Re: on skills

[Wright Frazier <khelek@ns1.cioe.com>]

> 
> Instead of modifying (ie complicating) existing rules, why not make
> sword breaking a seperate skill? Say in the description of the skill
> that you must use a swordbreaker.

hmmm..thought I made that clear...the swordbreaker is a seperate and
	distinct weapon from any other weapon.  it is designed to
	allow this function.  As the sai is designed for disarming.
	
> 
> Ditto a 'disarm' skill. But that check shouldn't be against the
> strength of the weapon but against the strength and/or weapon skill
> of the wielder. A child with a sword is nothing to disarm. A child
> swordmaster is going to be more difficult. An adult sword master more
> difficult still.

Thought i made that clear as well...when you are attempting to
disarm someone, you roll x dice against your skill(you choose x), then
if that is under your skill you then roll x dice against the target's
strength(or weapon skill, whichever is higher?).  If the roll of x
dice is higher than the victim's str, then they loose their weapon.

> 
> Being able to target a 'part' of a person raises some interesting
> questions. In the brethren it was a long standing belief that if 
> someone comes at you with a magic item you put a lighning bolt into
> that item. With a bit of luck it explodes becoming more dangerous for
> the user than the target.
> 

Expect it in return, I personally never liked the exploding magic item
thing, but hey.

> With the redefinition of what constitutes an item (object or person)
> this wasn't possible anymore since they we're one item (the magic
> item and its wielder). So same way you can't just lightning bolt
> someone's sword arm, you couldn't lightning bolt their matrix gem.
> 
> Now the swordbreaker says it can target the weapon again. That's
> not unheard of, nor is it a special case (there are many spells that
> just target someone's posessions). But nor is it part of the standard
> weapon skill. It has to be a seperate discipline.
> 
> > re: swordbreakers and breaking.  Read the rules, in my original post.
> > 	its not very easy to do.  On the average, it will take a 5
> > 	die skill check to have a 50/50 chance of breaking a weapon
> > 	with a str of 17.
> 
> Does that take luck into account? In both its pure and nomadic varients?
> 
> 					-Steve
> 

Its a skill check in effect, so its subject to nomads at play.

That also brings up another point I'll make in a following letter.

Wright