Odion41's page

My preliminary ideas are such: Use the Class-Based Defense bonus for a passive AC+Shield+Misc. Mods-Armor Check Penalty, with two ways to bypass DR through either strength or dexterity.

The Strength option for bypassing armor is to use the Strength Bonus as a static Armor Pen. This allows for stronger characters to shred through armor, which stays true to real life. This Strength based static AP mainly applies to most martial weapons, so most fighters and martial characters should not really have a problem with this. Strength based fighters can also damage the opponents armor and reduce its effectiveness during combat. To reduce the effectiveness a combatant only needs score either a confirmed critical on an Atk roll or cause over 20 points of damage in a single strike, either of these will reduce the DR of an armor by 1d4 until repaired by a suitable spell or craftsman. The damaging armor part comes from the Conan rules and I think it reflects the fact the a critical or major hit WILL hurt you and ALL of the stuff attached to you!

However, for TWFs and Dex based combatants I will borrow from Conan with one added extra. Certain weapons are designated Finesse weapons, such as knives and most light weapons. These weapons will bypass DR provided their Atk Roll beats the total defense by the DR provided by the opponents armor(s). However, these weapons cannot damage their opponents armor critical or not and never use their strength bonus to bypass DR. The use of finesse rules for normally strength based weapons is only usable through the use of the Weapon Finesse feat.

However, Magic and Adamantine weapons still cut through nonmagical armor as per the vanilla variant rules.

I think its all in there...comments? Things I possibly left out or problems foreseeable?

- J

I do have one thing that is holding me up right now, how to measure the idea of trained defensive techniques? In the Conan variant (which is awesome!) anybody trained in a class have a base defense bonus to help them survive longer in combat, and, I believe, to give a reason for normal BAB to exist under this variant. In this though, the defense is split between a dodge (ranged and melee) or parry (melee or ranged provided you hold a shield) bonus that allows you to counteract the BAB of others.

So, my question is...

What should be a passive defense bonus progression?

I know that Unearthed Arcana has a Defense Bonus progression for 3.5 and I am tempted to use it as it's not really impractical...but, what do you guys think?

- J

These Conan D20 rules are AMAZING! I will have to try these in trials to see how much number fenegeling needs to be done to get it right. ZZT, you sir are a gentleman and a scholar and I thank you! *Bows Graciously*

- J

I think it would be best if you used this rule, before game time go through and make new stat blocks for a few monsters.

Furthermore it will change a few properties in the systems. Generally speaking an attack bonus is worth more than a damage. With drastically lower AC's, higher and stacking DR's, your players are going to shift their martial capacity towards higher damage.

Furthermore Paladins will become gods as they can bypass even DR/-. Soooo... watch out for the paladin of torag dude.

Generally this means less damage/hit but more hits. With all the bonus DR/- monks and TWF's are going to have a much harder time since they won't have anyway to bypass all this. So monks and the traditional rogue, as well as a few fighters and rangers are shot.

Archery is going to be more powerful than ever with clustered shot.

Beyond that looks pretty good :) have fun

Funny you mention the Monk, because my Setting doesn't allow for them, lol. Though the rogue part does concern me....and by the way, what fighter types become shot?

- J

Patricius wrote:

The rules only really work for humanoid on humanoid. I spent several weeks working on improving the rules, but when I got to the Bestiaries that is where things break down. Monsters don't wear armor and it is often unfair to judge this between their touch AC and actual AC when performing the conversions. It could be done but it would end up being a heck of a lot of work when what it really needs is a whole new system. Hackmaster (5th Ed) has rules around this that are built around AC and DR to begin with -- downside, their DMG isn't out yet and a lot of the content needed to run a game is in there.

If I recall right, monsters' natural armor is converted to DR as well, not just armor.

Yeah, your correct about that. Still could be a hassle to check I imagine until you get used to it.

- J

Does the version form Ult Combat work? I am thinking about implementing it in my game but I would like to know more about it from people who have tried it. What possible house rules have been implemented by those who have tried it and found flaws?

- J

Thanks a million guys! These are all really helpful.

- J

Yeah, particularly with the armors. I went digging into the web for pictures of armors so that I can visualize it so I can describe it. I am with you Kender, I am a Visual person/GM too.

- J

The title says it, I am trying to find good material for inspiration and mechanics for an Eastern Campaign I am going to run in about a month. The setting is an amalgamation of ancient Chinese, Korean, and Japanese kind of like what Paizo did with the Dragon Empires, which I have and am drawing from also. What products would y'all recommend for reading and/or using? Paizo or Third Party doesn't really matter to me!

Thanks guys!

-J