defeated the terrible giantkin, but it was really a glorious scene!

Aware/Unaware: OGL rules are not very clear about it. If you are unaware you do not act in the surprise round and you are flat-footed....but if you are unaware of somebody DURING later rounds? I guees he has Defense 10, fullstop. That's what I did, even if I'm not so sure if it was OGL-orthodox or not.