Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5597733" data-attributes="member: 92305">Interesting. I've never played, or even looked at, the HERO rules. I got the idea while writing in another thread about nonlethal damage.      Keeping track of lethal and nonlethal damage is not a problem. I do it a lot in my current game, and I just use two columns. The lethal damage column goes down as the nonlethal column goes up. The three weapon types vs. armor type is an idea I've always loved in the AD&D 2E game (and, to a certain extent, also in the 1E AD&D game). Those versions of D&D did it with modifiers to the attack throw. I like the differing damage types better. But, if you don't want that granularity with weapon choice (I mean, the spear is one of the most used weapons in human history yet D&D characters hardly use it--this rule could give players a reason to want to pick it), then just set the nonlethal portion of damage once per weapon (not vs. armor type). That way, a weapon like a longsword might do 50% lethal damage while a spear might do 75% lethal damage. (Thus, the spear does 1d6 vs. the Longsword's 1d8, but the spear does more lethal damage because it's a piercing weapon.) As I said. It's a "germ" of an idea. There are many ways to tweak it.     EDIT: In AD&D 2E, a blunt weapon usually had a positive modifier against most common types of armor while the slashing weapon usually had a penalty on the attack. But, slashing weapons usually did more damage. Thus, the fighter had a choice of a blunt weapon that did less damage but hit more often or a slashing weapon that did more damage but was less likely to hit. I've always liked that "choice" in that edition of the game. Fighters didn't automatically go with longswrods when they could. An idea would be to say something like:  All piercing weapons do 25% nonlethal damage.  All bludgeoning weapons do 50% nonlethal damage.  And all slashing weapons do 75% nonlethal damage. This way, the 3.5E character has the same basic choice in weapons as the 2E character did.     2nd EDIT: Again, it's only a germ of an idea. Another way to tweak the idea is to base the damage on the attack throw. An attack that barely hits does 75% nonlethal damage. An attack 5 points over the target number (AC of the foe) does 50% nonlethal damage. And, an attack throw that does 10+ points over the target does 25% nonlethal damage. Criticals always do 100% lethal damage. Just a third thought on how to implement this idea.</blockquote>

Verification