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Jane_Smith
2013-09-28, 03:27 PM
I was just considering, last session in a game i am running with friends, I made the exception for a single battle that swift actions and immediate actions could be interchanged at will. So abilities like sudden leap could be used even during enemies turns. Being new to the game, they didn't know they couldn't anyway, I just let it slide and allowed the enemies to take advantage of it along with them to see how things developed. The enemy being a warblade, trust me, it took advantage of it vastly. :smallamused:

But then, I got to thinking. There is everything from environmental to weather conditions to some locations players fight in. I have note cards made for every condition possible for lightning, wind, and floor conditions like rubble or stairs.

So, I thought, what if someone came up with a skill like Martial Lore (Tome of Battle) or Knowledge (War) (Same thing honestly), where anyone who has it trained/ranks in it could make it at the same time they make a initiative check to determine an advantage they can use during that encounter. If the enemy also rolls, whoever gets the highest roll gets the more useful condition, but everyone follows it for that encounter.

Like, oh, you got a 17 + 11 (28) Knowledge (war) check, and gain the ability this combat to use an additional swift or immediate action for the encounter. Or the ability to perform a standard attack as a move action. Or maybe switch places with allies initiative's in the battle order (but only if you have not used any actions yet for that turn).

Has someone already done this or considered it? It reminds me of the Mount and Blade "Tactics" skill. The higher tactics you got over your enemy determines the % of your troops vs. theirs for the max number of troops that can be put on the field. Some kinda advantage skill like that, that might encourage fighters and knights to put some points into intelligence.

nonsi
2013-09-29, 12:30 AM
My experience is that more dice rolls slow down the game.
With each "player" on the board having a separate roll, and having to figure out which one has an advantage over who, and how the settings are brought into the equation... this could make things quite tedious.
Also, if Knowledge (War) is so important, then suddenly everyone's gonna push it as high as possible, which will probably mean very little difference when facing level appropriate opponents and it will eventually come down to more or less 50-50 chance and basically all you've "gained" is losing some more precious skill points.

So I propose a more generic solution:

Swift actions are active actions, whereas immediate actions are re-active actions. They usually don't come at the expense of each other.
You could also allow trading a standard action for a swift action.
There's also the option of full-attack as a standard action to consider, and allowing movement up to your speed when attacking as a full round action, spreading your attacks (as the attacker sees fit) between opponents within reach (which would make the Spring Attack line moot, but that's not necessarily a bad thing). Usually you wouldn't want to spread your attacks thin, but there may be special cases where you wish to trip one opponent and bull rush another.
And then, when someone's entitled to 3 base attacks (BAB 11+), They can make a single attack as a move action.

This will make combat a lot more dynamic without adding dice rolls.