I'd like to make helmets somewhat more important in game mechanics. Same thing for shields.
I'm not happy with the stats for crossbows. They are too fast to reload and too weak in effect. I'm think that I will slow the reload time while increasing the damage and adding an armor penetration ability.
My campaign has gunpowder tech at a late medieval level. Some soliders carry hand cannon. I'll need to find or make (probably make, as most designs I've seen make guns either worthless or way too potent).
simple hand-gonne=
- less accurate than a crossbow
- not slower to load than a crossbow
- does NOT have a touch attack, but does get better penetration than the heavy crossbow gets.
- does good damage but lacks exploding damage die
- misfires on a natural 1- but I'm going to use fumbles for other weapons, too.
- NOT hellishly expensive
- simple weapon , but may require a week or two of training/practice to obtain familiarity
I will follow this post up with some crunch, but first I'd like to get some general feedback from the community. Am I reinventing the wheel? Has someone already addressed these matters in PF optional rules?
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I'd like to make helmets somewhat more important in game mechanics. Same thing for shields.
I'm not happy with the stats for crossbows. They are too fast to reload and too weak in effect. I'm think that I will slow the reload time while increasing the damage and adding an armor penetration ability.
I will follow this post up with some crunch, but first I'd like to get some general feedback from the community. Am I reinventing the wheel? Has someone already addressed these matters in PF optional rules?
Helmets
I use optional rules for helmets. I also create a lot of unique magical helmets and masterwork ones for players.Open Face
- +1 AC, -2 Perception, -1 Ref Save, 0 ACP
Enclosed
- +2 AC, -4 Perception, -2 Ref Save, 1 ACP
Minus to perception and reflex due to ears being covered, smaller field of vision, and harder to react since less time to notice.
Shields
I think shields are well covered with abilities and feats. I give any character holding a shield the partial cover bonus to Ref saves, +1. Except a tower shield gives the normal cover bonus to Ref saves, +2. I create quite a few magical shields in my campaigns that my players enjoy, since the core rules don't have many.
Crossbows
They are simple weapons and so should not be too good. I think they are well in line with the rest of the simple weapons. I saw somewhere a guy had used a house rule that a hand crossbow reduces natural or armor (not shield) AC by 1, light x-bow by 2, and heavy x-bow by 3. By just reducing the armor's AC, you are more likely to get a hit and replicate piercing the armor.
Thanks for the suggestions.