Parry House Rules

[jimbo]

Has anyone switched back to using AP instead of having a weapon of equal or greater size block all damage? As I read the rules, all the damage is blocked, even damage bonus and magic enhancements like bladesharp. In prior RQ editions, you could magic up to blow through your opponets parry with Bladesharp. It seems like it would be easy to use an AP system instead of blocking all damage. This would also make the common magic spell Pary more useful.

If anyone is running with AP, are you using the AP as written, or increasing it? I was thinking about using the average of AP and HP.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Has anyone switched back to using AP instead of having a weapon of equal or greater size block all damage? As I read the rules, all the damage is blocked, even damage bonus and magic enhancements like bladesharp.

I know what you mean - but I think the intention is to reduce the number of dice rolls. Maybe you could use the tiebreaker rule, where on an equal level of success, if the attacker rolled higher than the parry then you roll for damage and see if it gets through. But, you're right that AP are too low to be used for this purpose, you'd need a new "Block" number for each weapon/shield.
*Update*: Although the rules do say that you should roll damage anyway, before determining whether or not the damage rolled is relevant. Also, good point on the Parry spell - it increases the AP of the weapon, but AP has nothing to do with parrying whatsoever.

 

[Deleriad]

Has anyone switched back to using AP instead of having a weapon of equal or greater size block all damage?

I considered it but decided that it added numbers back in for no purpose. At present if someone parries with a big enough weapon you don't need to bother rolling damage and hit location (unless there's a reasonable chance of doing knockback).* If it is AP based then you end up rolling damage for every attack, then hit location and, more often than not, doing no damage anyway.

The other thing is, what does AP represent anyway? The 'hardness' of a weapon doesn't really simulate whether or not it is a useful parrying weapon after all. For example, in order to make shields into good parrying weapons you end up giving them more APs than brick walls. I don't find the AP system any more (or less) 'realistic' than using weapon sizes: they simply have different pros and cons. Certainly re-engineering the whole parry system to make one common magic spell more useful probably doesn't gain a lot.

If you're going to go with a numerical parry rating then I personally would drop weapon size altogether and give weapons a parry rating representing how good they are as parrying weapons. Probably in the range of 4-16 Parry Points. E.g. a flail might only have 4PPs while a Hoplite shield has 16.

*In theory you could always roll damage however the rules are self-contradictory. You are supposed to choose a CM before you see what the damage roll is therefore you can't roll damage until after the opponent has rolled for a defence. The section where it says "roll attack and then if you succeed roll damage. After this the opponent rolls their parry" is actually wrong and should probably be removed.

 

[dernhelm]

There is too much of an advantage for large weapons now. One way we've addressed it is to make both attacking and parrying with a weapon that is two sizes larger than your opponents weapon much less effective if your opponent has closed on you. You parry as if your weapon were a staff, and your attack is 1 dice lower (d10 becomes d8, etc).

We also make closing on (or disengaging from) an opponent automatic if you have a combat action and your opponent does not. We treat closing or disengaging is just another combat action.

So it becomes a bit of a cat and mouse game if you have a big high damage weapon, but your opponent has a small weapon (or no weapon) and is faster than you. It works pretty well for us - combat is far more entertaining.

 

[Mugen]

There is too much of an advantage for large weapons now. One way we've addressed it is to make both attacking and parrying with a weapon that is two sizes larger than your opponents weapon much less effective if your opponent has closed on you. You parry as if your weapon were a staff, and your attack is 1 dice lower (d10 becomes d8, etc).

With the exception of shields, Large weapons are 2 handed, and as such have a serious drawback : you can not use it with a weapon or a shield in your off-hand to get a bonus Combat Action.

I agrre that single one-handed weapon styles have a serious negative disadvantage against other styles. But it sounds logical to me considering pre-renaissance eras.