Halifax's Mugging Rules

Okay, first of all, if you want to stun tiny birds with a stun arrow, I say go for it. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that you can knock any size T (for tiny) creatures of less than one HD out of the sky with a stun arrow. This may come in handy for Ido “I speak with birds” Meneja, so hearken! I probably should have given Sebastian a saving throw—whether I did or not I don’t rmemeber, but let’s say I did and get on with out lives, shall we?

Here are my few, or two, cents on mugging and sapping.

First the restrictions: Sapping can only be done against humanoids (you cannot knock a cat unconscious no matter how hard you try, trust me); undead are immune, as are most (but not all) extraplanar creatures (githyanki, for example, look sappable to me); some monsters, arbitrarily decided upon by me ahead of time, may be immune to sapping (I have a couple in mind), and the party can discover the charming quirk of these creatures when the time comes. One must have no helmet to be sapped (we have never really worried about helmets before, (there are rules to cover the horrible things that can happen to you if you wear no helmet) but the fact is that all armor comes with a helmet (or skullcap, for the leather wearers), so if you have ever bought a suit or armor, you have a helmet. Werschen’s bronze plate mail & Gur’s leather armor have helmets. The only people whose armor lacks a helmet are Anna & Harald. Anna is welcome to supplement her armor with a helmet; since Harald is forbidden to wear any armor other than elven chain, he may be in hard cheese; perhaps we can work something out, especially after I look up the horrible helmetless AC rules. Note that JC, HZ, Reynaldo, and Justinian are in no way assumed to be wearing a helmet, but this will not affect their heads’ ACs (but may affect their sappability)). Note also that one can only sap the unawares. Now, I’m usually pretty liberal about allowing backstabbing is crazy situations, because backstabbing is cool, and thieves don’t get a lot to do sometimes; I will not be as liberal with sapping. A person in combat cannot be backstabbed without a pretty extraordinary reason; a person in combat will not be sapped at all, with the exception of the sap by the trusted figure (a possessed ally, a traitor, Kerry, or a shapechanger), which is a cool enough motif to let slide. This still leaves many opportunities for sapping outside of combat (and I expect “Is he wearing a helmet?” to be the new most quoted utterance of all players). We should probably work out some sort of size category restriction, such as the one Kerry has suggested.

Anyway, I have a proposed sapping ruleset here, which is by no means official, but which I offer for purposes of discussion (“for entertainment purposes only”). Inspired in part by Kerry’s rules.

Sapping can be done with a blackjack (preferred), or the hilt of a weapon. Sapping is accomplished in the usual backstabbing fashion, so the +4 bonus applies. It is not a called shot, but you cannot take time to “aim” (how many minutes can you stand behind a target focusing your ki?). However, anyone attacking with a pommel is using the weapon awkwardly (cf. subdual damage), and so attacks at –4; since this just negates his +4 bonus to hit, it’s not a harsh penalty. Attacks will usually be against AC 10, although certain humanoids may have a better natural AC but still be sappable, and, of course, a ring/prot or similar would bring the AC down.

If the attack misses (fat chance! a first level thief needs to roll a 6 or better), it is not an “air ball” but a lame-o glancing blow that causes no damage but alerts the victim, who then rolls for surprise and initiative.

The sap, whether it be an actual cosh or an ersatz pommel attack, does 1-2 dam (+ strength, where applicable), which is real damage. However, it also does an amount of sap damage, which is calculated something like this: blackjack: 2-7 heavy pommel (M weapon): 1-4 light pommel (S weapon): 1-3 (Size L weapons are not really good for sapping, although presumably an ogre, for example, could get away with it, and we can say it does 1-6). Magical weapons do not get their magical bonus for either real or sap damage (it’s the blade, not the pommel, that’s extra sharp); although its certainly possible that someone might find (read: Evelake might own) a magical blackjack of stunning +3).

The real damage and the sap damage are summed (strength and misc. bonuses counted only once), and the whole schmeer multiplied by the thief’s backstab multiplier. This number is then divided by the current hp of the victim, generating a percentage score, which is the KO percentage. If the number exceeds the current hp, the KO chance is 95%. In any event, all damage except the real damage is discarded. A low-level thief with average strength will do an average of 12 points summed damage, good enough to knock out most first-level characters but with only a 5% chance to knock out Bardas Phocas (ha ha).

Unconscious characters will stay that way for, say, 3-18 rds, but outside attempts to rouse them (water, slapping, smelling salts) permit a con check. If the KO roll is muffed then the thief has just done one or two points of damage (no multiplier, but strength applies) to a very angry and fairly hardy opponent.

Since hp are just a factor of level and constitution (and class), this system takes these features into account; it gives a chance for knocking anyone out, without guaranteeing anything. It also has the virtue of easily permitting non-thief characters to sap: simply use no thief backstab modifier and use the base summed damage; although for the nonce I think I would prefer that thieves alone be allowed to sap.

Variations could modify the amount of sap damage various sapping implements do (probably scaling down); or requiring a further saving throw after the KO% is rolled. But I think that latter requirement is too limiting. I guarantee Kerry will think this is too powerful, but, really, it is very difficult to get sneak up on someone helmetless and unawares in the first place. Since sapping is obviously more dangerous than backstabbing (as it much more an all-or-nothing proposition), the reward should be proportionally greater.

Please discuss.