My Own Fantasy Heartbreaker

[vito]

So I'm designing my own fantasy heartbreaker. I just have to get it out of my system.
Would this be a good place to post ideas, ask questions, and get feedback? If not, thanks.

A sample:

Melee Combat Table
When attacking a target in melee, roll one six sided die then consult the following table to see if you hit.
1. Parried and Riposted
You miss your target, and the target gets to make a free attack against you.
2. Whoops!
You miss your target and make another attack roll targeting an ally of your choice. If you do not have an ally in this melee, the attack simply counts as a complete miss.
3. Complete Miss
You completely miss your target.
4. Narrow Miss
You narrowly miss your target.
5. Hit!
Roll your weapon's damage dice and add all modifiers to the result. You deal that much damage to your target (not to exceed the target's armor class).
6. Critical Hit!
You deal damage to the target equal to the maximum value of your weapon's damage dice plus modifiers (not to exceed the target's armor class).

(AC works differently here. It doesn't determine your chance to hit, but instead the maximum amount of damage that you can deal to the target with a normal attack. Damage dealt by spells is not limited by AC however.)

[kesher]

Seems like a fine thread to me!

Also, this is a pretty unique system! A few thoughts:

If this is a normal attack roll, and you get a 2, so you need to roll to attack an ally, do you roll on the same table? If so, I assume if you get a 1, your ally doesn't actually riposte? I mean, unless yo deserve it...

What about a Narrow Miss giving a bonus of one to you next roll? Sort of a temporary advantage thing?

I'm also interested to hear more about how you're dealing with armor--I'm intrigued!

[vito]

Apr 4, 2011 8:55:16 GMT -6 kesher said:

Seems like a fine thread to me!

Also, this is a pretty unique system! A few thoughts:

If this is a normal attack roll, and you get a 2, so you need to roll to attack an ally, do you roll on the same table? If so, I assume if you get a 1, your ally doesn't actually riposte? I mean, unless yo deserve it...

Good catch! I'll have to work in some sort of clause about that. Maybe the ally still gets an option to riposte if they really want to.

What about a Narrow Miss giving a bonus of one to you next roll? Sort of a temporary advantage thing?

That could be pretty cool. My original though was to have narrow misses interact with certain weapons, spells, and classes. If you are playing as an elf for example, you get to turn narrow misses into hits when attacking with a bow or sword.

I'm also interested to hear more about how you're dealing with armor--I'm intrigued!

I'm still working on that. My initial thought was to use armor class as a damage cap, but I'm concerned that it might put bigger weapons at a disadvantage. I'm also wondering how that's going to work if, for example, a giant steps on you. Does that damage get reduced to 1 if you have an AC of 1? I'm going to have to put a little more thought into this.

I was thinking of using rerolls to represent accuracy or clumsiness with weapons.
If you are accurate with a weapon, you roll twice and keep the result you prefer. If you are clumsy with a weapon, you roll twice but the referee choses the one they prefer. If you are neither accurate or clumsy you only roll once.

There will be a ranged combat table too.
It will be a lot like the melee combat table except that the 'Parry and Riposte' part is replaced with 'Too Slow' (The enemy may shoot you first or make a charge attack before you get the chance to let an arrow loose.)

Magical attacks will also use a similar table with a spell backfire.

[Finarvyn]

Sounds like you've got some neat ideas. Here is fine, or maybe the Workshop section.

[Azafuse]

Nice and easy rules to play with.

BTW, I'd try to avoid as much as possible a "loop" of results #1 and #2, using some boundary conditions.

[vito]

Thanks.
I already have a (very) rough draft written up in my notebook. I'll see about typing that up in Word and posting it to Google docs sometime.

For now, here's a preview of the dwarf class!

Dwarf
Dwarfs are like small bearded men. Smaller than a dog even! They aren't like ordinary small bearded men though. They are magical creatures that live in caves. They collect rocks and drink beer, and slay anyone or anything that tries to take their rocks or their beer away from them.

Levelling Up
Dwarfs gain xp when they drink. 1xp is gained for every 1sp spent on beer. They must drink the beer.
Dwarfs gain xp when they craft. Dwarfs gain 2xp for each 1sp worth of materials used upon completion of a crafted item or construction.
Dwarfs gain xp when they slay giants. Whenever an adventuring party including at least one dwarf takes down a giant, they gain an additional 15xp per hit die of the slain enemy. This includes both enemies of the giant category (goblins, orcs, etc.) and enemies of the giant size category (dragons, whales, etc.) as well as unually large vermin (giant rats, giant centipedes, giant flees, etc.)

Features:

Small but Tough
Dwarfs eat lava and poop vengeance.
They gain a +1 bonus to constitution at first level.
They gain an addtitional +1 bonus to constitution each time they gain a level.

Giant Stomper
Dwarfs like weapons that are larger than they are, but they hate creatures that are larger than they are.
Whenever a dwarf attacks with a great weapon (such as a two-handed battle-axe or war-hammer) the dwarf rolls twice and keeps the preferred result.
Whenever a dwarf hits a giant enemy with an attack, the dwarf deals additional bonus damage equal to their level.

Dweomer
Dwarfs can speak and write the dwarfish language of dweomer.
This allows them to craft weapons and armor.


Optional Features (to be added at the DM's discretion)

Ancestral Recall
Did you hear that John Boorman, director of Excalibur, was also going to direct a Lord of the Rings movie? It was never made. Apparently they wrote a script for it though.
Anyway, there would have been a part of the movie where they put Gimli in a hole, cover him with a cloak, and beat him until he remembers the ancient dwarven language. Or something like that anyway.
Once per day, dwarfs may dig a hole and lay down inside it in order to communicate with their dead ancestors. The ancestors can give hints if the DM's puzzles are too hard.

Dwarf Senses
Dwarfs can smell gold and diamonds as well as other metals and stones. Their smell is precise enough to determine both the type of mineral and its general location.
Dwarfs can also smell sloping corridors and compass direction.
Dwarf senses can also detect the presence and direction of giant enemies.

Dwarfish Beardliness
As dwarfs get older, their beards grow. They also grow wiser. Therefore, beard length equals knowledge. This explains why humans are only dimly intelligent, and why elfs are really stupid.
Dwarfs take a -2 penalty to charisma.
They add their level to their charisma for purposes of determining reaction and morale bonuses when dealing with other dwarfs.

Laser Vision
The dwarf can cast the laser eyes spell once per day.

Elf Eater
Dwarfs hate elfs. Stupid jingle-belled fops prancing around like they own the place. Tell dwarfs not to chop the trees down? Dwarfs chop you down!
Whenever a dwarf hits a faerie enemy with an attack, the dwarf deals additional bonus damage equal to their level.
Whenever an adventuring party including at least one dwarf slays a faerie, they gain an additional 15xp per hit die of the slain enemy.

[Azafuse]

Levelling Up reminds me TSoY's - or other FUDGE based games' - Keys; I suppose that's just 1 way to earn XP and not the only way.

[tombowings]

I think this is now my favorite description of dwarves I have every read

Nice work

[kesher]

Ancestral Recall
Did you hear that John Boorman, director of Excalibur, was also going to direct a Lord of the Rings movie? It was never made. Apparently they wrote a script for it though.
Anyway, there would have been a part of the movie where they put Gimli in a hole, cover him with a cloak, and beat him until he remembers the ancient dwarven language. Or something like that anyway.
Once per day, dwarfs may dig a hole and lay down inside it in order to communicate with their dead ancestors. The ancestors can give hints if the DM's puzzles are too hard.

What??? What? I'm still laughing about that...

That ability is now firmly added to dwarves in my campaign. Forever.

[talysman]

Apr 8, 2011 10:16:41 GMT -6 kesher said:

Ancestral Recall
Did you hear that John Boorman, director of Excalibur, was also going to direct a Lord of the Rings movie? It was never made. Apparently they wrote a script for it though.
Anyway, there would have been a part of the movie where they put Gimli in a hole, cover him with a cloak, and beat him until he remembers the ancient dwarven language. Or something like that anyway.
Once per day, dwarfs may dig a hole and lay down inside it in order to communicate with their dead ancestors. The ancestors can give hints if the DM's puzzles are too hard.

What??? What? I'm still laughing about that...

That ability is now firmly added to dwarves in my campaign. Forever.

Need a mechanic for that? You can steal from my ancestral memory sage class.

[coffee]

Apr 8, 2011 10:16:41 GMT -6 kesher said:

Ancestral Recall
Did you hear that John Boorman, director of Excalibur, was also going to direct a Lord of the Rings movie? It was never made. Apparently they wrote a script for it though.
Anyway, there would have been a part of the movie where they put Gimli in a hole, cover him with a cloak, and beat him until he remembers the ancient dwarven language. Or something like that anyway.
Once per day, dwarfs may dig a hole and lay down inside it in order to communicate with their dead ancestors. The ancestors can give hints if the DM's puzzles are too hard.

What??? What? I'm still laughing about that...

That ability is now firmly added to dwarves in my campaign. Forever.

Is THAT what they mean when they say "take a dirt nap?"

[Finarvyn]

Apr 7, 2011 5:44:29 GMT -6 @vito said:

Dweomer
Dwarfs can speak and write the dwarfish language of dweomer.
This allows them to craft weapons and armor.

This may be a little confusing to some. Didn't Gary use the word Dweomer to represent a high level spell? Also calling it a language may mix people up a little...

[Deleted]

Perhaps an alternate spelling and minor alteration would help: dwimmer-tongue.

[vito]

Dwimmer-Tongue... I like it!

It looks like that pdf I promised is going to be a ways off.
After having a bit of a minor epiphany, I've decided to completely restructure and rewrite all of the classes.
All the stuff I posted for the dwarf already will still be there, but things are going to fit together a bit differently.

Here's how I'm going about it:

Each class will have primary features, secondary features, and 'other' features.
Primary features are at the core of each class. They establish prime requisites, hit dice, level progression, and one or two special abilities that make the classes distinct from one another.
Secondary features are groups of smaller abilities that support the primary features and flesh out each classes flavor.
Other features are optional miscellaneous things that don't quite fit into the hierarchy of primary and secondary features.

Each class will have one or two subclasses you can take if special requirements are met. With a subclass, you swap out your classes secondary features for a special alternate set of secondary features. Subclasses can also affect your other features. Your primary features remain unchanged.

When you multiclass, you chose a primary class and a secondary class. You take the primary features of your primary class, the secondary features of your secondary class, and mash 'em together. You can also gain all the other features from both classes (at the DM's discretion).

The classes will include:

Fighting Men
Like normal men, except that instead of having jobs, families, and responsibilities, they just fight all the time.

Magic Users
Gain magical powers from Faustian bargains with leprechauns and unicorns and things.

Clerics
Annoying religious guys that wave crosses around and splash people with water. They have the power to repel undead, demons, and ordinary people.

Dwarves
Belligerent creatures that get drunk in caves.

Elves
Pointy eared fancy people with swords and magic.

Hoppits
Similar to but legally distinct from hobbits.

also

Dragons
Because why not?

and

Robots
With LASERS!

[kesher]

Magic Users
Gain magical powers from Faustian bargains with leprechauns and unicorns and things.

I would TOTALLY make a Faustian bargain with a leprechaun. Like, right now.

[vito]

Apr 13, 2011 8:33:23 GMT -6 kesher said:

Magic Users
Gain magical powers from Faustian bargains with leprechauns and unicorns and things.

I would TOTALLY make a Faustian bargain with a leprechaun. Like, right now.

Like Stormbringer, except with horseshoe-shaped marshmallows in every bite!