The player was a new knight fighting in the first battle of the Great Pendragon Campaign. He was trying to take out a bodygaurd of a noble, so we had zoomed into a melee combat. We're confused when to make a modifier reflexive and when to make it one sided.

This is how we interpreted the modifiers:

+5/-5 for "Uther has superior troops"
+5/-5 for mounted vs afoot
+10 for successful inspired on Hate: Saxons


Player Knight (sword = 15)

+5 for "Uther has superior troops"
+5 for mounted
+10 for inspired (skill = Sword)
Result: Sword = 25 --> +5 to roll
Player rolls "6." Result: 11, partial success


GM Berserker (greataxe = 30)

-5 for "Uther has superior troops"
-5 for afoot
Result: greataxe = 20 --> +0 to roll
GM rolls "20." Result: 20, crit


Double damage was 12d6. Player armor was 10+1d6(shield). (shield 1d6 due to greataxe) Result: Dead PC

My confusion is the inspiration. Would this also be a reflexive (+10/-10) modifier? That would have saved his life.

My confusion is the inspiration. Would this also be a reflexive (+10/-10) modifier? That would have saved his life.

Actually, the first reflexive modifier (superior troops) only affects the Army commander's Battle Roll as far as I know. So the true modifier would have been +15 for the PK and -5 for the Berserker. The Inspiration bonus is NOT reflexive! Just because you are amped up doesn't make the enemies WORSE when they face you, just that you are so much better that they seem easier.

However, the PK seems to have had an abysmal Sword skill of 5 (5+20 = 25), so this would make his Sword Skill 20. Even if his sword skill would have been 15 and you miscalculated, it would still make his skill (correctly) 15+15 = 30, which is +10 to his roll of 6, so a 16, still not a critical which would force a tie with the Berserk's critical.

So in the end, either way, the result stands.

Getting even a partial success against a 6-goes-to-12d crit is generally near-fatal, though average 12d damage is 42, less 10 armour would leave 32 damage, and a lot of knights can survive that if they're gotten to quickly enough. They won't be riding to war again any time soon, but 32 HP isn't that uncommon for Cymric knights. Crits are bad news.

For future reference, berserks make suboptimal bodyguards due to their tendency to run frothing off after any passing enemy rather than sticking close to their principal... :)

I'd say this is a cautionary tale: if you're a new, inexperienced knigth, don't go around trying to kill/capture nobles during battles! Unless, that is, you're ready to forfeit your life trying.
In these cases, forcing a Valorous roll could be the right choice: the PK sees the bodyguards before him, they are many, very experienced and mean business... It's clear that your very life is at stake!