I run a heavily modified d20 game, and I've started to overhaul the combat system. What do you folks think of the rough draft below? For context, I use the Buy the Numbers system, which means there are no classes. Players purchase abilities/skills/feats/etc. directly with XP. In addition, I use the Elements of Magic system, but I don't think it will come into play much.
This system is designed to be gritty, with attacks that you can see cleary in your mind's eye. I've also tried to make it as streamlined as possible, taking care not to double count anything that really doesn't need to be double counted (for instance, rolling high on damage vs. rolling high to hit).
Health:
Each limb and the head have three wound "slots". The torso has four. The effects of having a certain number of wounds are described below.
Combat:
You can purchase both a “Base Attack Bonus” and a “Base Defense Bonus” with XP. They cost the same amount.
When someone attacks, the attacker declares what body part he is attacking, then rolls:
BAB + Strength or Dex + any other modifiers (high ground, Wep. Focus, etc.)
The defender rolls:
BAB + Dex + Con + any other modifiers (Dodge, Mobility, etc.)
The difference between the attack and the defense is called "the spread". It can be positive (if the attacker's roll was larger) or negative (if the defender's roll was larger)
If the attacker wins:
Spread Effect
0-4 Close calls: Minor scrapes, bruises, and generally annoying things that will sting later, but have no numeric effect.
5-9 One wound: A good stab to the forearm, a cracked bone, etc.
10-14 Two Wounds: Two stabs to the arm, a very broken bone, really damaged joint, etc.
15-19 Three Wounds: The limb is useless. Shattered bones, flayed muscle, severe blood loss.
20+ Four Wounds: For a limb or head, it's gone, or at least shred to ribbons. For the torso, it's automatic death.
If the defender wins:
Spread Effect
-4 to 0 Close calls: Attacker missed, but they didn't lose their balance or anything.
-9 to -5 Oops: Attacker missed, and the defender can use this to his advantage in some way. Maybe perform a simple action without fear of an attack.
-14 to -10 Ah, crap: Attacker missed, and really messed up. Defender may attempt to trip, disarm, bull rush, or grapple the attacker without the possibility of a return attack if it fails.
-19 to -15 Oh, hell: Attacker missed, and the defender gets any of the special attacks listed above, with a +4 bonus, or an AoO.
-20 & down ****: Attacker missed, and the defender can do even more. Haven't decided what, yet.
Armour gives the defender bonuses to their defense roll. What the exact bonus is depends on the attack type: piercing, slashing, or crushing.
Piercing Slashing Crushing
Naked/Clot 0 0 0
Leather 2 1 2
Std. Leather 2 2 3
Chain 3 5 3
Scale 2 4 7
Plate 5 10 4
As you may have already guessed, this basically translates to armour soaking up wounds. Plate will soak up 2 wounds worth of slashing damage, or one piercing wound, every time. Chain will soak up one. All the others work out to some "percentage" of a wound, even though they will in practice only fully prevent a wound, or not.
These armour stats were made by looking at Wikipedia and using my judgement. If you have reason to think that an armour should have different numbers, let me know! It's still very mutable, at this point.
Obviously, weapons don't always fall nicely into the slashing, piercing, and crushing categories. A lot of this depends on how you use it. For instance, a short sword is designed to be used as a piercing weapon, but you could try slashing with it, if you want, with a penalty to your attack. The longsword can switch between the two, pretty easily. The greatsword is a mix of slashing and crushing, so it averages the two for whatever armour it's attacking.
There's still the same max Dex bonus to your defense roll, just like there's a max Dex bonus to your AC under standard d20.
Sneak attack: For every die of sneak attack damage you purchase, lower the spread needed to deal a wound by one. This cannot get you wounds on a negative spread, but can eventually give you a wound on a spread of 0 (five dice), or two wounds on a spread of 0 (10 dice).
Weapon Specialization: Lower the spread needed to deal a wound with the chosen weapon by one.
Some ramifications of this system:
-If you've got tough skin and bones, you can shrug off blows that a wimp might scream at.
-If you're nimble enough, armour will only slow you down. So don't wear it.
-If you're clumsy enough, armour can only help. Well, except for swimming, climbing, etc.
-If you train at avoiding blows, you'll quickly be better at avoiding them than a peasant wearing full plate.
-If your opponent is wearing full plate, use a mace or a greatsword.
-If your opponent is wearing scale, use a sword
-Arrows are good against anything. Except for when they have cover. Or are next to you. Or grappling you.
-If you're holding a longsword, and your opponent has scale mail, you might want to try slipping the tip into a weak spot. It'll be difficult, but if you do, you'll do well.
-It doesn't matter if you're owned with a longsword or owned with a dagger, you're still owned.
-It doesn't matter if you're owned with a refrigerator or owned with a pencil, you're still owned.
I'm still kicking around how to fit magic into this. Keep in mind that I'm using the Elements of Magic system, which puts a spin on how magic works. Since the vast majority of damaging effects in the system are just elements, I could assign piercing/slashing/crushing categories to the different elements, and make them simple attacks. A magical attack would then be your Dex + how much MP you put into "attacking".
Also, I think it's obvious that the hit location system needs some work. I'd like my players to be able to mix an match armour. Ex. a breastplate, scale greaves, and a chain mail head covering. However, I don't have a good system in mind for how attacking different locations will affect the roll, or if there's the possibility of hitting another body part on a miss. I'd be good to give the defender the option of throwing up an arm to take a blow heading for his head or chest.
Lastly, I think that the options for the defender if the attacker fails may need some sprucing up.
So, thoughts? I hope that this isn't too confusingly presented.
This system is designed to be gritty, with attacks that you can see cleary in your mind's eye. I've also tried to make it as streamlined as possible, taking care not to double count anything that really doesn't need to be double counted (for instance, rolling high on damage vs. rolling high to hit).
Health:
Each limb and the head have three wound "slots". The torso has four. The effects of having a certain number of wounds are described below.
Combat:
You can purchase both a “Base Attack Bonus” and a “Base Defense Bonus” with XP. They cost the same amount.
When someone attacks, the attacker declares what body part he is attacking, then rolls:
BAB + Strength or Dex + any other modifiers (high ground, Wep. Focus, etc.)
The defender rolls:
BAB + Dex + Con + any other modifiers (Dodge, Mobility, etc.)
The difference between the attack and the defense is called "the spread". It can be positive (if the attacker's roll was larger) or negative (if the defender's roll was larger)
If the attacker wins:
Spread Effect
0-4 Close calls: Minor scrapes, bruises, and generally annoying things that will sting later, but have no numeric effect.
5-9 One wound: A good stab to the forearm, a cracked bone, etc.
10-14 Two Wounds: Two stabs to the arm, a very broken bone, really damaged joint, etc.
15-19 Three Wounds: The limb is useless. Shattered bones, flayed muscle, severe blood loss.
20+ Four Wounds: For a limb or head, it's gone, or at least shred to ribbons. For the torso, it's automatic death.
If the defender wins:
Spread Effect
-4 to 0 Close calls: Attacker missed, but they didn't lose their balance or anything.
-9 to -5 Oops: Attacker missed, and the defender can use this to his advantage in some way. Maybe perform a simple action without fear of an attack.
-14 to -10 Ah, crap: Attacker missed, and really messed up. Defender may attempt to trip, disarm, bull rush, or grapple the attacker without the possibility of a return attack if it fails.
-19 to -15 Oh, hell: Attacker missed, and the defender gets any of the special attacks listed above, with a +4 bonus, or an AoO.
-20 & down ****: Attacker missed, and the defender can do even more. Haven't decided what, yet.
Armour gives the defender bonuses to their defense roll. What the exact bonus is depends on the attack type: piercing, slashing, or crushing.
Piercing Slashing Crushing
Naked/Clot 0 0 0
Leather 2 1 2
Std. Leather 2 2 3
Chain 3 5 3
Scale 2 4 7
Plate 5 10 4
As you may have already guessed, this basically translates to armour soaking up wounds. Plate will soak up 2 wounds worth of slashing damage, or one piercing wound, every time. Chain will soak up one. All the others work out to some "percentage" of a wound, even though they will in practice only fully prevent a wound, or not.
These armour stats were made by looking at Wikipedia and using my judgement. If you have reason to think that an armour should have different numbers, let me know! It's still very mutable, at this point.
Obviously, weapons don't always fall nicely into the slashing, piercing, and crushing categories. A lot of this depends on how you use it. For instance, a short sword is designed to be used as a piercing weapon, but you could try slashing with it, if you want, with a penalty to your attack. The longsword can switch between the two, pretty easily. The greatsword is a mix of slashing and crushing, so it averages the two for whatever armour it's attacking.
There's still the same max Dex bonus to your defense roll, just like there's a max Dex bonus to your AC under standard d20.
Sneak attack: For every die of sneak attack damage you purchase, lower the spread needed to deal a wound by one. This cannot get you wounds on a negative spread, but can eventually give you a wound on a spread of 0 (five dice), or two wounds on a spread of 0 (10 dice).
Weapon Specialization: Lower the spread needed to deal a wound with the chosen weapon by one.
Some ramifications of this system:
-If you've got tough skin and bones, you can shrug off blows that a wimp might scream at.
-If you're nimble enough, armour will only slow you down. So don't wear it.
-If you're clumsy enough, armour can only help. Well, except for swimming, climbing, etc.
-If you train at avoiding blows, you'll quickly be better at avoiding them than a peasant wearing full plate.
-If your opponent is wearing full plate, use a mace or a greatsword.
-If your opponent is wearing scale, use a sword
-Arrows are good against anything. Except for when they have cover. Or are next to you. Or grappling you.
-If you're holding a longsword, and your opponent has scale mail, you might want to try slipping the tip into a weak spot. It'll be difficult, but if you do, you'll do well.
-It doesn't matter if you're owned with a longsword or owned with a dagger, you're still owned.
-It doesn't matter if you're owned with a refrigerator or owned with a pencil, you're still owned.
I'm still kicking around how to fit magic into this. Keep in mind that I'm using the Elements of Magic system, which puts a spin on how magic works. Since the vast majority of damaging effects in the system are just elements, I could assign piercing/slashing/crushing categories to the different elements, and make them simple attacks. A magical attack would then be your Dex + how much MP you put into "attacking".
Also, I think it's obvious that the hit location system needs some work. I'd like my players to be able to mix an match armour. Ex. a breastplate, scale greaves, and a chain mail head covering. However, I don't have a good system in mind for how attacking different locations will affect the roll, or if there's the possibility of hitting another body part on a miss. I'd be good to give the defender the option of throwing up an arm to take a blow heading for his head or chest.
Lastly, I think that the options for the defender if the attacker fails may need some sprucing up.
So, thoughts? I hope that this isn't too confusingly presented.
Note, I'm not taking sides here, I'm just intrigued to see if it does or doesn't become more tedious/complicated/slower/etc and if so then by how much.
