I’ve been running a new system these days: Dungeon Crawl Classics (new to me, at any rate). It’s a system steeped in the flavor of Appendix N (Gary Gygax’s recommended reading list from 1e). It’s a great system, but some of the rules can be murky at times to navigate. If you’re a hyper-fixating-rulebook-truffle-pig like me, get ready for a wild ride.
I went into a deep hole last night as I tried to wade through the warrior class mechanics for Mighty Deeds of Arms, and I just crawled out of it. I’m assuming if you’re reading this that you have a basic understanding of the rules for DCC already. Ok, let’s dive in shall we?
Sources and Commentary
Let’s start with the warrior class description on page 42:
Unlike other classes, warriors do
not receive a fixed attack modifier at each level. Instead,
they receive a randomized modifier known as
a deed die. At 1st level, this is a d3. The warrior rolls
this d3 on each attack roll and applies it to both their
attack roll and their damage roll. On one attack, the
die may give him a +1 to their attack roll and damage
roll. On the next attack, the die may give him +3! The
deed die advances with the warrior’s level, climbing
to d7 by 5th level, and then higher up to d10+4 at
10th level. The warrior always makes a new roll with
this die in each combat round. When the warrior has
multiple attacks at higher levels, the same deed die
applies to all attacks in the same combat round.
So far, things seem clear. Warriors get to roll a d3 (or higher depending on level) and add it to their attack modifier and damage. It looks like when they get multiple attacks they don’t roll the d3 again, instead the same d3 applies to all attack rolls in the same round. If I read the above in isolation, that’s how I would interpret it 100% of the time. But unfortunately, we need to keep reading:
Prior to any attack roll, a warrior can declare a Mighty
Deed of Arms, or for short, a Deed. This Deed is a
dramatic combat maneuver within the scope of the
current combat. For example, a warrior may try to
disarm an enemy with their next attack, or trip the
opponent, or smash him backward to open access to
a nearby corridor. The Deed does not increase damage
but could have some other combat effect: pushing
back an enemy, tripping or entangling him, temporarily
blinding him, and so on.
The warrior’s deed die determines the Deed’s success.
This is the same die used for the warrior’s attack
and damage modifier each round. If the deed die is
a 3 or higher, and the attack lands (e.g., the total attack
roll exceeds the target’s AC), the Deed succeeds. If
the deed die is a 2 or less, or the overall attack fails,
the Deed fails as well.
The phrase “prior to any attack roll” is important here. What is an attack roll exactly? An attack roll is making a weapon attack with a single action dice during combat. If you have more than one action dice, you can make more than one attack roll in the same round if your class permits it (see pages 27, 31, 57, and 78). So this seems to indicate that a warrior can either declare a mighty deed prior to all attack rolls, or they can simply choose one of “any” of their attacks to apply the deed to. Let’s extrapolate that shall we?
The options of interpretation I devise thus far would be:
#1) A warrior gets to choose to declare a mighty deed prior to ONE attack roll of their choosing in the round. They always use the result of the deed die rolled on their first attack roll to determine the success of the deed.
#2) A warrior can declare a mighty deed before EACH attack roll in a single round and then use the result of the deed die rolled during the first attack roll to determine the success of all deeds in that round.
The water is starting to get a little murky here. We’re not told with any specificity how many deeds a warrior should have in a particular round. The rulebook has my head spinning a bit at this point, but I’m working through it. It’s going to be just fine, I just need to… BAM, at the bottom of table 1-10 (page 44) we get this little gem:
A warrior’s attack modifier is rolled anew, according to the appropriate die, with each attack. The result modifies both attack and damage rolls. At higher levels, the warrior adds both a die and a fixed value.
Um what? The text above seems to be a direct contradiction to the statement “When the warrior has multiple attacks at higher levels, the same deed die applies to all attacks in the same combat round.” How do we reconcile this contradiction?
Option 1) The text “the same deed die” means the same die-type, not the die result. This text gives warriors the guidance not to play around with the dice chain when it comes to their deed die. Warriors should roll their deed die with every attack roll if they have multiple attacks in a round.
Option 2) The word “Attack” in table 1-10 is being used to describe all attack actions in a round and is distinctive from “attack rolls.”
Option 3) There was error during the editing process.
Option 2 isn’t viable given the fact that that on page 42 we read that a warrior uses their action dice for “attacks” and that they gain “a second attack each round” with their second action die at 5th level; attack is used interchangeably with attack roll. Option 3 is of course possible, but doesn’t help us. That leaves Option 1 as the most viable in my opinion. We can see various places in the CRB where the word “die” is denoted to mean a type of die instead of a die roll. If we use Option 1 this gives us a third interpretation to this rule:
#3) A warrior can declare a mighty deed before EACH attack roll in a single round, rolling a new deed die with each attack roll to determine its success.
A few other tidbits from the rulebook to note here, take a look at page page 88:
A warrior can declare a Mighty Deed of Arms, or a Deed
for short, prior to any attack. If their deed die comes up as
a 3 or better and the attack lands (e.g., the total attack roll
exceeds the target’s AC), the Deed succeeds. The higher the
deed die, the more successful the Deed.
And a little further on it says:
The warrior must declare the Deed before their attack.
If they roll the dice before declaring what Deed they attempt,
then no Deed takes place, even if they roll well
on their deed die.
The information above re-enforces that a warrior can declare a Mighty Deed of Arms prior to “any attack.” It also states that if the warrior rolls the “dice” before declaring their deed, it doesn’t take place. Interesting to note that dice is plural here (another feather in the cap of interpretation #3).
It’s also important to note that all of this discussion would also be pertinent for dwarves in DCC. They too get Mighty Deeds of Arms, and we’re told it works similar to a warrior (page 52). We’re also told that with a dwarf’s shield bash they “can attempt Mighty Deeds of Arms involving the shield as well as their weapon” (also page 52).
Conclusion
It’s clear that RAW (rules as written) is foggy on this topic. But let me do my best to explain how I would rule this at my table based on my investigation of the rules and 3 cans of Red Bull. Let’s start by asking a few questions:
1) What is the “feel” we get for Mighty Deeds of Arms?
2) Which of the 3 options of interpretation match that feel most closely?
3) Which of the 3 options of interpretation allow for the most literary consistency?
When I ask all these questions I’m left with the impression that the third interpretation most closely adheres to RAW, but it’s certainly not definitive by any means here. Ultimately you should choose what suits your table, but for my table this is gospel:
A warrior can declare a mighty deed before EACH attack roll in a single round, rolling a new deed die with each attack roll to determine its success.
I have read a lot (and I mean too much) discussion on this topic over the last 24-hours. I’ve taken in everything I could find on the Goodman forums, Reddit, and the DCC discord servers I’m part of.
Many of the arguments against the above ruling seem to be in the name of balance. Giving warriors (and dwarves at level 1) the potential for multiple deeds makes them too powerful.
To that I say: have you read the rules for Wizard yet!? I can picture Joseph Goodman in a smoke filled lounge, a glass of single malt scotch in one hand, and a cigar in the other saying, “fuck your balance” as he dictates DCC to a nearby scribe in its entirety.
Nothing about this game screams well balanced to me. You know what it does scream? It screams wonder, it screams danger, it screams consequence, and it fucking bellows adventure.
Let the fickle mistress that is the dice take you my friend, and don’t look back.
~ The Dour DM.
