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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.
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Tweaking Grim & Gritty
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<blockquote data-quote="Fieari" data-source="post: 2017388" data-attributes="member: 16221"><p>Low magic, yes (or even maybe). No magic: not. In the example text for the rGnG system one of the characters is a mage (and gets smaked down, but that's because said mage was attacked via melee, which more or less settled the issue instantly). Dragons are also referenced with regards to their fire breath. So I do think that taking a look at magic is worthwhile. In fact, I'm of the opinion quite a few spells need at least to be tweaked. You can have grim & gritty but still have magic... the magic just has to have the same gritty feel. Example: Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Very Gritty, quite Grim, still has magic.</p><p></p><p>So.</p><p></p><p>ISSUE #1:</p><p></p><p>The thing about continual damage is that while it does very little per round, eventually it's going to get to you. This is easily simulated in the standard HP system, because an HP doesn't neccessarily have anything to do with physical health at all. Since rGnG doesn't work that way, something clearly needs to be done. Here's a thought:</p><p></p><p>Instead of changing how defense works, which is annoying and complicated and can be calculation intensive, or at the very least clutter up your character sheet more, why not change how the damage works for continual damage? I'm thinking that each round of continual damage should do the previous round's damage AS WELL...</p><p></p><p>So let's say our 9th level caster fires off his Melf's Acid Arrow against our warrior with +8 soak. The first round, he takes between 2 and 8 damage, but since his soak is 8, he ignores it all. The second round, he takes between 4 and 16 damage, but soaks 8 of that... so there's the possibility of taking between 0 and 8 pips of life. Ouch! </p><p></p><p>And things just get worse from there.... next round we add another 2d4, so the rolled range is now 6 and 20, making actual damage between 0 and 12 pips. On the final round, it's still POSSIBLE for this guy to avoid damage-- if all 8d4 land on 1. But in the worst case scenario, on round 4, he's taking 16 pips, killing him now.</p><p></p><p>This makes continual damage something to be feared all of a sudden. Which I think is right and just for the spirit behind the spell. As a DM, I'd make there be some way of dealing with this acid before it started dissolving my flesh... like taking off my armor for instance...</p><p></p><p>Now, this may break energy resistance, so I'd say that energy resistance increases for each round of continual damage as well. Only fair, and I don't think too hard to deal with. If our warrior had traded in his armor (+8 soak) for a +5 amulet of Acid Resistance, things would have gone like this:</p><p></p><p>1st round: 2d4 damage, -5 resistance = 0 - 3 pips.</p><p>2nd round: 4d4 damage, -10 resistance = 0 - 6 pips.</p><p>3rd round: 6d4 damage, -15 resistance = 0 - 9 pips.</p><p>4th round: 8d4 damage, -20 resistance = 0 - 12 pips.</p><p></p><p>And of course, this resistance would stack with armor, so the armor plus the amulet would mean he wouldn't have to fear the arrow at all, which I think is fair enough.</p><p></p><p></p><p>ISSUE #2:</p><p></p><p>For undead, "Racial" soak could work, but I think the thing that makes undead REALLY scary is that they're just as combat effective when barely hanging on to unlife as when they were first raised. That means that no matter how many pips of damage they have, they suffer NO combat penalties.</p><p></p><p>I would use a combination of the two ideas. </p><p></p><p></p><p>ISSUE #3:</p><p></p><p>Hm. Well, Vampiric Touch can't heal you more HP than the target had. So, if you kill your target, that's a MAX of +15 extra pips. That doesn't seem too bad to me, esspecially since you need to get past your target's soak here, AND it's a MELEE TOUCH ATTACK! Remember: MAGES DIE IN MELEE IN THE GNG SYSTEM! It's practically a forgone conclusion! If somehow you can survive this, well, it's a vampiric touch. Loads of flavor here... you get temporary survival abilities that you sucked out of your victim... +15 worth. Actually, come to think of it, that +15 isn't going to help a mage in melee much anyway.</p><p></p><p>For other forms of temporary hit points, why not consult the healing chart rGnG offers, and compare. Looks simple enough to me.</p><p></p><p></p><p>ISSUE #4:</p><p></p><p>I've given MM some thought myself. The main thing about MM is that it's supposed to be garaunteed damage... it never misses, it's a force effect so it hits even incorporeal, bypasses SR...</p><p></p><p>I would treat MM as if it was an automatic critical, meaning that you can choose to ignore armor or whatever. Which makes sense... aim the missiles at the target's face or whatever. And MM makes for another reason that mages should be feared on the battlefield. Remember in WoT, the guys in the borderlands said that Moiraine would be worth a hundred soldiers or more, just herself. Fits the mood GnG is looking for.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Hope this helps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fieari, post: 2017388, member: 16221"] Low magic, yes (or even maybe). No magic: not. In the example text for the rGnG system one of the characters is a mage (and gets smaked down, but that's because said mage was attacked via melee, which more or less settled the issue instantly). Dragons are also referenced with regards to their fire breath. So I do think that taking a look at magic is worthwhile. In fact, I'm of the opinion quite a few spells need at least to be tweaked. You can have grim & gritty but still have magic... the magic just has to have the same gritty feel. Example: Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Very Gritty, quite Grim, still has magic. So. ISSUE #1: The thing about continual damage is that while it does very little per round, eventually it's going to get to you. This is easily simulated in the standard HP system, because an HP doesn't neccessarily have anything to do with physical health at all. Since rGnG doesn't work that way, something clearly needs to be done. Here's a thought: Instead of changing how defense works, which is annoying and complicated and can be calculation intensive, or at the very least clutter up your character sheet more, why not change how the damage works for continual damage? I'm thinking that each round of continual damage should do the previous round's damage AS WELL... So let's say our 9th level caster fires off his Melf's Acid Arrow against our warrior with +8 soak. The first round, he takes between 2 and 8 damage, but since his soak is 8, he ignores it all. The second round, he takes between 4 and 16 damage, but soaks 8 of that... so there's the possibility of taking between 0 and 8 pips of life. Ouch! And things just get worse from there.... next round we add another 2d4, so the rolled range is now 6 and 20, making actual damage between 0 and 12 pips. On the final round, it's still POSSIBLE for this guy to avoid damage-- if all 8d4 land on 1. But in the worst case scenario, on round 4, he's taking 16 pips, killing him now. This makes continual damage something to be feared all of a sudden. Which I think is right and just for the spirit behind the spell. As a DM, I'd make there be some way of dealing with this acid before it started dissolving my flesh... like taking off my armor for instance... Now, this may break energy resistance, so I'd say that energy resistance increases for each round of continual damage as well. Only fair, and I don't think too hard to deal with. If our warrior had traded in his armor (+8 soak) for a +5 amulet of Acid Resistance, things would have gone like this: 1st round: 2d4 damage, -5 resistance = 0 - 3 pips. 2nd round: 4d4 damage, -10 resistance = 0 - 6 pips. 3rd round: 6d4 damage, -15 resistance = 0 - 9 pips. 4th round: 8d4 damage, -20 resistance = 0 - 12 pips. And of course, this resistance would stack with armor, so the armor plus the amulet would mean he wouldn't have to fear the arrow at all, which I think is fair enough. ISSUE #2: For undead, "Racial" soak could work, but I think the thing that makes undead REALLY scary is that they're just as combat effective when barely hanging on to unlife as when they were first raised. That means that no matter how many pips of damage they have, they suffer NO combat penalties. I would use a combination of the two ideas. ISSUE #3: Hm. Well, Vampiric Touch can't heal you more HP than the target had. So, if you kill your target, that's a MAX of +15 extra pips. That doesn't seem too bad to me, esspecially since you need to get past your target's soak here, AND it's a MELEE TOUCH ATTACK! Remember: MAGES DIE IN MELEE IN THE GNG SYSTEM! It's practically a forgone conclusion! If somehow you can survive this, well, it's a vampiric touch. Loads of flavor here... you get temporary survival abilities that you sucked out of your victim... +15 worth. Actually, come to think of it, that +15 isn't going to help a mage in melee much anyway. For other forms of temporary hit points, why not consult the healing chart rGnG offers, and compare. Looks simple enough to me. ISSUE #4: I've given MM some thought myself. The main thing about MM is that it's supposed to be garaunteed damage... it never misses, it's a force effect so it hits even incorporeal, bypasses SR... I would treat MM as if it was an automatic critical, meaning that you can choose to ignore armor or whatever. Which makes sense... aim the missiles at the target's face or whatever. And MM makes for another reason that mages should be feared on the battlefield. Remember in WoT, the guys in the borderlands said that Moiraine would be worth a hundred soldiers or more, just herself. Fits the mood GnG is looking for. Hope this helps. [/QUOTE]
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