The Shattered Lands: A simple d20 fantasy heartbreaker

[Dethklok]

Nice post and thanks for the reply. Let me start with saying I 100 percent agree with you that the deadliness of weapons is more a function of wielder more than the weapons themselves. Unfortunately I've been sidetracked lately and have only posted half a system. Up in each of the classes it talks about weapon styles and how most of the classes, except the mage, have access to some or all of these styles. (maybe not the greatest name but I haven't thought of anything better.) These take the variation found in 3e weapons and transfer them from the weapons to the user.

Now instead of a longsword dealing 1d8 damage with criticals being scored on a roll of 19-20 with a x2 damage multiplier. I have it set so that a longsword, or any comparible weapon deals 1d6 damage anything else that is done outside of this base damage is strictly based on the skill of the wielder.

Using my system a fighter could effectively recreate the stats of a longsword but could pick up any weapon of the same size and do the same thing. I want to remove the forced specialization that has been dragging down warriors since the weapon proficiency system was introduced in earlier editions. I really dislike the fact that if I'm playing a fighter I need to spend feats and time siloing myself into using a certain weapon, or way of fighting, if I want to be effective as a warrior.

Also by reducing most weapons to single stat I've saved myself a lot of page space because now I don't need neither lists of weapon stats nor pages of weapon descriptions.

That's a neat idea; it would probably be fun.

But why not give all weapons the same base damage, and have them instead vary on some other characteristic that mattered more? For instance, say that:

* Small weapons can attack during wrestling, or in melee, any squares sharing an edge with the square occupied by the wielder;

* Medium weapons can't attack while wrestling, but can attack diagonally; and

* Long weapons attack any square inside the octagon described by a chess knight's moves, but not squares that are edge-to-edge adjacent.

Remember, there was a reason the Spartans used such short swords - and that reason wasn't to deal less damage. It was because their primary weapons were long spears, and if an enemy moved in too close, they needed a tool appropriate to fighting at inside range.

 

[Meatboy]

Ranged weapons
Sometimes it is not wise to rush in with steel drawn. Sometimes it is better to fill your opponents with steel before they reach you. At those times you need a ranged weapon. Ranged weapons included throwing knives, bows, crossbows and the like. Similarly to melee weapons, ranged weapons have been broken up into three groups: light, medium and heavy.

Range
Ranged weapons deal damage on the same schedule as melee weapons but each group also has a range, measured in feet. This is only the “short” range of the weapon or the range at which there are no penalties for accuracy. For each range bracket beyond the first there is a cumulative -2 penalty. For example: A sling (light ranged weapon) has a range of 40 feet it can still fire farther than 40 feet but from 41-80 feet it has a -2 penalty, and from 81- 120 its -4 etc

Reload times and hands.
Ranged weapons also need to be reloaded between each shot, the heavier the weapon the longer the reload time. Light weapons are a free action to load, medium weapons take a move action and heavy ranged weapons require a full round action to load (so they can be fired once every other round). Ranged weapons also require both hands to use effectively. The exception being light ranged weapons which usually only require one hand to fire but a free hand is needed to reload the weapon. The damage, range and reload times of weapons are as follows.
Light Weapon: 1d4 (1d6) 40 feet free action reload
Medium Weapon: 1d6 (1d8) 60 feet move action reload
Heavy Weapon: 1d8 (1d10) 80 feet full round action reload

 

[Meatboy]

Weapon Styles
Weapon styles are a series of mechanics that add variations to weapons. They are mostly the domain of the fighter but thieves and clerics have limited access to some as well. At any given time a weapon can only have one weapon style on it. If a character has 2 weapons then each weapon can have a different weapon style. A character can change the weapon style they’ve applied to a particular weapon as well but this requires them to be in an area of relative peace and spend some time working out a new routine with a weapon. (Basically it cannot be changed mid fight.)

Balanced (19-20, x2)
These weapons have a slightly increased chance of doing critical hits. They critical on rolls of 19 or 20 and deal double damage.

Keen (18-20, x2)
Keen weapons have a greatly increased chance of dealing critical hits, but they deal reduced damage normally by having a smaller damage dice than normal, as shown below.
Light Weapon: 1d3 (1d4)
One-handed Weapon: 1d4 (1d6)
Two-handed Weapon: 1d6 (1d8)

Brutal (20, x2)
Brutal weapons forgo increased critcal hits and instead focus on dealing damage. Such weapons deal damage as shown below
Light Weapon: 1d6 (1d8)
One-handed Weapon: 1d8 (1d10)
Two-handed Weapon: 1d10 (1d12)

Vicious (20, x3)
Vicious weapons don’t deal more damage or critical hits but when they do deal a critical hit they deal triple the damage instead of double.

Reach
Reach can only be applied to two-handed weapon. It allows you to attack opponents up to 10 feet away. All characters can use reach regardless of their class.

 

[Dethklok]

Reach
Reach can only be applied to two-handed weapon. It allows you to attack opponents up to 10 feet away. All characters can use reach regardless of their class.

Why can this not be applied to a spear, paired with a shield? One handed spears were often eight feet long; zweihanders were not so long as this.

 

[Meatboy]

[MENTION=6746469]Dethklok[/MENTION]
It's an unfortunate side effect of the simplification of the arms and armor system. The two ways I have of getting around that are exotic weapons or feats.

exotic weapons already have a weapon style qualifier already attached to them and characters can add an additional style to such weapons.

As a feat it could allow a character to use a two handed weapon in one hand to reflect specialized training.

either way could work really.

 

[Meatboy]

Armor
Armor is again divided into 3 groups. All armor grants a bonus to AC and a penalty to physical skill checks and possibly restricts your ability to dodge attacks as well as your movement rate. The greater the protection of the armor the greater the penalties they give. There are also shields which have two types and offer similar protection and penalties to armor.

Light Armor
This armor is the least protective, yet least restrictive, type of armor. Everything from supple leathers to sturdy chain shirts all are light armors. Light armor has a small armor check penalty but no penalty to your dexterity modifier for AC.

Medium Armor
Such armor tries to provide a balance between light and heavy armor offering more protection than light armor but has more penalties as well a higher armor check penalty and reducing movement speed by 5 feet. Also medium armor only allows half your dexterity modifier for AC.


Heavy Armor
Only the most protective armors are heavy armors. Steel plates or overlapping sheets of chain are heavy armor. It has the highest armor bonus AC but has the highest armor check penalty and reduces movement speed by 10 feet. It also doesn’t allow you use of your dexterity modifier for AC.

Shields
Shields require a free hand to use but they give a small bonus to AC and a small armor check penalty to skills.
AC Bonus Check penalty Maximum Dexterity Bonus Movement rate
Light Armor: +2 -1 full 30 feet
Medium Armor: +4 -2 half 25 feet
Heavy Armor: +6 -4 none 20 feet
Light shield: +1 -1 NA NA
Heavy Shield: +2 -2 NA NA