Unarmed Combat

By Crymoar, in WFRP Rules Questions

Gauntlets are in the 'unarmed' group of weapons and stats are given.

What about just being bare handed? Any stats for that? (If not what about DR 0 CR 4?)

If you are unarmed and your opponent has a weapon I'd think you'd be disadvantaged and add a misfortune die to your pool. Thoughts?

Crymoar

'Unarmed' has an entry on the Melee Weapons table.

Although I think adding a or two may be appropriate.

This brings up an interesting point, though. Unarmed was included on the Melee Weapons table. This way there is no argument that you cannot use Melee Strike since a requirement is 'Melee Weapon'. However, extending that logic to other cards means that you can do things like Parry, Reckless Cleave, Beat Back and Double Strike (hey, both hands are unarmed) while Unarmed.

Some clarifications on Unarmed Combat would be in order, as I don't think that that is the intent.

If I had to take a stab at it (and I feel I do, even though I'm unarmed *groan*) I'd say the clue is that every card that requires a Melee Weapon except for Melee Strike says the weapon must be "equipped." Melee Strike just says "Melee Weapon," period. If you're Unarmed, you don't have anything equipped.

I just went through the action cards and found two that apply to unarmed combat: Grapple and Mighty Blow.

You have to have a hand free to Grapple. It has an inherent difficulty that is reduced if you have both hands free and increased if your opponent 'has a melee weapon equipped.' So that supports the Misfortune for trying to manhandle an armed opponent (which is a good GM call regardless.)

Mighty Blow is a good read all on its own, so I'll leave that to you.

Ahhh yes I found it...DR 3 CR 4 ? I think DR 3 is too much it should really be 1 or 2.

Crymoar said:

Ahhh yes I found it...DR 3 CR 4 ? I think DR 3 is too much it should really be 1 or 2.

I would agree. or do something like primitive weapons in dark heresy, double the soak of armour vs unarmed.

Kaptain O said:

Crymoar said:

Ahhh yes I found it...DR 3 CR 4 ? I think DR 3 is too much it should really be 1 or 2.

I would agree. or do something like primitive weapons in dark heresy, double the soak of armour vs unarmed.

yep, something....... a dagger only has a DR 4 so unarmed just shouldn't be DR 3 IMO. I may even make it DR 0 and 1/2 Strenght if you're untrained and only a DR1 full strengthif you're trained.

Trouble is that in almost all cases you will do the minimum 1 damage, even against an unarmoured guy.

Kaptain O said:

Trouble is that in almost all cases you will do the minimum 1 damage, even against an unarmoured guy.

But I am pretty sure that if you Min 1 damage a guy you cannot apply critical damage, which I think is appropriate.

Fair enough, could work I suppose - makes fists pretty ineffectual.

Strength 3 Unarmed has a damage potential of 6. A standard unarmoured Toughness of 3 would mean 3 damage on every successful punch/kick/headbutt.

While that seems like a lot, it helps keep fisticuffs a viable option in a bar fight without it taking forever to knock a dude to the floor. Do you really want you and your players to have to roll 10 - 15 pools worth of dice each (minimum) to see who gets knocked out?

If they're fighting an armed opponent, don't just add Misfortune to their attacks, but also add Fortune to the weapon wielder's pool. They should get the point and arm themselves or run.