Hit points for small creatures

[ffilz]

Hmm, I haven't though about this too much. I play RQ1/2, but I have switched to HP = (SIZ+CON)/2 + POW bonus + SIZ bonus (but not SIZ penalty), yea, it double counts SIZ, but I wanted to keep the same range of hit points for humans. With that, smaller creatures do at least have not quite so many hit points. A thought that I am having is that if a small creature is worth having combat stats, then it deserves the hit points it gets and leave it at that. No, a run of the mill SIZ 3 animal won't have that many hit points, but that's because a run of the mill SIZ 3 animal isn't going to get combat stats. If you hit it with a weapon, it's dead. So yea, Alynxes, Rubble Runners, Ducks (I use RQ1 with 1D4+2 SIZ), and Vrok Hawks will all have surprising hit points.

At least it's better than the original RQ1 where the 18 CON Duck gets more HP than the 3 CON Great Troll...

Frank

[Ian Absentia]

On 6/20/2020 at 1:07 PM, g33k said:

Birds -- flying creatures -- are ALWAYS fragile, though; hollow & thin & delicate bones, all the modifications needed to fly...

I dunno, man.  I have a remarkably unpleasant story about a showdown with a rooster that didn't go down as planned.  Brittle bones, maybe, but muscles and tendons as tough and flexible as all get out.  Not a flying bird, but I'll give chickens high marks for resiliency.  "Hit Points" cover a wide swathe of territory between life and death.

!i!

[soltakss]

On 6/22/2020 at 10:01 PM, Pierre said:

All birds have a localisation table (p. 10). The bestiary gives only the localisation for the giant vrok so it's missing for the dwarf vrok. We need a second printing with the localisation of the vrok hawk! 🤡

Same hit locations, but with different hit points per location.

[soltakss]

In our RQ2 game, one of the Players saw that Vrok Hawks could be SIZ 6 and matched that to the SIZ Equivalency Table, noting that it was about a metre tall (121-135 cm in RQG) and weighed 36-41 kilograms, so like a really chubby child.

 

So, basically, every time the Yelmalian mentioned his Vrok Hawk, there were sounds of vultures cawing and people mimicking him lolling to one side due to the 40 kilo weight on his shoulder.

Edited July 4, 2020 by soltakss

[MJ Sadique]

Soltakss may have found a good solution, why just not give your player a biggest bird with a big meter large or even a little ROC. The bigger the target, the funnier the game...for the archers 🤣

Joke apart ! I think a simplest method could solve your Gordian Knot problem : Let the HP as it is and use the bird's Bonus Damage as modifier because usually small creature will have a -1D4 bonus damage when attacking. So when you hit them just increase the Damage by the same 1D4. You won't have to create a special method of calculation and argue with your player when a creature is nor small nor big.

Don't also forget that an bird may be trained but when an arrow whistle near his head he will flew away like any living creature. Only familiar or awakened creature will stay to fight to the bitter end : if he can flew away, he will !

[Stephen L]

On 7/4/2020 at 12:40 PM, MJ Sadique said:

Let the HP as it is

However, in my case, its a Siz 2 Hawk with 17 Con and 15 Hit points and 1 Hit location.

I think there would be a great deal more caution if it were killable by a single arrow (without requiring specials, since I suspect a swooping hawk is a difficult enough target), or indeed a disrupt.  And composite bows aren't standard in my campaign...

Having said all that, my players aren't the type to exploit any rules loophole, so I've not yet had to make any ruling, because the hawk's keeping well out of trouble.  But, damn it, it's got more hit points than some of the front line warriors in the party (like the lass with Siz 17, Con 12, who I can tell you, you really don't want to meet on a dark night)!

Stephen.

[Ian Absentia]

26 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

However, in my case, its a Siz 2 Hawk with 17 Con and 15 Hit points and 1 Hit location.

I think there would be a great deal more caution if it were killable by a single arrow (without requiring specials, since I suspect a swooping hawk is a difficult enough target), or indeed a disrupt.

Perhaps the solution - and I have no idea if anyone's ever toyed with this - is making Specials and Criticals easier when dealing with small creatures (and, conversely, harder with bigger creatures).  Currently, this is handled with rules for extremely large weapons doing geater damage against normal sized foes.  Bear in mind that a Bow vs Bird is something like Catapult vs Soldier, and Catapult vs Giant is essentially the opposite*.  What it really boils down to is the distribution of impact and shock over mass, with smaller and larger creatures feeling that impact on a geometrically greater and lesser scale, respectively.

So rather than trying to scale damage along a linear scale (or, worse, leaving it static), increase or decrease the chance of a Special or Critical according to difference in SIZ range.  Bows will start to wipe out flying birds (though, honestly, go back to my story about Rasputin the rooster) and will only very, very rarely be truly effective against a giant.

!i!

[Edit:  Wait, no.  Strike that.  Like Bow vs Soldier, which is not the opposite.]

Edited July 5, 2020 by Ian Absentia

[Stephen L]

2 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Rasputin the rooster

Actually, that's the best answer.  Change the hawks name, and that's just added a little magic to the campaign. 

In years to come, everyone will have forgotten the epic battle against the dragon, but no one will have forgotten Rasputin the Hawk.  The only one who came back...

Stephen.