Emirikol First Blood

[subplotkudzu]

One thing we ran into during the first official set of duels in the Emirikol game was that duels to first blood in D&D - if you count any loss of HP as first blood - are based way too much on initiative. Therefore I'm recommending we use the nicely flexible concept of hit points to instead work with fractions of the character HP. 

First Blood is actually 'drawn' when the character has taken over 1/3rd (round up) of his HP total. Since Cyble has 10 HP she actually gets cut or bloodied once she's taken more than 4 points of damage. Deitrich, with 17 HP isn't actually cut until he's taken more than 6. This might not mean much now, where a single hit with a sword is enough to take a 12 HP character past their 4 point first blood, but it would have extended Hiram's fight with his 18 HP opponent past that first rapier touch.

Second Blood, or the desire to fight "until one is well blooded, disabled, or disarmed" is generally set at taking more than 2/3rds of your HP (round up). Cybele is well blooded once she's taken more than 7 HP of damage, Deitrich can hold out until he's at more than 12 points taken. This is the level of fighting Melas and his adversary were engaged in, which means his critical hit was needed to push the fellow up over the 2/3rd HP mark. 

Fighting to the death is often considered 'concluded' once once of the opponents is at 0 HP. Of course, the terms of the duel can stipulate that no healers be present at the match but can be called later, which gives you a pretty narrow window between 0 HP and being dead. Unless it is specifically stated in the terms of the duel that one of the duelists will not leave the field alive it is ungentlemanly to strike an opponent who's already down (and such a duel is technically illegal anyway). 

Does everyone agree that this makes sense? I'm looking for something that's workable and not complicated.

Comments

[40yearsagotoday.livejournal.com]

I admit I'm a little biased here, but it seems like initiative *should* largely decide first blood duels, which is why they're so wimpy (as my opponent was quick to point out)

I thought things worked out with all reasonable verisimilitude.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

A duel is a contest using deadly weapons between to combatants over some perceived wrong or loss of face or honor. “I demand satisfaction!” is often the code phrase used by the injured party to request a duel.

The usual goal of a duel wasn’t so much as a desire to kill one’s opponent as to have the offended party gain "satisfaction" over their enemy. “Satisfaction” itself usually defined as restoring one's honor by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life for it.

Thereby winning the duel is thereby one means of righting this perceived wrong, but simply showing a willingness to fight may be another. If a duel isn’t fought to the death, it is fought to the satisfaction of the one demanding the duel until honor is deemed to have been restored. This could mean First Blood, or at some other pre-determined point, FREX until at least one person is incapacitated or rendered unable to fight (i.e. unconsciousness).

Sometimes “Satisfaction” means simply showing up and surviving unscathed a pre-determined set of conditions (i.e. being shot at three times by a pistol/wand/cross-bow). There have been odd duels in the past, where combatants didn’t use conventional (and lethal) weapons, but fought with bladders full of manure or ink, with “Satisfaction” achieved by the one making the first visible mark. There have even been duels with persons aloft in balloons using pistols at the other’s aerostat.

This is all a very long-winded preamble to my point that it should be the combatants, and not the GM who needs to set the bar to what constitutes “Satisfaction” to the injured party demanding the duel.

If the player/PC demanding that they duel to “First Blood” (meaning literally the first strike that draws a visible injury) as the point at which Satisfaction occurs (and for which Initiative means so much), then re-defining First Blood to be 1/3 of hit points is simply redefining the meaning of this term and cheats the person who thinks that First Blood means exactly that.

However, if the two combatants wish to change the level of desired and formalized lethality so that the duel ends with “Satisfaction” being defined as the first injury that requires magical healing (i.e. beyond 8 HP) or the first that requires the intervention of a high level cleric (say 1/3 to ½ total HP) that could be another possibility for to the two duelists and their seconds to consider.

::B::

[(Anonymous)]

Count me as another voice in the no-flatfoot chorus. It seems that in a set-piece fight where there is no element of surprise and both participants have the opportunity to make ready before the fighting begins, the dex bonus to AC would apply. Initiative still has value because after all you do get the first crack at your opponent.

Yes, it means rogues can't sneak-attack people in a duel, but just how do you sneak-attack someone who's standing there watching you, holding a sword pointed at you and alert to your every move?

So adopt a house rule that in formal duels (or any other situation where there is no chance of surprise) neither combatant is flat-footed. Call it the "arch support" rule.

Cambias