Re: (TFT) Pole weapons and pet peeves

[srydzews@ix.netcom.com]

(Justin, sorry if you received this twice...stupid mailer software.)

>I was reading Interplay #7 and it has an answer to that pesky pole weapons
>problem of doing double damage on a charge.
>
>In Bill Gustafson's article on Pole Weapons (p.25), he mentions Paul Wagner
>suggested the double damage rule be changed to be like fencing.  Good idea!
>Gustafson also mentions a modification to the Melee rules, that in a charge
>the last two hexes moved through must be in a straight line.  Although, Bill
>does state that he doesn't use this rule in his own campaign in favor of
>having the pole weapon attacker going at least three hexes to prevent any
>wild moves on the hexgrid.
>
>What do you all think?

Our solution to the "pole arm problem" is to replace the doubling with a 
damage bonus that varies according to the speed of the attacker (as determined
by the lower of the following two: the character's MA and the number of hexes
moved in a straight line toward the target).  I don't have the exact numbers 
handy but it's something along these lines:

1-2   --
3-4   +1
5-6   +2          
7-8   +d6       
9-10  +d6+1
11-12 +d6+2
13+   +2d6
(Creatures with over 30 st, including horse/rider combos, move down a row.)

This is both to reduce the typical bonus in a dungeon situation and also on the 
theory that it doesn't matter much if you're charging with a halberd-point or 
spear-point; when you level and charge with any sort of polearm the way the
damage gets done is pretty much the same.

>Pet peeve
>Zombie rings:  Here is an magic item worth $3000.  This ring arrests the
>process of decay of 1 ST per day.  For some reason, TFT does not like its
>lesser undead because in order to have them for a long time they need zombie
>rings.  My peeve with this is the fact that the party destroys 10 zombies
>that reside in a tomb, they get 10 zombie rings for a possible $30,000.  Why
>fight dragon's when we can fight weaker undead and still make a buck?
>Because of this I shyed away from the use of these (skeletons/zombies)
>undead.  This was one rule the players wouldn't let me change.  I wonder why
>Steve created this rule.

Because he saw too many clerics animate small armies in AD&D.  I'm sure that if
the players didn't have access to the TFT zombie spell he would never have done
this.

One solution might be to have a triggered effect that animates the undead.  They
decay at a normal rate once animated, but they animate when someone approaches 
them rather than waiting around for 5000 years in some dusty tomb.  The players
might be able to circumvent the activation if they're clever or careful.
(Well, it would work for skeletons, at least.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stan


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