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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mkill" data-source="post: 5643668" data-attributes="member: 55985">I'll have to test that, once the combat system is complete. I'm missing critical hits, and I have no monsters yet. One idea I was thinking about was to allow adding the level to each hit point block. If this is still to swingy / deadly, I could increase the hit point blocks to four. Combat should be reasonably challenging though, and require use of the leader bonuses / healer healing  and defender defenses.This could be interesting. The question is how much you want to shoehorn the combat roles into character archetypes, though. D&D4 did a pretty good job to separate these, for example a controller can be a classic wizard as well as a hunter with a spear.You make a good point. The attack system and the skill system should be integrated better.To be honest, however, I like classic systems like D&D where the resource allocation for combat abilities and non-combat abilities are separated. Some players tend to optimize for only combat or only skills, which always creates a problem for GMs who want balanced adventures. If both are separate, players create balanced characters without noticing it.The reason why you don't roll Dexterity + Elemental magic to throw lightning at a zombie, is that I don't want to steer PCs towards an ability selection purely for combat bonuses. Most RPGs come with preset notions that, for example, you have to be strong to wield a sword, and smart to throw magic. You can't, say, use Charisma to outfeint your enemy, or Perception to notice an opening.I also want to avoid the situation that a PC totally specializes in, say, axes, and then finds a flaming sword that he really likes but he suddenly has to retrain all abilities. Instead, I just say ... as long as the combat style fits your image of the character, go for it. You want classic dwarf with an axe? Go for it. Or you want him to draw runes on the ground that summon elementals? Sure. You want both? Ok, here you are.After all, the mechanical effect is the same: Roll a d20, and if you roll high enough, you deal damage to one enemy. Why not let the player skin this as he wants? The d12 attacks work similar: roll d12, if you roll high enough, one monster takes damage, plus any of the bonus effects from this list.In my eyes, this makes for cinematic and free-flowing combat - PCs describe what they want to achieve with their attack, and the GM says a) "d20 attack" b) "d12 attack" or c) "d12 attack, but success means XY instead". The d12 attacks on the character sheet should be understood as examples for quick reference.</blockquote>

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