Torches and fire in combat (minor spoiler)

[Dunkelbrink]

I'm preparing for tomorrow's session - Of leaves and stewed hobbit - and the possible fight with the night wight.

Here we have a creature of shadow, hard to injure and wound with corporeal weapons (Armour 4D + 8 at night!)and afraid of fire (Fear of Fire).

According to RAW you can lower the creature's Hate by having a lot of torches on the first round of combat. After that round they are practically useless. Lets assume three vigilant companions carry torches. That means 3 point of Hate of the night wight's 8. After that it becomes pretty hard to scare it away with use of imtimidate.

If I know my players they will want to attack the creature with fire and torches - especially after noticing how resilient it is when struck by old good steel.

Have any one here come up with rules for torches in combat? Would a rule that allows a companions to attack with the Dagger skill and the same damage/threat as a dagger, TN+2 to attack roll to represent the fact that a torch is not a weapon, do? On a called shot maybe the target catches fire unless making an armour roll? And against creatures like wights with Fear of fire the foe's armour roll is halved?

I was also thinking of changing the Fear of fire rule to allow continious fire harassment; after every round that at least one torch wielding companion is in close combat with the creature (not ranged stance) the creature loses on point of Hate. Also, a succesful roll of Imtimidate foe could cause a loss of one additional point of Hate. Since the creature, at least the night wight, is Craven, it will flee at zero Hate. A fitful end for these kinds of fights and also in the spirit of the books if you ask me, rather than slogging it down to zero endurance.

In this way, fire is the real key to defeating these kinds of creatures, instead of just being a small bonus on the first round of battle.

Any ideas or comments?

/Magnus

[Otaku-sempai]

I'm trying to approach this without directly altering the "Fear of Fire" characteristic. I like the idea of setting the thing aflame on a called shot with the notion that it loses a point of hate every round that it is on fire. One might be able to accomplish the same result by dousing the creature in lamp oil and setting it aflame.

[Beleg]

I forget which page it's on, and I don't have my books to hand, but there is a table listing the damage dealt by different fire types. When I ran this adventure I allowed my player to attack with the torch, and I upped the damage dealt by it slightly. However, it went well for him since he was playing a Man of the Lake with the Shieldfighter Virtue, and I allowed him to use the torch in the same way as his shield for the fight

[Otaku-sempai]

I forget which page it's on, and I don't have my books to hand, but there is a table listing the damage dealt by different fire types. When I ran this adventure I allowed my player to attack with the torch, and I upped the damage dealt by it slightly. However, it went well for him since he was playing a Man of the Lake with the Shieldfighter Virtue, and I allowed him to use the torch in the same way as his shield for the fight

The rules on fire and fire damage are on page 51 of the Loremaster's Book/Guide.

[roodie]

I would just use it as a dagger as someone mentioned it below.

A successful called shot burns the enemy (use the rules for torch from the rulebook), and sets it on fire if applicable (extinguishing the flames takes a full round). If the creature set aflame has Fear of Fire, it would lose an amount of Hate equal to the endurance lost thanks to the burning (with a minimum of 1).

A fumble on the other hand extinguishes the torch, making it unusable as a weapon any more.

Or if you were in a particularly bad mood, a fumble could set the player on fire... But I would reserve that fate for some dwarf with a particularly long beard

[Corvo]

I got doubts similar to Dunkelbrink's ones.

My solution was for the torch to give bonus +1 dice to Intimidate Foe rolls (against opponents scared by the fire): this way, someone can use it -in forward stance- to drive off a Wraith.

[Robin Smallburrow]

I don't like these ideas because a Nightwight is supposed to be a fearful creature and its stats reflect this! I would only allow bonuses if a Pc did something heroic enough to deserve it

Robin S

[Dunkelbrink]

Well, I think it is pretty fearful as it is and that my suggestions doesn't make it less so. I just felt we needed something to make fire the viable thing to use here, instead of swords. There are no RAW for attacking with a torch for example. I like Corvo's idea with the extra dice for Intimidate; with that small bonus trying to scare the wight away with torches becomes a more realistic option, instead of chopping away at its high endurance with ordinary axes and swords. Again, I think this is more in line with Tolkien's writings according such creatures and that should be encouraged though game mechanics if you ask me.

/Magnus