From: brunborg@solan.unit.no (]dne Brunborg)
Subject: Re: Sowrds of Sharpness and Incredible Constitution
Keywords: AD&D
Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 11:08:27 GMT

In article <1992Sep27.233456.10325@beaver.cs.washington.edu>, guido@cs.washington.edu (Guido Hunt) writes:
 > Well, in recent gaming sessions my group has come up with a couple
 > of interesting questions.
 > 
 > One, we just found a sword of sharpness, in the DMG it just says that on an
 > exceptional good hit 19 or 20 the sword severs a limb.  But nothing about
 > damage, loss of blood or shook, basically the guy takes 2-9 points of
 > damage plus str bonus and losses a limb but shrugs it of, this seems very
 > unrealistic.  This sword is only worth 3K exp less than the vorpal blade
 > which gives you an insta kill, if you hit well.  So we came up with an
 > unsatisfactory tempory solution, but i'd hoped that maybe you'd be able
 > to come up with something a little better.  This is what we did: on a 
 > sever roll 1-4 to see which limb is severed (head not possible), and then
 > triple damage.  This is what we went with and is all right, we thought about
 > triple damage if this is over half total hits, then the person had to safe
 > verus death magic or die from shock, or possible just fall unconsious.  Any
 > input on this would be appreciated.  I think we're looking for something
 > not too complicated, as we don't want to slow the game down too much, bue
 > something a little more realistic would help.
 > 
 > Two, we have a VERY healthy elf in our group, he has a 20 con.  At this lofty
 > hieght, he is entitled to regeneration a one point per hour. Our question is
 > what if he sustains enought damage to take him below -10, does he die or
 > does his regen still work and eventually he will get back up like a troll.  In
 > second edition it says regular damage (other than acid and fire) will be healed
 > at this excelerated rate, but unlike the ring of regen desc. it doesn't say
 > anything about avoiding death.  We figured that a troll would have about a 54
 > con and that this is a little above a 20 and so that might be a misleading 
 > comparison.  I think we kind of decided that he still would die if -10 was
 > reached, but we would again appreciate your comments.
 > 
 > Thats all for now...
 > 
 > -Guido Hunt
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > -- 
 > :-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-:
 >      guido@wolf.cs.washington.edu ::  As my father says: "fate is the clay
 > or   noprking@u.washington.edu    ::    from which we mold our own destiny"
 > :-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-::-*-:


About the sword, you could just rule that every Sword of Sharpness (including
Vorpal) is at the same time a Sword of Wounding when they severe a limb or head. 
That make the damage sustained a little more fearsome, and they would at the same
time be very effective in killing Trolls...

About the elf, I rule that if he's reduced to -10, he's dead. But if he's between
0 and -9, he won't lose 1 HP/round, but rather regenerate 1/hour, unless fire,
acid or a Sword of Wounding, in wich case they just die. This is very nice if he's
on a solo-adventure. (I have a dwarf in my group with the same "problem"(?)).

About high Con, I have a table somewhere about increase in weight with
exeptional high Str, Dex and Con-scores.
When I used it on the dwarf (19 Con, 18(81) Str + Girdle of Dwarvenkind), he
ended up with a weight at 254 pounds (he's about 50 inches, I think), and have
big problems finding an animal to ride... (With all equipment, he's far too heavy
for a pony, and a dwarf can't normally ride anything but a pony...)

I dont have the table here right now, but I'll post it one of the days (if my DM
don't beat me to it...)

So long!


		Aadne Brunborg
		Norwegian Institute of Technology
		University of Trondheim
		NORWAY

	"If ye can't see it, it's right behind ye..."