Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jimmifett 09-21-05, 03:44 PM	I'm sure someone has already thought of this, and probably thought of the exact same thing, but here goes anyway. You arrive in town, go to the tavern where an arm wrestling competition is going on. You sit down, slap down your coin purse wager, and grasp hands with your opponent... example: Vic: str 14, bab +6 Slagth: Str 18, bab +2 Arms start out at 90 degrees. Win Condition: A player wins when the arms reach a degree of 0 or 180. How to play: Round 1: Vic rolls (8+2+6) for his first attack and is of high enough BAB to get in his second atk (2+2+1) for a total of 21. Slagth rolls (20+4+2), but doesn't get a second atk, for a total of 26. The arms move 5 deg in Slagth's favor. Repeat until winner. -Jim
Wharin 09-21-05, 04:52 PM	To me an arm wrestling contest seems pretty obvious to be a straight up STR check. BAB really shouldn't apply to a straight up arm wrestling contest. Maybe greco wrestling, you would apply BAB, but simply arm wrestling? I dunno. Opposed STR checks makes the most sense to me. Now that said, there are ways to make it more complicated: Like making best of 3, or the first person to establish a 3 win disparity over the opponent. Maybe factoring in CON check for extended checks.
OctoberRaven 09-21-05, 04:58 PM	To me an arm wrestling contest seems pretty obvious to be a straight up STR check. BAB really shouldn't apply to a straight up arm wrestling contest. Maybe greco wrestling, you would apply BAB, but simply arm wrestling? I dunno. Opposed STR checks makes the most sense to me. Now that said, there are ways to make it more complicated: Like making best of 3, or the first person to establish a 3 win disparity over the opponent. Maybe factoring in CON check for extended checks. Grapple, with just STR bonuses. First one to pin wins. Also, if someone makes a grapple check and wins by more than 10, they win outright.
Duration_10_Rounds 09-21-05, 05:25 PM	I saw arm wrestling used as an example for a house rule on rerolls. The scenario given was(along the lines of): Grunk the barbarian with 21 Str' arm-wrestles Ned Noodlearms the wizard with 5 Str'. Grunk rolls 2, Ned Rolls 19 = Ned wins!! Now that would never happen in an arm wrestle, a 7ft monster who can bend crowbars into animal shapes as his party peice would never loose to a 5 ft bulimic wizard who has to be carful the weight of his hat doesn't encumber him. So you allow each contestant reroll attempts = to thier Ability mod So Ned would get his original roll and only that roll And Grunk would get his original roll + 5 Rerolls to try and beat ned. That way variants in the relevant stats are made far more important.
Zherog 09-21-05, 05:35 PM	Or you can just go with what the player's handbook says, and declare the person with the highest strength to always be the winner without making any rolls at all. ;)
Crimson_Concerto 09-21-05, 05:43 PM	I don't think BAB should come in as a foctor at all. It seems to me to be really more of a "where you place youir attacks" type thing from being so experienced. In arm-wrestling, everybody places their "attack" the same way or else they're cheating. I would say the person woth the highest SRT wins regardless, but fort checks should be made to become fatigues if somebody arm-wrestles many people in sequence. Also, I think if two characters have the same STR score, it should just move on to whoever has the best CON score to see who can hold out the longest. Maybe if those come out the same as well, fort checks should be made...
Wharin 09-22-05, 07:58 AM	Or you can just go with what the player's handbook says, and declare the person with the highest strength to always be the winner without making any rolls at all. ;) Does it actually say that some where? Hmm... I'll have to look for it. Admittedly, that makes the most sense.
Novacat 09-22-05, 09:04 AM	There is an argument for using BAB in an arm wrestle. Anyone who's done a significant amount of arm wrestling has probably noticed that there is a bit of strategy and technique to it, rather than just a contest of opposing strengths. I like the system, though. It's much more interesting than just giving the victory to the stronger man.
Zherog 09-22-05, 10:21 AM	Does it actually say that some where? Hmm... I'll have to look for it. Admittedly, that makes the most sense. Yep - under ability checks. Here's the text from the SRD, though I'm fairly sure the PHB has a little more: In some cases, an action is a straight test of one’s ability with no luck involved. Just as you wouldn’t make a height check to see who is taller, you don’t make a Strength check to see who is stronger.
Another Gnome 09-22-05, 10:28 AM	I think it could use at least a bit more than simply comparing strengths, but then again I would definitely not allow BAB to enter play there. Not that a 20th-level wizard is likely to armwrestle a 1st-level fighter, but the idea of a skinny spellslinger having the upper hand (har, har) in such a situation would be just... well, not to my liking. A simple alternative would be a Strength check modified by size (as with grapple), but even if always weighted in favor of the stronger character, it'd still be too dependent on other factors (i.e. luck). And in turn contraptions such as making the check best out of three, or halving the roll result while applying full modifiers, don't follow the standard mechanical principles of the game. As such, the only possible solution I see for this dilemma is an Arm Wrestler prestige class.
spectralphoenix 09-23-05, 01:03 AM	I have to agree with the PHB on this one. Arm wrestling is to straightforward of a contest to have the kind of luck involved that a strength check does. If one character has 18 strength and armwrestles against a guy with 10 strength, he will win 66% of the time. We're talking about a mid-level barbarian versus a merchant here. I think that the stronger character would virtually always win such a contest.