Attacks per Round

[LeStryfe79]

I wonder how they're going to handle attacks per round? I hated 4ed 1 per round because it always felt like everyone had a 50/50 chance of completely failing in their given turn. This was compounded by the fact that almost all magic similarly rolled to hit. On the other end of the spectrum, I thought high level 3.X characters had too much to do on their turn. Unfortunately, as much as I liked the flow of AD&D rounds, the half attacks were too clunky for many and end of round actions could cause confusion. This is one area where I think something innovative and new could be in order. I'm thinking it should mostly be determined by weapon type and fighting style, as opposed to character level.

What does everyone here think?

 

[Hassassin]

What does everyone here think?

Only having one per round makes combat faster, but OTOH extra attacks really make a martial character seem better.

This depends on available actions and damage/hp progression as well. Are there full round actions? Can you use a minor/move to attack? Do hp increase linearly?

That said:

Trailblazer's fix for 3e iterative attacks was to reuse the rapid shot and TWF mechanic of -2 for two attacks, but drop the penalties later. Two attacks is manageable. Four attacks for TWF guys is a bit much, though, so I'd rather they just get rid of penalties. Something like:

level:	1W guy	// 2W guy
1st:	-0	// -2/-2
6th:	-2/-2	// -0/-0
11th:	-1/-1	// +2/+2
16th:	-0/-0	// +4/+4

(Assuming light weapons and all the relevant TWF feats or combat styles.)

 

[Oni]

I hope that higher level fighter types (and similarly martial classes) gain some extra attacks, but in a more controlled way that keeps both the number of them and the bonuses accrued to them under more control, as those were areas that the last couple of editions fell down IMHO. Also each attack shouldn't have different modifiers as that doesn't lend itself to expediency in play. I would also hope that they stay away from the 3e model of full attacks in which movement is traded for attacks as that makes combat less dynamic.

What I would like to see would be an arrangement similar to this. Say you get a move action and a standard action a turn (Actually I would prefer to do away with the move action and just assume that you can move X as part of your 1 "action" a turn, which would actually encompass many things. For example, instead of a move action to draw a potion and a standard to consume it, you action is use a potion and it assume that drawing it and what not are all part of the action.) Anyway, everyone gets their one action per turn, you can move and attack or move and try to trip someone, or move and try to flip a table, et c. The fighter after a certain point should be able to have extra attacks that exist outside of their one action per turn that are not explicitly actions themselves. That is to say that maybe a high level fighter would be able to move and attack as their action and then gain two extra attacks extra along the way as a bonus. Or instead they could use their action to move and perform whatever maneuver their devious mind could come up with, and then still gain the extra two attacks along the way. Whereas a Barbarian or Paladin of equal level might be able to perform one move + action and get one extra attack, since they have other stuff they might be able to do. Whereas a wizard might be able to, in addition to his movement, attack, maneuver, or cast a spell.

I think this would have the benefit of making combat very dynamic for fighters, and make them very appealing next to spellcasters, while minimizing combat bog.

[edit: I'd rather not give extra attacks for two weapon fighting, and would rather the benefit be expressed in another way, like say sword and board has the obvious defensive benefit, two handed has the obvious damage benefit, two weapon might have an accuracy benefit since attacks are coming from two directions at once (as well as the ability to apply the enchantment of your choice from the two weapons you're using), and one handed weapon + free hand might give a bonus to maneuvers.]

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I'd like to see attacks capped at 3 per round. Roll damage twice and take the best result for twf. And no stinking iterative attacks!

 

[BASHMAN]

In BECMI D&D we added Iterative attacks as an option for the player to use if they wanted to. You could make 2 attacks at 2 mastery levels lower, or 3 at 3 mastery levels lower, or 4 at 4 mastery levels lower.

So a longsword Expert could do 2 attacks per round at Basic level skill, or take his one Expert level swing.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Getting rid of iterative attacks was one of the things that 4e did right, IMO. No single character, player or monster (save perhaps for some "solo" creatures) should ever get more than one or two attacks per round. 3e got ridiculous with creatures making claw, claw, bite, rake, wing, wing, tail slap, etc, and fighter types, especially with two weapon fighting, making 8 attacks per round really got obnoxious. I hope I never see that kind of thing in any edition of dnd ever again.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm OK with up to two attacks, but more than that just slows things down too much.

 

[mkill]

Multiattacks are very hard to balance properly. The game is better off without them.

It's true that it's a bit frustrating to miss and be done for the turn, but there are other ways to help with that. Some ideas:
* "Scratch": If you miss, but rolled a five on d20 or better, you hit, but the wound a is not as deep or not a vital organ. half damage.
* Spend an action point to reroll
* Try again at higher risk: If you miss a second time, the opponent gets a free attack against you

All three could be a feat or something to learn at higher level.

 

[DMKastmaria]

A max of two attacks per round, for fighter types.

 

[FireLance]

Getting rid of iterative attacks was one of the things that 4e did right, IMO. No single character, player or monster (save perhaps for some "solo" creatures) should ever get more than one or two attacks per round. 3e got ridiculous with creatures making claw, claw, bite, rake, wing, wing, tail slap, etc, and fighter types, especially with two weapon fighting, making 8 attacks per round really got obnoxious. I hope I never see that kind of thing in any edition of dnd ever again.

Wait - it's fine for a 4e wizard to drop a fireball on a room full of minions and make 20 attack rolls, but it's not fine for a fighter to make a Close burst 1 attack and make up to 8 attack rolls? Or are you fine with these as daily or encounter powers, but not at-will attacks? (And even so, you still have your controller Area burst 1 at-wills.)