Weapon Attack Adjustments Table (Converted from AD&D, First Edition)

[Hriston]

I have just uploaded Weapon Attack Adjustments Table (Converted from AD&D, First Edition) to the downloads area.

This is the revision of the table I posted some time ago. I rethought my approach and rebuilt the table from the ground up. The values are now very close to Gygax's values, modified only in proportion to the AC benefit of particular armor types. The resulting table is quite large, so I'm presenting it in three different formats. One file is for printing to a very large format. It contains all the information in one document, but is useless for printing to 8 1/2" x 11" paper. The other files split the table in two, one for types of armor, and one for natural armor. The natural armor one is pretty good for printing, but the other one still strains the eyes a bit on normal paper, so be forewarned!

A word of explanation: these are modifiers to the attack roll for an attack with a given weapon against a given type of armor.

You can find the file here in the downloads section. Please use this thread for comments.

 

[Horwath]

This means that the armor does not give any AC bonus by itself just a variable modifier to certain weapons?

very nice effort, but too complicated and illogical at many weapons.

 

[Jediking]

I like the idea of adding some complexity to differentiate weapon choices, but having to cross-check each attack in each encounter with a magnifying glass over two printouts is a bit much. I suggest focusing on either Armour types or Weapons and adding effects to change them.

Something to make this simpler is to separate the weapons into groups. Rather than have a table for each weapons, have Axes, Blades, Polearms, Clubs, Flails (or however you'd like to categorize them). Axes may have a chance to sunder shields or metal armour, which is great for brawling tanks, while Polearms can easily pierce through unarmoured or lightly armoured foes and is preferred by skirmisher types. Flails might be able to swing around Shields while a lucky Club strike may cause broken bones or give a concussion.

Changing weapons would indirectly change armour preferences as well. If the plate-wearing Paladin charges into the axe-wielding Orc horde, he may find himself fighting naked before long, while the Ranger is laughing and skewering Orcs beside him, at least until javelins start flying his way. Grouping things would help give players a way to think about what weapons they like in which situations, although this could lead the 'golf-bag' approach if allowed.

 

[Hriston]

This means that the armor does not give any AC bonus by itself just a variable modifier to certain weapons?

No. Each armor still has its base AC along with any applicable bonus from Dexterity. The listed modifiers are added to (or subtracted from) the attack roll.

very nice effort, but too complicated and illogical at many weapons.

Thanks. I have put some effort into making it logical, and I think you'll find it more so if you keep in mind that it doesn't change the way AC is calculated.

 

[RealAlHazred]

One of the core design precepts for this edition seems to be to keep things as simple as possible. Another one is to make sure combat is as fast as possible while still retaining the playability factors.

Therefore, if I were to use it, I would probably reduce this to, say, the damage types against the armor categories. So, Bludgeoning/Slashing/Piercing against Light/Medium/Heavy (and perhaps Natural). Somewhat less realistic, but more easily accessible by my group, as an example.

If you really wanted to go all out, you could then go one better than Gary and include all the damage types: magical as well as weapon. I always thought it strange when I was a kid that it made a huge difference what weapon you used against an armored opponent, but whether you used a fire or lightning spell didn't, unless the spell author was very specific in his spell description.

 

[dave2008]

If you really wanted to go all out, you could then go one better than Gary and include all the damage types: magical as well as weapon. I always thought it strange when I was a kid that it made a huge difference what weapon you used against an armored opponent, but whether you used a fire or lightning spell didn't, unless the spell author was very specific in his spell description.

I try this in my last 4e campaign, but it was another thing track so it eventually hot dropped. I would be interested in a simple approach to covering all damage types