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Combat Speculation

JRR_Talking

First Post
D&D for the console generation....

Arin the Arcanist, Monty the Martialist and Derek The Divine are walking in the woods and bump into 2 goblin sneaks, 2 orc axemasters and a hobgoblin archer...

after initiative rolls

Round 1 begins

Arin the Arcanist uses his energyblast magic-stance...he can use it every round for free if he wishes....it hits a goblin sneak and he rolls high damage (X) and the sneak is down

The orcs go next and advance towards the party readying their axe-strike stance.

Derek The Divine uses a Buff stance, Bless, the party now attack better and Derek cannot use that stance again for this encounter.

Monty uses the Charge stance, burning it for this encounter, moves a great distance and goes to attck the nearest orc with his sword, the axe-strike from the orc goes off , burning it for this encounter, and Monty is thumped. Montys attack with both, bless and charge bonus, and hammers the orc with his greatsword and the orc is down....

The hobgoblin goes next, uses his Charged Arrow stance burning it for the encounter, shoots Monty with it, who is now looking pretty bad.

The goblin moves round to flank Monty, hoping next round to use its advantageous attack stance for next round

Round 2

Arin uses his sleep enchantment next round from his reserve of spells, burning it for the whole day until he can rest properly. The hobgoblin has 2 good saves, one isnt Will and it collapses into slumber.

The orc is next, the only other stance it has left is Toughness, it uses this upping its hitpoints for the encounter, but burns it for the day. On its simple attack it misses Monty.

Derek uses his holyblast next. It can do X/2 damage to an opponent, or heal X hp on an ally, or do 2x X damage to undead, and he can use it every round. He opts to heal Monty for X amount of healing....

Monty is next. being 1st level human he has three martial stances, (Charge which he has used for this encounter, Power Attack which does uber-damage once per encounter and Swordfocus which is an always on bonus to hit with his sword). He is engaged by two opponents and wished he had taken Cleave....

As the orc has gone he uses Power Attack stance on the goblin, killing it, and burining Power Attack for this encounter.

Round 3

Arin the Arcanist uses his energyblast magic-stance...it hits the last orc and he rolls high damage (X), the toughness stance of the orc keeps it up and fighting.

The orc hits monty with its simple attack and does some moderate damage.

Derek uses his holyblast next and hits the orc for some slight damage, but it is looking bad now.

Monty is next. He has burned all his useful satnces for this encounter, does a simple attack, hits the orc for some slight damage, but it is enough to down it...

Round 4
Arin uses his magical-detection, which he can use every round, and starts scanning the bodies for goodies...

Derek opts to heal Monty for X amount of healing....and he is nearly fully healed.

Monty dispatches the sleeping hobgoblin.

By the time Arin has finsihed scanning for treasure Derek has fully healed Monty. The encounter is over so many of their stances re-charge and they head off toward the dungeon....


Thoughts? would you play this game?

John
 

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Sounds fun to me, but I think certain "stances" will not recharge so quickly (healing being one) and thus the next fight they might walk into they won't have full hp and maybe a few less "spell stances" but they can go a fight or three more, barring bad luck...
 

JRR_Talking said:
Thoughts? would you play this game?
Yes. None of the above is actually why I play D&D, which would be social / non-comabt character interaction, but it sounds like a good bit of fun (a first, I could see it getting repetitive and boring) and it gets me to the "good stuff" faster.
 


JRR_Talking said:
Thoughts? would you play this game?

John

Not if they call every bloody ability a bloody "stance" whether it make sense or not. Fortunately, I believe WotC have better taste than to do that.

Mechanically, sure.
 

If anything it sounds even less like a console RPG than the current version of D&D, which in turn seemed less like a console RPG than BECMI, the latter being, from my recollection, the most console RPGish version of straight D&D to date - very little tactical positioning, battles both quick and numerous.

The monsters are way too complicated. Basic mooks should not have the kind of stance/token/recharge abilities you describe in this example. This is very un-console-RPGish, and it would increase rather than decrease the GM's workload.

Two orcs, two goblins and a hobgoblin taking three rounds to kill seems fair, though not very console-RPGish.

I suppose you could argue both are covered by the idea these orcs and goblins are actually classed NPCs of some importance - bounty hunters, perhaps? However, the example of play doesn't indicate that; in a console RPG, there would be a dramatic intro scene for enemies worth this much effort.

Some of the abilities are still per day. Ugh. The hybrid per-day/per-encounter thing does NOT solve the issues per-encounter is supposed to solve. Per-encounter, meanwhile, isn't console RPGish at all and takes away from that feel.

Most of what are called stances... aren't. Stance would make more sense on a static ability.

For all those gripes, I don't really mind the example. It would be interesting for a sub-boss encounter, though then it's too easy; my biggest issues are with the terminology, with the overly complicated abilities for what appear to be random mooks, and with it not being anything at ALL like a console RPG. :(
 


yeah ok, maybe over use of the word 'stance'

trying to guess it will be table-top WoW, or perhaps guild wars, is even an even better comparison

yes the mooks above werent basic mooks, they were mooks with an ability or two

Was trying to imply a speed to the game / and ease of resource management if most things recharge after an encounter, if not during the encounter.

on re-reading what i wrote i think i would play it.

Our team won the 'Dungeon Delve' at the GAME07 in Manchester, UK this year, so i dont mind speed/fast play

John
 

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