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Community
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*Dungeons & Dragons
The Focus Fire Problem
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<blockquote data-quote="rmcoen" data-source="post: 8747623" data-attributes="member: 6692404"><p>IMC, we use "injury effects" in two ways, which (a little bit) encourage spreading some attacks.</p><p></p><p>First - Wound Levels and Penalties. I never state HP, and I don't allow the players to do so either. You can only say "Fine", "Bruised" (lost 25% of MaxHP), "Bloodied" (lost 50% of MaxHP), "Battered" (lost 75% of MaxHP), or "Crippled" (lost 90% of MaxHP). (0 is "dying", but you can't speak!) Bloodied inflicts -1 penalty to attacks and skills; each level below that is an additional -1 cumulative - Crippled is thus -3.</p><p></p><p>Second - which 90% of the time only impacts PCs - any critical hit and/or hit that does 25% of your MaxHP in a single hit causes Lingering Damage. In combat, each LD is a -1 penalty to magical healing or regeneration. [More rules than this, but this is enough for this discussion.]</p><p></p><p>So tossing a <em>fireball</em> into a bunch of mooks to soften them up, followed by a barrage of arrows to knock them all Bloodied makes for good play - all the foes are now -1 to hit you. Yes, focus-firing the BBEG down to Battered is nice, giving him -2, but it makes sense to weaken the others too while you're doing so.</p><p></p><p>In play, I have seen the PCs leave off attacking weakened foes because at -2 or -3, they just aren't really a threat anymore; it's more valuable to attack the next enemy. Also, as DM, most foes think about fleeing at Bloodied, and nearly all run at Battered.</p><p></p><p>Combined with [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] 's idea (and my answer to it) of "Focus Attack: -4 AC, +2 accuracy" as a combat move, the PCs will be <em>highly</em> encouraged to spread out and occupy/eliminate as many foes as possible. (Makes the "Hordebreaker" ranger ability and that weak d4+0 TWF offhand strike actually really useful, too!)</p><p></p><p>I <em>don't</em> think allowing "Focus Attack" to the ranged PCs is a great idea, though, and there are probably many other unintended consequences. I'd probably throw on at least "requires Concentration"; I want to say it doesn't work outside of combat, too, because Snipers are powerful enough as it is, but maybe that's a "feature", not a "bug"!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rmcoen, post: 8747623, member: 6692404"] IMC, we use "injury effects" in two ways, which (a little bit) encourage spreading some attacks. First - Wound Levels and Penalties. I never state HP, and I don't allow the players to do so either. You can only say "Fine", "Bruised" (lost 25% of MaxHP), "Bloodied" (lost 50% of MaxHP), "Battered" (lost 75% of MaxHP), or "Crippled" (lost 90% of MaxHP). (0 is "dying", but you can't speak!) Bloodied inflicts -1 penalty to attacks and skills; each level below that is an additional -1 cumulative - Crippled is thus -3. Second - which 90% of the time only impacts PCs - any critical hit and/or hit that does 25% of your MaxHP in a single hit causes Lingering Damage. In combat, each LD is a -1 penalty to magical healing or regeneration. [More rules than this, but this is enough for this discussion.] So tossing a [I]fireball[/I] into a bunch of mooks to soften them up, followed by a barrage of arrows to knock them all Bloodied makes for good play - all the foes are now -1 to hit you. Yes, focus-firing the BBEG down to Battered is nice, giving him -2, but it makes sense to weaken the others too while you're doing so. In play, I have seen the PCs leave off attacking weakened foes because at -2 or -3, they just aren't really a threat anymore; it's more valuable to attack the next enemy. Also, as DM, most foes think about fleeing at Bloodied, and nearly all run at Battered. Combined with [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] 's idea (and my answer to it) of "Focus Attack: -4 AC, +2 accuracy" as a combat move, the PCs will be [I]highly[/I] encouraged to spread out and occupy/eliminate as many foes as possible. (Makes the "Hordebreaker" ranger ability and that weak d4+0 TWF offhand strike actually really useful, too!) I [I]don't[/I] think allowing "Focus Attack" to the ranged PCs is a great idea, though, and there are probably many other unintended consequences. I'd probably throw on at least "requires Concentration"; I want to say it doesn't work outside of combat, too, because Snipers are powerful enough as it is, but maybe that's a "feature", not a "bug"! [/QUOTE]
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