4 réponses à ce sujet

[Ubai]

I'm thinking about fiddling with the way armor works as part of a plan to make non-spellcasters more viable. Unless you get really draconian with resting rules, it is always better to play a spellcasting hybrid, and I'd really like to see a more level playing field.

 

All other things being equal, I feel that a spellcaster should have a big advantage at range . A rogue who surprises a mage or a fighter type should have a big advantage when they get the drop on them, and a fighter should rule the roost in hand to hand combat. Obviously this shouldn't be 100% true all the time, but you get the picture.

 

To that end, I am thinking of adding some universal damage reduction to the various armors, as well as some appropriate elemental resistances. Metal armor should resist fire, for instance, and leather should be more resistant to electricity. 

 

I realize that tweaking the armor won't solve the balance problem by itself, but I think it may be a good place to start, but I would welcome any suggestions or arguments for or against.

 

Thanks,

Matt

[rjshae]

SKR argued that armor as DR isn't worth the work. But I'm interested in seeing how it works out for you.

[Ubai]

Thank you for the link, it was an interesting read! However, I feel that the author draws some erroneous conclusions. Take given number 2 for instance:

"Given #2: If you have a wide range of DR values for armor, it means that some weapons that don't normally do a lot of damage (such as the dagger) won't be able to hurt high-DR foes unless they crit. For example, if you give full plate DR 8, it means a person with a dagger can't ever hurt someone in full plate (barring Strength and other bonuses to damage), when historically that wasn't true at all ... it was hard, but a skilled person can find the gaps in the armor"

 

I agree that a dagger normally can't do much against a suit of full plate. In the middle ages, a lot of daggers were made to pierce the joints of plate armor, but mostly they were used after said knight had been knocked over and bludgeoned with things like maces and goedentags. If I remember correctly Richard III died this way, he got knocked over and a few of his foes opened up his visor and inserted knives.

However, D&D is a fantasy setting, so a skilled dagger user can hurt a plate wearer, and I think this is amply covered by the sneak attack system for rogues and the weapon improving feats for fighters.

 

I also take issue with given number three: light armor should be much less effective than plate. However, I do think that all armors should have different strengths and weaknesses. Plate armor, for instance, should have be less resistant to bludgeoning damage, and chain should be less resistant to piercing damage. Leather and padded armor should have very little DR, but I think I may make studded a little bit slash resistant just for flavor.

 

Given number four doesn't appear to take front-loading and alpha strikes into account so I disagree with his conclusions there as well.

 

Basically, the current system in NWN2 allows light armor hybrids to be far more durable than the tankiest of fighters, and that just doesn't make sense to me. A properly geared paladin or fighter in full plate should be significantly harder to injure in combat, such that a rogue or wizard that doesn't get the drop on them is in real trouble. I think this will make the game much more tactically rich once I get all the numbers tweaked.

 

In any event, I hope to throw something together once I've finished the gun hak I'm working on, then we can put my plan to the test!

[Happycrow]

Yup. I've done custom systems on two different PWs to handle this sort of thing.

 

Here's what I've found:

 

First off, DON'T use DR. It conflicts with too many hardcoded things.  Use % Damage Immunity instead.

Second, make sure that any AC bonuses due to multiple armor parts (helmet, boots, gloves), are set up in a way that standard cleric buffs cannot stack, or else you've simply increased the advantage that clerics have over fighters.

Third, Base Defense Bonus implemented as dodge AC can be used as an optional system (it's been around d20 forever) that can be scaled in such a way to strongly favor the full-bab classes and put them on a much more even footing.  (for example:  set BDB= 0.5 * BAB, round down. It doesn't look like a big difference, but when PCs are "playing at the edges," a single point of AC can be the difference between "trashed" and "completely untouched except for that one unconfirmed crit.") We're not using this on my current PW but I'm a big fan of it because it really helps non-casters to even up in the survival front.

Fourth, if you do it, armor needs to cut movement speed.

 

We plan to gleefully benefit from your gun work, and if you want to see what we've done over at Tales of Moonsea I'll happily hook you up with my scripter guys. (or you can just DL it ofc)

[Ubai]

Thanks very much! You've given me a lot to think about. As for the gun project I hope to release a basic version this weekend since I have some time off.

-Matt