Combat Options Supplement

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seandon4
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by seandon4 »

Few comments about the new options:

- The "called shot" guideline could get out of hand if interpreted the wrong way and depending on the group or type of players. As an alternative, one might consider applying a larger penalty (-5 or even -7 or only on a natural 20.) Or, consider the 2e "called shot" wording, which allows targeting an item, but otherwise stats "Called shots cannot be used to blind, maim, or cripple targets." The assumption is that a normal attack roll is already "the combatant doing his/her best to hit the most vital spots like usual."

- For "light weapons", I wonder if the author has any thoughts on treating 1d4 as light, 1d6 as medium and d8 or d10 as heavy. Allowing DEX bonus for d6 (short-swords) is a bit like allowing a fail over for thieves with high DEX to be as strong as a fighter in that sense.

- Mounted combat, nice to see these. For reference, I also have alternative mounted combat rulings on the showcase.

Just my 2 cents.
Last edited by seandon4 on Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Solomoriah
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by Solomoriah »

The called shots rule was submitted by one of the other authors, and I lightly edited it. I may go back and give it a rewrite after I do some math, but as it's an optional rule, it's not critical.

As for the mounted combat rules, they were submitted by someone else (artikid I think, based on the original writing style) but I tore them completely down and rewrote them... mechanically, most of what he wrote is still there, but I sanded down some rough spots. It's a clarification of the Core Rules more than an optional rule per se, so in other words, basically it's official.
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SmootRK
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by SmootRK »

Solomoriah wrote:The called shots rule was submitted by one of the other authors, and I lightly edited it. I may go back and give it a rewrite after I do some math, but as it's an optional rule, it's not critical.

As for the mounted combat rules, they were submitted by someone else (artikid I think, based on the original writing style) but I tore them completely down and rewrote them... mechanically, most of what he wrote is still there, but I sanded down some rough spots. It's a clarification of the Core Rules more than an optional rule per se, so in other words, basically it's official.
I did the main work on the Mounted Combat section and Jousting sub-sections (and I am already credited in the header). Thanks for including the material, as I thought this was a topic that really needed to be covered (perhaps late, but in retrospect might be appropriate for the Core Rules).
I really like and appreciate how they have been edited and re-worded; a much better flow to the material. I never did attempt to write them out in a cohesive and unfied manner (as Solo has hammered them into moreso), but more of a point by point listing of clarifications and proposed extrapolations of how mounted combat could work. Nice to see it become somewhat 'official' by getting added to Solomoriah's supplement. :D

I am still of the opinion that the Jousting portion, while workable, is still a little clunky mechanically. The nature of the escalating save penalties makes for too much math in the process. It would perhaps work better if modified into some sort of table or matrix to determine how it works out for each rider.

And on that topic (jousting), I would love to see other Tournament style contests worked out, perhaps as an independant Supplement. Such tournaments are often part of any large Noble event such as Crowings, Births/Birthdays, notable military campaign being won, etc. The gathering of worthy opponents for contests is a common theme in literature/media, and is a great setting for other adventure hooks to begin as well. Court intrigue, efforts at cheating, ominous "dark" warrior challenging the King (and/or King's Champion), peasants' aiming to escape serf-dom, etc. The celebratory/carnival atmosphere allows for all types of characters to be found, combatants as well as cutpurses working the crowds, nobles and commoner alike rub elbows, clerics give blessings at events and try to fill their coffers with donations while preaching to crowds, bards give eloquent introductions to knights, and wizards can have a place. Having a few contests that characters can compete in would be great in my mind to give them something to do while setting up more of these adventure hooks.
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Dimirag
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by Dimirag »

From time to time appears somebody having problems with the penalties for using two weapons and for using a weapon on the offhand, so here is a table that might help remedy that, this table gives directly the penalties for the primary and secondary weapons and the offhand penalty based on the character's dexterity score:
penalty table.png
penalty table.png (6.57 KiB) Viewed 7255 times
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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LibraryLass
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by LibraryLass »

Alright so first of all I'd like to say I really like a lot of the ideas in Combat Options. Thanks, guys for coming up with them. But there's one part of it that throws me off just a little bit and I wanted to talk about it, see if it's a problem for anyone else or if I'm just being weird.

Specifically, I'm talking about the attack rates at weapon rank 3 and 4. I don't know why but I feel like the 3/2 thing is a little... odd. I wouldn't quite call it confusing, per se, because it's explained quite clearly and simply. but it is one more thing that either the player or DM has to keep track of in a fight, which is inconvenient. Does anyone else feel this way? Has anyone done something different?

The simplest solution I can think of is to keep it a single attack per round at rank 3 and then jump to two per round at rank 4-- it's easy, but I'm not sure how much it throws things off relative to the default. Or maybe keeping it at one attack until rank 5, but expanding the range of critical hits to 19-20 at rank 3? I dunno, I'm just spitballing.

Lastly I wanted to say that I have one or two ideas about things that could be in a future release of Combat Options.

First of all the weapon vs. armor table I posted elsewhere this morning (and am reposting below) feels like it could be slotted in easily.

Image

Second of all I've noticed a few games with basic "fighting style" rules lately, including ACKS and D&D 5e-- that is, a list of a few basic styles (weapon and shield, two handed, dual wielding, lightly armored, ranged, that kind of thing) each with a benefit for the fighter that chooses that as his preferred style. I haven't worked out a chart for this for BFRPG right now but is it something anyone besides me gets/would be interested in incorporating?

The third thing I was thinking to add was either a "cleaving" rule (get an extra attack when you drop an opponent to 0 HP) or a version of that rule that shows up in some older versions of D&D where a fighter gets multiple attacks against opponents of 1 HD or less.

I dunno, any of what I'm saying seem like a good idea to anyone else?
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Dimirag
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by Dimirag »

The irregular attack rates (3/2, 4/3, etc) are the way the "advanced game" does it, I personally would leave it as it in the file and add some other alternative takes for extra attacks.
Some suggestion:
-Once the Attack Bonus reach a specific value you get extra attacks with its own value (3.x style)
-Based on your Attack Bonus you get an extra attack depending on your opponent's AC (RC style)
-You go from one attack to 2 attacks at a penalty, to one normal attack plus one at a penalty to 2 non-penalty attacks, if you want to extend this you can use decreasing penalties.

Some games like C&C use the mechanic where you go from one attack to two attacks.

There are also the "cleaving" rule where any damage left over from a killing carry over to another opponent as long as the original attack is enough to hit it.
There a rules where the fighter gets more damage dice based on his Level and the Level or HD of the victim that expands the above rule.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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Koren_nRhys
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by Koren_nRhys »

LibraryLass wrote: Specifically, I'm talking about the attack rates at weapon rank 3 and 4. I don't know why but I feel like the 3/2 thing is a little... odd. I wouldn't quite call it confusing, per se, because it's explained quite clearly and simply. but it is one more thing that either the player or DM has to keep track of in a fight, which is inconvenient. Does anyone else feel this way? Has anyone done something different?
I agree - never been a huge fan of the 1E system being incorporated into Basic. I'm inclined to simply skip the 3/2 step and go right to 2. You need to shuffle the levels where you gain the multiple attacks, but that doesn't bother me.
LibraryLass wrote: Second of all I've noticed a few games with basic "fighting style" rules lately, including ACKS and D&D 5e-- that is, a list of a few basic styles (weapon and shield, two handed, dual wielding, lightly armored, ranged, that kind of thing) each with a benefit for the fighter that chooses that as his preferred style. I haven't worked out a chart for this for BFRPG right now but is it something anyone besides me gets/would be interested in incorporating?
I really like the idea of fighting styles. Pick one at L1, additional styles later on (5,10,15 or maybe just 7,14). To me it let's fighters specialize or differentiate without needing to add in extra classes - Archer, Swashbuckler, etc.
Togo Galthus
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by Togo Galthus »

LibraryLass wrote:[...] there's one part of it that throws me off just a little bit and I wanted to talk about it, see if it's a problem for anyone else or if I'm just being weird.

Specifically, I'm talking about the attack rates at weapon rank 3 and 4. I don't know why but I feel like the 3/2 thing is a little... odd.[...]
I too feel uncomfortable with it, but I'm not sure exactly why -- so I don't think you're weird. :)
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Maliki
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by Maliki »

I'm not a fan of the 1E rate of attacks either, also really disliked the 3E method with different bonuses for each attack. For me, simple is better, you either have one attack or two all with the same bonus.

I do like the fighting styles presented in ACKS, a small boost and some customization to the fighter.
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Dimirag
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Re: Combat Options Supplement

Post by Dimirag »

Before I started to mess around with a "solid hit/near miss" system I let any character to do an extra attack if both attacks where done at a -5 penalty, fighters had the benefit of rolling at -3 as they halved any combat penalty.

I also let fighters to roll one die higher for weapon damage.
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