We've seen Armor as DR - anybody do Weapons as Attack Bonus?

[Spyritwind]

It seems this idea is more in the direction of Role Master; a pretty old and I believe dead game system. It was nick named Chart Master due to all the charts it used. In some regards it was the best RPG ever IMO, in other ways ... it was a bit rough; especially for new players. NEway ...

The amount of damage you did was tied up in your two hit roll. The 'better' you hit the more damage you did. The only second roll you would make would be if you had a critical hit. Each weapon had it's own chart (ala chartmaster) where you would cross reference your dice roll vs the armor type you were up agasint. Point being that each weapon did not do the same amount of damage. Getting hit with a two handed sword was worse than getting hit with a dagger.

It went further than that though. Certain weapons faired better than others vs certain armor types.

Armor type (there were 20 total) also effected how often you were hit as well as how bad the hits were. Characters in that system typically ended up with about 120-150 hit points. Some one in full plate would be easy to 'hit' but it was usually only for a few points and getting a good critical hit on them was very difficult. Some one in light armor was more difficult to hit, but when they did get smacked it started to hurt pretty fast.

With damage being built in to the two hit roll the default deflection AC system automatically becomes DR as well. Not only do you not get hit as often, but it wont hurt as much when you do.

 

[Bayonet_Chris]

Rolemaster

I disagree. I don't see how this necessarily needs the use of charts for anything. How does assigning a base damage value to a weapon and using a relative degree of success mechanic for added damage equate to pages and pages of critical hit charts? The two things are not intrinsically tied together.

 

[mhensley]

The problem with using a system like this is with certain spells like fireball which do damage but don't have an attack roll. How do you get around that?

 

[Pyrex]

You roll damage as normal.

It also doesn't work with Ray spells.

What it *does* do (well, mabye) is remove a die roll from melee combat at the expense of having to do more math.

 

[Bayonet_Chris]

Damage

The problem with using a system like this is with certain spells like fireball which do damage but don't have an attack roll. How do you get around that?

Well, the problem with any house rule that messes with a basic assumption of the game (how damage is done) is that it spider-webs out into other things. You can roll damage as normal and it shouldn't adjust things too much (the amount of damage you do with a base amount, adding damage for degrees of success is not appreciably different than normal damage). The alternative is you adjust how evocation-style magical attacks do damage, or you simply eliminate them from the equation.

Alternatively, you could use the reflex saving throw as a damage mitigator instead of a simple (full/half/none) mechanic. I don't use the base 3.5 magic system, so it's not as much of an issue for me as it is for others.

 

[boredgremlin]

For spells i used a D20+caster level + the same damage mod as similar weapons. IE a D6 weapon in my system did +2 damage. So a 6 dice fireball did D20+6 (caster level)+12 (6x2=12). Instead of a normal defense modifier i kept saves and the player rolled his save. The spell did 1 pt of damage for every 2 points over his total saving throw that the caster achieved.

It had some side affects on saves. A good save roll was better then in regular D20 and a crap save even worse... But oh well, tis the nature of a skill based system, skill at dodging is just as important as skill at blocking or attacking.

On the whole it seemed to make direct damage spells less damaging and scary and encouraged casters to take more subtle spells. But thats the flavor of magic i like better so i thought that was a plus too. Mileage on that thought will vary by DM and group though.

 

[Bayonet_Chris]

For spells i used a D20+caster level + the same damage mod as similar weapons. IE a D6 weapon in my system did +2 damage. So a 6 dice fireball did D20+6 (caster level)+12 (6x2=12). Instead of a normal defense modifier i kept saves and the player rolled his save. The spell did 1 pt of damage for every 2 points over his total saving throw that the caster achieved.

It had some side affects on saves. A good save roll was better then in regular D20 and a crap save even worse... But oh well, tis the nature of a skill based system, skill at dodging is just as important as skill at blocking or attacking.

On the whole it seemed to make direct damage spells less damaging and scary and encouraged casters to take more subtle spells. But thats the flavor of magic i like better so i thought that was a plus too. Mileage on that thought will vary by DM and group though.

That's not bad. If you were using an EOM-styled system, you could just have it do the Evoke MP +d20 in damage.

 

[Warbringer]

Then don't roll!

Weapon simple does its damage...dagger (d4) does "4", holy longsword sword 1d8+2d6 does "20"...add damage for str...etc

Criticals...every 5 that you hit an opponent by does an extra damage die... so a warrior (Str+4) wielding a longsword needs a 12 to hit an opponent, but get an 18. So he does 20 (1d8+1d8 +4)... For added affect use weapon speed and when the weapon exceeds a to hit roll by its speed, it does a critical. Faster weapons do criticals faster, but not as much damage. (Modifiers... keen/imporved critical decrease the weapon speed by 1, increasing the likelihood of the critical)

Of course same goes for sneak attack, fireballs....

But, take max hit points for PCs, NPCs Monsters and its all equals out...really, it does and not a die is rolled beyond the d20 to hit....

 

[Doghead Thirteen]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'as attack bonus'.

The system I'm generating uses damage reduction armour as it is the only armour rules I've been able to work out that passes the Fosters Test.

Weapon damage works like;

Skill roll to hit; high is best, roll 1d10, 10 automatically succeeds, 1 automatically fails.

Roll location; 1 = right leg, 2 = left leg, 3 = right arm, 4 = left arm, 5 = groin, 6-7 = stomach, 8-9 = chest, 10 = head.

Roll damage. Specified by weapon + character strength (for a close combat weapon) or calibre and type of bullet (for a ranged weapon), for example a 9mm Luger FMJ round does 1d6+2 damage, a hollowpoint from the same gun does 1d6+3. The most powerful weapons in the game system use 4d20. Your character's Toughness stat and any armour they're wearing on that location are subtracted from the damage.

It's the minimum dice rolls and calculations we've been able to cut it down to without losing the differentiation between landing a blow or shot and actually causing an injury. You'll never dodge a bullet - but you can stop it dead in it's tracks.