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A good Armor Class Bonus to Damage Reduction house rule?
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<blockquote data-quote="ValhallaGH" data-source="post: 5310584" data-attributes="member: 41187"><p>With d20? It's extremely tough, and it will require a complete rewrite of how equipment interacts. (Connan did this, having armor stack with itself, provide high levels of DR, and giving weapons large damage with various levels of armor penetration to get through all that DR; then they made it easier to hit when ganging up, so you can power attack like a freak.)</p><p></p><p>Me, being lazy, I'd just use something like this one, with the note that all damage dice (or maybe just weapon dice) can Ace or Explode (i.e. roll max value, re-roll the die and add to the previous value, to no theoretical limit). </p><p>Acing raises the expected value per die by ~0.6, so 10d6 of sneak attack would average 41 instead of 35, or a 2d10 monk fist would average 12 instead of 11. While the average damage is almost the same, individual variance will be pretty crazy.</p><p></p><p></p><p>AC to DR in d20 is complicated by a combination of three factors. (There have been a few great essays about this problem, some of them available on the WotC website. The following is my own explanation.)</p><p>First, the scaling of hp: those suckers can go up a lot over two levels, or by the bare minimum every level. That's a huge disparity, not only between classes but between two characters of exactly the same build. That's unpredictable, especially given the lack of scaling for damage (Sneak Attack and certain spells). A sword & board Fighter can expect his per-hit damage bonus to go up by ~13 over 20 levels (+3 from strength increases, +3 magic strength, +2 weapon spec, +5 magic weapon), meanwhile the hp of what he hits goes up by about 60 times (~5 for Orc warrior to ~300 for CR 20 demons). Even with the all four attacks, you're looking at a much smaller increase in damage output.</p><p></p><p>Second, the scaling of attack bonuses versus defense: you're expected to get hit a lot as you go up in levels (one of the reasons that it's possible to get so many hp). Thanks to iterative attacks (especially natural attacks of monsters), it's entirely possible to get hit three or more times a round per foe. Worse, with power attack, they can directly convert excessive attack bonus into horrific amounts of extra damage (as anyone that's seen a Leap Attack using Frenzied Berserker can attest to).</p><p>By removing the primary source of Defense (armor) and not providing any compensation, you provide more incentive to power attack for crazy amounts, as well as dip into sneak attack classes since the loss of BAB isn't as much an issue. A monk's flurry of blows would be vastly more appealing, if he could actually hurt the things he's now hitting (sadly, monks are still combat useless under most armor to DR rules). Conversely, a TWF rogue is actually more effective since his damage will probably overwhelm any sane level of DR and he's almost certain to connect with every single attack; add in a Wounding weapon an it gets a heck of a lot scarier.</p><p></p><p>Third, juggling the amount of reduction provided. This one is very, very tricky, since it's the bridge between damage scaling and hp scaling. Should this scale, and if so then by how much? How do you scale it without completely invalidating certain builds (like the monk)? It's a lot of design and redesign, and you're almost certain to miss something important.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Best of luck with it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ValhallaGH, post: 5310584, member: 41187"] With d20? It's extremely tough, and it will require a complete rewrite of how equipment interacts. (Connan did this, having armor stack with itself, provide high levels of DR, and giving weapons large damage with various levels of armor penetration to get through all that DR; then they made it easier to hit when ganging up, so you can power attack like a freak.) Me, being lazy, I'd just use something like this one, with the note that all damage dice (or maybe just weapon dice) can Ace or Explode (i.e. roll max value, re-roll the die and add to the previous value, to no theoretical limit). Acing raises the expected value per die by ~0.6, so 10d6 of sneak attack would average 41 instead of 35, or a 2d10 monk fist would average 12 instead of 11. While the average damage is almost the same, individual variance will be pretty crazy. AC to DR in d20 is complicated by a combination of three factors. (There have been a few great essays about this problem, some of them available on the WotC website. The following is my own explanation.) First, the scaling of hp: those suckers can go up a lot over two levels, or by the bare minimum every level. That's a huge disparity, not only between classes but between two characters of exactly the same build. That's unpredictable, especially given the lack of scaling for damage (Sneak Attack and certain spells). A sword & board Fighter can expect his per-hit damage bonus to go up by ~13 over 20 levels (+3 from strength increases, +3 magic strength, +2 weapon spec, +5 magic weapon), meanwhile the hp of what he hits goes up by about 60 times (~5 for Orc warrior to ~300 for CR 20 demons). Even with the all four attacks, you're looking at a much smaller increase in damage output. Second, the scaling of attack bonuses versus defense: you're expected to get hit a lot as you go up in levels (one of the reasons that it's possible to get so many hp). Thanks to iterative attacks (especially natural attacks of monsters), it's entirely possible to get hit three or more times a round per foe. Worse, with power attack, they can directly convert excessive attack bonus into horrific amounts of extra damage (as anyone that's seen a Leap Attack using Frenzied Berserker can attest to). By removing the primary source of Defense (armor) and not providing any compensation, you provide more incentive to power attack for crazy amounts, as well as dip into sneak attack classes since the loss of BAB isn't as much an issue. A monk's flurry of blows would be vastly more appealing, if he could actually hurt the things he's now hitting (sadly, monks are still combat useless under most armor to DR rules). Conversely, a TWF rogue is actually more effective since his damage will probably overwhelm any sane level of DR and he's almost certain to connect with every single attack; add in a Wounding weapon an it gets a heck of a lot scarier. Third, juggling the amount of reduction provided. This one is very, very tricky, since it's the bridge between damage scaling and hp scaling. Should this scale, and if so then by how much? How do you scale it without completely invalidating certain builds (like the monk)? It's a lot of design and redesign, and you're almost certain to miss something important. Best of luck with it. [/QUOTE]
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A good Armor Class Bonus to Damage Reduction house rule?
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