Combat Hazards

[Azrael Macool]

Regarding the small change that zed proposed to make the "Called Shot on EoS" more fearful, I'd propose another different change: Instead of rolling the Feat die twice and keeping the best, roll one additonal Success die, up to six. This way, the adversary has a better chance of hitting AND of scoring a 6, which would make an enemy's Called Shot a real danger. Also, it would have logic by saying that the hero losed foot or opened his defenses with his failure and Eye.

Question: all this options you're proposing, are activated just by rolling an EoS or by failing the attack AND rolling an EOS? Sorry if this has been answered. As said, I'm in a rush now.

Interesting....and it could be a reciprocal rule: "Whenever an Eye of Sauron is rolled as part of an attack roll, subsequent attacks against that combatant are granted one bonus die. If the Eye of Sauron was rolled by a player-hero, attacking adversaries will use the bonus die to attempt a called shot."

So heroes would get the bonus, too, they just wouldn't have to use a called shot. This may be my favorite version yet.

I like that idea, though I should mention that it should apply to rolling a Gandalf for an adversary.

And anyway, I had already been playing it as making the Called Shot optional if either it did nothing, or was mathematically impossible or unlikely. If I added the idea of a bonus die, I would probably make it non-optional, unless of course there was no Called Shot effect, because that would just be pointless.

[Falenthal]

If the bonus Success die House Rule is adopted (I'll try it on the next sessions), something else can be optionally tinkered with: Is there a situation where an adversary may make a Called Shot without a bonus die?

I'm able to see just two options here:
1) Called Shots are optional (at the LM's will), but rolled with the normal attack dice of the creature.
2) If a hero rolls an Eye but doesn't fail his attack, the creature is forced to do a Called Shot on its next attack WITHOUT a bonus die (i.e. with his normal weapon skill). In fact, if a Called Shot without bonus is considered so bad for the adversary, it can even be triggered by a Gandalf rune.

By quickly looking at some adversaries stats, I've seen that the highest weapon skill is 4, for the Witch-King (the Rivendell supplement warns us that he's not in full shape now, so he might rise to 5 in the future), the Hill-troll Chief and Mountain Troll, the Werewolf of Mirkwood.
Only Raenar, the Cold-drake from ToW has a 5 (and favourite!) in Bite.

[Falenthal]

Sorry for posting again, but a simplification of the aforementioned options occured to me:

If a hero fails his attack AND rolls an Eye of Sauron, his engaged adversaries get one bonus Success die for their next action.
Called Shots are optional (an Orc with an axe may not want to break the shield of an unshielded foe).

This way we don't need several options for the rule (if only Eye rolled, if failure and Eye,...).
There's just one rule to cover it all, by substituting the RAW of Called Shot is forced by a failure AND Eye.
The adversary may then use his bonus Success die to do a Called Shot (recommended), a normal attack (against a hero with high Parry, for example) or any other action where it needs to roll (even fleeing combat if the LM wishes to allow it).

[Glorelendil]

Sorry for posting again, but a simplification of the aforementioned options occured to me:

If a hero fails his attack AND rolls an Eye of Sauron, his engaged adversaries get one bonus Success die for their next action.
Called Shots are optional (an Orc with an axe may not want to break the shield of an unshielded foe).

This way we don't need several options for the rule (if only Eye rolled, if failure and Eye,...).
There's just one rule to cover it all, by substituting the RAW of Called Shot is forced by a failure AND Eye.
The adversary may then use his bonus Success die to do a Called Shot (recommended), a normal attack (against a hero with high Parry, for example) or any other action where it needs to roll (even fleeing combat if the LM wishes to allow it).

And in the darkness bind them?

You don't like the reciprocity rule? That heroes get the same thing when adversaries miss with Gandalfs?

[Falenthal]

If a hero fails his attack AND rolls an Eye of Sauron, his engaged adversaries get one bonus Success die for their next action.
Called Shots are optional (an Orc with an axe may not want to break the shield of an unshielded foe).

You don't like the reciprocity rule? That heroes get the same thing when adversaries miss with Gandalfs?

I like it in theory, but you know how this game is: not everything is balanced between Adversaries and Heroes.
If one hero fails AND rolls an Eye, multiple foes might each get the bonus die, as most creatures work in swarms (which could result in various Protection tests agains Pierces in a single round). If one creature fails AND rolls a Gandalf, probably only one hero will get the benefit (in the case of goblins, attercops and such) or even all heroes will get it (against dragons, single trolls).

As said, I don't know if this is good, bad or balanced, but it requires to be thought throughly. Heroes get their bonus die from the Preliminary rolls. I don't know if they need more bonuses during Combat.

In fact, I'm not even so sure about my own proposed house-rule.