Ambitious Houserules pt 1: Combat & Actions

[glass]

That is part of the game balance, and part of what makes fighters that much better than non-fighters, is the extra attacks and that they get them sooner. Otherwise, magic becomes more powerfull.

I'm currently thinking about doing something similar, as all those attacks at higher levels severely bog down combat. Spycraft has this "two half actions per round" system, yet there are problems integrating this into a pretty normal fantasy game.

Some possible fixes:
A high BAB and the resulting iterative attacks are neccesary for the fighter's balance. But you can always have feats that enable you additional attacks, maybe with a certain style or side effect.

The above would certainly be true if the this was the only change I was planning to make, damage per attack will probably be going up (especially for high level characters) and the magic system is getting some revisions also, so hopefully that should be able to be balanced out.

This is the trouble with posting this stuff in stages: you can only judge what I have put up so far, not what's still in my head. Unfortunately, the alternative is a great long post which noone will read.

3.0 Haste showed us that two spells per round are too much. Solution: Divide the spell-casting actions into two. First action: prepare the spell. Provokes AoO, casting defensively is possible. Second action: acquire target, release spell or whatever's suitable for the specific spell. No AoO and doesn't neccesarily have to follow spell preparation, similar to holding touch attack spells. Wizards could run into a battle with a fireball ready to go.

3.0 haste showed that two spells in a round with a spell list that did not take that possibility into account was a bad idea. I am not convinced that two spells per round could never be balanced, or we wouldn't have all these move and swift action powers in the XPH.


glass.

 

[glass]

I devised a similar system only I allowed higher level characters to have more than 2 actions per round; at around +1 action per 5 levels.

Interesting idea. Definitely something to think about.


glass.

 

[glass]

This is the trouble with posting this stuff in stages: you can only judge what I have put up so far, not what's still in my head. Unfortunately, the alternative is a great long post which noone will read.

I guess this is my cue. Ambitious Houserule pt 2 coming soon!


glass.