RangerWickett
Legend
(Work in progress.)
I've tinkered with rules a lot. In 3e, I worked on the second version of Elements of Magic, which let you make your own spells, and combined all magic-users into one class. You got different styles of characters based on the choices you made for your 'magical tradition' and what types of magic you specialized in. I want to do something sort of similar for 4e.
Basically, I feel that while powers are interesting ideas, they unnecessarily stifle player creativity, and promote using your 'special moves' as opposed to taking a more active role in coming up with dynamic combats. Thankfully, pg. 42 of the DMG offers an easy solution, and with a bit of extrapolation and addition, I've designed a system I'd like to try out. Please tell me what you think.
Combat Changes: You no longer get powers, aside from basic melee and basic ranged attacks. Instead, you have a combat gauge. The combat gauge measures how dangerous you are in combat, from a combination of adrenaline, magical energy, dramatic motivation, and so on. Your combat gauge begins each combat equal to half your character's level (round down), and increases by 1 each round. Some actions and effects (detailed later) can reduce or increase your combat gauge.
We'll start with an example using an axe, for simplicity. With a simple attack, whenever you hit with an axe, you deal [w] damage (1d8), plus Strength, plus your combat gauge.
However, this system encourages ingenuity and coolness, and rewards being awesome. You are not limited to just hitting a single enemy with your axe, or just standing still and chopping at a foe. If you describe something cool, you get benefits, and if you pull off something spectacular, you'll appreciate the extra effort.
Multiple foes: If you attack multiple targets, make one attack roll against each. Roll damage once and halve it. You deal this much to each foe you hit.
Being cool: If during the course of your turn you describe doing something more interesting than just moving and attacking, you deal 2[w] + Str + gauge.
Being awesome: You can come up with something dangerous and dramatic, but pulling it off requires exertion. Also, you'll generally have to use a move action to acquire some sort of advantage in combat, and make a skill check (DC based on page 42). If you succeed, your attack instead does 3[w] + Str + twice your combat gauge. If you miss, you still deal 1[w] + Str + gauge. After the attack, your combat gauge drops by 2 due to the exertion required, whether you hit or miss.
(Optional rule: For speed of play, players can choose to always take average dice damage, rounded up. So d4 = 3, d12 = 7, etc.)
Equipment: Melee weapons are either light, medium, or heavy. Light weapons let you use Dexterity instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls, and they can be used in your off hand without penalty. Medium weapons can be used one- or two-handed, and if you use them in two hands, you deal +1 damage. Heavy weapons require two hands.
Ranged weapons stay pretty much the same.
(In my own version, I'll probably take cues from Conan d20 and have armor provide DR, and give some weapons armor-piercing abilities, and implement a system to bypass DR, but I'm trying to keep the changes minimal at this stage of design.)
Character Creation: Everyone starts with the normal point buy, 10 + Con HP, simple weapon and cloth armor proficiency, 5 + Con modifier healing surges, and training in any four skills. You have five talents (basically feats, but this term fits better, I fell) to use to design your character's combat options. (I'm handling non-combat stuff in another way, with less rules.)
I tried to come up with feats to make different ability scores generate different fighting styles. Feats include.
Str-based: Armor Proficiency, Shield Proficiency.
Con-based:
Dex-based:
Int-based:
Wis-based:
Cha-based:
I've tinkered with rules a lot. In 3e, I worked on the second version of Elements of Magic, which let you make your own spells, and combined all magic-users into one class. You got different styles of characters based on the choices you made for your 'magical tradition' and what types of magic you specialized in. I want to do something sort of similar for 4e.
Basically, I feel that while powers are interesting ideas, they unnecessarily stifle player creativity, and promote using your 'special moves' as opposed to taking a more active role in coming up with dynamic combats. Thankfully, pg. 42 of the DMG offers an easy solution, and with a bit of extrapolation and addition, I've designed a system I'd like to try out. Please tell me what you think.
Combat Changes: You no longer get powers, aside from basic melee and basic ranged attacks. Instead, you have a combat gauge. The combat gauge measures how dangerous you are in combat, from a combination of adrenaline, magical energy, dramatic motivation, and so on. Your combat gauge begins each combat equal to half your character's level (round down), and increases by 1 each round. Some actions and effects (detailed later) can reduce or increase your combat gauge.
We'll start with an example using an axe, for simplicity. With a simple attack, whenever you hit with an axe, you deal [w] damage (1d8), plus Strength, plus your combat gauge.
However, this system encourages ingenuity and coolness, and rewards being awesome. You are not limited to just hitting a single enemy with your axe, or just standing still and chopping at a foe. If you describe something cool, you get benefits, and if you pull off something spectacular, you'll appreciate the extra effort.
Multiple foes: If you attack multiple targets, make one attack roll against each. Roll damage once and halve it. You deal this much to each foe you hit.
Being cool: If during the course of your turn you describe doing something more interesting than just moving and attacking, you deal 2[w] + Str + gauge.
Being awesome: You can come up with something dangerous and dramatic, but pulling it off requires exertion. Also, you'll generally have to use a move action to acquire some sort of advantage in combat, and make a skill check (DC based on page 42). If you succeed, your attack instead does 3[w] + Str + twice your combat gauge. If you miss, you still deal 1[w] + Str + gauge. After the attack, your combat gauge drops by 2 due to the exertion required, whether you hit or miss.
(Optional rule: For speed of play, players can choose to always take average dice damage, rounded up. So d4 = 3, d12 = 7, etc.)
Equipment: Melee weapons are either light, medium, or heavy. Light weapons let you use Dexterity instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls, and they can be used in your off hand without penalty. Medium weapons can be used one- or two-handed, and if you use them in two hands, you deal +1 damage. Heavy weapons require two hands.
Ranged weapons stay pretty much the same.
(In my own version, I'll probably take cues from Conan d20 and have armor provide DR, and give some weapons armor-piercing abilities, and implement a system to bypass DR, but I'm trying to keep the changes minimal at this stage of design.)
Character Creation: Everyone starts with the normal point buy, 10 + Con HP, simple weapon and cloth armor proficiency, 5 + Con modifier healing surges, and training in any four skills. You have five talents (basically feats, but this term fits better, I fell) to use to design your character's combat options. (I'm handling non-combat stuff in another way, with less rules.)
I tried to come up with feats to make different ability scores generate different fighting styles. Feats include.
Str-based: Armor Proficiency, Shield Proficiency.
Con-based:
Dex-based:
Int-based:
Wis-based:
Cha-based:
