House Rules

Character Creation

Grogs seem a bit overpowered in ArM4 relative to v1 and v2, so I've pulled a couple old ArM2 rules back out to put them back in their place:

• Grogs do not get to make an extra characteristic roll and throw one away.
• Grog starting XP is Age + 10 instead of Age * 2.
• Grogs start with only 1 Confidence, not 3. Because of this, grogs may not take the Low Self-Esteem Flaw without a good story explaining why their Cnf is 0.

Combat

ArM4 also went a bit far in oversimplifying damage calculations. Revert to ArM2 rules by adding a simple die to your Damage Total and a stress die to Soak when calculating damage. Along with any botch dice added to Soak rolls for conditions, they also take 1 extra botch die for each Decreptitude point the character has. When determining the number of Body Levels lost to an attack, round up instead of down. (e.g., If the Damage Total exceeds the Soak roll by 1-5, lose 1 Body Level. If by 6-10, lose 2. Etc.)

Each weapon (or shield) may only parry once per round. Any additional incoming attacks may only be defended against by dodging (aka Brawling defense). Longshaft Weapons and balanced Great Weapons (i.e., not War Mauls or Battleaxes) may parry twice per round.

The optional rule on p.165 for increased longbow and crossbow damage is in use, but requires that a full round be spent aiming to obtain the increased damage. Other bows may also gain increased damage, as in the called shots optional rule on the same page, but require an unaware target as well as a full round of aiming. Melee weapons may gain increased damage against targets who are completely unaware of any danger without requiring a round of preparation (but they will generally require multiple rounds of Stealth instead).

Ordo Nobilis has a number of excellent optional rules for combat. The following are in effect:

• Partial Armor: Armor may be purchased piecemeal per the chart on Ordo Nobilis p.82. Existing full-suit armor should be converted to the appropriate pieces per the conversion chart on p.83.
• Combat Encumbrance: For purposes of Attack and Defense Totals only, Encumbrance is calculated based on one third of a character's total Load carried instead of the full Load.
• Fatigue: Rather than rolling Fatigue at the end of each round, characters need only make a Fatigue roll when a 0 is rolled for an attack, defense, or other strenuous activity. (Note that they need not botch, merely roll a 0.) This Fatigue roll is made as a stress roll against a difficulty of 9, adding Stm and Athletics. If the roll is failed, lose 1 Fatigue Level for every 3 points it was missed by, rounding up. If the roll is botched, lose additional Fatigue Levels equal to the botch's severity.
• Grievous Wounds: Grievous wounds occur and have effects per Ordo Nobilis p.86. Additionally, grievous wounds are suffered on any Soak botch with the severity of the wound determined as if each botch level were an additional Body Level lost. (e.g., A Soak double-botch on an attack that inclicted 2 Body Levels of damage would cause a grievous wound as if 4 Body Levels had been done.)
• Armed Toppling Attacks: A character attacking with a weapon may choose to make an armed toppling attack rather than a standard strike. In this case, damage is resisted with Dex + Size - Combat Enc in the place of Soak. The first two Body Levels of damage inflicted are lost on knocking the target to the ground. Further damage is alternately applied first to Fatigue, then Body, Fatigue, Body, etc.
• Monstrous Bashes: Any character or creature attacking a target 2 or more sizes smaller may inflict an armed toppling attack in conjunction with any regular physical attack. To do so, simply make the attack and defense rolls normally, then apply damage twice, once as normal damage and once as an armed topple. The standard damage and toppling damage are considered separately for determining grievous wounds.
• Mounted Combatants: Characters in a high-cantled saddle (e.g., knights) add 3 to their Size for the purpose of resisting throws, tackles, and armed toppling attacks. If successfully unhorsed, a rider must roll 6+ on a stress Stm + Riding roll or suffer a Body Level of damage as they hit the ground. A botch on this roll indicates a foot caught in the stirrups, likely leading to the character being dragged across the field by his horse. Mounted combatants' Weapon Skills may not be used at a level higher than their Riding skill.
• Toppled Foes: Attacking a downed character gains a +3 high ground bonus and allows attackers to strike weak points in his armor; if an attacker can beat the downed target's armor Protection + 3 on a stress die + Dex + Weapon Skill, the armor provides no protection. A downed character may automatically get up in one round, but may not attack or use all-out defense and all defense rolls are at -6 for that round.
• Single Weapon and Shield: Combine the Single Weapon and Weapon and Shield skills into a single skill, Single Weapon and Shield, which may be used either with or without a shield.
• Two Weapons: Characters using two weapons who are not ambidextrous must choose each round which weapon is being used for attack and which for defense. Combat stats are then determined as follows: Init = better of the two weapons, Attack = offensive weapon + 1, Defense = defensive weapon, Damage = offensive weapon. Characters with ambidexterity use the stats: Init = better of the two weapons, Attack = better weapon + 2, Defense = better weapon, Damage = better weapon. Characters making all-out attacks with dual weapons may add the second weapon's Damage bonus to any attack which beats the target's defense by 3 or more.

More on Mounted Combatants: When fighting from horseback, the rider's Size is considered to be increased by that of his mount when calculating his Defense and Damage totals. An attack against him which misses by no more than the Size of his mount strikes the mount instead. Attacks made while charging add the Size and Ferocity of the mount to their damage.

A character's Encumbrance and Combat Encumbrance cannot exceed the Load he is carrying. (Very important for those with negative strength!) Note that, while characters with negative strength will gain Encumbrance at the same rate as those with Str 0 under this rule, they will gain Combat Encumbrance faster.

Magic

The standard certamen rules overvalue Art scores to the point of making the Certamen skill practically useless. To rectify this, the Art total (Technique + Form) is divided by 5 when calculating the modifier to their certamen rolls.

Study

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