I could use some advice...

From: Thom Baguley <t.s.baguley_at_...>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 12:40:35 +0100

> From: Gerald Bosch <gbosch_at_...>
>
>a) When dealing with ranged combat, what abilities are most appropriate for
>the opponent (assuming they are not returning some ranged attack)? My
>current thought is that some sort of specific "Dodge Missiles" type ability
>or feat would be used at full skill, while a "Hide in Cover" or a simple
>"Dodge" or "Agile" would be used with an improvisational modifier. If a
>Close Combat ability were being used it seems I should impose a more hefty
>improvisational penalty, while "Brew Mead" is right out. Does this seem
>right?

Yes. Close combat is OK for dodging in combat but at least -10 or so versus arrows IMO.

>b) Another ranged combat problem I'm having is dealing with a character
>closing in on someone using a missile weapon. My difficulty is trying to
>figure out at what point in the ebb and flow of AP the closing character is
>on top of the archer (or whatever.) It seems to me it should be well before
>the archer is at zero, but still the archer should get some benefit for
>range. Any thoughts?

There is a _very_ long backlog of discussion on this. One option is to give the archer a big edge.

My recent thoughts on this are maybe to encourage/force closing characters to bid high. A bid of 5 is probably just lurking behind cover and closing ground where possible.

>c) Final actions- I had a player in Saturday night's game try something
>appropriately flashy. She jumped out of a tree onto a bad guy who was
>scoring big against another player. She blew the roll and wound up at 0 AP.
>In the next round she was left alone and she succeeded at her "Endurance"
>ability roll and got a final action. Since no one was lending her any AP the
>only thing I could think of for her to try was a desperation stake attack to
>try to get up to positive AP. Is there anything else she could have done?
>Healing wouldn't seem to work because she wasn't really "hurt" and that
>doesn't generate AP anyway.

That's what I'd do. You might consider an AP loan to herself as healing (but that's dodgy), or maybe loans from followers with healing or other appropriate abilities.

>d) I have a character with metal-working skills. I understand how to use
>extended contest for her to forge a sword and to enchant that sword. I also
>see how she could give that sword some sort of target number in one of her
>abilities. What I don't see is how she could go about giving the sword a
>permanent "edge."

I haven't tried that. Why not use the target number in her ability to generate an edge as per the enhancement rules (and maybe increase resistance)? She then needs to spend HP to cement it.

>e) Any advice on how to use the new "Decapitate Foe" feat in a game without
>hit locations? My real problem is figuring out a way to do this that
>wouldn't make the feat much more powerful than Humakt's Death Secret. My
>best idea so far is to make its use into a simple contest of affinity vs.
>resistance, but only have it work on a major or complete victory.

As a regular augment to provide a really sharp blade +^X or better aim. To slay a dazed etc. foe (as a kind of souped up coup-de-grace) via simple contest. I'd try to avoid using it directly as a simple contest as it seems too powerful.

The god could decapitate foes - lesser folks just get help towards doing it.

Thom