Hit Location CP penalties

[Lance D. Allen]

That reminds me of something I was wondering about.. Anyone have any sort of house rules about where it's not feasible to defend with a shield/off-hand weapon?

It is possible, but not particularly easy, to block with a small-medium shield an attack aimed at the sword-side shoulder. It is more difficult to block the lower legs than the torso. And better yet, it is even more difficult to drop the shield to defend the legs on one exchange, then raise it quickly enough to defend the head on the next.

Anyone have anything that deals with this?

[Salamander]

Okay, Jake, you can tell me to shut up ant any time...

Okay, some background for my answer.

I have yet to learn the Sword & Buckler/Shield, but it is coming up soon and I am getting ready for it by reading certain publications like "Medievel Swordsmanship" by Clements and looking up I.33 to see what it can offer. I add in a little of what I am learning from my instructor and I have come up with a pretty good idea of why shield users were in trouble in regards to their legs. With a sword & shield you have some minor vision limitations as well as having to address the opponents use of their weapon. In my training I have found that I can really mess up a shield user by attacking from Nebbenhut (Sword tip pointing back with the hilt at my right hip) with an unterhau (a blow from underneath). They can't see it coming and when I begin to move they always think I am going to come up and over, as it is the most, err, "natural" movement. Before they can react to it, the sword is in there, under their field of vision. When you can't see it you're dead. This is a truth of Western Martial Arts. If they wanted to, they could crouch and shield their legs, but this opens them up for the strike (cut or thrust) to the sword arm, head, shield shoulder...

So I am thinking that one of the reasons Jake gives the Aggressor a +1CP bonus to hitting the legs is because of time. It takes time for the other guy to get his shield down to guard his legs. This gives the aggressor the advantage of your being slowed down. I think the bonus of +1CP to the aggressor's attack best reflects the situation.