Expanded Combat Tables

[jdjarvis]

I whipped up some expanded combat tables to cut out the need for in the hit roll during combat. I took a few liberties with the odds for some weapons for higher level characters that make them vary from the rulebook progression a little and added magic swords for high level magic-users for the Gandalf fans.


aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.com/2014/09/expanded-melee-attack-matrix.html

[Mike]

I've read the article but my tiny brain doesn't understand it. Could you explain further? How do these table remove the need for a die roll?

Ta

[oakesspalding]

Sure, you COULD have high-level Magic-Users use magic swords, but in that case you just wouldn't be playing SEVEN VOYAGES of ZYLARTHEN ™. You might as well be playing ZYLARTHEN and BEAVERS.

[oakesspalding]

That last post was of course a bad joke.

Having high-level Magic-Users be able to use magic swords is an interesting and attractive idea. I'm trying to think what the downside is, but in honesty I can't. In the 3LBB's only Fighting-Men can use such items. But in Zylarthen, Thieves, (the Cleric substitute) can use them as well (though they will be limited to the smaller number of neutral ones). So why not just open it up to everyone? Indeed it wouldn't be totally unreasonable to give it to Magic-Users from the beginning.

In Zylarthen, the difference between the attack capabilities of, say, Fighting-Men and Magic-Users (in terms of their to hit bonuses and the attack and damage differences between weapons) is not anywhere near as great as it is in, say, AD&D. Rather, there are more important reasons for Magic-Users not to get into melee engagements: 1) they can't use their spells, 2) their hit points are probably relatively low and 3) they're not wearing armor. So giving them the option to use magic swords wouldn't appear to unbalance things. Jumping into melee would usually be a bad idea anyway (as JD pointed out in his post). But it would leave open the potential for the occasional back-to-the-wall and/or epic Gandalf vs. the Balrog sorts of confrontations.

[jdjarvis]

Sept 24, 2014 8:38:34 GMT -6 Mike said:

I've read the article but my tiny brain doesn't understand it. Could you explain further? How do these table remove the need for a die roll?

Ta

they are expaneded tables that show what the hit rolls are for each weapon and class by the class levels. It just frees up the need to roll d20 and add the level and class based bonus to the attack roll.

[jdjarvis]

Sept 24, 2014 14:32:57 GMT -6 oakesspalding said:

That last post was of course a bad joke.

I thought it was funny.

[Mike]

Thanks Mr Jarvis. It makes perfect sense now...

[Mike]

Thanks Mr Jarvis. It makes perfect sense now...

[scottenkainen]

Interesting tables!

I just now noticed that the thief can use polearms in SEVEN. *picturing a thief climbing a wall with a big halberd in one hand*

[oakesspalding]

He can use them, but then he would have at least a medium encumbrance, which would mean he wouldn't be very good at climbing, although I suppose he could attempt it.

A character wishing to move quietly, climb a nearly vertical wall or engage in any other similar delicate task is usually advised to be unencumbered.

He couldn't Hide in Shadows with a medium encumbrance, but interestingly, if he somehow managed to get the jump on someone with his halberd, he would still get the surprise attack bonus.

[jdjarvis]

Sept 25, 2014 9:23:25 GMT -6 oakesspalding said:

He can use them, but then he would have at least a medium encumbrance, which would mean he wouldn't be very good at climbing, although I suppose he could attempt it.

A character wishing to move quietly, climb a nearly vertical wall or engage in any other similar delicate task is usually advised to be unencumbered.

He couldn't Hide in Shadows with a medium encumbrance, but interestingly, if he somehow managed to get the jump on someone with his halberd, he would still get the surprise attack bonus.

Many years ago while fake fighting I was pressing a fair number of foes, and doing ridiculously well I fell victim to a surprise polearm. There had been 3 or 4 of us against over a dozen and we were kicking butt, we chased these guys several hundred feet onto higher ground. Eventually it was just me facing 3 or 4 of guys on the other team and I was slowly probing at them and figuring out how to beat them (if i withdrew they could have surrounded and beat me) when an ally of theirs ran up on my flank and stabbed be with a (padded) polearm from between some trees on that flank I'd been using to keep folks from surrounding me. Darn pesky polearms can certainly get in surprise attacks.

Ninjas had access to a variety of freaky polearms, why not thieves?

[scottenkainen]

Glad to know more people did crazy stuff like that, jd! We used to call that "Death D&D" in high school, though no one was ever hurt worse than me getting a small cut on my forehead once. We'd sneak into a forest preserve at night, split off into pairs, and fight each other with padded weapons.

One of us, Steve, used to fight with a padded hockey stick and used it as a polearm. It was darn pesky -- in the dark, you could see where the pole was, but it was real hard to see where the "blade" of the weapon was and it could hit you when you were still blocking the pole.

I still think polearm fighting would kill a thief's chances of climbing walls or even hiding in shadows, but maybe a player would think the better damage/better chance to hit (depending on if you're playing D&D or SEVEN) would be worth the loss of some skills.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper