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What is GURPS?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 4329162" data-attributes="member: 7177"><p>3e favored DX - and thus, high weapon skills - strongly over other attributes. In 4e, that's less of a problem, since DX now costs a flat 20 CP per level - while ST costs 10 CP per level. So it's now an equally valid strategy to put one's points in doing lots of damage with a hit instead of having a really high weapon skill - and as an additional advantage, this works against enemy with no vulnerable locations (such as undead, slime monsters, and the like).</p><p></p><p>Furthermore, there are now other interesting options than vulnerable hit locations even for those with high weapon skills. With a Deceptive Attack, you can reduce the Defense of the target - for each penalty of -2 you take, the target gets -1 to his defenses (remember, a Defense roll is <em>not</em> a Contest of Skills). And a Rapid Strike allows you to make <em>two</em> attacks with a balanced weapon, at a penalty of -6 each (-3 with Weapon Master/Trained By A Master), without taking an All-Out Attack. So hitting the limbs or eyes might not be the best tactic.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The solution is not to give "mook" enemies a HT of 12. No-name enemies - the type that PCs are supposed to slaughter by the dozen - should never have more than HT of 11-12, a weapon skill of higher than 12, and a high Damage Resistance - otherwise the fights will just drag on. Such stats are appropriate for "elite" foes - those who will duel with PCs for a long time - but their minions and cannon fodder should be weaker.</p><p></p><p>If you want to make minions more of a threat, either increase their number (swarm attacks are still pretty nasty, especially if the PCs don't make good use of terrain - once they are surrounded, they will be in a world of hurt), or increase their Strength and Hit Points. The latter means that while they might not hit very often, the high damage they do when they <em>do</em> hit will keep the fight suspenseful nonetheless.</p><p></p><p>One of my most memorable fights in my GURPS Eberron campaign was when the three PCs fought five ogres in the depths of Xen'drik - the fight was <em>very</em> nasty, and while the ogres hit only rarely, they were fairly devastating when they did hit. Oh, and the two melee fighters in the party also got their shields wrecked from those blows...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jürgen Hubert, post: 4329162, member: 7177"] 3e favored DX - and thus, high weapon skills - strongly over other attributes. In 4e, that's less of a problem, since DX now costs a flat 20 CP per level - while ST costs 10 CP per level. So it's now an equally valid strategy to put one's points in doing lots of damage with a hit instead of having a really high weapon skill - and as an additional advantage, this works against enemy with no vulnerable locations (such as undead, slime monsters, and the like). Furthermore, there are now other interesting options than vulnerable hit locations even for those with high weapon skills. With a Deceptive Attack, you can reduce the Defense of the target - for each penalty of -2 you take, the target gets -1 to his defenses (remember, a Defense roll is [i]not[/i] a Contest of Skills). And a Rapid Strike allows you to make [i]two[/i] attacks with a balanced weapon, at a penalty of -6 each (-3 with Weapon Master/Trained By A Master), without taking an All-Out Attack. So hitting the limbs or eyes might not be the best tactic. The solution is not to give "mook" enemies a HT of 12. No-name enemies - the type that PCs are supposed to slaughter by the dozen - should never have more than HT of 11-12, a weapon skill of higher than 12, and a high Damage Resistance - otherwise the fights will just drag on. Such stats are appropriate for "elite" foes - those who will duel with PCs for a long time - but their minions and cannon fodder should be weaker. If you want to make minions more of a threat, either increase their number (swarm attacks are still pretty nasty, especially if the PCs don't make good use of terrain - once they are surrounded, they will be in a world of hurt), or increase their Strength and Hit Points. The latter means that while they might not hit very often, the high damage they do when they [i]do[/i] hit will keep the fight suspenseful nonetheless. One of my most memorable fights in my GURPS Eberron campaign was when the three PCs fought five ogres in the depths of Xen'drik - the fight was [i]very[/i] nasty, and while the ogres hit only rarely, they were fairly devastating when they did hit. Oh, and the two melee fighters in the party also got their shields wrecked from those blows... [/QUOTE]
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