So I'm really getting tired of the "you must have magic weapons to succeed" mentality that comes along with D&D/Pathfinder/etc so I've been looking to Sword & Sorcery more, and with all the lore I learned about Hyboria from Age of Conan, I kinda fell in love with the idea of the setting.
And then I find out there's a d20 game, with changes to the system that are awesome and make sense? Armor grants reduction, and characters have attack/defense values based on personal choice?
I was overjoyed!
And then, as I'm reading through everything, it dawns on me: After a certain point, with the way attack bonuses stack up against defense values, you will eventually reach a point where your "high attack" classes will just automatically hit what they swing at.
Have any other Conan fans that play this game found a way to address this issue? It's honestly the only thing keeping me from playing the game.
Generally, I assume it is ideal if an average martial character hits at 100%(95%)/75%/50%/25% on a full attack. What is the breakdown here?
Those are probably fairly accurate numbers, but the issue becomes... an issue... because the system is designed to be much more deadly than a typical d20 game.
The rolling for HP stops at level 10, and after that, even the more combat-oriented classes only add 3hp/level.
Death from Massive Damage rolls are done at 20 damage instead of 50.
There are combat maneuvers that cause insta-dead (a decapitation maneuver stick most dominantly in my memory.)
Sorry I wasn't more clear on that in my first post. =?
Those are probably fairly accurate numbers, but the issue becomes... an issue... because the system is designed to be much more deadly than a typical d20 game.
The rolling for HP stops at level 10, and after that, even the more combat-oriented classes only add 3hp/level.
Death from Massive Damage rolls are done at 20 damage instead of 50.
There are combat maneuvers that cause insta-dead (a decapitation maneuver stick most dominantly in my memory.)Sorry I wasn't more clear on that in my first post. =?
I ran a campaign for my group in the Conan system and we had a blast of it. You're right in that it gets easier and easier to hit but you need to remember that Conan D20 also has a lot of DR built into it (unless I'm mis-remembering). When you don't have the help of a lot of magic to boost your damage, a team of guards in full plate can be a very scary thing for your players; not to mention the maneuvers previously mentioned. ;)
Less skeptical than before, but still kinda skeptical. :/
Clearly Full Plate will make a huge dent in that player's plans to wtfpwn something, but what about those players/enemies that want to be more mobile?
I really like their system for defense for finesse characters, but it's totally bulled over by high attack ratings.
As is, early attack ratings are too much of a "sure thing" but if you were to make the defenses better, then late attacks become impossible to hit with.
Now that I'm looking at the rules again, that 100%/75%/50%/25% assumption is pretty off.
The average Parry and/or Dodge defense is going to be a 10. Some classes have higher, some classes have lower. But the BaB values are the same as 3.X/Pathfinder - So, even after taking the few feat options there are, or equiping a shield, the chances to hit are more like:
100%/99%/75%/50% (Possibly even higher!)
And again, not every class is able/wants to don that Fullplate and play a Barbarian for uber reduction. Some classes are built to finesse, and that light armor doesn't reduce by all that much (not when you consider how often you're going to get hit anyway.)
:\
There are some feats to boost defense but the main thing is bad guys have the same problem to deal with.