Doing more with damage types

[RangerWickett]

So, in physical combat, you have different types of weapons, different damage types, different amounts of damage, various riders on attacks that hit; you have positioning, and hazardous terrain, and forced movement, and concealment, and cover; you have the ability to use actions to heal, or to disengage, or to dodge, or to try to grapple a foe; people can team up against an enemy, or provide defense for someone to withdraw, or buff an ally.

In psychic combat, I use a power, and you make a saving throw. If you fail, in the entirety of the game's rules there are only a handful of ways to mitigate the effects.

I could see a 'mindscape' style system, where in order to defeat someone with psychic attacks you have to engage in a virtual battle on a psychic plane. But the hurdle there is that you'd have parallel action scenes that might not be able to affect each other.

I almost wonder if a FATE style system is easiest. You've got fungible "fate points" that could work on anything, and you have aspects that you can use either in physical or mental combat to gain a bonus or impose a penalty on an enemy. But that's less compelling to me.

 

[GMMichael]

In psychic combat, I use a power, and you make a saving throw. If you fail, in the entirety of the game's rules there are only a handful of ways to mitigate the effects.

I could see a 'mindscape' style system, where in order to defeat someone with psychic attacks you have to engage in a virtual battle on a psychic plane. But the hurdle there is that you'd have parallel action scenes that might not be able to affect each other.

I almost wonder if a FATE style system is easiest. You've got fungible "fate points" that could work on anything, and you have aspects that you can use either in physical or mental combat to gain a bonus or impose a penalty on an enemy. But that's less compelling to me.

There are only a handful of ways because D&D isn't built for psychic combat. It's not really built for its Social or Exploration pillars either - its DNA is wargame. Physical wargame.

However, parallel actions scenes don't actually slow D&D down: each character's turn can often be considered a parallel action scene. It would be tacked on, but you can easily create Psychic counterparts for each of the physical combat rules.

Fate would probably be a better fit, because the rules are more storytelling-focused, which allows you to get away from D&D's physical world, if needed. Try tacking some Fate onto your D&D, and give each character three psychic "aspects." Blend these with the non-physical abilities, INT, WIS, CHA, and see what happens.

 

[Scott Christian]

If you're looking to get more out of the basic slashing/piercing/bludgeoning damage types, one option would be for different types of armour to be better or worse at dealing with different types of damage. That might make it actually useful to have a variety of armours in the game, rather than people rushing to get the best one in their proficiency bracket as soon as they can afford it.

I won't prove my utter ignorance of the practicalities of medieval armour by suggesting specific examples.

Rolemaster has a few tables it would like you to look at.

Seriously, there were like twenty tables. When we were young and had time, half our session would be flipping back and forth between pages and pages of tables to see what the roll of 77 + modifier - any parry the creature used did on the slashing versus chain armor table. Wait, that guy isn't the one with chain, he had thick furs. Oh need to flip the page...

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I honestly don't think this is a solvable problem, at least without a complete overhaul of the encumbrance rules.

If damage type matters enough to be worth dealing with, then you get the golf bag problem. If it doesn't matter enough to be worth dealing with, then you've added complexity that nobody is interacting with. If the effects are subtle enough to influence tactics only in certain situations, then it slows down combat with its complexity.

Generally speaking, if every attack had a rider effect, that's going to slow down combat significantly, whether or not it has its own save to negate. One of the benefits of using an HP system in the first place is that it's much easier to track than specific effects.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

One thing I have not figured out how to do is make psychic combat more interesting than just rolling some dice and hoping you don't fail your Wis save. There's no, like, tactics to mind control.

each combatatnt could have a Track, and each time they lose a contested check they move down the track. They can use bonus actions to either boost their chances in an opposed check or try to move 1 up the track.

That would feel, to me, like psychic combat is usually described.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Gotta say I don't want all that complication in something as ubiquitous as damage.

What I would be fine with would be giving armor damage types that it is extra defensive against. So, light armor has DR 1, medium has DR 3, and heavy has DR 5, against whatever damage type it's extra defensive against.

Bingo bongo, now it's hard to stab a plate wearer to death with a rapier.

OTOH, i don't want to see adventurer's running around with 17 weapons because of damage type complications.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I do think some of this stuff could be part of subclasses, optional variant character options, etc.

Monks could get a Stance or Form that sits outside of subclass that includes stuff like "Stance of The Enduring Mountain" that gives DR, while "Stance of The Storm's Fury" would give the ability to absorb lightning damage and shoot it out when you use FoB, and animal Stances might do stuff like further increase your speed, give you a climb or swim speed, etc. You'd know 1 at level 1, and gain a new one at level 5, 11, 14, and 17.

I'd put it in place of stunning strike, because stunning strike is both boring and too powerful, meaning it leaves plenty of room for something interesting and that has a bit of a punch.

 

[Tonguez]

Maybe Weapon Attack gets disadvantage due to damage type
Chop (ax) - none
Slash v Leather
Pierce v Mail/SIlk
Bludgeon v Plate