Knockdowns

The concept of knockdowns was introduced in the Player’s Option: Combat & Tactics rulebook. Knockdowns are hits that send the victim flying or put him on the ground, knocking him prone. The ability to cause a knockdown varies from weapon to weapon, and the larger the target, the more resistant he is to knockdown results. Very few attacks have the power to put a frost giant flat on his back!

While a club-wielding giant or a powerful barbarian obviously has the potential to take an opponent off his feet, many spells also have the ability to drive a victim to the ground with tremendous force, shock, or concussion. In some cases, spell energy may cause knockdowns through spasms, intense pain, or physiological shock as well as sheer impact energy.

Knockdown Die: The likelihood of a weapon (or a spell) to cause a knockdown is governed by the size of the knockdown die. Any time a character suffers damage from a spell, the caster may roll a knockdown die to see if there is a chance for a knockdown. If the number rolled on the knockdown die is higher than the victim’s knockdown number, he must roll a saving throw vs. death magic or fall down.

Usually, being knocked down forces the character to spend his next action or attack standing again. Standing is treated as moving half the character’s normal movement rating, so a knocked-down fighter could choose to stand in the following round and still receive his normal allotment of melee attacks, while a knocked-down archer who stood up would have to fire at 1/2 his normal rate of fire. (See What You Can Do in One Round, page 122 of the PHB .)

While a character is on the ground, he is especially vulnerable to attack. Anyone attacking the knocked-down character gains a +4 bonus to hit, and the prone character may not apply his Dexterity adjustment (if any) to his Armor Class. Obviously, it’s worth the time to stand up again!

Knockdown Number: A character’s resistance to knockdowns is measured by his knockdown number. Size is the most important characteristic here, although a character with a good saving throw will avoid many knockdowns regardless of his size. See Table 43 : Knockdown Numbers by Size.

Oromonos isn’t done with that guard yet. Since the shocking grasp didn’t deter the fellow, Oromonos throws a lightning bolt at him at point-blank range. The lightning bolt has a knockdown die of d12 (we’ll discuss knockdown die sizes for particular spells in a moment), and Oromonos rolls an 8 with the d12 while he’s rolling his damage for the spell. Since the guard is a human (size M) and therefore knocked down on a 7 or better, he must now make a saving throw vs. death magic or hit the turf. Although the fellow does save against the lightning bolt itself, he blows his knockdown save and winds up on the ground, wondering what hit him.

Table of Contents