Parrying as an immediate interrupt

[Sordath]

I've been considering running a prehistory, low tech level campaign for a while (eg. pre elven civil war, dwarves still enslaved by giants, no Gods around), perhaps with a bit of Celtic and Norse flavour - roll on PHB II for primal goodness!

The lack of availability of decent AC bonuses from armour in such a campaign got me thinking about a parry mechanic tied into the Combat Challenge fighter class feature.

Something along the lines of an immediate interrrupt when somebody targets you with a melee attack, you roll a melee basic attack vs the opponent's basic attack bonus +10, adding +2 to your roll if using a shield. If you 'hit' then the opponent's attack action is cancelled (not using up a power if they used one).

I originally thought that all classes could benefit from such a mechanic, but fighters would suffer the most from lack of armour better than mail.

Maybe this could only work against marked targets? Hmm, that would discourage attacks on the fighter too much...

Other options:
Allow fighters better AC in some other way

Allow non magical masterwork mail armour at low level?

Give a small amout of damage resist vs attacks targeting AC for fighters wearing certain armour types (1 or 2 points)?


I'm a bit worried how this might interact against low basic melee bonus charaters (eg Cha paladins, rogues).

I would be grateful for any advice or comments.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I think that the easiest and best solution would be to brainstorm 6 setting appropriate armors and then reflavor the PHB armors to fit these. For example, if mastadon hide armor is the heaviest armor in the setting, simply use the stats for plate for mastadon hide.

AC is a subjective quality after all. All it really means is that someone in Plate (or Mastadon Hide) is harder to injure than someone in lesser armor.

The parry idea is an interesting one, but I don't think it would be possible to recapture the defense granted by armor using it, for starters because AC is a flat value whereas parry is only usable once per round (immediate action). Thus, whereas AC remains a steady value regardless of the number of opponents, parry might be decent against a single opponent who only gets one attack but is useless against any opponent beyond that first.

 

[James McMurray]

What about making t he armor feats set your AC to what it would be in that armor type, as long as you're using the closest armor available. So while you're stuck at Chain for flavor text, anyone with proficiency in Scale or Plate would have their AC increased while wearing Chain.

 

[DracoSuave]

The only classes you'll be hurting are Fighters, Paladins, Clerics, and Warlords, as they are the heavy armor users. Any mechanic that allows another defensive roll needs to be available to them exclusively, otherwise you're putting the non-heavy classes into the highest defensive position... and getting the shield bonus -twice-?!?

They'll still have their high AC, and they'll get a saving throw against the attack if it works. You'll never hit a Swordmage again, and adding complication that can be simply avoided by a different rule that accomplishes the same thing you're trying to attempt:

'Your AC keys off the highest of your Attributes'

Suddenly that doesn't seem very well balanced does it?

Reflavor the armor is the simplest -and fairest- way to do what you intend to do, otherwise you'll have to up -every monster's- attack bonus, and expect to see your party consist of Barbarian, Ranger, Swordmage, and Wizard because that's the only optimal set.

 

[Sordath]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

A simple reflavouring looks like the way to go.

Maybe a look at Dark Sun is in order too...