Post/Author/DateTime	Post
FlameLover 11-18-05, 05:57 AM	I know the Miniatures Handbook probably has rules for this but I was checking out D&D minis and I liked the simplicity of some of it. So i was thinking how I could use D&D characters in this system and here is what i'm thinking: Every character has an Attack, Defence and Initiative rating along with some stuff like movement speed and some special traits/abilities. It'd be like D&D in how you can Move and Attack, Full-Attack or double Move etc. When you attack someone you roll a d20 and add your Attack rating (which'd be equal to your BAB) while they roll a d20 and add Defence. You then compare the two and if the attack exceeds the defense you subtract the difference from their HP. Their HP is equal to level + con bonus i'm thinking. That's just the basics, and I don't know how minis works exactly but this is my ideas on how to maybe handle more mass-combat stuff in D&D (infact I might add this as a variant for my project Myrkwell). So i'd like to know ideas on this plus how to handle other stuff such as magic. Oh and initiative is rolled by both players, a stright d20. If tie roll again, and once it's your turn you can move all your miniatures before the next turn (unlike the 2 you get from D&D minis). Full-Attack would just be two attacks instead of one, etc. This is also abit to do with my Simplifying Combat thread except this is different - i wouldn't replace D&D combat with this but it'd be handy to use in mass battles I want the players to particapate in. Oh for magic i'm thinking a Caster Level check in place of attack compared to defence. I could see Reflex, Fort and Will saves but that gets things too complicated. But the idea is that hitting and dealing damage are part of the same thing, and this would make 50+ creature fights possible (although still slow). I could even see the use of sqaures removed and just using a ruler although the precision of squares is nice :) I was tossing around the idea of having everything in multiples of five with no rolling (like D&D minis have) but alot of D&D is the rolling of the dice and I wanted people to be able to take a D&D character and use it with these rules. As for special abilities you'd get one based on class at levels 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20. They would be triggered by the levels in the class and therefore encourage single-class characters. PrCs would have a special ability at half way and end if 10 levels or just at end if less than that. As an example a Monk would gain a bonus attack during Full Attack but at penalty at level two which would improve at levels 10 and 20 with levels 5 and 15 giving maybe a speed boost and something else :| And for saves i'd have poor progression is half level and good progression is level. I hope i've expressed how i'm seeing this clearly. The idea isn't to replace D&D combat or anything but just to be used in mass skirmishes and when the players just want to slay hordes of creatures without it taking forever. So - what do people think of the idea?
FlameLover 11-20-05, 03:30 AM	Ok i've been thinking and i've decided on the following: When you attack you roll a d20, add your Attack score and compare it to the enemies Defence score. Subtract the Defence score from the Attack roll - that is how much damage you take away from their Health score. Health is equal to 10+HD. Skills and Feats have no bearing on your character, in this mass-combat system they arn't used. Your class(es), level and equipment are the only things that matter. Equipment gives you bonuses on Attack or Defence, light (+2) one-handed (+4) and two-handed (+6) weapons add to Attack while armour (+2,+4,+6 respectivley) adds to Defence. You gain special abilities based on your levels in a class. You get a bonus at level 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20. The level 1 bonus is quite small with them growing at each level. Some examples are Turn Undead for a Cleric, Smite Evil for a Paladin or Rage for a Barbarian. Each of these would be simplified based on the new system (ie. gain a +4 bonus to Attack but suffer a -2 on Defence for a few rounds). This should make combat quite quick with only 1 roll per attack and streamlined combat it should be very simple. It will make creatures a little bland because creatures of the same class will largley be the same but if I include feats it makes balancing too tricky. A way to perhaps add some variety is adding a "racial bonus" although i'm not sure what to give. So here is a list of the things each class could get: Barbarian: Increased speed, Rage, Uncanny Dodge Bard: Bardic Music, Spells Cleric: Turn Undead, Spells, Domains Druid: Wildshape, Spells Fighter: Attack/Defence/Speed bonuses Monk: Flurry of Blows, Unarmed Strike, Increased speed Paladin: Smite Evil, Special Mount, Turn Undead, Spells Ranger: Combat Style, Spells Rogue: Sneak Attack, Evasion/Slippery Mind Sorceror: Spells Wizard: Spells Not definitive but those are the sorts of things i'd have. For the combat round i'm thinking you get one Move and one Attack action each round, where the Attack action can be traded for a Move action. If you forfit both you can take a Full Action. An Attack action yileds one attack while a Full Attack Action yields 2 (At no penalty). Spell casting is tricky but making a CL check with the effect being magic-school based sounds like a start. It won't matter what actual spells you know, only that you know atleast a few spells from a given school to be able to cast it.