I think there will be some changes to Halberds and Helmets, based on discussions on the Internet Office Hours podcast.
Still not sure I like that last bit.
#RPG #Halberds and Helmets
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I do something similar for rogues
and I’d love to read more about your actual play experiences with target 20 vs the table down the line,
my own fave is kind of a weird one
– Sandra 2023-03-28 07:50 UTC
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The tens complement looks interesting! I guess most referees implicitly use something like that. Yesterday, for example, 22 goblins attacking 2 player attackers, so eleven each. Your AC is 3? OK, looking for seventeens and up and rolling eleven d20… Your AC is 1? OK, looking for nineteens and up and rolling eleven d20… Except it’s a bit worse because you subtract it, but if you’re a well-organized player, you hopefully just jot down on a piece of scrap paper what the particular dice roll is that you’re looking for.
The analogy with saving throws is just a tiny bit flawed because the saves aren’t modified by anything unlike attack rolls which vary with the armour class of the opponent. In actual play, you’d have to note the save on a piece of paper, too, if there was quality of the opponent that modified it.
Perhaps Target 20 is “good enough”. We’ll see. At the moment players seem to be more excited by rogues getting to backstab more. 😀
– Alex 2023-03-28 09:21 UTC
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As for fighter combos. Here’s what I’m thinking:
What does that leave us? Automatic bonuses, benefits, and funny descriptions.
“I’m taking one for the team!” This is something all characters can do already: interpose themselves between an attacker and a target. What I think is important is that this doesn’t result in an automatic hit. No, armour and shields remains super important.
“I have your back!” Fighters fighting with other fighters automatically get an armour bonus.
I don’t want to call it “Shield wall!” because then people start thinking that all the monsters with shields should get the same bonus. No! If monsters have superior tactics, they get a little bonus to their hit points and to their to-hit roll, or to their armour class, and we’re done. I don’t want to have orc stats that have to be adjusted for whenever there’s more than one orc. Hobgoblins are better organised than orcs and they have HD 1+1 instead of HD 1. Problem solved.
“Tag team attack!” Fighters fighting with other fighters automatically get an attack bonus when attacking the same foe. Since ordinarily I simulate monsters protecting each other by spreading attacks around, this also allows prevents the damage of these two fighters to be split between two foes.
A third fighter or another team of fighters can’t join the first tag team. A second tag team also attacks together, but they might have to take a different foe.
At the table, with people running multiple characters, this messes a bit with the order. If I run a mage, a thief and a fighter, and you run a dwarf and a fighter, we now have to make sure that we all know that the two fighters go together. Perhaps this is also a great way to experience the tag team at the table. When it’s my turn and my fighter rolls to attack I shout: “Tag team!” and that’s your cue to roll your fighter’s attack, too.
– Alex 2023-03-29 08:40 UTC
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The options I think would work best are things that use the normal mechanics, but happen when two **players** say they’re doing a particular move and then if a resolution has to be determined, the characters’ attack rolls are used.
For a thief getting backstab in a fight, both the thief and the fighter have to have successful attacks against the same target, and the players have to declare they’re working together.
I think phrases like “Tag Team!” or “High and Low” or “Sneak Attack!” could be used so that long explanations aren���t needed and it keeps things moving.
Monsters might have their own type of maneuvers but they won’t necessarily be the same ones the players have, and the referee would decide that anyway. I am picturing all of these maneuvers as human inventions, so dwarves and elves might not participate (e.g., up to the referee to decide if they can be involved in the maneuvers).
Here’s are a few things I’ve come up with:
I had a more complicated form of **I Have Your Back!** but I like the simpler version.
I would probably allow things like trip and disarm and the like (all requiring a successful attack roll on the part of a fighter), and instead of dealing damage it does something “special” but I can see where others might not want the extra trouble.
I’d also allow any magic-user to make scrolls (100GP/level, 1 week/level to create) as I feel that is a perfect fit for the “conspicuous consumption” XP rules. Characters still can’t learn spells from scrolls, and I’m still undecided as to whether characters can use scrolls made by another character.
– Frotz 2023-03-29 14:22 UTC
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The scrolls just roll into the problem of endless supply. Do we really want a magic user who needs 4000gp to get to the next level to scribe 40 scrolls of magic missile?
– Alex 2023-03-29 15:20 UTC
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In Halberds & Helmets, being prone grants other attackers a +4 to attack, which might work. It’s a bit tricky with monsters. Does the explanation need a lot of words to explain who the potential targets are? Can you target a lion? A bull? An ogre? A giant? A halfling? As it stands, “prone” is a condition only player characters can get and only if they’re at 0hp. What about Conan: Can you push him over while he still has 50hp? My mantra used to be that you cannot (2015-09-17 Combat Maneuvers).
– Alex 2023-03-29 15:36 UTC
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I think if the player wants to spend 40 weeks and 4000gp to scribe scrolls and do nothing else, that sounds like a player problem to me but I can see your point.
– Frotz 2023-03-29 16:06 UTC
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RE: knocking people over, good questions. I’d want it to stay relatively simple while not provoking any “rule of cool” laughs of incredulity or long discussions or calculations.
Hmmm. I’ll have to think on it - does it really hurt if the players can knock other human-like monsters over (even superheroes like Conan)? That’s what I’ll have to ponder.
– Frotz 2023-03-29 16:13 UTC
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Perhaps the general: If I do the thing, the next one gets a bonus is a good idea. I also wondered about the actual things halfings are up to in fights with giants. What are they doing to earn that bonus to AC? When I run games, people often want to slide beneath a giant’s legs, or a spider’s legs, these kinds of things. Perhaps we can just name them? “Tie ’em up!” is when two halflings and a rope run up to a creature that is as large as an ogre or larger and has legs to stand on. No roll is required: the creature is at -4 to all their rolls. Or another way to see it: the halflings and their friends all get a +4 armour bonus.
– Alex 2023-03-29 22:35 UTC
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The 40 weeks is perhaps less of a problem in our games where we use real time to measure in-game time, that’s true.
– Alex 2023-03-29 22:36 UTC
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Yoda-style parrying for halfings? 🙂
– bluetyson 2023-04-13 00:42 UTC
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I like the idea of halflings doing cartwheels and sommersaults while fighting!
– Alex 2023-04-13 08:33 UTC