g33k

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

Most weapons (with the exception of swords) have quite a lot of non-business parts that can be "attacked" in order to deflect a bow. Spear and axe shafts, or the arm of a knife fighter are within reach of the parrying party.

Cats of all sizes and bears will use their paws to strike attacking limbs, and may well be able to go for the flat of a blade, too. Only dogs are predominantly head attackers, and even they will use their forepaws to hold down thrashing prey (parrying hoofed kicks).

I'm unconvinced; you seem to be implying more cognizance and combat-savvy than I'd expect from a wild animal... going for the flat of the blade??!?

A haft is still a heavy piece of hardwood; even not striking the weapon-head, it's still roughly a d8 Quarterstaff!

I agree that a knife, even a shortword/handaxe, puts the weapon-bearing hand and forearm in reach.  Granted, the haft is less-damaging than the head.  But particularly a thrust, like a spear... I wouldn't expect a beast to let the nearest bit get close while it reached around to the bit behind!

Obviously, almost any weirdness could crop up in a wild melee.

But an out-and-out "parry" is -- mostly -- an intelligent trained response.

I've seen a cat try to claw at objects, you're right -- they do use their paws that way.  But when I see cats actually FIGHT, they mostly go for each others heads/shoulders (with a rear-leg rake if they get 2 good clawfulls at the front).  I've seen a sort of "guard pattern:"  one paw high/wide, threatening and possibly doing a series of fast swipes, sort of interdicting a vector-of-attack & threatening a Big Hit if ignored.

But preferentially striking each others paws, "block" style?  Not much, not really.  Sometimes a cat will get a claw "stuck" in their foe; the victim doesn't even use a paw to knock the (static, unmoving) limb off them.

I have been known to "kitty duel" if the cat seems like it's in WildBeast mode -- my speed vs. theirs -- to go for a lightning-fast tummy-pat, paw-tap, jaw-scritch, etc.  If I've mis-judged the cats mood, it leaves; but often it stays to play a game for a minute or several... (and yes, it gets me scratched sometimes; not all cats play that game with velvet paws! (I figure it's my fault if I get hurt, not theirs).  And sometimes instead of bloodsport, it turns out the cat was into cuddles&scritches&purring; and that's good, too!  (The one cat who liked to purr & nuzzle WHILE ripping at me and drawing blood... OK, that was a bit creepy...))

They are clearly treating my hand as the "attacker" (they ignore everything past the wrist (except an occasional claw/claw/bite&Rake, when I've been REALLY slow...)).  They'll nail a finger if they get it, but what they're aiming for is the whole hand.  But the closest I've seen to a "parry" (from "duelling" a dozen so so cats (not all cats are interested & willing; and some don't see the "game" in it)) is more like a "trap" from martial arts -- a hook-and-draw-in motion (taking advantage of those curved, ripping claws), not so much "blocking" my finger as trying to grab it to bring the "body" of my hand in for the kill...

===

I haven't seen as much of bears -- never owned one, pet-sit one, visited other owners, etc -- but from what I've seen they too do little to "parry" -- when they reach out a paw in a fight, it's to HIT (or to threaten).

Bears will swipe, but not really paw-v-paw "parry" -- a meaningful blow is to the head/body, not an opposing paw.  They mostly try to hit PAST the paw, and defend by biting an incoming paw (Paw meets Jaw is usually worse for the bitten paw!).

If an animal was intelligent -- awakened, or with a Spirit inside -- then all manner of good tactical and strategic options open up, including parries.

Even a good trainer might be able to elicit non-instinctive combat mannerisms.

But for wild animals, I'm gonna stick with my "mostly no parries" rule, unless I see pretty convincing arguments (or video?) otherwise.  I can probably find youtube vid to support most of my points, if you'd like.

Quote

1) What do you think about the Shadowcat situation above? Do Shadowcats "follow orders" like familiars? Whether they can or not, how would you have avoided an effective "no" under that situation?

Shadowcats are doglike in their trainability.  I'd allow a well-trained dog to do a scout-and-report, within limits.  As Soltakss says, limit it to INT "tricks," if they're complex, dangerous, or otherwise difficult-to-train.  I'd let it do a "Trick" on any relevant roll -- Beast Rune, animal-handling, animal-lore, etc.

In-game, you've established that "scout-and-report" is not one of the Tricks it knows; if Nathem is a Player's character, I'd allow him to work on training his shadowcat to do this (I'd expect it to take months of dedicated effort; at least 10 training sessions every week for at least 2ish hours/session (normally I'd do 1h sessions, but not for outdoor/exploration tasks).).

Use communication via Beast Rune (or spell) for other things.

On the ordinary success achieved in-game, I'd probably have been a bit more generous, but I'm gonna call that a simple difference of opinion, not that your choice was "wrong."

I'd have had the Alynx understand Nathem wanted it to go "look around out thata-way," and rolled 3d6ish for 10-meter range-increment it went (30m-180m(ish)) & a bit of randomizing for precise direction and for straight-line vs meandering.  Without a trained Trick, I'd default to the cat only having 2 reports available:  "Found some prey - lets go hunt!" (n.b. cattle are not valid "prey") or "oh HELL no -- that's dangerous.  don't go hunting THAT way!"

===

About those "limits" (within which a critter's scout-and-report are limited):  the most-limited bit is the "report" of course.  How well do you read the animal's body-language?  How sophisticated is its mind, how much can it grasp, to even attempt to convey?  I would call for a separate roll to UNDERSTAND the report.

I'd disallow any "count" info beyond one/some/lots... and any particularly-scary-to-the-animal threat might register as "lots" of threat, regardless of count!  It can't really convey species, etc.

That said, wild animal groups have been documented with different threat-signals for "hawk" (animals take cover vs threat from above; large-enough ones only "take caution" and don't take cover) & "poison snake" (animals look at the ground, avoid dense undergrowth) & "Big Cat" (animals look for trees to climb, avoid big-cat-cover), etc.  I'd allow them to also specifically be able to signal "human" and maybe 1-2 other specific creatures (hounds can be trained to hunt specific species).

Complex situations are beyond their ability to convey.  A mixed party of humans & trolls, mounted on bison, bolo-lizards & beetles, with packs of hounds & trollkin?  Your report will translate roughly as:  "It's a booshgobbldyfrake.  Big one.  Let's run away."

===

IIRC, Nathem's shadowcat does NOT house any allied-spirit / etc.  So it's an ordinary beast.  As others have noted, a spirit will give it a mind, make it effectively an NPC like any other.

I mostly don't allow animals (ordinary non-sentient beasts) to "parry" as such.  I do allow a dodge.

After you hit them once or twice, they figure out that the  hitty-thing  hurts.  If it hurt a LOT, they'll try to dodge.  If it only hurt for 1-3(ish) HP's of damage, their version of 
"Parry" is to BITE it, like it was the swipe of another animal's paw, or something.  In the wild, this is a very effective strategy.

However, this amounts -- more or less -- to sticking their head in the way of the Adventurers' weapon.  😨

Granted, they meet the blow fangs-first -- and the sakkar, IIRC, has some pretty serious fangs! -- but it's generally not a winning strategy vs. armed humans carrying weapons to get through the armor of human foes...

10 weeks?

Timing with the RQ "Classic" kickstarter is a bit suspicious...