We tried out a duel today and started looking through the critical strikes. This was the first time we actually had a conflict and I was seriously confused by the critical strikes.

Was hoping the forum could help me out with this one:

How do I actually kill an enemy? As I understand it, if someone has taken enough damage that it reaches their endurance-limit and become incacapitzed they keep taking normal damage until falling unconscious (at which point they start taking that +10 severity). This would mean that the only consistent way of killing someone is knocking them out, THEN stabbing them.

Seeing as a Katana has a Deadliness of 5, how do I get that critical all the way to 12?

14 hours ago, MirumotoOrashu said:

We tried out a duel today and started looking through the critical strikes. This was the first time we actually had a conflict and I was seriously confused by the critical strikes.

Was hoping the forum could help me out with this one:

How do I actually kill an enemy? As I understand it, if someone has taken enough damage that it reaches their endurance-limit and become incacapitzed they keep taking normal damage until falling unconscious (at which point they start taking that +10 severity). This would mean that the only consistent way of killing someone is knocking them out, THEN stabbing them.

Seeing as a Katana has a Deadliness of 5, how do I get that critical all the way to 12?

• A Katana has a Deadliness of 7 when wielded 2-handed (see Grips, p.144)
• Razor Edged weapons can increase their deadliness by 1 at a cost of 1 opportunity (see beta update 4.0, p.7)
• Striking As Fire increases the severity of the next critical a target suffers by 1 per opportunity spent
• Way of the Crane increases critical severity by your school rank
• Veiled menace increases the severity of a critical a disoriented target suffers by 1 per opportunity spent (and drops the cost to critical them by 1)
• The Path of Shadows increases deadliness by your school rank against incapacitated opponents

But yes, incapacitated no longer applies a +5 severity, so in normal situations it's hard to kill someone not already unconcious.

Also note, however, that in a duel, you'll often be delivering a Finishing Blow (see duels p.162) which has a severity equal to double the weapons deadliness plus bonus successes (meaning 14+ for a double-handed katana strike, a Swift Death result). One-roll duels (see beta update 4.0, p.9) have a similar double-deadliness mechanic.

If one party has rendered everyone in the other party Incapacitated or Unconscious , or made them flee, the GM should just call it a day and ask the winners to decide the fate of the losers.

Also, Minions die instantly if you punch them past their Resilence with a weapon of Deadly enough weapon. Most enemies will probably be minions.

6 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• A Katana has a Deadliness of 7 when wielded 2-handed (see Grips, p.144)
• Razor Edged weapons can increase their deadliness by 1 at a cost of 1 opportunity (see beta update 4.0, p.7)
• Striking As Fire increases the severity of the next critical a target suffers by 1 per opportunity spent
• Way of the Crane increases critical severity by your school rank
• Veiled menace increases the severity of a critical a disoriented target suffers by 1 per opportunity spent (and drops the cost to critical them by 1)
• The Path of Shadows increases deadliness by your school rank against incapacitated opponents

But yes, incapacitated no longer applies a +5 severity, so in normal situations it's hard to kill someone not already unconcious.

Also note, however, that in a duel, you'll often be delivering a Finishing Blow (see duels p.162) which has a severity equal to double the weapons deadliness plus bonus successes (meaning 14+ for a double-handed katana strike, a Swift Death result). One-roll duels (see beta update 4.0, p.9) have a similar double-deadliness mechanic.

Thanks for the help, cleared things up abit!