A Simple Fix for Glancing Blow

[GreyICE]

Just let it work whenever you miss, pretty much. Maybe make it not work if you roll a 1, for "realism." Because the ability, as it stands, is practically useless.

 

[CM]

Just let it work whenever you miss, pretty much. Maybe make it not work if you roll a 1, for "realism." Because the ability, as it stands, is practically useless.

Ahh, realism. The dark altar upon which many a fine mechanic has been sacrificed.

 

[Nikosandros]

I think a simpler design would be "Once per turn when you miss a creature with a weapon attack, you can spend expertise dice to turn the miss into a glancing blow."

Yep. This works much better.

 

[slobo777]

Yep. This works much better.

Yes I agree with the simplified mechanic.

But as I posted on the other (duplicate?) thread, it might actually have been the designers' intent to turn roughly half of misses into opportunities for glancing blows (i.e. the value 10 is on a new, separate d20 roll).

I'm not saying that would be the best fix, just that it's possibly the original intent, badly worded in the packet.

 

[Yora]

Situations in which the current Glancing Blow does literally anything:

1. You have a +3 in your attack stat and are fighting the Dark Priest, in which case it has a 5% chance to activate
2. You have +2 in your attack stat, in which case it has a 5% chance to activate against the chieftains and the minotaur, and 10% against the priest
3. You have +1 or less in your attack stat for some reason

You don't see that as a problem?

Okay, let's go looking for the AC for Dark Priests and minotaurs.

A Dark Priest has AC 17, your attack bonus is +3:
Rolling 14 to 20 means hit, which is seven numbers or 35%.
Rolling 10 to 13 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 4 numbers or 20%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

A Dark Priest has AC 17, your attack bonus is +2:
Rolling 15 to 20 means hit, which is six numbers or 30%.
Rolling 10 to 14 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 5 numbers or 25%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

A minotaur has AC 16, your attack bonus is +2:
Rolling 14 to 20 means hit, which is seven numbers or 35%.
Rolling 10 to 13 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 4 numbers or 20%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

Again, what is the problem?

 

[GX.Sigma]

Okay, let's go looking for the AC for Dark Priests and minotaurs.

A Dark Priest has AC 17, your attack bonus is +3:
Rolling 14 to 20 means hit, which is seven numbers or 35%.
Rolling 10 to 13 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 4 numbers or 20%

If you have +3 in your attack stat, your attack bonus is +6. Glancing Blow only activates if you roll exactly 10.

 

[slobo777]

Okay, let's go looking for the AC for Dark Priests and minotaurs.

You went back, but substituted "attack bonus" where other posters were putting "attack stat". The rest of your maths isn't wrong - but unfortunately it doesn't represent the same situations.

If a fighter was suffering a -3 to hit for some reason, then your workings show how Glancing Blow would become more useful versus the selected high-AC opponents.

 

[FireLance]

If you have +3 in your attack stat, your attack bonus is +6. Glancing Blow only activates if you roll exactly 10.

To elaborate, assuming a 16 Strength and a +3 Strength bonus to attack rolls,

A Dark Priest has AC 17, your attack bonus is +6:
Rolling 11 to 20 means a hit, which is ten numbers or 50%.
Rolling 10 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 1 number or 5%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

A minotaur has AC 16, your attack bonus is +6:
Rolling 10 to 20 means a hit, which is eleven numbers or 55%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

My own fix (first posted here, and subsequently refined) is as follows:

Once per turn, when you miss a creature with a weapon attack, you can spend a single expertise dice to increase your attack roll. Roll the expertise dice you spend and add the result to your attack roll. If you now hit with the attack, you deal damage equal to the amount you rolled on the expertise die instead of the normal damage for the attack (but you may use Deadly Strike and spend additional expertise dice to increase the damage you deal). The damage is of the same type as the attack, but has none of the attack's other effects and is not considered to have hit.

 

[Iosue]

Okay, let's go looking for the AC for Dark Priests and minotaurs.

A Dark Priest has AC 17, your attack bonus is +3:
Rolling 14 to 20 means hit, which is seven numbers or 35%.
Rolling 10 to 13 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 4 numbers or 20%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

A Dark Priest has AC 17, your attack bonus is +2:
Rolling 15 to 20 means hit, which is six numbers or 30%.
Rolling 10 to 14 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 5 numbers or 25%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

A minotaur has AC 16, your attack bonus is +2:
Rolling 14 to 20 means hit, which is seven numbers or 35%.
Rolling 10 to 13 means you can activate Glancing Blow, which is 4 numbers or 20%.
Rolling 1 to 9 means miss, which is 9 numbers or 45%.

Again, what is the problem?

Fighter's start the game with an attack bonus of 3. He's talking about the ability modifier. If you have a STR of 18 (for melee) or DEX of 18 (for ranged), you'll never need Glancing Blow for any of the monsters currently in the playtest; even if you roll a 10, you'll hit AC 17. If it's merely a 16, you'll still only have a 5% chance of needing Glancing Blow.

Even using your numbers above (with no ability modifiers), it's still a problem because it means you'll only use Glancing Blow 20% of the time versus the very strongest opponents in the playtest. At Level 1.

Now, with bounded accuracy, future very strong opponents with ACs in the 20s (like say Dragons) may make it useful, but even then with the current rules the Fighter will hardly ever need it vs those opponents one often faces in the 1-5 level range. They'll either hit or miss totally with no chance to use Glancing Blow.

 

[Yora]

Okay, now we have a legitimate issue to talk about.

However, I think this is to a great portion caused by the playtest having only stats for critters and dumb brutes who simply soak damage instead of avoiding damage. Which I don't think are the types of enemies this ability has been made for. It gets interesting once you get to enemies that are hard to hit.
Admitedly, putting Glancing Blow in this playtest package where there are no such encounters wasn't such a smart idea.