House Rule: Counter Charge (reviews welcome)


Homebrew and House Rules


I was thinking of GMing a more medieval pathfinder game, politics and knights on horseback and such.

One thing I felt was lacking was knights on warhorses charging across the open field and meeting in an epic crash of lance on steal.

I just felt the current Pathfinder rules based on init didn’t lend well to that so I put together a house ruled for counter charge and I just wanted to see what some other people thought.
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COUNTER CHARGE

If an attacker charges within 20 ft resolve charge as normal and outlined in the rules.

If the attacker charges from a range over 20 ft the defender has the option to:
1) Brace with a brace weapon*
2) Counter Charge*
3) Allow the charge to proceed as normal

* See Perception check

Perception Check: If the Defender chooses to brace or counter charge and the attacker is charging from a distance greater than 20 ft. Than the defender must make a perception check to see if they spot the incoming charge in the first place. If they are unsuccessful in spotting the charge it means they were to distracted by something else or where not able to prepare for the charge.

The defender must make a perception check at DC 10 if not adjacent to an enemy or DC 15 if adjacent to an enemy or within an enemies reach, The DC is -1 for every full 10 ft. that the attacker took to get to the target beyond the first 20.

For example:
A defender charged by and attacker at 20 ft or less does not get the option to counter or brace.
A defender charged by an attacker at 20 to 30 ft. requires a DC 10 if out of combat, DC 15 if in combat.
A defender charged by an attacker between 30 and 40 ft requires a DC 10 or 15
A defender charged by an attacker between 30 and 40 ft requires a DC 9 or 14 (DC-1)
A defender charged by an attacker between 30 and 40 ft requires a DC 8 or 13 (DC-1)
Etc.

This indicates that the further out the attacker charges from the more time the defender has to spot the charge and react.

CHOOSING TO REACT: (note these take place out of the normal sequence of play in the Attackers turn)

Choosing to Brace:

If the defender braces his weapon he may make an attack at -2 to hit the incoming charge because they were not readied. No matter the results the defender is considered to be staggered for the next round. The -2 AC the charger suffers does not come into effect against someone reacting to brace, it would against a readied brace.

Choosing to Counter Charge:

The defender may choose to counter charge, in this case the attacker and defender meet at half the distance the defender could cover in one movement turn.

The attacker completes their attack as normal at this point.

Attacker: After moving, you may make a single melee attack. You get a +2 bonus on the attack roll and take a –2 penalty to your AC until the start of your next turn.

Defender: After the attacker completes their attack the defender rolls their attack. They do not receive the +2 to hit but they suffer the -2 AC until the start of their next round. In their next round they are considered to be staggered. (this is because they have exerted themselves out of turn and therefore are not able to act fully in their next turn)

OTHER RULES:

Lances:

If one or more party has a lance and strikes his opponent the one who receives dmg must make a successful ride check or be knocked from their horse.

The ride check is DC 5+Damage dealt. If they one or both chargers are knocked off their horse they must make a tumble check.

Falling off your horse requires a Tumble check DC 15 + amount failed on the Ride check in order to avoid D6 non-lethal falling damage.
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Some of the lance and tumble rules I grabbed from someplace...I cant remember off hand.

Anyway, this is my first draft of the rule, feel free to point out improvements or areas were this rule may be broken, etc.

Thanks

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

When I ran my previous Pathfinder war campaign, I added a new defense action per turn. I took the various combat abilities that are defensive in nature and made them into defense actions. One defense action can be taken per round and they do not rely on initiative. Defense actions are not taken on your turn, but instead most are reactionary. The defensive action is in effect until you declare you are changing it and can be changed only once per round. You can not declare a defensive action if you are unable to act in a surprise round.

Defense Actions
They following list is what we came up with during levels 7-11 of play and many other options are still prolly missing:
1) Attack of Opportunity - 1/rd unless you have Combat Reflexes
2) Counterspell
3) Cast Defensively (not reactionary, but declared during your turn)
4) Concentrate on a spell (not reactionary, but declared during your turn)
5) Brace against a charge
6) Aid Another for AC
7) Escape Artist check
8) Withdraw - defense and move action combined
9) Fight defensively
10) Dodge - Dodge feat can only be used with this action, bonus increased to +2
11) Parry - new combat maneuver to increase AC by +1
12) Block - your shield AC increases by +1 (must have shield equipped)

A player may choose to forfeit a standard action to take a second defensive action per round. The second defensive action can not be used before your turn according to initiative.


I just rule that a character with a readied action can set a weapon or counter-charge as a partial-charge action.


I like LeBlancs rule.

I pretty much do it as Dabbler does it but have found that the defender is still limited to the whole, have to ready an action, clause. which makes sense until you have a situation where a guy does a 60 foot charge action and you have to ask yourself what the other character did while this guy ran at him from 60 feet away.

LeBlancs rule allows for a lot of flexibility and places a lot of imediate or full round actions in the defense action category.

although I would not bother with the dodge, block, parry issues as i think it would just add complexity for minimal benefit.

basically you have a few standard things happening for defense, but you can chose to give those up for a turn in order to do something else or get a benefit during your standard action such as withdraw or fight defensively.

Good stuff.

BLUE

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