The Core Mechanic: New Design and Development

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Here

Explaining that Saga style Fort, Save and Will defences are officially in.

 

[Deverash]

It also sounds like touch attacks are gone. Changing to Reflex defense spells, perhaps?

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

It also sounds like touch attacks are gone. Changing to Reflex defense spells, perhaps?

Yes. It seems AC and Reflex defence are more strongly differentiated than in Saga.

 

[jgbrowning]

Hrm... FTA: "In 4th Edition, when a creature only needs to touch you to deliver an attack, it targets your Reflex. *snip* but if a crossbow trap fires an arrow at you, it the bolt attacks your AC."

I haven't played Saga-style so maybe my questions answered there. What if one has no armor? Does the crossbow trap target Reflex or AC? Heck, for that matter, what about just a straight attack against an unarmored foe: Reflex or AC?

joe b.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Interesting. You now have 4 ACs.

You still have "control" over your defense, but it's a passive control, just like AC. All attacks are now active rolls (spells, attacks, etc).

I'd still like to see it in play, but on first bluch it sounds like a positive move to simplify the system while maintaining the D&D flavor.

There's still the issue of fireballing a bunch of mooks and having them all succeed or fail based on one roll ... unless you roll an attack against each mook (or they all have different defensive scores).

This would also be easy to flip from 3.5 to experiment with. Just add 10 to all saves, make them a defense, and have spellcasters, traps, etc roll a d20 "to hit".

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Hrm... FTA: "In 4th Edition, when a creature only needs to touch you to deliver an attack, it targets your Reflex. *snip* but if a crossbow trap fires an arrow at you, it the bolt attacks your AC."

I haven't played Saga-style so maybe my questions answered there. What if one has no armor? Does the crossbow trap target Reflex or AC? Heck, for that matter, what about just a straight attack against an unarmored foe: Reflex or AC?

joe b.

If I were designing, AC would be against melee and ranged attacks that you actively defend against; reflex is everything else. And reflex defense should be AC minus armor & shield bonuses ... perhaps that implies an increasing bonus to AC as characters increase in level?

 

[Rechan]

I want to know what the heck that picture is of. WHAT IS THAT THING?

Is that a Salamander?

 

[MerricB]

I want to know what the heck that picture is of. WHAT IS THAT THING?

Is that a Salamander?

It's either (a) a Modron or (b) a Gnome.

Cheers!

 

[Abstraction]

Does the dragon roll a single attack and possibly crit the whole group? Or an attack per person? If someone's Reflex is better than their AC, does that mean their harder to hit with a touch-only spell?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I want to know what the heck that picture is of. WHAT IS THAT THING?

Is that a Salamander?

I'm guessing a new critter.