PDA

View Full Version : Variant: Parry, Block and Dodge - Beta



Yakk
2006-12-12, 11:09 AM
I'm curious if I can get a somewhat sensible parry/block/dodge system working.

This can be used in addition to, or instead of, "passive armor". Your flat-footed "passive armor" becomes the roll -- roll worse than your min roll, and the result is ignored, you get the min roll instead.

This variant gives players a set of active skills to defend themselves with. Each time you use an active skill in a round, you get -5 to that skill (or, in the case of Parry, that Parrying with that weapon) if you try using it again.

This gives extra melee defence against a single attacker, and makes multiple attackers more dangerous. It also gives an advantage to TWF --

Dodge:
Your Dodge starts out as your base class Reflex save. Spells and effects that boost your Reflex save don't boost your Dodge.

Heavy armor subtracts 3 from this number, Medium armor subtracts 2, and Light armor subtracts 1.

Your "Dex Bonus to Dodge" is 4 + Dex Bonus.
Armor also caps it. Add 5 to the "Max Dex to AC" for the cap on "Dex Bonus to Dodge".

So a L 20 Rogue (12 base Dodge) with 30 dex (+15 dex to dodge) not wearing armor has a +27 Dodge roll.

A L 1 Rogue (2 base Dodge) with 16 dex (+8 to dodge) wearing Leather armor (-1 to Dodge, dex-to-dodge cap of 10) has a dodge of +9.

Parry:
Take BaB. Add Strength (*1.5 for 2 H (!)). And weapon threat range (not for shields!).

Magical Weapon Plusses are also added, but "keen" does not make your weapon parry better.

If the player is using weapon finess, use Dex instead of Strength.

Now, depending on the setup:

Shields: +2 buckler, +4 light, +5 heavy, +7 tower
One hand, nothing in offhand: +0
Two handed: -2
One hand, Shield in offhand: -2
One hand, Weapon in offhand: -2
Offhand: -6. +2 if light, +2 if two-weapon defence.

Parry isn't restricted by the armor you wear.

...

The end result is that two equally equipped players end up parrying about 1/2 of each other's blows.

L 1 fighter, 16 strength, 12 dex, longsword, heavy shield, wearing chainmail.
Parry: +4 = +1 +3 +2 -2
Block: +9 = +1 +3 +5
Dodge: -1 = +1 -2

L 20 fighter, 30 strength, 20 dex, longsword+5, Heavy Shield+5, Mithril Full Plate
To-hit: +35 =+20 +10 +5
Parry: +35 =+20 +10 +2 +5 -2
Block: +40 =+20 +10 +5 +5
Dodge: +10 =+6 -3 +7 (capped)

L 20 rogue, 30 dex, weapon finesse, rapier+5 & offhand swordsword+5. Two weapon fighting & defence. No armor.
To-hit: +28 =+15 +10 +5 -2
Parry: +31 =+15 +10 +3 +5 -2
Off Parry: +30 =+15 +10 +2 +5 -2
Dodge: +27 =+12+(10+5)

I'll admit this still needs some work. :)

The goal that inspired this was using armor as a pure-DR, in a low-magic world where you can't get +20 AC from various enchantments.

Artemician
2006-12-12, 11:34 AM
A fellow MUDder i see.

This mechanic appears to be well... clunky. Whereas in MUDs the game takes care of these things automatically, in Pen-and-Paper games it's just too much work.

Tauman.EXE
2006-12-12, 12:19 PM
What is MUD? I bet it's a game of some sort.

Your rule are quite interesting, Ive done loads of those stuffs to make the game more realistic, but they always seemed to fail in the end, its hard to change core game mechanics and in the same time keeping the game balanced, Iv'e manage to put trough a few changes but the DR from armor variant newer works of two reasons.
1. Dex based fighters will get problem since they do low damage on each hit.
2. It slow downs combat, and makes wizzy's more powerful (since they don't have to care about the DR while the fighter gets a -10 damage on all his attacks) this later problem can however downscaled if you let the DR apply to spells as well.

After trying several house rules i learned to early ask my self these question before putting down any work on it.
1. Will it contribute to a better gaming experience.
2. How complicated will it be.
3. Will it enhance the experience enough to be worth the effort.

The third question has canceled about 90% of all my project right after the sketch.

If the answer on question 1 is "It will make combat more realistic" (or similar) it is probbably not a good idea to do the change (for realism, use other systems) since the game play should be in fucus (it should be fun to play).

But i think that the answer on question one is that melee combat will be more interesting and open for more concepts. But the extra rolls will slow down play, also I think it will go on the downside for tactics(feeling).

How would the parry handle with size differences? I can hardly immagine that the dex based halfling parry the trolls great club.