Post by calithena on Jul 11, 2007 8:59:42 GMT -6
I was talking with a friend about whether we would play OD&D or 3.5. One thing he liked about 3.5 was the complex combat with lots of options for action.
It's true that modern systems often have more complexity than older ones, but that doesn't mean you can only swing your sword and whack things in older games either. Open-ended games like OD&D, AD&D, Tunnels & Trolls, and many others in a sense have infinite combat options: what you can do is limited only by your imagination. But, on the other hand, I do remember times where players ran out of energy, and combat turned into a string of players muttering “I hit him with my sword” over and over until the hit points had finally drained away.
So it may be helpful to players and GMs to have some guidelines for alternative options to give more of a sense of choice in combat. Here is my attempt at such guidelines for OD&D. Comments are welcome; I plan to publish revised and updated versions of these guidelines on Lulu in the forthcoming "Advent Grimoire".
Aid Another: If a character wants to help someone else with something they are trying, and has a reasonable plan, the character being helped should get a bonus on their action: +2 on an attack roll, or +1 on a 1d6 task resolution roll.
Bull Rush: If you want to push a foe back instead of attacking, roll 1d6, with success on a 1-2 for normal sized foes, 1 for big foes like ogres or wyverns, and 0 (i.e. impossible unless you have bonuses) for giants, dragons, and the like. For each point below the target number your roll is, you can push them back an extra square so long as you move with them.
Disarm: If you want to knock someone’s weapon out of their hands, make a normal roll to hit. The DM may pose a penalty up to -4 on this roll based on an assessment of difficulty. If you succeed, you disarm your foe instead of doing damage.
Grab Item: Sometimes you may want to snatch something off someone’s belt, or perhaps even out of their hand. Roll 1d6 and get a 1-2 (possibly less, depending on circumstances) for success. If you want to grab after you disarm, you must make a successful disarm attack (see above) before making this roll.
Grapple: When one creature or group of creatures wants to overpower someone and grapple them, each attacker should make a normal hit roll. If this succeeds, the attackers receive one six-sided grapple die per hit die/level they possess. The defender gets his or her hit dice or level in grapple dice on defense. The defender may receive one or two bonus dice if they are much larger or stronger than the combined attackers. If the attackers win, the defender is considered grappled and held, and cannot move again as long as the grapplers hold on. If the grapplers have allies and the defender does not those allies may tie up or otherwise immobilize the defender. If the defender wins, all successful attackers are thrown off or pummeled, stunning them for the next melee round (i.e. they are prone and receive no movement, attacks, etc. for that round).
Impairing Attack: In addition to doing damage, you sometimes may want your attack to leave a visible scar, or cut someone above the eyes to impair their vision, or chop at their legs to impair movement. If you make your attack at -4, you may impair your target in addition to doing normal damage. Impairments tend to impose either (a) lasting cosmetic changes on a foe, (b) cut a foe’s movement in half, or (c) persistent -2 modifiers for all actions relevant to the impairment until the target has recovered from the wound in question.
Mighty Blow/Precise Strike: If an attacker accepts a -4 on his attack roll, he may do an extra d6 damage on a successful hit.
Overrun: If you want to move through a foe to get to someone else, the foe has a choice: he can either get out of your way (in which case keep going, as normal) or try to stop you. If he tries to stop you, both parties should make a d6 check as per Bull Rush, above. The mover must succeed to keep moving; if he succeeds, the entity he is overrunning is knocked prone. If the defender succeeds and the mover fails, the mover is knocked over. If both succeed or fail, the mover simply stops next to the defender , ending movement.
Subdue Foe: If desired, characters can try to beat a foe into submission rather than trying to kill them. Attacks are rolled normally. Successful attacks do no lasting damage, but hit points are tallied and at the end of the round (after all parties have acted) percentile dice are rolled proportionally to subdual damage to see if the creature surrenders. Optionally, a -2 modifier can be imposed on subdual attacks coming from weapons other than maces and clubs.
Sunder: If you want to break someone else’s weapon, your weapon must be appropriate for the job: daggers have trouble breaking anything. wood weapons generally cannot break metal ones, and magic weapons can generally only be broken by other magic weapons of equal or greater power. If your weapon meets these criteria, make a normal roll to hit. If you succeed and do 5 or more points of damage (plus 1 for each point of bonus or equivalent power where magic weapons are concerned), the opponent’s weapon is broken. The defending weapon-wielder does not take damage from the attack in any case.
Study Foe: If a character wants to spend a round probing defenses and searching for weaknesses in melee combat, or carefully aiming a missile weapon, and they have an opportunity to strike the same target next round, give them a +2 on their attack.
Targeted Attack: Sometimes you want to go for an unhelmeted head, or chop off an octopus’ tentacle, or shoot at a weak spot you noticed in the dragon’s underbelly. Such attacks may be made at -4, as desired. They do normal damage, but may wind up being more effective despite the penalty. An AC 9 unhelmeted head at -4 may be easier to hit than the AC 1 body wrapped in magic plate mail, for example.
Throw “Grenade”: Flaming oil, acid, holy water, and other such weapons can affect a wide area. If you throw it at a specific entity (a square occupied by that entity), make a normal roll to hit. If you throw it at an empty square, roll to hit AC 9. If you hit, the missile has its function with that square and/or entity at its center. If you miss, roll 1d8+1d4: the d8 determines direction (clockwise from ‘north’ or ‘up’ on the map, relative to the GM) and the d4 determines the number of squares it goes in that direction. Apply the effect as normal starting in that square (or directly on any entity in the square it went to). A 2 always misses with a ‘grenade’, and a 1 always means that the grenade has been fumbled and lands in a random spot of the DMs choosing, taking effect from there.
Trip: As per Bull Rush, this is where you try to knock your opponent off his feet. Make a d6 roll as per Bull Rush. Tripped foes need to get up, are sometimes more vulnerable to special attacks, and are easier to grapple (grapplers of a tripped foe may add 1d6 to their grapple total).
Two Weapon Fighting: Characters who want to fight with a weapon in either hand get a +1 to hit and do 1d6 damage (no matter what the two weapons are: two daggers, a rapier and main-gauche, or dual scimitars are all equally effective damage-wise). If one of the two weapons is magical it has its full effects on the hit and damage rolls. A second magical weapon raises the attack bonus for two-weapon fighting to +2, but only the higher of the two weapon’s bonuses may be counted in addition for attack and damage totals. However, if both weapons have special effects like flame, poison, etc., all those special effects may be assumed to be inflicted on the foe on a special attack.
It's true that modern systems often have more complexity than older ones, but that doesn't mean you can only swing your sword and whack things in older games either. Open-ended games like OD&D, AD&D, Tunnels & Trolls, and many others in a sense have infinite combat options: what you can do is limited only by your imagination. But, on the other hand, I do remember times where players ran out of energy, and combat turned into a string of players muttering “I hit him with my sword” over and over until the hit points had finally drained away.
So it may be helpful to players and GMs to have some guidelines for alternative options to give more of a sense of choice in combat. Here is my attempt at such guidelines for OD&D. Comments are welcome; I plan to publish revised and updated versions of these guidelines on Lulu in the forthcoming "Advent Grimoire".
Aid Another: If a character wants to help someone else with something they are trying, and has a reasonable plan, the character being helped should get a bonus on their action: +2 on an attack roll, or +1 on a 1d6 task resolution roll.
Bull Rush: If you want to push a foe back instead of attacking, roll 1d6, with success on a 1-2 for normal sized foes, 1 for big foes like ogres or wyverns, and 0 (i.e. impossible unless you have bonuses) for giants, dragons, and the like. For each point below the target number your roll is, you can push them back an extra square so long as you move with them.
Disarm: If you want to knock someone’s weapon out of their hands, make a normal roll to hit. The DM may pose a penalty up to -4 on this roll based on an assessment of difficulty. If you succeed, you disarm your foe instead of doing damage.
Grab Item: Sometimes you may want to snatch something off someone’s belt, or perhaps even out of their hand. Roll 1d6 and get a 1-2 (possibly less, depending on circumstances) for success. If you want to grab after you disarm, you must make a successful disarm attack (see above) before making this roll.
Grapple: When one creature or group of creatures wants to overpower someone and grapple them, each attacker should make a normal hit roll. If this succeeds, the attackers receive one six-sided grapple die per hit die/level they possess. The defender gets his or her hit dice or level in grapple dice on defense. The defender may receive one or two bonus dice if they are much larger or stronger than the combined attackers. If the attackers win, the defender is considered grappled and held, and cannot move again as long as the grapplers hold on. If the grapplers have allies and the defender does not those allies may tie up or otherwise immobilize the defender. If the defender wins, all successful attackers are thrown off or pummeled, stunning them for the next melee round (i.e. they are prone and receive no movement, attacks, etc. for that round).
Impairing Attack: In addition to doing damage, you sometimes may want your attack to leave a visible scar, or cut someone above the eyes to impair their vision, or chop at their legs to impair movement. If you make your attack at -4, you may impair your target in addition to doing normal damage. Impairments tend to impose either (a) lasting cosmetic changes on a foe, (b) cut a foe’s movement in half, or (c) persistent -2 modifiers for all actions relevant to the impairment until the target has recovered from the wound in question.
Mighty Blow/Precise Strike: If an attacker accepts a -4 on his attack roll, he may do an extra d6 damage on a successful hit.
Overrun: If you want to move through a foe to get to someone else, the foe has a choice: he can either get out of your way (in which case keep going, as normal) or try to stop you. If he tries to stop you, both parties should make a d6 check as per Bull Rush, above. The mover must succeed to keep moving; if he succeeds, the entity he is overrunning is knocked prone. If the defender succeeds and the mover fails, the mover is knocked over. If both succeed or fail, the mover simply stops next to the defender , ending movement.
Subdue Foe: If desired, characters can try to beat a foe into submission rather than trying to kill them. Attacks are rolled normally. Successful attacks do no lasting damage, but hit points are tallied and at the end of the round (after all parties have acted) percentile dice are rolled proportionally to subdual damage to see if the creature surrenders. Optionally, a -2 modifier can be imposed on subdual attacks coming from weapons other than maces and clubs.
Sunder: If you want to break someone else’s weapon, your weapon must be appropriate for the job: daggers have trouble breaking anything. wood weapons generally cannot break metal ones, and magic weapons can generally only be broken by other magic weapons of equal or greater power. If your weapon meets these criteria, make a normal roll to hit. If you succeed and do 5 or more points of damage (plus 1 for each point of bonus or equivalent power where magic weapons are concerned), the opponent’s weapon is broken. The defending weapon-wielder does not take damage from the attack in any case.
Study Foe: If a character wants to spend a round probing defenses and searching for weaknesses in melee combat, or carefully aiming a missile weapon, and they have an opportunity to strike the same target next round, give them a +2 on their attack.
Targeted Attack: Sometimes you want to go for an unhelmeted head, or chop off an octopus’ tentacle, or shoot at a weak spot you noticed in the dragon’s underbelly. Such attacks may be made at -4, as desired. They do normal damage, but may wind up being more effective despite the penalty. An AC 9 unhelmeted head at -4 may be easier to hit than the AC 1 body wrapped in magic plate mail, for example.
Throw “Grenade”: Flaming oil, acid, holy water, and other such weapons can affect a wide area. If you throw it at a specific entity (a square occupied by that entity), make a normal roll to hit. If you throw it at an empty square, roll to hit AC 9. If you hit, the missile has its function with that square and/or entity at its center. If you miss, roll 1d8+1d4: the d8 determines direction (clockwise from ‘north’ or ‘up’ on the map, relative to the GM) and the d4 determines the number of squares it goes in that direction. Apply the effect as normal starting in that square (or directly on any entity in the square it went to). A 2 always misses with a ‘grenade’, and a 1 always means that the grenade has been fumbled and lands in a random spot of the DMs choosing, taking effect from there.
Trip: As per Bull Rush, this is where you try to knock your opponent off his feet. Make a d6 roll as per Bull Rush. Tripped foes need to get up, are sometimes more vulnerable to special attacks, and are easier to grapple (grapplers of a tripped foe may add 1d6 to their grapple total).
Two Weapon Fighting: Characters who want to fight with a weapon in either hand get a +1 to hit and do 1d6 damage (no matter what the two weapons are: two daggers, a rapier and main-gauche, or dual scimitars are all equally effective damage-wise). If one of the two weapons is magical it has its full effects on the hit and damage rolls. A second magical weapon raises the attack bonus for two-weapon fighting to +2, but only the higher of the two weapon’s bonuses may be counted in addition for attack and damage totals. However, if both weapons have special effects like flame, poison, etc., all those special effects may be assumed to be inflicted on the foe on a special attack.
