Post/Author/DateTime	Post
wulf dwarfsward 10-12-04, 05:35 PM	Hii there! This is my first post-I have some concepts for my game that I'd like input on, and I thought "where better than the WOTC message boards?" So please, your feedback is greatly appreciated. I'm developing a late renaissance period setting, including firearms. My group and I run a mostly abstract combat-no miniatures, no maps. This has prompted us to abandon the use of AoO. I also use a variant armor rule from Unearthed Arcana, where armor provides both an AC bonus and some DR. All together, I have the following priorities, and would like feedback on what other DMs have done, or would suggest. 1. A replacement for the AoO system. Some way to penalize characters for certain actions without having to worry about facing, 5 foot squares, reach, and so on. 2. Weapon speed. One of my biggest beefs with the d20 combat system is that there's not much of a reason to use a smaller weapon when larger weapons are available. Why use a hand axe when a battleaxe has the same statistics and does more damage? So I'd like to incorporate some method of making kinves, shortswords, rapiers etc. faster, while not imbalancing the weapon system in general and not ******* off my group too terribly. 3. Weapon armor penetration. Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed uses a system where certain arrows are able to negate armor, which to me is very logical. Arbalests and longbows penetrated armor, to say nothing of firearms. AND...many larger melee weapons were developed to overcome armor's protection. Picks and flanged maces, greatswords and axes-all were historically used like big can openers, necessary to penetrate the heavier armor of the era. As such, I'm toying with the idea of giving certain weapons an AP quality that reduces armor's protection, usually between 1 and 3. Bearing in mind that this would apply to AC, not DR which I also use, and that it would help offset the effects of my weapon speed idea, what do people think? Again, any feedback is helpful.
Valkrist 10-12-04, 05:49 PM	Howdy, I've been kicking around some of the same ideas myself. Here are some thoughts. Come up with a list of actions that will draw an AoO. Keep in mind, however, that much of the tactical design of DnD is based around movement and actually using a map. You don't have to have FIGURES, per se. For the poor, dice or even little cardboard chits with your character's name written on it is good enough. Weapon speed: This is a nasty morass of pain. When they had weapon speeds in 2ed, it created all kinds of logic problems. You would either need to create a whole bunch of situational modifiers, or just scrap it. I'll give you an example: A guy with a dagger, vs a guy with a polearm. Assuming they have the same Dex, neither has Imp Init, and they both roll a 10 on initiative. The dagger has the quicker speed, so the guy with the dagger can close the distance and stab the polearm guy before he can react. But that's not realistic. So, you make the polearm the faster weapon. But... what if the dagger guy is NEXT TO the polearm guy? Then the polearm SHOULD be slower... etc etc. So, either a lot of situational stuff (polearms are speed x, unless the opponant is more than 5' away, in which case it's x-3, etc etc, only this wont work because you don't want to use distances and maps). The only "easy" solution I can come up with is to give all Light weapons a speed of X, all One Handed Weapons a speed of x+1, all Two Handed weapons a speed of x+2, then adjust by size. Small weapons subtract one from that total, large weapons add one, etc. You'll just have to accept the dagger vs polearm problem. Armor piercing stuff: I haven't really looked at Monte's stuff, but here is what I came up with for my own middle ages game. First, you create a new classification of defense, called Armor Reduction. It works exactly like Damage reduction, except that it is always /mithril OR adamantine. Also, if you call it Armor Reduction, it allows for: You invent a new weapon classification (like the Tripping weapons, the Disarming weapons, etc) called Puncturing weapons. These weapons reduce the Armor Reduction of your opponant by 1/2. So, if you give a suit of Full Plate and AR of 8. A Puncturing weapon would only count it as being AR 4. Then you slap that Puncturing property on Longbows (including Comps), Crossbows, and all Picks.