Hey, Paizo Community,
I've been working on a pen and paper RPG that's currently going by the name "Wayfarer Project", which is a d20 OGL RPG based on PFRPG's version of the OGL, and I've run into a bit of a snag that I'm hoping some of you may have a solution to.
I've more or less completely gutted the combat system out and replaced it with something of my own design. To put things simply, AC is out the door, as is Base Attack Bonus.
In place of AC, you have Dodge and Defense. Dodge acts as what AC once was - it's the score that enemies have to roll to hit you. Defense, on the other hand, is more like damage reduction. Armor has 3 defense values, some armor has 4.
Blunt, Slashing, Piercing and Magic defense. Blunt damage is reduced by the "Blunt" Defense score, Slashing damage is reduced by the "Slashing" defense score, so on, and so forth.
Armor is protective, but also heavy, so armor check penalty applies to your dodge - meaning it's easier for enemies to hit you, but harder for them to hurt you while you're wearing armor.
My main problem is that Dodge isn't high enough to justify NOT wearing armor, because it's still calculated similarly to touch AC:
10 + Dexterity Modifier + Shield + Misc things.
I'm still in the middle of rewriting/removing/changing things, so you can assume that things that raise AC would instead raise Dodge (like the Dodge feat, for example).
The other problem is directly related to the system I've put in place to change attack bonuses and proficiencies. Your attack bonus comes from something called "Weapon skills". There are currently 8 weapon skills, and every weapon falls into a certain skill category. Longswords would fall into Light Blades, Maces fall into Blunt, etc.
When you attack with a weapon, you add the weapon skill of the category it fits in.
Every level you gain a 3 Training Points. Training points can be used to buy proficiencies with weapons, but also used to increase your weapon skill ranks to a maximum (Currently) of your Level + 4.
At first level, you could have a minmaxed fighter swinging with an attack bonus of +10 (+5 from 20 strength, +5 from weapon skill) which means that you'd have a near guarantee of hitting anyone without a particularly high dodge, and as you get higher level, your dodge would start to become less and less adequate...
I've considered lowering the weapon skill max to Level + 2, but that only helps so much. What I'm saying, basically, is that Dodge isn't as viable as I want it to be, and I need help making it moreso without making armor also useless.
http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/47326694/Combat%20Rules
http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/77468831/Training%20Points
http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/77334821/Combat%20Scores
http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/77327939/Character%20Stats
Here are links to the current system docs for my game, If you could take a look and give me your thoughts, I'd be most appreciative.
Thanks.
P.S. If you like the idea, I have a facebook page made for it at facebook.com/wayfarerrpg