RangerWickett
Legend
I'm watching a play-through of the new Final Fantasy VII, and almost every monster has some vulnerability to a damage type, or some resistance. Tons of video games do it, of course.
I kind of wish in 6th edition would try something along those lines for its monster design, and give players more ways to deal a variety of damage types. It'd be a small thing, but would reward good game play.
Now, in FF7 it's mostly just 'extra damage' or 'less damage,' but I think we can spruce things up a bit so the effects are more flavorful and narrative. Extra damage isn't interesting. That's true about critical hits too.
Damage Type Brainstorm
We have three weapon damage types - bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing.
We have seven energy damage types - acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic.
Changes. I think 'radiant' should just be force, and thunder should just be bludgeoning. Some attacks might have a rider of 'radiant' or 'wind,' but those aren't damage types.
Naturally, if we're changing how damage works, we'd have to adjust how much damage things do, and the HP creatures have, and probably other stuff.
Weapon Damages. I'm imagining having three types of critical hits. Instead of extra HP damage, a crit might cause bleed, might injure a random body part, or might daze. When you hit with a weapon, you choose one effect..
Energy Damages. I'm thinking different energy types would require a save to avoid a rider effect. If you're vulnerable, maybe you auto-fail.
Acid does ongoing damage. Dex save to avoid.
Cold traps things in ice, slowing (or potentially immobilizing). Str save to break out.
Fire does ongoing damage. Dex save to avoid. (I'm not sure how to mechanically differentiate it from fire without requiring fiddly rules.)
Force can hurt insubstantial creatures.
Lightning can slow or immobilize. Con save to break out.
Necrotic can inflict wounds. Con save to avoid.
Poison does ongoing damage. Con save to avoid.
Psychic can daze. Wis save to avoid.
Radiant could blind (Dex save to look away? or Con save to have really strong eyeballs?) probably would do stuff like make shadow monsters go from insubstantial to substantial so the rest of the team can harm them.
Wind would let you shove the target, but with flying creatures it would be really good at knocking them from the sky.
Monster Design Bonus Section
D&D 5e benefits I think from the ease and speed of play, though it doesn't have a ton of tactical depth. I wonder if it'd be possible if we could just design monsters to reward changing tactics.
I recall toward the tail end of 3e there was a monster manual entry for a weird nautilus looking thing that required you to break through its shell (which was magic resistant), to release its inner spirit (which was physical resistant). It was a small thing, but I liked it.
More recently, Monster Hunter and Horizon Zero Dawn have built big monsters where you don't want to just shoot center body mass and grind down HP. You want to target specific body parts to remove its offensive or defensive abilities.
Now of course, that only matters if characters have access to a variety of attack types, and there is some trade-off between different tactics. If you can always do a called shot, well, you'll always do it. But if it takes some small amount of set-up, or there's an opportunity cost, then you're doing some on-the-fly assessment, and feel good if you pick the right tactic.
I prefer that level of cognitive load in my games, rather than the 3.5 style of "have I added all the bonuses properly, and am I rolling enough dice?"
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For example, imagine a classic fight against a red dragon. It's flying around, breathing fire, occasionally picking up a boulder and dropping it on you. A spellcaster could use cold spells to suppress its fire breath, and to slow it down so it can't stay in the air. A wind spell might just knock it out of the sky. An archer could used some sort of called shot to try to injure its wing. Once it's on the ground, its tactics change. It pins you to the ground with a foreclaw, and if you're still stuck next turn it'll bite and rip a limb off. It'll maybe try to swallow you whole, or use a tail slam to send you flying into a dangerous part of the map. But it's big, so certain attacks will be less effective if there's cover or columns or whatever.
I kind of wish in 6th edition would try something along those lines for its monster design, and give players more ways to deal a variety of damage types. It'd be a small thing, but would reward good game play.
Now, in FF7 it's mostly just 'extra damage' or 'less damage,' but I think we can spruce things up a bit so the effects are more flavorful and narrative. Extra damage isn't interesting. That's true about critical hits too.
Damage Type Brainstorm
We have three weapon damage types - bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing.
We have seven energy damage types - acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic.
Changes. I think 'radiant' should just be force, and thunder should just be bludgeoning. Some attacks might have a rider of 'radiant' or 'wind,' but those aren't damage types.
Naturally, if we're changing how damage works, we'd have to adjust how much damage things do, and the HP creatures have, and probably other stuff.
Weapon Damages. I'm imagining having three types of critical hits. Instead of extra HP damage, a crit might cause bleed, might injure a random body part, or might daze. When you hit with a weapon, you choose one effect..
- Bludgeoning weapons are good at dazing (which makes it hard for you to do special attacks).
- Piercing weapons create a bleed effect that's harder to end.
- Slashing weapons give you better control over which body part you wound.
Energy Damages. I'm thinking different energy types would require a save to avoid a rider effect. If you're vulnerable, maybe you auto-fail.
Acid does ongoing damage. Dex save to avoid.
Cold traps things in ice, slowing (or potentially immobilizing). Str save to break out.
Fire does ongoing damage. Dex save to avoid. (I'm not sure how to mechanically differentiate it from fire without requiring fiddly rules.)
Force can hurt insubstantial creatures.
Lightning can slow or immobilize. Con save to break out.
Necrotic can inflict wounds. Con save to avoid.
Poison does ongoing damage. Con save to avoid.
Psychic can daze. Wis save to avoid.
Radiant could blind (Dex save to look away? or Con save to have really strong eyeballs?) probably would do stuff like make shadow monsters go from insubstantial to substantial so the rest of the team can harm them.
Wind would let you shove the target, but with flying creatures it would be really good at knocking them from the sky.
Monster Design Bonus Section
D&D 5e benefits I think from the ease and speed of play, though it doesn't have a ton of tactical depth. I wonder if it'd be possible if we could just design monsters to reward changing tactics.
I recall toward the tail end of 3e there was a monster manual entry for a weird nautilus looking thing that required you to break through its shell (which was magic resistant), to release its inner spirit (which was physical resistant). It was a small thing, but I liked it.
More recently, Monster Hunter and Horizon Zero Dawn have built big monsters where you don't want to just shoot center body mass and grind down HP. You want to target specific body parts to remove its offensive or defensive abilities.
Now of course, that only matters if characters have access to a variety of attack types, and there is some trade-off between different tactics. If you can always do a called shot, well, you'll always do it. But if it takes some small amount of set-up, or there's an opportunity cost, then you're doing some on-the-fly assessment, and feel good if you pick the right tactic.
I prefer that level of cognitive load in my games, rather than the 3.5 style of "have I added all the bonuses properly, and am I rolling enough dice?"
---
For example, imagine a classic fight against a red dragon. It's flying around, breathing fire, occasionally picking up a boulder and dropping it on you. A spellcaster could use cold spells to suppress its fire breath, and to slow it down so it can't stay in the air. A wind spell might just knock it out of the sky. An archer could used some sort of called shot to try to injure its wing. Once it's on the ground, its tactics change. It pins you to the ground with a foreclaw, and if you're still stuck next turn it'll bite and rip a limb off. It'll maybe try to swallow you whole, or use a tail slam to send you flying into a dangerous part of the map. But it's big, so certain attacks will be less effective if there's cover or columns or whatever.
