On Sun, 11 May 2003, daniel mcsorley wrote:

> Dwarves should have DR 5/(slashing or piercing). This is equivalent
> to what skeletons will be getting, which is DR 5/blunt.

That notation means that the listed attack types are what they are
vulnerable to, not resistant to, yes? I actually think skeletons should
resist only piercing, not slashing -- bludgeoning weapons kill humans
largely by causing internal bleeding, an effect to which skeletons are not
subject; and the best weapon I can imagine for taking one apart in a short
time is an axe, not a mace.

> Skeletons might not be damaged much by a spear, but a ballista should
> hurt them quite a bit, as should a giant with a sword.

Since the giant is only going to sharpen his sword until it seems sharp to
him, I suspect that, for example, a Huge weapon -- even a nominally
piercing one -- ought to be considered blunt when striking Small targets,
and conversely a Fine mace would be effectively a piercing weapon when
striking a Large target. This may not be worth the work to implement
(draft: a certain number of size categories (4?) of difference turns
everything to B or P, depending on sign), but I contend that a "blade"
thicker than your arm really bludgeons much more than cuts you, and a
"club" the thickness of your tooth really cuts more than bludgeons you.

> Dwarvish damage reduction shouldn`t allow them to take half
> damage from a giant`s club, or from a mountain being dropped on them.

I actually disagree. If the dwarf is standing on a material less
structurally sound than the stone of which he is comprised (like dirt or a
wooden floor), when he is hit over the head by a giant club, much of the
energy that would have gone to crush a more fragile being will instead act
to drive the dwarf into the ground or through the floor. If he is
standing on a stone mountainside and struck by a giant wielding a tree as
a club, the impact will do more damage to the club than to the dwarf.
As for a mountain being dropped on them, half of ten million hp is still
instant death; but cave-ins will be much less dangerous, because they will
really be only as crushed by a pile of rocks on top of them as a human
would be crushed by an equivalent-size pile of humans: a big enough
rockfall can indeed kill them, but it really ought to be a much bigger one
than needed to kill a human, rather than just a slightly bigger one.

At present, I favor keeping the half-damage rule as-is.


Ryan Caveney

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