Skill-based attacks.

[Urizen]

I'm just tossing this out to see what people might think about it.

I was thinking of maybe doing away with the standard attack roll in favor of a skill-based attack system.

It's a loose-D20-based mechanic which removes the attack roll in favor of skill-based attacks against an opponent's ability to defend/dodge.

The base mechanic is a D20 roll + the Strength attribute + character's Known skill, (say Great swords) VS a DC equal to the opponents Dex + knowledge of defense + any benefits of Armor.

I'm not sure how this would work with feats. I think that would take a bit of revising, maybe even eliminating feats in favor of attack forms, which are basically specializations which could be taken if a character has a high enough rank in a given skill (or set of skills) and a requisite key ability score (like, maybe Str 15 for great swords).

The attack forms would add bonuses to skill checks or even cause certain conditions, such as dazing a character, or knocking them down.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Aussiegamer]

I am working towards this is another way.

I introduced skills for weapons, did away with prof feats.

Every 5 ranks allows a +1 to something for both the weapon and armour.

But it would be interesting to see it as purely skill based...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I have a purely skill based d20 system for combat in a sci-fi game which I've written and am just preparing to publish.

This kind of approach can work very well, I'm very pleased with it. Go for it!

Cheers

 

[Committed Hero]

True20 could emulate a lot of the feats with skill challenges....

 

[Flynn]

Traveller has been doing it for years (although, oddly enough, Traveller T20 stuck with the BAB model instead of using combat skills). Same with GURPS and HERO. The approach works, and I think it would still work well in a D20 System environment. I'd be interested in hearing about your playtesting of the idea and how it holds up in-game.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Passages uses a skill-based combat system very similar to what you are talking about.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I use a weapon skill system of my own devising. The players seem to like it a lot.

 

[Technomancer]

I hear a lot of D&D enthusiasts arguing that it wouldn't work because everyone would throw all their skill ranks into attack skills and ignore other non-combat skills. Which seems like an odd argument, since virtually every other non-D20 rpg out there has a skill-based combat system.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Skill based combat weakens combat characters by forcing them to specialize. Unlike a D&D Greatsword specialist, who is only slightly less effective when forced to use another two-hander, making each weapon (or weapon type) a separate combat skill means that the Greatsword specialist is reduced from slightly less effective to actually ineffective when forced to use another weapon.

As long as you are aware of this difference, and either willing to accept it or actively desiring it, then skill-based combat will work well for you. If you don't want that effect then think long and hard about changes you make.

Good luck.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Skill based combat weakens combat characters by forcing them to specialize. Unlike a D&D Greatsword specialist, who is only slightly less effective when forced to use another two-hander, making each weapon (or weapon type) a separate combat skill means that the Greatsword specialist is reduced from slightly less effective to actually ineffective when forced to use another weapon.

As long as you are aware of this difference, and either willing to accept it or actively desiring it, then skill-based combat will work well for you. If you don't want that effect then think long and hard about changes you make.

Good luck.

That depends on how you structure it, of course. For example, in Passages, Combat is a general skill, Attacking is one of the sub-skills, and characters can acquire skill specialty bonuses for, e.g., using a greatsword. So, a character might have the following: Combat +2 (Attacking +2) with a Skill Specialty Bonus of "Attacking with a greatsword +2". Thus, he would get a simple +2 when defending, a +4 when attacking with anything other than a greatsword, and a +6 when attacking with a greatsword.