House rules on parrying attacks

 

 

Success Level

Attack:            Fumble             Fail                   Success                        Special             Critical

Parry:                         

Fumble             Both fumble      Parryer fumblesAttack=success;           Attack=special Attack=critical

                        Parryer fumblesParryer fumbles Parryer fumbles

 

Fail                   Attacker fumblesBoth fail          Attack=success            Attack=special Attack=critical

 

Success***      Attacker fumbles ***               *                                  Attack=successAttack=special

 

Special***       Attacker fumbles ***               **                                **                    Attack=success

 

Critical***       Attacker fumbles ***   Critical parry blocks any and all damage from any attack!***

 

(& etc. for hypercriticals, megacriticals, ultracriticals, etc.... ugh)

 

* Subtract weapon AP from attacker's rolled damage; if AP are exceeded then reduce them by 1 for every (full AP) in damage over the parrying weapon AP, and apply damage to the parryer (armor counts as usual).

** As above, but parrying weapon is not damaged.  Note this happens if special parry vs. special attack!

***No effect except as follows:  Successful sword parry vs. missed attack harms attacker; critical axe parry vs. missed attack harms attacker.

 

IMPORTANT RULE:

Note that a critical parry always fully cancels the attack, and a special parry protects the weapon from damage.

But if an attack succeeds and the parry specials, the attacker can still roll damage that might hurt the parryer past the parrying weapon's AP.

            e.g., a target shield has 12AP; if the parryer wearing 4pt armor special-parries a 20pt attack success, then the shield is unharmed but 4 pts penetrate parry AP and body armor (16pts) to the parryer's location HP.  On a regular parry the shield would also have lost 1AP; the attack would have needed to be 24pts to lower the shield by 2 AP.

 

Special/critical sword/axe parries vs. failed attacks do not do extra special damage; they do regular rolled weapon damage.

Thrusting or blunt weapon parries vs. failed attacks have no special result.

Some shields can be made with swordbreaker catches that can entangle failed attacks on a special parry.

Parrying with a natural grapple skill catches the opponent’s attacking weapon or arm on +1 level of success.

Parrying a grappling attack means that the parrying weapon is grappled by the attacker, unless parry is +1 level of success.

 

WEAPON AP:

Weapons lose 1 AP each time they are penetrated.  Repair spells, weaponsmithing, etc. always leaves item with 1 AP less than before (scarred), so there’s no reason to repair an item that has only lost 1AP.  Acid and other destructive damage (e.g., dragonfire) permanently reduces AP beyond repair; only D.I. could repair.  ENC can become reduced for badly damaged armor or shields.