Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Hitokiri Battousai 10-19-04, 01:33 PM	I'm using a variant rule in my campaign where characters have a Defense bonus that scales at the same rate as your Attack bonus(armor grants DR, and the AC penalty comes out of your Defense. More armor = easier to hit, but harder to damage). Anyways, since this Defense bonus represents the ability to avoid attacks, it would apply even on touch attacks. At higher levels, this makes it really difficult for a wizard or sorcerer to use spells that require touch attacks. Basically, a 10th-level fighter is going to have a touch AC of anywhere from 20-25... whereas normally a 10th-level fighters touch AC is only going to be in the low to mid 'teens. So my question is, how should I balance this?
edsonaoki 10-19-04, 05:44 PM	Simply allow touch attacks to ignore defense bonus. It's not hard to justify: you may rule that when a character uses his defense bonus, he tries to block the attack rather than dodge, and blocking doesn't prevent the ray or touch of taking effect. With this rule, it also should be reasonable that an unarmed defender can't use his defense bonus against an armed attacker (you can't block a sword with your arms, unless - of course - you are a monk), which I don't see much problem with.
JohnSnow 10-21-04, 05:43 PM	Meh. Personally, I'd say you could houserule that only half of your defense bonus applies to touch attacks. As for not being able to block a sword with your bare hands, that's sorta preposterous. Swordfighters in the Elizabethan age (who weren't monks) often parried swords with their hands. Essentially you step in on your opponent and manipulate his arm or you swat his blade aside by striking the flat with your (usually gloved) hand. The defense bonus grows out of this sort of maneuvering. Truthfully, armor should probably be allowed to stack with a lower defense bonus (like in d20 Modern). Magic throws this out of whack. But then, shouldn't it? That's my personal issue with the D&D Rules as Written. The game is balanced for high magic. Why not balance it for low magic and then just make sure that every bit of magic you introduced is balanced by other magic? So basically you start with a balanced game. And then the magic introduced is always "measure and countermeasure." Just my two cents... I admit that last paragraph is a digression (although maybe one worthy of a separate thread) but I kindly request people not highjack the original topic to respond to my assertions about magic.
Gort 10-22-04, 07:31 PM	It a difficult question. I think the wizards should accept that they can't easily hit high level fighters and use other options. It's part of the scaling problem for D&D. I have been looking at similar rules for my own campaign. I still need to balance it though... Commnets? Armour as Damage Reduction One of the more frustrating limitations of the D&D combat system is that the armour class of a light agile opponent and that of a slower opponent in a heavy suit of armour, is the same. The difficulty to hit needs to be distinguished from the resistance to take damage. Now we have damage reduction in the system but it was not applied to normal armour. Solution: armour will reduce damage applied to a target. But if it is big and bulky it will make the wearer easier to hit. New armour table. Damage Armour Reduction Class leather 1 0 studded leather 2 0 padded 2 -1 scale 3 -1 chain mail 4 -2 plate mail 5 -3 field plate 6 -4 Mithral armour reduce the armour class penalty by one Adamantine armour will add to this damage reduction. Magical armour may have a armour class bonus but have the same damage reduction ability as above. Reduce AC penalty by 2 on an unencumbered mount if the wearer has the mounted combat feat. Apply a penalty of 12 to anyone wishing to strike at a weak spot in the armour - that is to bypass the armour for damage purposes On a weapon critical the attacker can give up one of his dice of damage to ignore the armour for damage purposes. Additional weapon attribute. Armour piercing (additional damage but only to negate armour): +1 for one handed picks, +2 for two handed.+1 for short bows, +2 for long and composite long bows. +1 for cross bow, +2 for heavy cross bow This rule eliminates the need for a touch armour class To convert a typical monsters estimate an armour type in the table above and give them the appropriate damage reduction and AC modification . Create a variant of the Mage armour spell that creates armour that reduces damage. DR3 at caster levels 1-5, DR4 at 6-11, DR5 at 12+. Some other spells and items could be modified as well. Braces of armour should be quite different from bracers of deflection Related options: 1) damage from magical fire/cold/acid/sonic/lightning should be reduced by armour. A shield bonus should add to the wearers saving throw. 2) lighting/electricity should do no damage to entities in full metal armour. If the wearer makes his save he takes no damage. If he fails he is stunned for a turn. In either case the armour may be damaged. Hit a 20th level fighter It is as easy to hit a first level fighter as it is to hit a 20th level fighter in the same equipment. Traditionally this is reflected only in the extra hitpoints of the high level character. Give characters a dodge bonus which rises as they rise in levels. Monks (+1/level) replaces the AC bonus, Wizards and Sorcerors(+1/3 levels), and others (+2/3levels). Progression as for BAB. Both these last 2 rules will make combats longer. Probably need to tweak hitpoints....