home field advantage?

[alsih2o]

there are already lots of balancing factors in combat, such as being underwater or wall climbing or flying or cover...but should there be a home field advantage?

wouldn't it make a neat feat for bad guys (maybe p.c.'s)? +2(+4?) to all attacks on your home turf. maybe +2 on a big area OR +4 in a building or a tree or whatever the home base is.

certain monsters, such as those exist in an alien environment to the pc, could take it for free.

maybe even just somehting for fighting on your home plane vs. your opponents?

what do you think? has this been done? can it be done well?

 

[Terraism]

Well, I know I've seen feats for casters that do roughly that - Sanctum Spellcaster, I believe it was. Give the caster a bonus when in his sanctum. For a broader way of doing it? Meh. I'd assume that a person that knows their home well enough will have that reflected in their tactics.

As far as alien creatures in their home turf, wouldn't it be easier to give non-natives a penalty than to give natives a bonus?

 

[alsih2o]

i do remember hearing about a "get out of my kitchen" feat for halfling cooks...

 

[diaglo]

it would have to be a morale bonus. so wouldn't stack with some other ways to bolster.


kinda like those ruffians at football matches.

 

[the Jester]

The main problem is that the pcs are always encountering monsters in-lair, so (if they're any smarty) the monsters will virtually always have an extra +2 or +4 tacked on... nah, I think the bonus is too large. Maybe a +1. After all, it's on all attacks in the home base (vs. a +1 to all attacks with a specific weapon or something, cf. Weapon Focus).

 

[Nifft]

Monte Cook's AU has something like this for Champions of a specific place. It would be unbalancing to give it out to random critters.

However, anyone should be allowed to spend their treasure on traps for their lair. That's quite a "home field advantage", reflected in tactics instead of attack rolls.

-- N

 

[Enkhidu]

In Path of the Sword, one of their alternate rangers dropped the Favored Enemy and put in something called Favored Terrain. Favored Terrain gave the Outdoorsman (the alt-ranger in question) bonuses on certain skills, gave a 5' more of movement, and gave a AC bonus when in that terrain. Is this something like your looking for?

 

[Baron Von StarBlade]

Not really too much help, but the King of the Wild Prestige class from Masters of the Wild has a Terrain Familiarity bonus of +2 to things like Wilderness lore and such. You could easily adapt it for what you need to do.

 

[Atridis]

It sounds as though you're referring to "home field advantage" in a sports context. I don't know that this applies to D&D, unless your battles really are sports events, gladiatorial contests or whathaveyou. I think the difficulties in attacking a prepared defender, to say nothing of a creative one who uses magic, are reflected well enough in the game already. Barring unusual circumstances, giving someone a Morale Bonus or Penalty seems like overkill.

 

[ciaran00]

Why don't you roleplay home turf advantage? Ie, the dragon knows of a particularly nasty rock spike it can drop on its attackers, etc. etc.

ciaran