Stunning Blow and Undefended Attacks

[KPhan2121]

A while ago, I made this post about low damage and high armor predicament and posted some ideas about houserules and for the most part they were rejected. Now I've been researching historically accurate methods that man at arms used to combat knights in full plate and came up with some rules that could help people deal with them. 

 

The first one is Undefended Attacks, attacks for which there is no defense to oppose them simply ignore armor. Think of a situation where an armored man is somehow unaware of an attack and/or are simply unable to actively defend themselves (or they ran out of dodge and parry skill). The attacker would be able to get his weapon to attack areas where the armor does not protect or is less effective (Visor, neck, armpits, etc).

 

The second one is Stunning Blow, an attack that a character must declare doing before rolling to hit. If the attack hits and is not parried or dodged, there is a resistance check between the rolled damage and the health of the enemy + the armor value of his helmet. If the enemy fails the check, he is stunned for 1d3 turns. He cannot attack or defend for those turns. If the player rolls a special success, he gets a +5 to his damage roll. If the player rolls a critical success, he gets a +10 to his damage roll. 

 

I got the idea from reading this historical sword technique called half-swording where the wielder a sword would grasp the blade of the weapon and strike with the pommel or guard like a mace or warhammer. This technique is used to stun heavily armored opponents since it's almost impossible to penetrate plate. I also thought that the basic principle of stunning opponents before killing them can work with nearly every melee weapon. 

 

Anyways what are your thoughts on the matter?

[tooley1chris]

This would be a "called shot " and subject to a difficult skill roll.(IIRC)

Of course flanking/back stabbing attacks would make this a bit easier because of bonus...

A good example of synergy between spot rules.

[pansophy]

There's a Spot Rule called 'Knockout Attack' (p.226 BGB) doing similar stuff ... also, the 'Knockback' spot rule is interesting to throw a target to the ground (or push it backwards).