[CONAN] Maneuvers

[Supplement Four]

I've seen more than one Conan player say that he ignores Combat Maneuvers in the Conan RPG, and I'll admit that, when I first looked at the game, it did seem a bit intimidating to get my head around all those Feats, all those Skills, and then all those Combat Maneuvers, too.

But, just like learning Feats, if you focus a just a couple of them, you'll learn to use them 80% of the time easy enough.

First off, some of the Combat Maneuvers are really just combat options and special rules. The rules were used in the 1st edition of the game but were not classified as Combat Maneuvers.

I'm talking about...

Aid Another
Aim
Bull Rush
Charge
Delay
Disarm
Lock Weapons
Overrun
Ready
Shield Slam
Throw Splash Weapon
Trip
Use The Battlefield

The maneuvers in that list are just special rules for specific circumstances in the game. I'm not sure why they didn't make Two Weapon Fighting a Combat Maneuver when Aim and Charge and Shield Slam and Throw Splash Weapon are all now classified as Combat Maneuvers.

Point: A large portion of the Combat Maneuvers shown in the main rule book 2E are just special rules that would have been in the game anyway--just not designated as a "Combat Maneuver".





Next, you'll notice that many of the other Combat Maneuvers have special requirements. For example, Cat's Parry requires a +3 Base Parry Bonus. So, if your character is a Soldier, don't even worry about learning this maneuver until your character is at least 4th level.

Several of the Combat Maneuvers are specific this way. Think of them as a bonus that the character gets when he reaches the required level. Thus, your newly arrived 4th level Soldier would get all the benefits of a 4th level Soldier character plus the use of the Cat's Parry Combat Maneuver. It's almost like getting a specific free Feat.

In a similar manner, other Combat Maneuvers have requirements based on the character's stats and/or the Feats he's learned. The Dance Aside maneuver requires a DEX 13+. The Fling Aside maneuver requires STR 15+ and a couple of Feats. If your character doesn't have the requirements to use the CM, then don't worry about learning the maneuver.

Also, the Combat Maneuvers you'll find in other Conan RPG books typically have narrow requirements--thus, many of them will not apply to your character. Like a Feat, you may want to build your character in order to acquire the pre-requisites for a certain Combat Maneuver.

Point: You don't need to learn all the Combat Maneuvers. You'll learn them as your character grows, and you'll never need to learn all of them because many will not apply to your character.

 

[Supplement Four]

So, let's look at what combat maneuvers a player running a 1st level Cimmerian Barbarian would want to learn.

Thrallan
STR 16
DEX 13
CON 13
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 10

Feats: Two Weapon Combat; Track; Fighting Madness; Improved Initiative.



First off, there are the Combat Maneuvers with which every player will want to be familar because they are situational rules.

Aid Another
Aim
Bull Rush
Charge
Delay
Disarm
Lock Weapons
Overrun
Ready
Shield Slam
Throw Splash Weapon
Trip
Use The Battlefield

These are Combat Maneuvers that the GM will want to focus on and learn early in the game to better judge combat during the session.

If the GM is focussing on these, then which ones does the player of the 1st level Cimmerian Barbarian listed at the top of this post?

There aren't as many as you think.





List of Combat Maneuvers that the player of that character should learn:

Dance Aside
Feint
Improvised Attack
Roll
Sunder

That's it. Out of all the Combat Maneuvers listed in the 2E rule book, the player of the character above only needs to focus on 5 of them.

And...

Of those five, two of them are very specific in nature, so removing those reduces the list to...THREE.

Improvised Attack is specific in that there must be a second target within reach of the Barbarian, and the Cimmerian must have an improvised weapon at hand. These circumstances makes the use of this combat maneuver a very rare occasion. If the fight is occuring inside a general store, then start thinking about using this combat maneuver. But, for most combats, just forget about it.

Roll requires the character to be on the ground with somebody above him attacking him. Again, this is a very specific-use maneuver. You won't use this in every fight. In fact, you'll hardly ever use it unless your enemy is dead set on using the Trip maneuver against you.



There you have it. A 1st level Cimmerian Barbarian (the one listed at the top of this post) is only really concerned with THREE combat maneuvers.

DANCE ASIDE
FEINT
SUNDER

Now...that's not too challenging learning those three, is it?

Of these, Dance Aside is probably the most used. You can use it to increase distance between you and your opponent by 10 feet (five feet for the maneuver and the other five from your five foot step). Doing this will rob your opponent of any Full Round Actions (including extra attacks).

It's also a great maneuver to use with a reach weapon.

Feint, you'll probably only use if your Bluff skill is high. If your Bluff is low, don't worry about learning the maneuver because you won't be successful using it.

And, Sunder is only important when you are trying to break your opponent's weapon. If you're not trying to do that, then ignore the maneuver.





Point: Once you dig into the combat maneuvers you learn that there isn't as much to learn as you originally thought.

 

[superc0ntra]

One thing I haven't found is how they are learned. Are they chosen instead of feats or in addition to?

 

[Nyarlathotep5150]

You don't have to buy them. If you meet the prerequisites, you can do it.

 

[superc0ntra]

Thanks, that cleared it and will make my players happy