Will the real martial artist please stand up...

[Garthanos]

Or mayhaps the techniques could be very specific Cobra Technique counts as leather and uses wisdom

 

[Garthanos]

After investigating in Character Builder, it looks like making the defensive martial techniques new armor Types will allow me to enable the different stat(s) to add to your armor class when equipping them. So we can then have heavy and light (reflexive) as normal, plus - Zen/perceptive (wis), Nineh/Deceptive (cha) , Interfering (str) or even Ki/instinctive (con).

hmmm

I want them to require a martial class to learn (purchase or equip - I can add proficiencies for each degree/type directly to the martial classes but not liking that solution too much.) and the latter two seem like they should require a feat (so instances of armor of those types will then require a feat purchased proficiency to use).

In general I want the martial techniques to be only aquireable/learnable by martial types.

Some of this is only tricky because i want to implement in character builder, obviously

 

[Garthanos]

I think I will collapse those down to Ki ( Str / Con) and Zen (Wis / Cha),
they then fit the model for light armor class but based on martial techniques and have flavorful names AND are grouped like the non armor class defenses

Although I rather like the expanded set for their more directly descriptive names -> (Interfering, Instinctive, Deceptive, Perceptive, and Reflexive)

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

After investigating in Character Builder, it looks like making the defensive martial techniques new armor Types will allow me to enable the different stat(s) to add to your armor class when equipping them. So we can then have heavy and light (reflexive) as normal, plus - Zen/perceptive (wis), Nineh/Deceptive (cha) , Interfering (str) or even Ki/instinctive (con).

hmmm

I want them to require a martial class to learn (purchase or equip - I can add proficiencies for each degree/type directly to the martial classes but not liking that solution too much.) and the latter two seem like they should require a feat (so instances of armor of those types will then require a feat purchased proficiency to use).

In general I want the martial techniques to be only aquireable/learnable by martial types.

Some of this is only tricky because i want to implement in character builder, obviously

Well, obviously you're NOT rewriting the combat engine, but doing away with AC and making armor provide DR and having only 3 defenses works really really well. None of these sorts of considerations need to be addressed mechanically using that system. You have your good and not-so-good defenses, and then whatever manages to get past them gets reduced. This also has a tendency to devalue multi-attacks quite a bit (since it effectively multiplies the value of the target's armor).

There is of course an argument for armor only working against some damage types, but frankly I didn't want the complexity. Yes, a 'fear' (psychic) attack will get a DR for armor, but you can just chalk it up to increased confidence when sporting an iron skin! This also means that you don't absolutely HAVE to keep jacking up your armor. It will naturally be relatively less effective against high level attacks that deal more damage, but in absolute terms it is still effective. Of course it still makes sense to get hold of higher DR magic armor.

Anyway, I know nobody is going to reprogram THAT much of CB, sadly, but it does work nicely!

 

[Garthanos]

Well, obviously you're NOT rewriting the combat engine, but doing away with AC and making armor provide DR and having only 3 defenses works really really well. None of these sorts of considerations need to be addressed mechanically using that system. You have your good and not-so-good defenses, and then whatever manages to get past them gets reduced. This also has a tendency to devalue multi-attacks quite a bit (since it effectively multiplies the value of the target's armor).

There is of course an argument for armor only working against some damage types, but frankly I didn't want the complexity. Yes, a 'fear' (psychic) attack will get a DR for armor, but you can just chalk it up to increased confidence when sporting an iron skin! This also means that you don't absolutely HAVE to keep jacking up your armor. It will naturally be relatively less effective against high level attacks that deal more damage, but in absolute terms it is still effective. Of course it still makes sense to get hold of higher DR magic armor.

Anyway, I know nobody is going to reprogram THAT much of CB, sadly, but it does work nicely!

CB, has code that does many calculations but actual end results like applying damage resistance or making the rolls well no that part doesn't have implementations.

Basically armor could be used to contribute DR instead of AC. That part probably isnt even (too) tough.

Removing the AC defense from the character sheet and interface (doesnt seem possible) and altering powers that target it to target Ref or something else might be extensive tweaking .

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

CB, has code that does many calculations but actual end results like applying damage resistance or making the rolls well no that part doesn't have implementations.

Basically armor could be used to contribute DR instead of AC. That part probably isnt even (too) tough.

Removing the AC defense from the character sheet and interface (doesnt seem possible) and altering powers that target it to target Ref or something else might be extensive tweaking .

Yeah, that makes sense, an 'item' a 'feat' etc can basically apply some sort of modification to almost any stat or intermediate value. I guess there are a few 'filters' in there to do things like implement stacking rules and such.

 

[Garthanos]

The basic rules can be modified many ways too I can adjust how hit points are computed initially for instance.

I have added the two armor types zen and chi it works pretty easily. (Although getting proficiencies etc to work is baffling me at the moment)

These defensive martial techniques, Under Magic Armor they show up in their own Categories called

Natural Stance Techniques.

• Tiger's Grace Technique (Light, Hide)
• Leopard's Sinuous or Dancing Monkey's Technique (Light, Leather)
• Boar's / Bear's Brute Technique (Chi, Hide)
• Lion / Gorilla's Resilient Technique (Chi, Leather)
• Crane's / Owl's Focused Technique (Zen, Hide)
• Serpent's Swaying Technique (Zen, Leather)

Deep Stance Techniques

• Bull (Heavy,Chain)
• Dragon (Heavy,Scale)
• Mantis (Heavy,Plate)

 

[Garthanos]

It's kind of fun that I have this "mostly" functional in character builder.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

It's kind of fun that I have this "mostly" functional in character builder.

Yeah, the original CB was actually a very good piece of software. I mean, it has its deficiencies, but it proved to be very flexible and worked well. The decision to switch to the online version certainly wasn't such a brilliant plan in retrospect. At the time I thought it SHOULD have been done, but they really didn't execute that plan very well. Sad.

 

[Garthanos]

Yeah, the original CB was actually a very good piece of software. I mean, it has its deficiencies, but it proved to be very flexible and worked well. The decision to switch to the online version certainly wasn't such a brilliant plan in retrospect. At the time I thought it SHOULD have been done, but they really didn't execute that plan very well. Sad.

This is D&D to me the customization that CB loader implements which they didnt include is vital in my opinion.