D&D 3E/3.5 Conan combat system added to D&D 3.5

[Ancient History]

I am running a D&D 3.5 campaign in which I have overlaid the Conan RPG combat system. I'm curious if anyone else has tried to do this and if so, what pointers they may have.

My campaign is currently low level and I am wondering what the impact will be at higher levels.

For those that don't know, the Conan system uses armor as damage reduction, however classes receive parry and dodge defenses to improve their AC.

Thanks

 

[GMMichael]

I haven't overlaid the Conan system, but it sounds like I designed it into my homebrew, from your description. Thoughts:

- Turning armor into damage reduction makes the previous DRs seem armor-like, when they were previously hardness or magical effects.
- When armor reduces damage, characters have two methods of reducing damage, where they formerly had one. 1) Avoid all damage, 2) reduce damage. Don't be surprised if players choose to specialize in one, and ignore the other.
- Don't know if Conan does this, but if a character fails his defense check (or the attacker hits his AC), then even with damage reduction/armor, there should be some minimum damage. Remember that Hit Points don't have to reflect only blood-letting.
- The tricky part will probably everything besides armor, because what used to be an AC bonus could either be dodging(AC) or armor (reduction).

At higher levels, one thing is definitely happening: your PCs have more hit points. Make sure that your monster-tanks have much more attack bonus (since PC ACs are likely to be higher with the bonuses), otherwise they will be doing ZERO damage.

 

[Daztur]

It'd probably be easier to use Conan d20 as a base and then add bits and pieces of 3.*ed bit by bit than trying to overlay Conan on EVERYTHING in 3.*ed since there's just so much stuff it'd be an incredible headache.

 

[Celebrim]

I am running a D&D 3.5 campaign in which I have overlaid the Conan RPG combat system. I'm curious if anyone else has tried to do this and if so, what pointers they may have.

My campaign is currently low level and I am wondering what the impact will be at higher levels.

My impression was that Conan's combat system (which is a bit more complex than you are summarizing it as for those that don't know) is designed to make up for the relative lack of magic compared to stock D&D. If you have lots of magic, you'll probably end up breaking game balance.