Hello folks. I'm looking into starting a play-by-post sometime in the eventual future, and I'm... Not the biggest fan of working with maps online. As such, I'm looking to simplify things on myself, and would like some advice on one of the major changes I'm making in this regard.
You see, I'm taking a bit of inspiration from some of the other systems I've played in, and just taking out the placement requirements for flanking. Instead of having to be directly across from another ally, I'm just going to have it so that someone engaging the same person gets the normal flanking bonus and anything else resulting from it. While I can see some of the imbalance that comes from this action, I think it serves as a slightly more accurate representation as well. What would your thoughts be on the matter, and would you have any other suggestions if you disagree with this approach?
When it is 2 medium creatures attacking a single medium enemy, the defending one will naturally have to avoid attacks from all kinds of directions. So I can see it being reasonable for 2 medium creatures to be overwhelming another medium creature regardless of where they are standing. But the same is not true for larger creatures. A large troll facing 2 humans from the front does only need to keep his focus to the front.
I would say that the normal rules for flanking apply when the size of the defender is greater than the size of (all) the attackers.
Just imagine yourself being assaulted by two very aggressive toddlers from the front. You know where you have them, and their blows won't get out of your field of vision.
Much easier to handle than being assaulted by the parents of the toddlers when you defeat them.