RangerWickett
Legend
After the discussions about how to design fighters, I wanted to share an idea I had. Now, I know this is hardly a simple, 1e-style system where you just swing a weapon and hurt a monster, but I think it would be possible to create a rules module for 5e that would give players a way to make martial characters with the same breadth of options as spellcasters.
Instead of just making one attack against one enemy, why not have a ruleset that allows the following:
The archer fires a volley of arrows with such force that they hit everyone in a line, or they arc and pepper a small area.
The fighter sprints and just rampages through a horde of enemies.
The knight spurs his mount to trample over everyone he moves through or adjacent to, without provoking OAs.
The thief climbs up a dinosaur and rides behind its head as he tries to gouge its eyes out.
High-level warriors do even crazier stuff, like stomp the ground, create a crack that runs to your enemy and knocks him down.
Yell so loudly your enemies are dazed.
Block an incoming spell; cut or shoot an incoming fireball bead in half.
Stick your weapon in an enemy and leave it there.
The swashbuckler chucks a knife up into the rigging, killing a sniper in the crows nest, who falls out and tangles in a rope on the way down, letting the swashbuckler grab the other end of the rope which is threaded through a pulley, so as the knifed sniper plummets to the ground the swashbuckler hurtles into the air, taking him up to the rigging, where he slashes free the sail and beam and rides the huge mass of wood and canvas down as it smothers and crushes half the ship's deck.
While this sounds like it would need a lot of DM fiat, you could make it easy to use with the right mechanical framework.
HUMV
In this system every combat location should have ratings of 0 to 5 for Hostility, Utility, Mobility, and Visibility -- the HUMV system. Certain character abilities are dependent on an environment that is sufficiently dangerous, or full of items that can be manipulated, or conducive to swift movement, or full of hiding places. If an encounter spans several distinct locations, each location should have its own HUMV rating.
These ratings should be based on the description of the scene, but when you map the location don't try to present everything in the area. Instead, the map is a terrain guideline, and the HUMV ratings give the PCs and their foes options to flesh out that area with spontaneous detail.
Any PC could use this system, but martial characters could choose to specialize in stunts, letting them deal more damage, or succeed skill checks without having to roll.
Hostility is how passively dangerous a location is, perhaps due to sharp rocks, sheer falls, churning gears, or rivers of lava. When an attack moves an enemy in a hostile environment, the attacker can describe a hazard, and then the enemy must make a skill check to avoid taking damage.
Hostility 1 might do something like d8 damage. Hostility 2 might be 2d8. Hostility 3-5 could be 3-5d8. (This is assuming that HP are low-ish, like 1e, so 5d8 would be a lot for even a high-level enemy.)
Utility is how easily a location can be used as a weapon, such as by smashing someone with a chair, dropping a chandelier, unleashing a rockslide, or setting off a pillar covered in explosive runes. A character can spend an action and make a skill check to deal damage to an enemy through clever use of nearby tools.
As with Hostility, Utility-based attacks would deal from 1d8 to 5d8 damage. You might be able to trade a die of damage to increase the area of effect.
Mobility is how easy it is to move faster than normal foot speed, and to bypass otherwise impassable obstacles, such as by scurrying up vines, swinging from rigging, or teleporting through spatial rifts in a time-ravaged apocalyptic wasteland. A character can make a skill check to move faster, based on the location's mobility rating.
Mobility 1 might let you make a skill check to avoid difficult terrain or get an extra bit of speed. Mobility 2 might let you fly horizontally a short distance (i.e., swing on a rope) or climb at full speed. Mobility 3 would be that, but faster, or without provoking OAs. 4 would be vertical flight, and 5 might be teleportation.
Visibility is how clear the sight lines are. Stealth checks take a penalty based on a location's visibility, but successful Stealth checks let an attacker deal extra damage on a surprised foe.
The full rules would probably have a variety of types of hostility etc., so like, you could tag a room with Hostility 3 fire and spikes, Utility 1 discarded weapons, Mobility 2 dangling chains, and Visibility 0 blinding smoke.
Or a ship might have Hostility 1 (falling), Utility 3 (rigging and sails), Mobility 3 (rigging and sails), Visibility 3.
So our dashing hero could say, "I'm spending a standard action to attack this crowd around me using the terrain. It's got utility 3, so I could deal 3d8 damage to one target, or 1d8 to the whole crowd. But I don't want to provoke opportunity attacks from the people around me, so I'm going to spend my move action to get up into the rigging first.
"The Mobility here is 3, so if I can succeed an Acrobatics check, I can climb without provoking opportunity attacks. So the plan is, I cut a rope to drop a weight, and ride the other end of the rope up into the rigging, then collapse a yard and sail on the enemies below."
To which the GM replies, "There's a guy up in the crows nest, so he'll still be able to make an opportunity attack."
And the player responds, "This place has Hostility 1? Eh, that's not much, but it lets me force people I hit to make a save or else fall. And I have this fighter power, Dagger Flick, which lets me chuck a dagger as a minor action. So okay, new plan. Flick the dagger at the guy, and try to knock him out of the crows nest."
GM says, "He's a minion, so sure, I'll give it to you."
"Okay, so I want him to fall and be the counterweight on the rope I ride up. Can I get a bonus on my Acrobatics check?"
And then boom, he's killed a whole bunch of people in one round. If he somehow failed his check, he'd still be able to pull it off, but he'd provoke some opportunity attacks, or would deal less damage.
In my ideal of the system, a wizard could try all that too, but he'd have less of a chance, so he probably just fireballs. And the traditional fighter would just have higher AC and maybe be able to whirlwind attack. But the swashbuckling fighter can pull of the stunt easily.
Yes, it's more complicated, but not terribly so. And some players would love having rules that give them structure and effectively reward them for being creative.
Well, this is my twelve thousandth post. What do you think?
Instead of just making one attack against one enemy, why not have a ruleset that allows the following:
The archer fires a volley of arrows with such force that they hit everyone in a line, or they arc and pepper a small area.
The fighter sprints and just rampages through a horde of enemies.
The knight spurs his mount to trample over everyone he moves through or adjacent to, without provoking OAs.
The thief climbs up a dinosaur and rides behind its head as he tries to gouge its eyes out.
High-level warriors do even crazier stuff, like stomp the ground, create a crack that runs to your enemy and knocks him down.
Yell so loudly your enemies are dazed.
Block an incoming spell; cut or shoot an incoming fireball bead in half.
Stick your weapon in an enemy and leave it there.
The swashbuckler chucks a knife up into the rigging, killing a sniper in the crows nest, who falls out and tangles in a rope on the way down, letting the swashbuckler grab the other end of the rope which is threaded through a pulley, so as the knifed sniper plummets to the ground the swashbuckler hurtles into the air, taking him up to the rigging, where he slashes free the sail and beam and rides the huge mass of wood and canvas down as it smothers and crushes half the ship's deck.
While this sounds like it would need a lot of DM fiat, you could make it easy to use with the right mechanical framework.
HUMV
In this system every combat location should have ratings of 0 to 5 for Hostility, Utility, Mobility, and Visibility -- the HUMV system. Certain character abilities are dependent on an environment that is sufficiently dangerous, or full of items that can be manipulated, or conducive to swift movement, or full of hiding places. If an encounter spans several distinct locations, each location should have its own HUMV rating.
These ratings should be based on the description of the scene, but when you map the location don't try to present everything in the area. Instead, the map is a terrain guideline, and the HUMV ratings give the PCs and their foes options to flesh out that area with spontaneous detail.
Any PC could use this system, but martial characters could choose to specialize in stunts, letting them deal more damage, or succeed skill checks without having to roll.
Hostility is how passively dangerous a location is, perhaps due to sharp rocks, sheer falls, churning gears, or rivers of lava. When an attack moves an enemy in a hostile environment, the attacker can describe a hazard, and then the enemy must make a skill check to avoid taking damage.
Hostility 1 might do something like d8 damage. Hostility 2 might be 2d8. Hostility 3-5 could be 3-5d8. (This is assuming that HP are low-ish, like 1e, so 5d8 would be a lot for even a high-level enemy.)
Utility is how easily a location can be used as a weapon, such as by smashing someone with a chair, dropping a chandelier, unleashing a rockslide, or setting off a pillar covered in explosive runes. A character can spend an action and make a skill check to deal damage to an enemy through clever use of nearby tools.
As with Hostility, Utility-based attacks would deal from 1d8 to 5d8 damage. You might be able to trade a die of damage to increase the area of effect.
Mobility is how easy it is to move faster than normal foot speed, and to bypass otherwise impassable obstacles, such as by scurrying up vines, swinging from rigging, or teleporting through spatial rifts in a time-ravaged apocalyptic wasteland. A character can make a skill check to move faster, based on the location's mobility rating.
Mobility 1 might let you make a skill check to avoid difficult terrain or get an extra bit of speed. Mobility 2 might let you fly horizontally a short distance (i.e., swing on a rope) or climb at full speed. Mobility 3 would be that, but faster, or without provoking OAs. 4 would be vertical flight, and 5 might be teleportation.
Visibility is how clear the sight lines are. Stealth checks take a penalty based on a location's visibility, but successful Stealth checks let an attacker deal extra damage on a surprised foe.
The full rules would probably have a variety of types of hostility etc., so like, you could tag a room with Hostility 3 fire and spikes, Utility 1 discarded weapons, Mobility 2 dangling chains, and Visibility 0 blinding smoke.
Or a ship might have Hostility 1 (falling), Utility 3 (rigging and sails), Mobility 3 (rigging and sails), Visibility 3.
So our dashing hero could say, "I'm spending a standard action to attack this crowd around me using the terrain. It's got utility 3, so I could deal 3d8 damage to one target, or 1d8 to the whole crowd. But I don't want to provoke opportunity attacks from the people around me, so I'm going to spend my move action to get up into the rigging first.
"The Mobility here is 3, so if I can succeed an Acrobatics check, I can climb without provoking opportunity attacks. So the plan is, I cut a rope to drop a weight, and ride the other end of the rope up into the rigging, then collapse a yard and sail on the enemies below."
To which the GM replies, "There's a guy up in the crows nest, so he'll still be able to make an opportunity attack."
And the player responds, "This place has Hostility 1? Eh, that's not much, but it lets me force people I hit to make a save or else fall. And I have this fighter power, Dagger Flick, which lets me chuck a dagger as a minor action. So okay, new plan. Flick the dagger at the guy, and try to knock him out of the crows nest."
GM says, "He's a minion, so sure, I'll give it to you."
"Okay, so I want him to fall and be the counterweight on the rope I ride up. Can I get a bonus on my Acrobatics check?"
And then boom, he's killed a whole bunch of people in one round. If he somehow failed his check, he'd still be able to pull it off, but he'd provoke some opportunity attacks, or would deal less damage.
In my ideal of the system, a wizard could try all that too, but he'd have less of a chance, so he probably just fireballs. And the traditional fighter would just have higher AC and maybe be able to whirlwind attack. But the swashbuckling fighter can pull of the stunt easily.
Yes, it's more complicated, but not terribly so. And some players would love having rules that give them structure and effectively reward them for being creative.
Well, this is my twelve thousandth post. What do you think?
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