Supplement Four
Mongoose
Here's a tweak I'm considering for the game. I like the way it flows in combat better than the official rule.
In the rules, when a character scores a Critical Threat in the game, he immediate makes a check to see if that hit was, indeed, a Critical Hit or just a normal hit. The check is the same attack throw with all the same modifiers.
The check, during an attack, seems to stagger combat momentum. It just seems...um...ungainly, counter-intuitive, a "break" in the action.
I dunno. That's the way it feels to me. You may be OK with it.
What I'm thinking of doing is this...
Instead of doing a check, I'm thinking of allowing the Critical Threat to indicate additonal free attacks. Scoring the Critical Threat has basically allowed the character to score additional Attacks of Opportunity.
The default would be one additional attack, but if the Damage Multiplier on a weapon is higher, then the character gets more free attacks.
For example, let's say the character is a Gunderman using a Pike. On a 20, he scores a threat. That's considered a hit, and he gets two more attacks (because the pike has a x3 damage rating). So, basically, everytime the Gunderman rolls a 20 with his Pike, he scores a hit with that stroke and gains two more free attacks that he takes right there and then (not unlike an Attack of Opportunity).
One could say that his fighting gained him an AoO.
Conan, on the other hand, using his ancient broadsword, gets only one extra free attack (because the Broadsword is at a standard x2), but he gets it every time he rolls a 19-20 (the thread range of the Broadsword).
Now, there's all sorts of tweaks a GM can do with this to make the game interesting on different levels.
1. Many people complain about high leveled characters and the massive damage rule. If these attacks are considered separate attacks, then this will cut down, hard, on the number of times massive damage is reached.
2. Those GMs who don't want to mess with Massive Damage--want to keep it as is--can just total all damage from the "attack routine". The result will be the same a with the official rule.
3. One could "limit" damage a bit, in this already very deadly game, by ruling that if a throw is missed, then all the Free Attacks are not awarded. In other words, if you get two additional attacks because you rolled a 20 with your Pike, and you roll a miss on the second attack, you don't get your last attack. You only keep getting your attacks as long as you are successful hitting (up to the limit of the weapon, of course).
4. This freebie attack may or may not count towards a character max number of AoOs (at the GM's option) that he can take advantage of during the round. If he doesn't have the right feat, then he can only get one free attack during the combat, as per the AoO rules. Thus, any weapon marked as having x3+ attacks would only get x2 unless the character gets the Combat Reflexes Feat. And, If a character with multiple attacks scores more than one critical threat, the Combat Reflexes feat would be needed to take full adavantage. This would put some additonal shine on Feats that allow extra AoO attacks during the round.
Just some thoughts to ponder.
In the rules, when a character scores a Critical Threat in the game, he immediate makes a check to see if that hit was, indeed, a Critical Hit or just a normal hit. The check is the same attack throw with all the same modifiers.
The check, during an attack, seems to stagger combat momentum. It just seems...um...ungainly, counter-intuitive, a "break" in the action.
I dunno. That's the way it feels to me. You may be OK with it.
What I'm thinking of doing is this...
Instead of doing a check, I'm thinking of allowing the Critical Threat to indicate additonal free attacks. Scoring the Critical Threat has basically allowed the character to score additional Attacks of Opportunity.
The default would be one additional attack, but if the Damage Multiplier on a weapon is higher, then the character gets more free attacks.
For example, let's say the character is a Gunderman using a Pike. On a 20, he scores a threat. That's considered a hit, and he gets two more attacks (because the pike has a x3 damage rating). So, basically, everytime the Gunderman rolls a 20 with his Pike, he scores a hit with that stroke and gains two more free attacks that he takes right there and then (not unlike an Attack of Opportunity).
One could say that his fighting gained him an AoO.
Conan, on the other hand, using his ancient broadsword, gets only one extra free attack (because the Broadsword is at a standard x2), but he gets it every time he rolls a 19-20 (the thread range of the Broadsword).
Now, there's all sorts of tweaks a GM can do with this to make the game interesting on different levels.
1. Many people complain about high leveled characters and the massive damage rule. If these attacks are considered separate attacks, then this will cut down, hard, on the number of times massive damage is reached.
2. Those GMs who don't want to mess with Massive Damage--want to keep it as is--can just total all damage from the "attack routine". The result will be the same a with the official rule.
3. One could "limit" damage a bit, in this already very deadly game, by ruling that if a throw is missed, then all the Free Attacks are not awarded. In other words, if you get two additional attacks because you rolled a 20 with your Pike, and you roll a miss on the second attack, you don't get your last attack. You only keep getting your attacks as long as you are successful hitting (up to the limit of the weapon, of course).
4. This freebie attack may or may not count towards a character max number of AoOs (at the GM's option) that he can take advantage of during the round. If he doesn't have the right feat, then he can only get one free attack during the combat, as per the AoO rules. Thus, any weapon marked as having x3+ attacks would only get x2 unless the character gets the Combat Reflexes Feat. And, If a character with multiple attacks scores more than one critical threat, the Combat Reflexes feat would be needed to take full adavantage. This would put some additonal shine on Feats that allow extra AoO attacks during the round.
Just some thoughts to ponder.
