Rolls I bit off?

[palleomortis]

It has always seemed like there was somthing wrong with the dice roll system. Nothing big that would make me hat the game, but just little things that need changed. Like the time that I missed a polar bear from 2 feet away witha great sword? How does that happen? Are there modifiers for somthing like that. If you this close to the enemy, you get this much of an increase in you dice rolls?

 

[CRGreathouse]

You can miss while still making contact -- a bear has natural armor, for example. A 'hit' means that you touch the foe and break through the defenses in some capacity (slicing through, finding a weak point, avoiding the armor entirely by striking above or below, forcing it aside, etc.).

 

[palleomortis]

Op, my bad. I just saw the title of the thread, was supposed to be "Rolls A bit off" But still, Rolls I bit off woud be a fun topic, no?

 

[palleomortis]

You can miss while still making contact -- a bear has natural armor, for example. A 'hit' means that you touch the foe and break through the defenses in some capacity (slicing through, finding a weak point, avoiding the armor entirely by striking above or below, forcing it aside, etc.).

True, but still, If I hit with a great sword, then I AM doing damage, even if his armor gets in the way (fat, toughness, whatever) then I am still going to knock him back a bit, and would still probably do some damage to him. It can't be that hard to hit and hurt from that close.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

But what the roll is showing for the round is the interaction between you and the bear. The bear is swiping and lunging at you while trying to avoid your blows - you are dodging the bears claws and swinging at it with your sword. You swing - the bear knocks your sword to the side, sliding off its thick fur - you swing again, but at that moment the bear swipes at your feet with a huge claw - you slip a little on dancing away from the blow and the sword misses its mark. It is not a practice dummy standing there and the roll an indication merely of whether a single swing of your sword is on the mark.

 

[gizmo33]

True, but still, If I hit with a great sword, then I AM doing damage, even if his armor gets in the way (fat, toughness, whatever) then I am still going to knock him back a bit, and would still probably do some damage to him. It can't be that hard to hit and hurt from that close.

Well, I hate to bring in real life, but it might help. I'm no biologist/adventurer, but I would think if you were within 2 ft of a polar bear and had a two handed sword, you would not be "knocking him back a bit" by swinging. The only question would be whether he would be digesting just you, or you and your two-handed sword as well. In fact, if I were Chaotic Evil I'd give 100 gp to your next of kin if you went up to a polar bear and managed to knock him back with a two-handed sword.

That being said, I think you should consider that a hero is not going to remain standing 2 ft away. Considering that you're playing by normal DnD rules, you'd be up to 5 ft away (moving around within that square, I guess) and ducking the claw swipe that would probably take a normal persons head off. You can probably chalk up the miss to the idea that the hero with the two-handed sword is not swinging at a static target (although I realize those miniatures stay pretty still on the battle mat) and is trying to avoid being killed as he swings.

 

[palleomortis]

Welll, when it IS a practice dummy.... No, but then doesn't it seem like you should be rolling simotaniously*spelling way off* for both of you going at it. When one of you comes in and kills them in one hit, we're back to the dummy style fighting.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Welll, when it IS a practice dummy.... No, but then doesn't it seem like you should be rolling simotaniously*spelling way off* for both of you going at it. When one of you comes in and kills them in one hit, we're back to the dummy style fighting.

But what I'm trying to say is that the entire idea of taking turns, a single roll, is a contrived method used to make the game simpler. The idea is that, in your descriptions, your imagination, the fighting is simultaneous and the fact that you killed him with a single roll of the dice does not mean that you walked up, swung your sword once and it was dead. It is a series of swings in which the cumulative result is one of them having the chance to connect. That is why you get more attacks at higher levels - it isn't just that you swing your sword more often, it is that you are making more effective swings as you become more experienced and learn to get past your opponent's defenses.

 

[S'mon]

A pinned helpless bear can be CDG'd and has base AC 1. Otherwise you're attacking a POLAR BEAR - you were lucky to even get within 5'!

 

[Fieari]

If you don't like the to-hit rules as they stand, you can always go the route my group did, and grab Ken Hood's revised Grim-n-Gritty rules, which splits up "missing" and "not getting through that tough skin/armor/etc". It -also- sets everyone at exactly 15hp, but this seems to work out with the rules reasonably well. The biggest downside is that it completely screws up the CR system, and things currently labeled CR3 might, in GnG, be CR9, and the other way round is possible too. Leaves a lot to guesswork.

Ah well. It's fun learning things, like whether you can survive that innocent looking nymph over there...