Combat Stance

[styopa]

Was talking with a player yesterday, and we hit upon the simple mechanic of 'stances' as realistic and potentially useful tactical options for RQ characters.

There are 3 possible combat stances:

Normal: allows you the usual 1* attack and 1* defense option in each round.

All-out attack: You ONLY get your 1* attack at half-again your skill.  You get no defense action.

All-out defense: You ONLY get your 1* defense at half-again your skill.  You get no attack action.

*: as usual, if >100% you can split

The above is probably the simplest version.  Then the Minotaur's 'enrage' doesn't have to give them a special magical ability, it just puts them into all-out attack mode.  It also makes missile weapons more lethal (if you allow it to everyone), if the shooter isn't threatened by immediate attack.

Alternate versions, not really thought through:

- Attack/Defense stance lets you split attacks/defenses using that higher value, even if it's not above 100% (you don't care about getting hit)?

- Attack lets you attack slightly faster (no hesitation for self-preservation)?

- Defense might allow a shield to parry multiple attacks from a single attacker (ie like a normal dodge, but at half value for subsequent attacks after the first), or to allow dodge to be used against multiple attackers (but at half-value for each dodge after the first)

- Defense might even allow additional AP to a parrying item (1d4 or your strength mod, whichever's greater, re-rolled for each attack), or allow a SPECIAL parry to still count against a CRITICAL hit (the current way a normal shield success works against a special)?

NOTE: NPCs wouldn't be able to access stances unless it is something intrinsically sensible to the NPC - ie a minotaur.  Otherwise NPCs (who often don't care about tomorrow) would be overpowered.

Anyway, just some ideas we were bouncing around.

[g33k]

I think your "stance" idea has a lot of merit, but...

33 minutes ago, styopa said:

It also makes missile weapons more lethal (if you allow it to everyone), if the shooter isn't threatened by immediate attack.

Frankly, I don't think the melee concepts of "offensive stance" and "defensive stance" really apply to missile weapons -- you always use a "shooting" stance (which is simply not a melee stance).

[Eric Christian Berg]

This reminds me of Aquelarre (a Spanish BRP branch). You get two actions per turn. You can attack twice, attack and defend (parry, dodge, or block), or use two defenses. Some things are extended actions (setting your spear against a charge, charging, feinting, evading missile fire) require both actions. Bows and slings require an action to load, so are effectively extended actions.

[olskool]

3 hours ago, styopa said:

Was talking with a player yesterday, and we hit upon the simple mechanic of 'stances' as realistic and potentially useful tactical options for RQ characters.

There are 3 possible combat stances:

Normal: allows you the usual 1* attack and 1* defense option in each round.

All-out attack: You ONLY get your 1* attack at half-again your skill.  You get no defense action.

All-out defense: You ONLY get your 1* defense at half-again your skill.  You get no attack action.

*: as usual, if >100% you can split

The above is probably the simplest version.  Then the Minotaur's 'enrage' doesn't have to give them a special magical ability, it just puts them into all-out attack mode.  It also makes missile weapons more lethal (if you allow it to everyone), if the shooter isn't threatened by immediate attack.

Alternate versions, not really thought through:

- Attack/Defense stance lets you split attacks/defenses using that higher value, even if it's not above 100% (you don't care about getting hit)?

- Attack lets you attack slightly faster (no hesitation for self-preservation)?

- Defense might allow a shield to parry multiple attacks from a single attacker (ie like a normal dodge, but at half value for subsequent attacks after the first), or to allow dodge to be used against multiple attackers (but at half-value for each dodge after the first)

- Defense might even allow additional AP to a parrying item (1d4 or your strength mod, whichever's greater, re-rolled for each attack), or allow a SPECIAL parry to still count against a CRITICAL hit (the current way a normal shield success works against a special)?

NOTE: NPCs wouldn't be able to access stances unless it is something intrinsically sensible to the NPC - ie a minotaur.  Otherwise NPCs (who often don't care about tomorrow) would be overpowered.

Anyway, just some ideas we were bouncing around.

 

 

This would work nicely with my skill based damage idea.  Let the attacker choose between a Skill Bonus or increased Damage (limited by the maximum possible rolled Damage of course).  I would limit the Skill Bonus to Either 1/2 Weapon Skill OR [the average of DEX and STR] (whichever bonus is LOWER when figured) to prevent higher skill levels making this action too overpowered.   For the Parry, you could do Skill Bonus OR allow every 10 points of Skill rolled under to increase AP by one (ie a 30% roll with a 70% Skill would net a 4 AP bonus).  I'd limit the AP bonus to DOUBLE a weapon's AP as a cap.

Multiple Attacks:

I don't understand why a person with less than 100% cannot make attacks on two different opponents.  I allow this in my game but the attacker must have sufficient Strike Ranks to do it and they CANNOT parry with the weapon they use to make the two attacks with.  I simply cut their skill in half (rounding down) for BOTH attacks.  They can also parry TWO opponents as long as they DO NOT use a weapon for more than TWO ACTIONS... be those Parries or Attacks (a good reason for two weapon use). 

Missile Weapons:

I have 4 Range Bands for my missile weapons; Short Range, Medium Range, Long Range and Extreme Range.  Each of these range bands has a reducing chance to hit (Normal skill at Sht Rng, 3/4 skill at Med Rng, 1/2 skill at Lng Rng, and 1/4 skill at Ext Rng).  I would allow an "Aim" action to double the chance to hit.  I also would increase the Strike Ranks needed for this attack by doubling them (my base SRs by range band are: 1@SHT, 2@MED, 3@LNG, 4@EXT to take into account aiming and "projectile flight time").

I think this idea should be explored more.