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#1 zombiegleemax Feb 13, 2007 15:34:31

Having read through the Unearthed Arcana I noticed a variant combat system that I believe would accomplish many things. 1st I believe it would shorten the length of combat, 2nd it would make combat more realistic, and 3rd it would take away the invincibility of a 20th level character over an army of lower level characters. 4th armor was never intended to make someone harder to hit but rather harder to damage. I will list my reasons 1 by 1 1st length of combat. I have noticed that combat as it is written under current rules takes an exorbitant amount of playing time. At low levels PCs have a low chance to hit and low hp. At high levels PCs have a high hit chance but an enormous amount of hp to weed through. Hence combat takes a long time to play out. At low levels enemies are harder to hit. At high levels it takes multiple hits to eliminate enemy hp. Because though skill in battle rises damage never truly does except through certain feats or magic. The feat I am referring to of course is power attack for non magic users so a 20th level fighter could indeed add an extra 20 points of damage but to do so his attack modifier is now strength and weapon bonus so to get the extra damage the PC is probably going to miss a lot due to huge AC's. My idea come from one of combat having served in the marines and in combat never once in an engagement did I think hope these guys don't have a lot of hp. Meaning when I attacked I sought to take my enemy out with one shot not whittle down their hp. This covers my 1st and 2nd concerns. 3rd as the rules are written a 20th level fighter could easily wade into a thousands of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or even 5th level characters and defeat them virtually unscathed. Which in reality is impossible. The reasons for this are many. In reality as mentioned before in combat people strike to kill or disable thier opponent so even a 1st level PC could on a lucky shot kill a 20th level opponent with one blow. The way the game rules are written a 1st level PC with power attack on a critical hit with a max damage roll with a weapon that can do 12 points of damage could drop a 20th level enemy wound yes kill no. 4th armor as I said before armor was never designed to make a person harder to hit rather harder to damage. Example full plate male which was used in medieval Europe made one very easy to hit but rather hard to damage which allowed knights to fight several unskilled poorly armed opponents and win. However a skilled well armed opponent often proved to much for a heavily armored knight. In game rules 2 PCs equally skilled one in plate mail one in leather both with equal weapons the advantage goes to the one wearing plate. When in reality there would be no advantage and the contest would be decided by skill and intelligence. The cumbersome knight in plate would find with his restricted movement his agile opponent very difficult to hit, and the quick and agile combatant in leather would find the knight hard to damage so they would look for weaknesses in the armor to strike a killing blow. Also a person's defense is more than a few abstract bonuses and is just like to hit determined by skill, and movement. The idea I am working on is due away with hit points, and AC altogether so a PC and/or NPC's defense is determined by skill (i.e. class and level) and movement (Dex and armor). So instead of an AC, defenders make an opposed roll to counter an attack if the attacker rolls higher the attack succeeds if not it fails. No hp if an attack succeeds the defender makes a fortitude save. If the defender succeeds at the save the hit has no effect if the defender fails by 1-4 they survive but their next save is at a -1 penalty and this effect stacks every time they fail by 1-4 making each successive attempt harder and harder. If the save is failed by 5-8 they still survive but they take a -2 penalty to attack and defense rolls and to their next save this also stacks with the penalty for failing by 1-4 and if they fail by 5-8 again. The DC for the save is determined by damage from the attack + 10. Damage should be determined by weapon type and skill with that weapon(i.e. feats, and level) Example an attacker scores a hit for 10 points of damage the DC for the save is 20 the defender fails by 3. The attacker hits them again for 11 dc21 save. The defender fails by 6. The defender's next save is now at -3. The defender is hit a 3rd time for 8 points DC 18 and fails by 9 the defender dies. Oh I forgot to mention if the save is failed by 9 or more the defender is killed. I am open to suggestions on this as I said it is a work in progress and I am attempting to make balanced raises in weapon damage at higher skill levels, and balanced defense bonuses for different classes and feats for defense. So I will welcome any thoughts on this.