Hi all -- RQ III rules for intentional knockback say "the adventurer attempting knockback may attack at his normal strike rank for a fist attack, his player comparing on the resistance table the adventurer's STR plus SIZ against the SIZ plus DEX of the target. If the roll succeeds, the target is knocked back ... ." I have a few questions about this:
1. Does this mean that big strong attackers (e.g., trolls) will basically always hit small defenders, even if the latter are dextrous? Imagine an average Dark Troll (STR 17 SIZ 19) against an average elf (SIZ 9 DEX 14) -- Barring any special modifiers, the troll will hit on a 95% or less. Can't the dextrous elf (with a Move of 4) just jump out of the way? Can an intentional knockback attack be parried? Dodged?
2. If successful, an intentional knockback attack knocks the target back "the same distance as if the STR plus SIZ of the attacker were weapon damage (reduced by the SIZ of the target)." The rules also say that when a person is knocked back into a solid object, such as a wall, "for each meter traveled he will take 1D6 damage to a hit location determined on the melee hit location table." Even if we assume that a separate hit location is rolled for each 1D6, this becomes a great way for a big character to kill others. In the example above, the troll has 95% chance to hit, and, if he can get the elf between him and a wall, tree, or similar object, can do 5D6 to the elf (26 point difference between troll's STR plus SIZ versus the elf's SIZ, five and rounded up equals 5m knockback). Why bother learning to use weapons when you can belly-bust people like the Kool-Aid Man and kill them dead? Am I missing something?
3. With regard to the "for each meter traveled," how does this work if the solid object stops the target early? If the troll above knocks back the elf, but there is only 1 meter between the elf and a wall, does the elf take 1D6 or 5D6?
Thanks for any thoughts!