OSR Some combat maneuvers

[AlexofBarbaria]

Greetings!

I'm gearing up to start a new campaign and wanted to share—and hopefully get some feedback on—some ideas.

My new campaign will be more low-fantasy and "humanocentric", so I wanted a little more crunch in the rules for mundane gear and combat.

To that end I've some up with the following combat maneuvers and a Swashbuckler Thief variant. Do you see any issues with these rules in terms of balance or playability?

(I use ascending AC, btw).

Opportunity Attacks: Moving through an enemy’s reach provokes an opportunity attack (OA). Characters can make a max. of 1 OA per round. An OA that hits does not stop movement.
Parry: Defer your attack to add your weapon’s parry bonus to your AC.
Riposte: If a parrying character is attacked and the attack misses, they get an opportunity attack with a bonus to-hit equal to their parry bonus. Characters wielding two weapons may use one to parry and the other to riposte.
Reckless Attack: Make an opportunity attack on an enemy who missed you and rolled poorly, but fumble if your attack roll fails to beat theirs.
Feint: Can secretly apply a negative modifier to your own attack to simulate a poor roll. Do not add parry bonus to AC, but if an enemy responds with a reckless attack and misses, you can riposte with a bonus to-hit equal to their attack roll.

Thief Variant—Swashbuckler: +1 AC at levels 1, 5, 9, & 13, movement through enemy reach does not trigger opportunity attacks, and backstab damage applies to ripostes instead.

 

[Musing Mage]

(I use ascending AC, btw).

HERESY!

Seriously... to your points. As someone who has yet to meet a ruleset that he doesn't want to find house rules for, I can relate to coming up with a bunch of options. So first I'll warn that a few can be fun, but don't overdo it, you'll find it can start to interfere.

Second - what rule set are you playing? You say OSR but that's a rather blanket term... so it's hard to analyze the specific manuevers without knowing the system to which they will apply. Some systems already use Attacks of Opportunity in some way, so might not be a concern, others not. Attacks of opportunity can be very punitive in OSR games, where creatures often do siginificant damage and PCs have a lower number of hit points.

For your Thief Variant, the bonuses seem pretty strong - but where are the drawbacks? What is the trade-off for taking this class over the standard thief? It had better be significant or why would anyone ever take the default? Maybe they lose the hide in Shadow and Move silently skills, along with Finding and removing traps... for starters. Perhaps Minimal attribute requirements - 14 dex and Charisma... things like that.

 

[TerraDave]

The variant is very strong. Also, I like fighter as a swashbuckler base--less sneaking around and more just jumping into the action. A fighter swashbuckler would also need some AC boost to compensate for not using heavier armor.

As for the maneuvers, too much or not enough? What about polearm wielders? Archers? Wielding two weapons? Mounted combat?

 

[AlexofBarbaria]

HERESY!

Seriously... to your points. As someone who has yet to meet a ruleset that he doesn't want to find house rules for, I can relate to coming up with a bunch of options. So first I'll warn that a few can be fun, but don't overdo it, you'll find it can start to interfere.

Eh, my players are good at just ignoring any rules I come up with that are nonsensical or overcomplicated. Then they just get used by me playing one of their retainers/companions. Like my grappling rules last campaign.

Second - what rule set are you playing? You say OSR but that's a rather blanket term... so it's hard to analyze the specific manuevers without knowing the system to which they will apply. Some systems already use Attacks of Opportunity in some way, so might not be a concern, others not. Attacks of opportunity can be very punitive in OSR games, where creatures often do siginificant damage and PCs have a lower number of hit points.

Swords & Wizardry as a base, though at this point my primary references are the 1e DMG and MM.

For your Thief Variant, the bonuses seem pretty strong - but where are the drawbacks? What is the trade-off for taking this class over the standard thief? It had better be significant or why would anyone ever take the default? Maybe they lose the hide in Shadow and Move silently skills, along with Finding and removing traps... for starters. Perhaps Minimal attribute requirements - 14 dex and Charisma... things like that.

I forgot to note the primary disadvantage I had in mind: they can't use scrolls. Though thinking about it, they're probably still overpowered, and I agree with @TerraDave that it makes more sense as a Fighter variant.

The variant is very strong. Also, I like fighter as a swashbuckler base--less sneaking around and more just jumping into the action. A fighter swashbuckler would also need some AC boost to compensate for not using heavier armor.

You know, I agree--I went with Thief initially as that was one of my favorite kits in the Baldur's Gate games. I was also thinking of Robin Hood, but then again he's really more of a D&D Fighter than Thief, isn't he?

Ok, I remade it as a Fighter variant. Fighter Variant—Swashbuckler: Tumbler and Deadly Riposte but limited to padded, leather or studded leather armor. Tumbler: +1 AC at levels 1/5/9/13 and movement through enemy reach does not trigger opportunity attacks. Deadly Riposte: Ripostes do double damage.

As for the maneuvers, too much or not enough? What about polearm wielders? Archers? Wielding two weapons? Mounted combat?

Polearms get reach, archers get nothing special (because they already have unfairly high odds of survival in old D&D IMO), mounted characters get to split their move around their attack and double damage with a lance charge.