Conan Dodge & Parry rules in Grim Tales?

[GlassJaw]

I really like the Dodge & Parry rules from Conan and was thinking of adapting them to the Grim Tales classes. I gave the classes values for each and was hoping to get some comments from anyone who is familiar with these fine tomes:

Strong Hero:       Dodge +7 (+10?), Parry +15
Fast Hero:         Dodge +15, Parry +7
Tough Hero:        Dodge +10, Parry +10
Smart Hero:        Dodge +7, Parry +7
Dedicated Hero:    Dodge +10, Parry +10
Charismatic Hero:  Dodge +7, Parry +10

The value at level 20 is given for each class.

 

[takyris]

Those look great to me. Is there a reason that you gave the Charismatic hero a boost? His Defense doesn't seem to merit it. If you wanted to be fair, I'd give the Charismatic and Smart hero the same Defense progression, or at least similar defense progressions -- +7 and +10, maybe, with Smart getting Dodge better and Charismatic getting Parry better.

 

[GlassJaw]

Is there a reason that you gave the Charismatic hero a boost?

Well I tried to model the GT classes with the Conan ones. I figured the Noble and Charismatic Hero were pretty similar. The Noble has +7/+10 mods.

 

[Nebulous]

Looks good to me too. I own both those fine tomes. I want to add the Parry/Defense to Midnight next when my campaign starts up.

 

[takyris]

Well I tried to model the GT classes with the Conan ones. I figured the Noble and Charismatic Hero were pretty similar. The Noble has +7/+10 mods.

That makes sense within Conan, but for GT or d20 Modern in general, the Charismatic Hero and Smart Hero have the same defense progression. Are you trying to create the Barbarian, Borderer, Scholar, and so on in Grim Tales, or are you trying to do Grim Tales with Dodge and Parry bonuses? I can see and enjoy both kinds of games, but if you're doing Grim Tales with Dodge and Parry (and not trying to use Grim Tales rules to recreate Conan classes), the Smart hero doesn't deserve to be shafted more than he already is.

Regardless, I think your numbers are close enough, with or without tweaking, that you're going to be in good shape. It sounds like a neat idea -- I'm actually working on something that's close in some ways. I'm turning d20 Modern into a classless system that uses Dodge and Parry for defense, so I look forward to hearing how yours goes!

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I've only got GT ... what does Dodge/Parry DO?

From the sound, perhaps you get the Dodge bonus to your AC (like Class Defense) and you can add or instead get the parry by spending an action or something of the sort?

--fje

 

[takyris]

Hey Heap,

The basic breakdown for Dodge/Parry is as follows:

Dodge: Add Dodge Bonus + Dex to 10 to get your Defense. It doesn't work when you're flat-footed, and you're at a penalty if you don't have room to maneuver. Basically like the d20 Modern class-based defense bonus, albeit one that goes away if you're stunned, blind, and so on like any Dodge bonus.

Parry: Add Parry Bonus + Strength to 10 to get your Defense. This is great for the high-Strength character who wants to parry blows instead of leaping acrobatically out of the way. The bad news is that you can't parry ranged attacks. If you're stunned, it goes away as well, leaving you with an ever-so-easy-to-hit Defense of 10 or so.

So, by the normal Conan rules, Parry is a great way to play a barbarian -- someone who is hard to hit by melee people, but doesn't like the idea of having twenty arrows pointed at him.

(In the modification I'm using, Parrying still works when you're stunned, but you still can't parry ranged attacks (barring a feat that lets you do so), and you can't parry a weapon unless you have a weapon yourself (or are considered armed from Combat Martial Arts), so being stunned still effectively takes this out of the game.)

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Ahhhh. So Fast has Parry just because everybody has a Parry score, but they're not going to use it since their Dodge is so much higher generally (unless you've got a REALLY weird build and a Fast hero with 8 Dex and 18 Str).

I get it. Interesting-cool. I'll have to look up Conan.

--fje

 

[takyris]

Exactly. While my world wasn't rocked by Conan, I did get a lot of "Yes, I'll use this" elements from it -- the Dodge/Parry mechanic, the rules for armor breakage and bypassing when armor is DR, and the combat maneuvers are worth the price of admission for me. I'm using edited versions of all three in the game I'm building now.

(My world wasn't rocked by Conan primarily because I'm not feeling like archetype classes and hit points these days. I might go back to that at some point, and if I do, Conan might be just as much fun as D&D, and certainly more S&S-flavored, but for now, I'm looking for as close to classless as I can easily manage. d20 Modern lets me do that with Basic Classes, talents, and feats.)

 

[Henry]

I get it. Interesting-cool. I'll have to look up Conan.

--fje

Don't forget that Conan has a Pocket Edition now for $19.95, if you're interested in the rules more than the flavor-stuff.