From Stone To Steel - Variant Rule Questions

[Azure Trance]

I'm afraid GenCon isn't for me this year, though I would've loved to shake your hand and gush some more . I made a mistake in my posting: it doesn't have to surpass armors hardness - whoops. I take that you don't use variant rules #1 and #2 yourself though?

[reflecting]
Looking at it some more (and reading for what appears to be the first time "these rules may not all be compatible"), I can see how 1 + 2 and 3 aren't quite compatible without some modification. If you hit someone, a high DR will likely result in you doing little if any damage. OTOH if you miss and strike his armor, you'll do (likely more) subdual damage. Really, it would be either pick one way of going at it (1 & 2) or the other (3). I like the blunt force rules a lot better, especially since it could still allow for someone in AC +4 to be hurt with a dagger.
[/reflecting]

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

I got this book a few days ago, and I hafta say it's really, really good. It was really cool looking through the Chinese section and finding the exact weapons of several Three Kingdoms character (let's see, I found Lu Bu's, Guan Yu's, Sun Shang Xiang's (that being her name in Dynasty Warriors, in the book it's Sun Ren or just Lady Sun), and I think Zhang Fei's. Nice. And I gotta say, it's nice seeing a house rule I used in print (the AC=DR thing). Just overall the book's really good, it's really invigorated a few campaign settings I have percolating in my head...

 

[Azure Trance]

Are there any loopholes for your rules ADG, or are daggers never any good against chainmail (or long swords against platemail)?

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Are there any loopholes for your rules ADG, or are daggers never any good against chainmail (or long swords against platemail)?

I use my judgement a lot with this rule. Based on positioning of the combatants, etc. sometimes those weapons could still effect an armored combatant. Plus, in those examples, I would say something like chain doesn't protect to its full ability against something like a dagger - yeah, the differing AC vs. different weapon types is a pretty 2e concept, but it works. To further that, people trained extensively with the weapon can bypass the DR, too. IE, an assassin is gonna know to go for the unarmored spots with his knife.

 

[Azure Trance]

Found a feat which looked a bit unusual. Is this overpowered as the way I'm perceiving it? On p. 258:

Advanced Dodge
Pre Req: Alertness, Dodge
Benefit: Any person trained with adv. dodge may use their entire dex bonus +1 as a dodge bonus against attacks from a single or multiple specified opponents (+1 to him, +2 to her, etc).

So does that mean a fighter now has his Dex bonus to AC and his (Dex bonus + 1) as a dodge bonus to AC? Or, milking it twice?

 

[Azure Trance]

And:

Off Hand Parry Feat. Er. Is the example wrong? An offhand weapon with two weapon fighting isn't -6, it's -4. so the AC bonus should be +3.

 

[Havilor]

Regular dodge allowed an extra +1 against a single combatant.

Advanced dodge is intended to allow you a more substantial bonus against a single combatant, or allow you to divide up this bonus between multiple combatants. It does, effectively, allow you to use your dex bonus for AC and for dodging (milking it twice, as stated), but since you're using a feat slot for this, and it requires other feats previous, I see this not unbalanced.

An off hand weapon with the two weapon fighting feat is generally -8. However, if the off hand weapon is light (as any parrying dagger would be) then the penalty is -6.

Of course, adding ambidexterity and/or advanced two weapon fighting would likely help you hit that +5 deflection bonus maximum much faster.

 

[Azure Trance]

Thanks for replying - especially so quickly! I'm not really bothered by the feats but I just wasn't sure if I was interpreting them correctly.

Those caught my eye since I had an idea of a duelist PrC NPC who wields two weapons - a dagger and a sword breaker. Most of the time you hear duelist you think of fencing, but I wanted this to be a play off that. No frilly, unneeded moves with a long swords. A business looking sword breaker to quickly sunder your weapon, and a potent dagger to stab your now defenseless character with.

In any event: Have you seen the 3.5 rules for sundering yet? What do you think of the hit points they now give for weapon types (two handed haft, handed metal haft, etc)? It certainly does add variety when sundering a Great Axe is 10 times easier then sundering a Heavy Mace. Do you think all wood hafted weapons should be much weaker, in contrast to your 3.0 rules?

 

[Azure Trance]

Quack.

 

[Havilor]

I picked up the 3.5 books at GenCon and am going over then. Once I've had a chance to absorb them, I'll be in a better place to give my opinion. As for wooden hafted weapons, that weakness was there for 3.0 as well, if you read the rules very carefully.