Sap

Sapping is an attempt to knock out an opponent by striking with the flat of the blade or slugging him from behind with a sturdy sword-hilt. It doesnÆt work very well against characters or monsters that are expecting it; any character attempting to sap a creature that threatens her provokes an attack of opportunity for the defender. Hand-held weapons and thrown weapons may be used in sap attempts.

A sap is a type of called shot; it has a one-phase initiative penalty, and the attacker has a û4 penalty to hit. The penalty increases to û8 if the defender is wearing some kind of helmet. Only Small or Medium creatures can be sapped; Large monsters canÆt be knocked out like this.

If the attacker scores a hit, she may knock out her opponent. There is a 5% chance per point of damage of knocking out the victim, up to a maximum of 40%. Thus, if the sapper inflicts 5 points of damage, she has a 25% chance of knocking out her opponent. Sapping damage is like unarmed combat damage; 25% is real and the rest is temporary. Naturally, if her damage roll exceeds the victimÆs hit points, heÆs knocked out anyway.

The knockout chance increases to 10% per point of damage (max 80%) if the victim is surprised, asleep, restrained, or magically held in some way. Sapped characters remain unconcious for 3d10 full rounds.

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