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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drifter Bob" data-source="post: 1677089" data-attributes="member: 17723">Because this is still fundamentally a D20 system, and we are not inventing a whole new combat system here as Heroquest or so many others have done, of course you can still fight 'simple'.  The "I swing my sword" option is still an acceptable option.  We have just introudced a small level of extra nuance, so that if the player does want to make some of those low level decisions, whether it's something as simple as... "I have to hit this guy or we're sunk!  I'm going for broke, I'm going to try to frantically rain blows on him without any regard for my own safety" ... something more complex like "...to heck with this, I'm going to hang back and wait to counterattack, using my offhand weapon for defense... I'll nail him when he opens himself up a bit" ... or something more sophisticted which may even require special training, like "While Dave has him distracted, I'm going to leap toward him and lunge with my rapier, aiming for a suitible gap in his armor, preferably in his face or neck."The real idea behind this is to give those players who want to use them a few more combat options, and I simply found realistic ones worked the best, were the easist to predict etc.  Frankly, In doing this I was trying to find a way to give players the options I wanted to give them my first time running a game...Well, no, riddle of steel has a completely different dynamic.  There is no optimal strategy because you really don't know what your opponent is going to do.  The outcome of a fight depends almost as much on your opponents skill as a player as upon the relative merits of your characters.Well, no system is immune to this kind of nerfing, but I think there is a good deal of balance in it, again because we are taking our cue directly from history instead of reinventing the wheel.  Contrary to some opinoins, military weapons which did not have some value that sufficiently offset any liability did not persist on the battlefield, particularly in the pressure cooker of perpetual warfare and political and cultural diversity which existed in Europe from the Dark ages through the Renaissance.In terms of nerfing the ideal fighting archetypes, I would say that we have at least added a few.  In terms of more or less 'pure' fighting classes, if you had the "tank" type fighter before from ODD, the two wepaon figher of 2E, and 3.X has added barbarians, archer specialists and the finesse fighter, we have taken all those and added to them.   If you want to be a tank, and not rely on any special tactics, then you are well advised to get heavy armor, and heavy weapons which cause a lot of damage, and get good at using them.  The finesse fighter now has several added options and potential advantages which paritcularly bloom at mid to high levels, but still has to be careful when facing the tank.  The Barbarian has new fighting techniques and weapons as well, but has to take care if he chooses not to wear armor. The 2E two weapon fighter has been replaced by other new sub-types.  Some of the newer archetpyes I have recognized in our playtesting include, the medium armored (two handed) longsword specialist with all the fechtbuch techniques; the 'friar tuck' defensive/ counterattacing staff fighter; the 'dopplsoldner' spear or polearm specialist; the lightly armored cut-and-thrust sword and dagger (or buckler) specialist, the 'smasher', a variant on the tank specializing in blunt weapons, and the 'grappler', often roguish characters specializing in wrestling, ambushing, and knife fighting (this latter is also an option for barbarian types), the 'artillerist; , a heavy missile weapon specialist, and the 'peltast', a hit and run light imssile weapon specialist / scout.Of course, all this has to be rethought when you mix spellcasting multiclass into the mix... also, several pepole who rely on heavy weapons, especially two handed weapons, have to have backup strategies for fighting indoors or underground.DB</blockquote>

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