Parry Variant

[malebode]

Greetings, all. I have worked up a possible variant to incorporate parrying into active defense. Basically, the change involves four defense methods: blocking with a shield; parrying with a weapon; dodging out of the way; armor. I filched the idea from Swords & Sorcery's Advanced Player's Guide. My changes basically add the parry rules that are included in the attachment because I was dissatisfied with their implementation. It may be quite complex in the case of two-weapon fighting, but there already is a great deal of added complexity with off-hand penalties and strength modifiers to damage. This variant represents something at least close to what I hope to use in the future. If anyone is willing to playtest it, I'd be happy to hear feedback. The basic framework of logic I used to develop this was based on the following assumptions: 1) You should be able to parry about the same number of times per round with a weapon as you can attack with it, and not have to "sacrifice" attacks in order to parry; 2) Using a shield and attacking should incur some kind of penalty for using both hands; 3) Dual weapon wielders should not be at a severe disadvantage to sword plus shield wielders in defense. This is my attempt at a balanced and more realistic simulation of defense in combat. Let me know what you think.

Some notes:
1) Base defense bonus is probably based on the old Grim 'n' Gritty system. I'll include the bonuses in the next revision.
2) Armor as DR is quoted in the variant, but the rules could be just as easily used for an extra "free" roll for armor on any attack, or even just a standard AC (with no dex).
3) I need to do some work on what AC bonuses apply to which defense. That should be relatively straightforward. I'll get to it.

 

[malebode]

Bump

 

[malebode]

<WHINE>Aw, c'mon! I went to the effort of making a spreadsheet and everything. Somebody reply with something; even if only to say, "That'll never work", "You broke d20", or "It's too hard". Jeez!</WHINE>

Now that I've got that whining out of my system, I'll once again ask if anyone has any opinion, good or bad, about this change.

 

[ocircuit82]

Amazing.. You are the only other person I have found who likes the idea of DIFFERENT types of active defense..
I love the idea of chosing your own defense, my players already enjoy the varient rule of defensive roll [AC is a d20 not take 10] I think it taking it up a notch is a natural progression.

I think you have done some serious thinking about this, however [depending on your PC's] this may slow down your combat a lot! Not that that is such a bad thing, as I love d20 just for the combat..

I think that having armour as an active defense is not a good idea. It leaves too much choice on how to defend yourself.
I like your tables on "Blocking Circumstance Modifiers" however this is once again maybe a little too much choice, then again it is a very realistic system..

I think armour as DR is great with an active defense system, however i think it is good as a last line of defense, in addition to your defense roll.

I have been working on a similar system for a warhammer fantasy campaign setting.
My main gripe with d20 is that defense is based on magic items and armour and not parrying with flashy weaponship. I want armour to not be so important as it is in dnd..

My varient system is still in it's early stages however it looks something like this..

I use the new Vitality hit points system that comes with Unearthed Arcana

All classes have a BaseDefenseBonus that improves with level. This is similar to BAB but it is higher at starting levels and slowly evens out to equal a charachters BAB at level 20. This is to compensate for Magic items, feats etc..

Players now chose to defend against each incomming attack by either dodging or parrying. What defense someone choses is based around the size of his opponent.

The size tables for combat are mirrored for Dodging & Parrying. The larger your opponent the easier it is to dodge him, the smaller your opponent the easier to parry him. this works the same for weapons of different sizes.
[Imagine trying to parry a Greatsword with a dagger!!! I'd get out the @%^# way!!]

Then there are things like weapon locks on tied parry scores, and attacks of opportunity for knocking weapons out of hands etc..

Armour works as DR with 3 stats against the 3 weapon types. these are listed as Bludgening/Slashing/Piercing Eg.
Full Plate 5/5/3

The basics of the system are that players roll their defense and do the logical defense based on what is coming at them..

I have started to make a list of new feats for this system as well.

I originally had shields as an active defense, however i found that after playtesting they worked better as adding to damage reduction..
They do still allow a model to make a parry aginst a ranged attack..

I might pinch your idea of having subsequent dodges harder to accomplish, i like that.


Changing dnd is fun... Keep up the good work!!!