Yeah, our group has decided to try the -30 rather than the -20 in 1e. Our next session isn't for a few weeks but we're going to try the following (excerpt from an email I sent out to our group):
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This was shamelessly pilfered from RuneQuest 6. I'm not suggesting we completely switch to the RQ6 combat system...just stealing a few rules to hopefully make our game better.
Each entity (PC or NPC/Monster) will be assigned Action Points based on their INT and DEX as follows:
INT + DEX
12 or Less: 1 AP
13-24: 2 AP
25-36: 3 AP
For every additional 12 points: +1
To perform an action in combat, you must spend an action point. Actions include attacking, parrying, etc. The defender will subtract 30% per subsequent parry after the first. We've been using 20% but they upped it to 30% in later editions of Stormbringer. I think it makes more sense.
To fix how dumb it is that an entity can parry an attack from a large weapon using something small like a hatchet, we will also adopt the following rules from RuneQuest 6:
Weapons will be give a size category: Small, Medium, Large, Huge, Enormous.
If a defender succeeds in parrying, then he can reduce an attacker's damage, if any, according to the comparative Size of the weapons used. This works as follows:
- Parrying an attack with a weapon or shield of equal or greater size deflects ALL damage.
- Parrying with a weapon or shield of one size less only deflects HALF damage.
- Parrying with a weapon or shield two or more sizes less fails to deflect ANY damage.
Further, I'd like to suggest we modify the crit attack rules slightly. If an attacker rolls critical, one of 3 things can happen:
- Defender doesn't parry or fails his/her parry so takes the hit.
- Defender successfully parries and doesn't roll critical. The defender takes only normal damage (NOT double) but their parrying weapon is broken.
- Defender successfully parries with a critical roll. The defender takes NO damage and BOTH the attacking and parrying weapons are broken.
I think these rule changes will help combat flow better. We could still have issues with one-on-one combat where every attack is thwarted with a parry for a bit. Aside from lucky rolls, the only way to really remedy this is to gang up on an opponent when possible so they run out of Action Points and can't keep parrying. Also, don't forget you can do things like grapple or disarm an opponent. I will look at any rules for this in Stormbringer and if they don't exist, we can adopt the RuneQuest 6 rules for this, too. A lot of that system can be used in our game if needed.
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Thoughts/Comments? I love this game by the way. It's just that the attack/parry rule was slowing our game to a halt.