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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DonAdam" data-source="post: 1467725" data-attributes="member: 2446">These rules are super smooth. And yes, Ken is quite funny.The rules are especially good using the standard d20 rules as a base. That said, I think Conan has the best take on defense (parry and dodge being two separate options); I'm undecided about which works better for armor as DR (Conan gives armor penetration and lets finesse weapons sometimes bypass armor, Ken's system adds damage for better attack rolls). I would lean towards Ken's system as more elegant because its faster and allows bypassing armor at multiple levels. Ken's life meter is also unqualifiedly superior to hit points for the style.I love associating special maneuvers with crits, makes them a fun element of the game without the constant headache of them being tried every turn.Another benefit of this system: since most tough characters will have some amount of DR (Soak), you do away with what I consider a silly paradigm, that the guy who has been punched alot (subdual damage) can get pricked with a knife and fall unconscious. It doesn't come up that often, but it has become an issue with things like armor as damage conversion and Green Ronin's psychic's handbook (a whole class of adventurers that ALWAYS gets knocked unconscious rather than killed from a sword blow... bizarre). Because of the soak, they only relate on substantial hits (as a side note, in the regular hit point system, I've come to the conclusion that real damage should work like real healing and also convert a like amount of subdual damage to real damage).I think the suggestion (to help small characters) to switch Dex to the to-hit stat is fine, but I think it goes over the top with weapon finesse. Because dex is adding to hit and damage, and when you beat defense you add that much to damage, you're effectively adding twice your dex to damage in addition to adding it to hit and to AC. That might make dex the uber stat++. Maybe have weapon finesse make armor penetration easier?</blockquote>

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