orangefruitbat
Adventurer
I've been working on a new set of combat rules that would "overlay" onto the existing rules. The requirements for the new rules are:
1) armor must be ablative
2) combat should be roughly as dangerous as default DnD rules
3) must work with current hitpoints, damage dice, etc.
4) characters become harder to hit as they advance in levels (low magic world)
So this is what I've come up with.
A) Defense Rating. All characters have a Defense Rating (DER), much like in Star Wars. All existing bonuses to AC except for armor bonuses and natural armor bonuses add to your DER. Shields now provide a "shield bonus" which adds to the DERbut not the armor rating.
Heavy Armor reduces one's DER by 2.
Medium Armor reduces one's DER by 1.
Light Armor has no DER penalties.
The max. dex bonus still applies.
B) Armor Rating. All characters have an Armor Rating (AR), which is equal to any Armor+Natural armor they're wearing (i.e., a chain shirt gives a +4 AR). The enchantment bonuses of armor add to the AR. Since natural armor can often be quite high for some monsters, I've been dividing natural armor in 1/2. See below for sample monsters.
C) Hiting and Damage. To hit, you have to beat the DER. Armor is subtracted from damage, to a minimum of 0.
D) Weapons and Armor. Weapons have an Armor Penetration value (AP) equal to the criticial multiplier in the default rules. So, swords have an AP of 2, arrows 3, a war pick 4. This is actually a nice coincidence, as weapons with good penetrating power (small impact area), generally have higher multipliers.
If the attack roll was EVEN, then this value is subtracted from the AR (min 0) before damage is applied.
Eg. Attacker hits with a longsword doing 6 pts of damage on an opponent wearing chainmal.
If the attack roll was even, he does 6-(5-2)=3 damage.
If the attack roll was odd, he does 6-5=1 damage.
The rational for the even/odd split is that otherwise, light armors would be completely useless against weapons. For a more cinemtatic style (aka, chainmail bikinis), always apply the AP value.
Looking at the weapons tables, we find that:
Slashing weapons tend to cause more criticals
Piercing weapons tend to penetrate armor better
Bludgeoning weapons have special effects, which are described below.
E) Criticals. Critical hits do 2x damage, regardless of the normal multiplier (this is to prevent some weapons from being too good). However, if you back up your critical with another critical, the damage multiplier increases by 1. This way, if you roll four 20s in a row, you do 4x damage.
On a critical, the AP value is always applied. Neither the AP value or the AR value are doubled.
F) Wounds. Any critical hit which does at least one point of damage inflicts a wound. Exception, bludgeoning weapons can inflict wounds even if they do zero damage (otherwise the blugeoning weapons really suck.)
Right now, a wound is a default -1 to all rolls and DR until healed. Creatures immune to criticals are also immune to wounding effects. I have plans to develop an optional hit location chart with more interesting effects that depend on the weapon type. Wound effects are not permanent (i.e., no limbs being chopped off), but take longer to heal than regular damage.
G) Death and Dying. Characters don't die until they reach -CON hitpoints. However, if brought below 0, they have need to make fortitude saves or fall unconscious.
They have to also make a reflex save or take a critical wound. I'm still working on critical wounds, but they are nastier than regular wounds (possibility of permanent damage, etc).
The idea behind this rule is to prevent the almost dead and unconscious/fully functional split that occurs now.
H) Healing. Here the names of spells work in my favor.
Cure Light: heals damage
Cure Moderate: heals damage or a wound
Cure serious: Cures damage and a wound
Cure Critical: Can eliminate some of the critical wound effects
Heal: Heals all damage and wounds
Other healing magics and effects (like a paladin's lay hands ability) would work along similar lines.
I) Called Shots.
A character can make a called-shot using a full-round action. Called shots can be made in melee or a ranged attack within 30'
Hitting a specific limb is equivilent to a target 2 size ranks smaller
Hitting a specific joint is equivilent to a target 3 size ranks smaller
Hitting a precise spot is is equivilent to a target 4 size ranks smaller.
You cannot target an area smaller than Fine
eg., Examples against a man-sized opponent
Hitting his weapon arm (tiny): -2 to hit
Hitting the joint between his arm plates: -4 to hit
Stabbing through the visor slot in his helmet: -8 to hit
Generally, joints are protected only 1/2 as well as the rest of the armor. So hitin the arm joint against an opponent in full plate, would reduce the AR to 4.
Stabbing through the visor would reduce the AR to 0.
Common sense should apply here. For example, a stone golem may have no weak spots, and chain mail doesn't really have weaker joints.
J) Sample Monsters
Generally, monsters have a DR equal to a leveled character of similar levels as they have HD.
Excellent: Fey, Vermin
Good: Animals, Beasts, Giants, Humanoids, Shape changers, Outsiders
Fair: Dragons, Magical Beasts, Giants, Abberations, and Elementals
Poor: Undead, Oozes, Plants, Constructs
Armor Ratings
Tiny Creatures: generally have 0 AR (1/10 natural armor)
Small Creatures: generally have 0 AR (1/4 natural armor)
Medium Creatures: generally have low AR (1/2 natural armor)
Large Creatures: generally have medium AR (2/3 natural armor)
Giant Creatures generally have good AR (3/4 natural armor)
Huge and Colossal Creatures generally have good AR (1x natural armor)
Special
Incorporeal creatures typically have no armor
Creature Defence AR Notes
Beholder 15 7
Bugbear 16 3 Leather armor+small shield
Chimera 16 4
Demon
(Retriever) 16 13
Dire Wolf 16 2
Dragon
(adult Blue)17 12
Giant (Fire) 16 10 Chainmail
Grey Ooze 8 0
Griffon 16 4
Huge Water
Elemental 22 9
Ogre 12 6 Hide armor
Skeleton 13 1 Immunities are applied after AR
Spectre 21 0 incorporeal
Stirge 19 0
Umb. Hulk 16 5 Rounded up due to heavy carpace
K) Misc.
AR and DR (damage reduction) are transparent to each other. So, an outsider with 10/+1 DR could wear a chain shirt for 4 AR. Subtract AR first, before DR.
Spells, fire, cold, electricity normally ignore AR.
Touch attacks and ranged touch attacks have to beat the DER, but ignore AR. However, touch and ranged touch attacks also ignore shield bonuses.
--------------------------------------
I'm still working out the kinks. Comments, concerns, suggestions, or a cool name for the rules would be appreciated.
1) armor must be ablative
2) combat should be roughly as dangerous as default DnD rules
3) must work with current hitpoints, damage dice, etc.
4) characters become harder to hit as they advance in levels (low magic world)
So this is what I've come up with.
A) Defense Rating. All characters have a Defense Rating (DER), much like in Star Wars. All existing bonuses to AC except for armor bonuses and natural armor bonuses add to your DER. Shields now provide a "shield bonus" which adds to the DERbut not the armor rating.
Heavy Armor reduces one's DER by 2.
Medium Armor reduces one's DER by 1.
Light Armor has no DER penalties.
The max. dex bonus still applies.
B) Armor Rating. All characters have an Armor Rating (AR), which is equal to any Armor+Natural armor they're wearing (i.e., a chain shirt gives a +4 AR). The enchantment bonuses of armor add to the AR. Since natural armor can often be quite high for some monsters, I've been dividing natural armor in 1/2. See below for sample monsters.
C) Hiting and Damage. To hit, you have to beat the DER. Armor is subtracted from damage, to a minimum of 0.
D) Weapons and Armor. Weapons have an Armor Penetration value (AP) equal to the criticial multiplier in the default rules. So, swords have an AP of 2, arrows 3, a war pick 4. This is actually a nice coincidence, as weapons with good penetrating power (small impact area), generally have higher multipliers.
If the attack roll was EVEN, then this value is subtracted from the AR (min 0) before damage is applied.
Eg. Attacker hits with a longsword doing 6 pts of damage on an opponent wearing chainmal.
If the attack roll was even, he does 6-(5-2)=3 damage.
If the attack roll was odd, he does 6-5=1 damage.
The rational for the even/odd split is that otherwise, light armors would be completely useless against weapons. For a more cinemtatic style (aka, chainmail bikinis), always apply the AP value.
Looking at the weapons tables, we find that:
Slashing weapons tend to cause more criticals
Piercing weapons tend to penetrate armor better
Bludgeoning weapons have special effects, which are described below.
E) Criticals. Critical hits do 2x damage, regardless of the normal multiplier (this is to prevent some weapons from being too good). However, if you back up your critical with another critical, the damage multiplier increases by 1. This way, if you roll four 20s in a row, you do 4x damage.
On a critical, the AP value is always applied. Neither the AP value or the AR value are doubled.
F) Wounds. Any critical hit which does at least one point of damage inflicts a wound. Exception, bludgeoning weapons can inflict wounds even if they do zero damage (otherwise the blugeoning weapons really suck.)
Right now, a wound is a default -1 to all rolls and DR until healed. Creatures immune to criticals are also immune to wounding effects. I have plans to develop an optional hit location chart with more interesting effects that depend on the weapon type. Wound effects are not permanent (i.e., no limbs being chopped off), but take longer to heal than regular damage.
G) Death and Dying. Characters don't die until they reach -CON hitpoints. However, if brought below 0, they have need to make fortitude saves or fall unconscious.
They have to also make a reflex save or take a critical wound. I'm still working on critical wounds, but they are nastier than regular wounds (possibility of permanent damage, etc).
The idea behind this rule is to prevent the almost dead and unconscious/fully functional split that occurs now.
H) Healing. Here the names of spells work in my favor.
Cure Light: heals damage
Cure Moderate: heals damage or a wound
Cure serious: Cures damage and a wound
Cure Critical: Can eliminate some of the critical wound effects
Heal: Heals all damage and wounds
Other healing magics and effects (like a paladin's lay hands ability) would work along similar lines.
I) Called Shots.
A character can make a called-shot using a full-round action. Called shots can be made in melee or a ranged attack within 30'
Hitting a specific limb is equivilent to a target 2 size ranks smaller
Hitting a specific joint is equivilent to a target 3 size ranks smaller
Hitting a precise spot is is equivilent to a target 4 size ranks smaller.
You cannot target an area smaller than Fine
eg., Examples against a man-sized opponent
Hitting his weapon arm (tiny): -2 to hit
Hitting the joint between his arm plates: -4 to hit
Stabbing through the visor slot in his helmet: -8 to hit
Generally, joints are protected only 1/2 as well as the rest of the armor. So hitin the arm joint against an opponent in full plate, would reduce the AR to 4.
Stabbing through the visor would reduce the AR to 0.
Common sense should apply here. For example, a stone golem may have no weak spots, and chain mail doesn't really have weaker joints.
J) Sample Monsters
Generally, monsters have a DR equal to a leveled character of similar levels as they have HD.
Excellent: Fey, Vermin
Good: Animals, Beasts, Giants, Humanoids, Shape changers, Outsiders
Fair: Dragons, Magical Beasts, Giants, Abberations, and Elementals
Poor: Undead, Oozes, Plants, Constructs
Armor Ratings
Tiny Creatures: generally have 0 AR (1/10 natural armor)
Small Creatures: generally have 0 AR (1/4 natural armor)
Medium Creatures: generally have low AR (1/2 natural armor)
Large Creatures: generally have medium AR (2/3 natural armor)
Giant Creatures generally have good AR (3/4 natural armor)
Huge and Colossal Creatures generally have good AR (1x natural armor)
Special
Incorporeal creatures typically have no armor
Creature Defence AR Notes
Beholder 15 7
Bugbear 16 3 Leather armor+small shield
Chimera 16 4
Demon
(Retriever) 16 13
Dire Wolf 16 2
Dragon
(adult Blue)17 12
Giant (Fire) 16 10 Chainmail
Grey Ooze 8 0
Griffon 16 4
Huge Water
Elemental 22 9
Ogre 12 6 Hide armor
Skeleton 13 1 Immunities are applied after AR
Spectre 21 0 incorporeal
Stirge 19 0
Umb. Hulk 16 5 Rounded up due to heavy carpace
K) Misc.
AR and DR (damage reduction) are transparent to each other. So, an outsider with 10/+1 DR could wear a chain shirt for 4 AR. Subtract AR first, before DR.
Spells, fire, cold, electricity normally ignore AR.
Touch attacks and ranged touch attacks have to beat the DER, but ignore AR. However, touch and ranged touch attacks also ignore shield bonuses.
--------------------------------------
I'm still working out the kinks. Comments, concerns, suggestions, or a cool name for the rules would be appreciated.
