> >Close combat, if used to
> >resist being blasted by lightning, would only suffer a -5 penalty IMO, so
> >the above suggestion is not tactically advisable. Does anyone think CC
> >should suffer -10? It could be justified.
>
> I don't think I would let him use Close Combat to resist.
>
> Assuming magical lightning bolts can miss, I guess you could argue that
> Close Combat can be used to dodge it.
As always, it depends on the context. If I'm 20 metres away hurling lightning bolts at you, then you could use Close Combat to dodge (though I think a penalty would be in order). If I'm standing right next to me, then you could use Close Combat to try to hit me first and otherwise distract me -- it might not call for a penalty at all.
> >> He could take an unrelated action and use a simple contest of affinity
> >> versus tough.
>
> David D:
> >That would be a bad idea, and I believe the rules state as much. The
> >reason being, it's the same contest. Barumar still wants to
> >physically defeat his enemy. Thunderbolt is not an all-or-nothing
> >feat*, so you'd expect it to do AP -- and there's already an extended
> >contest going on.
>
> Why is it such a bad idea?
> The extended contest will still carry on afterwards (unless the enemy
> suffers a complete defeat).
> You've hopefully just fried the guy a bit.
Well, making it a simple contest doesn't violate the "Don't Nest" recommendation [NB.8], but it's difficult to combine results of two sorts of contests. If we're fighting (Close Combat) in an extended contest, and I suddenly decide to fry you with a lightning bolt, and get a marginal victory, you're dazed! Exactly what I was hoping for in the extended contest, which I've just managed to short-circuit (pun intended).
No doubt this is where someone will start introducing special rules: success with a lightning attack causes X damage or Y modifiers. This is unnecessary -- just make it part of the extended contest, and it will do whatever damage it does based on the AP stake.
(I may have been remembering a suggestion that was edited out of the final draft, which explicitly said that magic and melee were combined into an extended contest.)
Where it makes sense to have a simple contest in the middle of an extended contest is for an unrelated action -- e.g. I want to use my lightning to catch a pile of brushwood on fire so as to reduce my penalty for fighting in the dark. But I always interpret the object of the contest pretty loosely -- my original object was not to chop you with a sword, it was to physically defeat you. I can choose many different abilities to achieve this, and it's all the same contest.
Philip Hibbs
> My rule suggestion for missile combat is to give arrows a large edge (or
> rank), maybe 10, or 15 for a longbow (not that anyone uses them much in
> Glorantha).
This makes the situation *worse*. There is already no risk standing back 20 metres and peppering your foe with arrows. With this rule, you could do it all day, wagering only 1 each time. In other words, it makes archery even more of a game-unbalancing superweapon.
(Note: my previous campaign was in Umathela, where they *do* use longbows.)
> Can someone remind me, what is the rank of an arrow or bow?
This must be a trick question, you should ignore ranks :-)
The rank is 3, [HW.145] so as to balance out and let you ignore ranks.
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_...>
Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html>
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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