Horgast Tiggerwillies's page

Is the "targeting" ability gained by gunslingers at level 7 actually intended to allow automatic knock down, disarm, and confusion with no CMB check, or was this ability meant to imply that the gunslinger could roll CMB to do these things with ranged touch attacks? I fear small groups of mid level gunslingers wiping out whole parties of high level opponents by keeping them confused, unarmed, or on their backs every round.

If this class is balanced how does one compensate for this ability? Do climactic 'boss' battles become impossible? I feel bad that Karzoug the Claimer of Xin-Shalast has to die such a sad death because some low level guy can keep shooting him in the head each round.

Before anyone calls me a 'noob', yes I'm aware of time stop and blink and similar spells that can give ole Karzoug a bit of protection. All the same, I am filled with fear. What if there are two gunslingers?

Please help. =(

Over the years I've run into a number of 'problems' with high level combat which slow the game down significantly and make it difficult for me to challenge my players. To adapt to these challenges I'm coming up with a set of house rules for combat which I thought I'd post here to see what people think of them. This is a work in progress so bear with me. The overarching objective is to create a simple set of hard and fast rules which can be used to run fast combats without miniatures which don't grossly favor one class or ability set over another.

A. Each character gets 1 attack per round at their best value. Add each characters BAB score to the damage dealt and add extra damage dice to the attack as though the character was using the vital strike feat (and its higher level variants). Thus a 13th level warrior with three potential attacks per round, a strength of 21, a +2 greatsword, and no other relevant feats would look like this;

BAB +13; Str 21 (+5, +7 with a two-handed weapon); +2 weapon; etc
Greatsword +20 (6d6+22/19-20 x2)

Obviously feats like two-weapon combat and cleave would need to be addressed, but it's a work in progress.

B. Extra damage dice from things like enchantments (flaming, shock, etc), sneak attack, etc are applied to the attack once and not multiplied.

C. A roll of 18 or higher is always a hit, a roll of 3 or lower is always a miss, and a natural 1 prompts an immediate attack of opportunity from the creature being attacked.

D. Using special alchemy items like blinding powder, tanglefoot bags and thunderstone is a straight CMB roll against the enemies CMD. This represents 'skillful' use of these items and makes them useful to higher level characters. Otherwise the low saving throws they require makes them obsolete almost immediately.

These rules are meant to reward high level fighter types with the ability to deal more damage while avoiding multiple rolls and separate calculations eating up lots of time. The auto hit auto miss rules are intended to moderate the effects of armor class creep and make high level players wary of (and thus capable of being challenged by) encounters with large numbers of low level opponents. These rules are also intended to make fights last multiple rounds and avoid the 'whoever loses initiative gets samurai zinged' phenomenon which I see a lot of in high level play.

Questions and comments to improve on this idea and develop a fast-but-fair set of rules are greatly appreciated.