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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5554363" data-attributes="member: 92305">Nice comments.  Thanks everyone.  I'm checking out the suggestions.  Please, keep 'em coming. In the mean time, I'm also considering two simple combat maneuvers that I've been tooling around with for a while, making different versions (haven't implemented them in the game yet). One big difference in the Conan RPG and normal 3.0/3.5 D&D is that the Conan game is rife with combat maneuvers.  There's not a maneuver for everything you want to do, but there are a mucho, buncho, whole hell of a lot of 'em. They're very neat because they act as a type of Feat that every character can access when needed.  Most combat maneuvers are keyed to a situation.  For example, if you roll an attack that exactly equals your foe's parry, then your weapons are locked together, begining a duel of STR ratings, trying to push each other back. CM's make combat very fun.  And, remember, there ain't a whole lot of magic in Conan, so many CMs take the place of spells like Bless and Protection From Evil. What there is a lack of, though, are movement related CMs.  Oh, there are umpteen different charge variations, to be sure.  But there's not a heck of a lot of mechanical reasons to move around your foe in combat as there is in real life. This is what I'd like to see put into the game.  We've got the five foot step to work with.  I'd like to have some uses for it that mechanically benefit the combat participants. The two maneuvers that I've been contemplating are Circle Step and Give Ground.  With Circle Step, a character with initiative must make his attack then use is 5' step to move into an adjacent square of his enemy, either right or left.  This simulates the attacker circling around his foe trying to avoid being hit, all the while looking for an opening in his opponent's defenses.  The foe gets a free action to maintain facing with the character (that way, a player won't use the maneuver to gain a flank bonus), but the character gets a +1 to his Dodge defense (not his Parry defense). With the Give Ground maneuver, I envision a character attacking then using his 5' step to retreat away from contact with the foe's square.  There's a -1 penalty on the attack.  The foe can then take a 5' step on his turn and attack as normal (taking a 5' step does not effect Full Attacks).  If the original character who gave ground is hit, then 1 point of damage is soaked up by the character as he gave ground, stealing some of the momentum and energy from his enemy's attack.  It's only 1 point of damage, but over a combat, it can add up! And, both of these maneuvers make the figures on the battlegrid move while the players are motivated to use the movements for the mechanical benefits. I need to put some more thought into these two maneuvers, I know.  I'm especially not completely happy with the Give Ground maneuver.  But, that's where my thinking is right now. I'd love to find a d20/OGL book that adds a few movement-oriented combat manevuers.  I'll check out Experimental Might II. It seems promising.</blockquote>

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