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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 5061400" data-attributes="member: 23240">I'm not sure what is the goal here. In the posts above I see three trends, quite different from each other:- making events in combat simultaneous instead of sequential (or at least create such feeling)- making characters and players active in defense, so it is less "make your actions, then passively wait while others try to harm you"- creating tactical choices between offense and defenseFor the first, LostSoul's idea above seems very good. Declare actions, then roll initiative, then go through several phases for different kinds of actions. It makes combat more chaotic, instead of a chess-like tactical game. Character actions happen at the same time and you don't have to even use something like AoO to discourage shooting or casting in melee. That may be very good if you plan to play without map and miniatures.On the flip side, such combat model may be much harder for the GM to manage. More things happen at the same time, so he has to hold more information in his head, which leads to mistakes. Some kind of diagram and written down actions may be required for fast play.If the active defense is the goal, the easiest way is to just use opposed rolls instead of static defense value. It may be perceived as slowing combat down, as it adds more rolls, but the difference in speed isn't big, while the difference in players' attention is - nobody sits idly through others' turns.If you want to put some resource management, you need to remember that it changes the feel of combat quite drastically. With static defense or just opposed roll, number of enemies does not affect defense capabilities. It fits high-power style, with heroes defeating hordes of monsters. If defending uses up some kind of resource (actions, modifier pool etc.), banding up on someone becomes much more effective and even a strong character will fall when attacked by many. It is much better for a realistic or gritty style.If you want such resource management, leading to tactical decisions, the best approach that fits d20 is, in my opinion, a pool of dice that you use up for actions, both attacks and defenses. You may roll a single die in an action or roll more and take the highest result. A good way of offering players more options in addition to simple attacks and defenses is adding maneuvers, that still use the same base mechanics (take some dice from your pool, opponent does the same, roll as an opposed roll with some modifiers), but allows more interesting things to be done. A few examples:- Total defense: You cannot attack this round. You roll all your dice in every defense and lose only one of them each time.- Stopping hit: You get -5 to your defense. If you're successful, you also hit the attacker.- Feint: This attack deals no damage. If you hit, defender loses an additional die from his pool.</blockquote>

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