impale

[AnubisCK]

i was running a small scenario earlier this evening .and they where fighting a wyrm of at least 10 meters plus in length, but only had a size rating of 13.with a success the player decided to use the impale maneuver which given weapon size or medium states a minus 20%. but to a creature of that length and i know size of 13 is not of great mass should the impale stood.what if you was to impale a dragon with a size of 64. i doubt a Little dagger would cause the dragon a minus 10 penalty to rolls . i can see it working on human size figures with the penalties but not bigger creatures so any ideas or adive

 

[duncan_disorderly]

i doubt a Little dagger would cause the dragon a minus 10 penalty to rolls . i can see it working on human size figures with the penalties but not bigger creatures so any ideas or adive

The penalty is due to the weapon being stuck in the target, making manoeuvring tricky, so one the one hand, a small dagger stuck in a large dragon does seem unlikely to cause much of a problem. On the other hand, one could argue that the whole point of the Impale effect is that you have managed to hit a spot where it does cause an issue...

A 10 metre long size 13 wyrm sounds like it is quite skinny, so I should think there is an excellent chance that an impaling sword or spear has come out the other side, which is likely to cause it some discomfort as which ever way it wiggles, it is likely to catch the weapon on something, so in this case I don't see a problem with the Rules as Written...

If you wanted to adjust the penalties for larger creatures then I guess the main issue is deciding where to apply the adjustments

I wouldn't want to change the rules as they apply to (normal) PC's getting hit - so (to allow for "common" non-humans) I'd say the RAW should apply to at least SIZ 25

Suggestion 1
Count weapons as 1 size category smaller for creatures over SIZ 25
Count weapons as 2 size categories smaller for creatures over SIZ 50
etc

Suggestion 2
Count weapon as 1 size catagory smaller for creatures over SIZ 30
Count weapons as 2 size categories smaller for creatures over SIZ 40
etc

I don't have access to rules at the moment, so I'm not sure what creatures would be caught by these suggestions to check against "suspension if disbelief"

Another thought is that the physiology of the creature might make a difference. I don't think Impale should necessarily be any less effective against large predators (Lion, Bear) or creatures like Elephants. On the other hand, although Whales were (are) hunted with Harpoons, which are impaling weapons, it is not so much the fact the harpoon is stuck in them that causes the problem as the fact that the whaling boat is tied to the other end of it - The thick layer of blubber should mean a small impaling weapon causes no penalty to this sort of creature... In this case it would not be a general rule based on SIZ but a specific rule for the individual creature (so if you don't think that a SIZ 64 dragon would be inconvenienced by having a dagger stuck in it, then you just note this in the stat block for the dragon...)

 

[AnubisCK]

well true as unless you get 2 combat maneuvers to chose a location then impale .i think a random hit to tail and then choosing impale would not inconvenience most creatures . which is the problem i considered and decided to ask other peoples input

 

[Redcrow]

Suggestion 1
Count weapons as 1 size category smaller for creatures over SIZ 25
Count weapons as 2 size categories smaller for creatures over SIZ 50
etc

Suggestion 2
Count weapon as 1 size catagory smaller for creatures over SIZ 30
Count weapons as 2 size categories smaller for creatures over SIZ 40
etc

I would probably go with suggestion 1 myself. For everything else larger creatures usually have more hitpoints so that should be enough to account for weapon damage vs. creature size issues. YMMV.

 

[DamonJynx]

We had a similar thing the other night. I just went with RAW, figuring the puny weapon was just in the right spot to impose the penalties.