Avayevnon: Prototypes and Testing of Firearms & Combat ideas

[Seraph]

[ooc]So I've been working and testing crunchy bits to see how they work together, and I'm thinking it's begining to come together. This may not be the final product, as Rael has convinced me to at least look at TRoS as an alternate system, but this is what I have thus far.  I would appreciate comments, expecially by those who understand and are good with Crunch.[/ooc]

Firearms
Firearms are a relatively new invention, but the Issachar Empire and its smiths have invested a great deal of time and effort into their perfection.  While initial designs proved to have low accuracy rates, improvements in the production of bullets and barrels have improved their accuracy greatly.  Firearms have become a major export of the Issachar Empire, although other nations have attempted technological independence by developing their own firearms.  These tend to be of lesser quality, jamming more frequently, or inferior in power or accuracy.  

Of the Firearms produced by the Issachar Empire, the Harquebus is the best seller.  Because it is usable with minimal training'"with the use of a tripod'"it is favored by many countries seeing the potential in fielding soldiers in less time, and having effective anti-cavalry weapons.  Issachar currently exports the Harquebus to Verlan, Caervenfor, and Ithegra en masse, with smaller and less regular shipments to Bizhentluus, and as far south as Lythen and Fer Khemer.  The Fjal Othilans do not tend to purchase firearms for cultural reasons, and in Cirrellus they are unpopular because they are difficult to use from horseback, although their cavalry occasionally order shipments of pistols.

Sidearm
Arquebus'"A long barreled gun that can be unwieldy to use without a tripod or rigorous training.  Capable of penetrating Plate Armor at close range.  An arquebus used with a tripod is treated as a simple weapon, but used without one it is treated as an exotic weapon.  Reloading an arquebus is a full round action.
Bullet'"This is the basic ammunition for pistols and arquebusses.  It could also be launched effectively from a sling.
Grapeshot'"This ammunition for the hand cannon consists of several small lead balls fired at once.  It is considered to make an attack on each target within a 20 ft. spread, but is very inaccurate, giving a -4 to hit due to the way the balls ricochet along the barrel before exiting.  It ideals 1d6 damage on a hit.
Hand Cannon'"When it comes to firearms, the hand cannon is the most simplistic in design.  As the name suggests, it is nothing more than a small cannon.  It is a muzzle-loader ignited by match.  Because of the hand cannon's comparatively large barrel, it has options that others firearms don't:  for example, the hand cannon can fire a single shot, accurate and powerful, or a spray of grapeshot, which emits a spray capable of hitting multiple foes, but at the expense of range and power.  It is difficult to both hold and ignite a hand cannon, and as such, aim often suffers.  Therefore it is considered an exotic weapon.  After firing, a hand cannon takes a full round to clean, and a full round to reload.
Pistol'"The pistol is a smaller, more refined weapon than the hand cannon. It is used for personal defense at short range, but inaccurate at longer ranges. It takes a full round action to reload.
Single shot'"This ammunition for the hand cannon is a heavy projectile attacking one target within range of the hand cannon for 2d6 damage.

 [table=Firearms] [tr] [td] Item[/td][td] Size[/td][td] Damage[/td][td] Critical[/td][td] Range Increment[/td] [td]Type[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Hand Cannon[/td][td] Medium[/td][td] *[/td] [td] x 3[/td][td] 20 ft[/td] [td] Bludgeoning[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Single Shot[/td][td] -[/td][td] 2d6[/td][td] -[/td][td] -[/td] [td] Ammunition[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Grapeshot[/td][td] -[/td][td] 1d6 spread[/td][td] -[/td][td] -[/td] [td] Ammunition[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Arquebus[/td][td] Large[/td][td] 1d12[/td][td] x 3[/td][td] 50 ft.[/td] [td] Bludgeoning[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Pistol[/td][td] Small[/td][td] 1d8[/td][td] 19-20 x 2[/td][td] 20 ft.[/td] [td] Bludgeoning[/td][/tr][/table]

Armor and Defense
There are two ways to avoid taking damage:  Armor is one, Defense is the other.  In fact, the two are not mutually exclusive, although most favor one over the other.   Defense represents your ability to avoid being hit, and Armor prevents you from taking damage.  A swashbuckling duelist is going to favor defense over Armor, while a knight of the realm is likely to favor the opposite.   [note]Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, Parry, and Dodge are now skills.  Since I had been incorporating dueling which, with parrying, had turned the attack roll into an opposed check, coupled with the similarities between attack rolls and skill checks, I decided it made more sense to simply turn attacking into a skill, so that one mechanic could cover everything.[/note]

Defense
When your opponent makes an attack roll, you make a defense roll.

The melee attack roll is: d20+MeleeAttack + STR Mod + Misc. Modifiers
The ranged attack roll is: d20+Ranged Attack + DEX Mod + Misc. Modifiers

The melee defense roll is: d20 + Parry + STR Mod + Misc. Modifiers
The ranged defense roll is d20 + Reflex + DEX Mod + Misc. Modifiers

The exception to the melee defense roll is that if a character is using a weapon for which he has Weapon Finesse, he applies his Dexterity Modifier to the defense roll, rather than his Strength.
 [ooc]I had at one point thought to consolidate Melee attack and Parry into a single Close Combat skill, but I found that this created a drawback for lightly armored combatants.  The highly armored combatants had equal Defense bonuses AND took reduced damage due to their armor.  I decided that by splitting them up and having Parry be a class skill of lightly armored classes and cross-class for armored classes, it would even out.  I have not fully gone through all scenarios, so this may produce new problems.  Should Armor Check Penalty be applied to Parry and Reflex, perhaps?[/ooc]
 [table=Skills] [tr] [td] Class[/td][td] Melee Attack[/td][td] Ranged Attack[/td][td] Reflex [/td][td] Parry[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Alchemist[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Berserker[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Bard[/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Cleric [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Druid [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Fighter [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Monk [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Paladin [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][td] Class Skill [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Ranger [/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Rogue [/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Swashbuckler [/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Cross-Class [/td][td] Class Skill[/td][td] Class Skill[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Witch/Mystic (Arcane caster) [/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][td] Cross-Class[/td][/tr][/table]
 [ooc]These I am not sure are properly balanced.  Bard I did not give any as class skills since the Jack of All Trades is master of None.  The Fighter and some other classes I did not give Reflex and Parry because they have their armor to protect them more than the lightly armored classes that rely on Reflex and Parry.  There are a few instances where I was unsure as to which side to err on for any given class, and it is very possible that I veered to the wrong side in some cases.[/ooc]

Armor
The popularity of armor has decreased, due to the emergence of firearms on the scene.  When nations go to war with the knowledge that the enemy possesses weapons capable of easily piercing all but the strongest protection, demand for an encumbering metal suit has a tendency to lessen.  This is not to say that all forms of protection have been abandoned completely, however.  Light armors capable of offering defense in melee are still popular, and with armor going out of style, fighters learn to protect themselves.  Bucklers and parrying daggers have increased in popularity, as have protective leathers and padding.    The wealthy still purchase plate armor, as even the harquebus has trouble penetrating platemail at range.  Platemail is expensive, though, and the common folk cannot afford to buy it for themselves, nor can most states afford to buy it for them.   Considering it is not uncommon for a noble to seek his plate armor from a local smith, there is not enough demand for Issacharian Platemail for it to be considered a major export.   [note]In playtesting it quickly became clear that certain weapons simply were not going to penetrate certain armors.  A longsword needed a Critical Hit AND a high damage roll to inflict damage on someone in Full Plate.  I have since considered--though I have not ultimately decided--reworking Critical hits.  I had considered having a critical hit simply bypass Armor DR.  The advantage would be that there would always be at least a small chance to deal damage to someone with any weapon.  Without this rule, a dagger could NEVER harm someone in full plate.  The disadvantage to this is that the kind of weapons that already ignore DR gain no further benefit from a Critical hit.  Suggestions?[/note]

 [table=Armor] [tr] [td] Armor[/td][td] Damage Reduction [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Light Armor[/td][td] -[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Padded[/td][td] DR 2/Piercing [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Leather[/td][td] DR 3/Bludgeoning [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Studded Leather[/td][td] DR 3/Slashing [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Chain Shirt[/td][td] DR 4/Piercing[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Medium Armor[/td][td] -[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Hide[/td][td] DR 4/Bludgeoning [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Scale Mail[/td][td] DR 5/Slashing [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Chainmail[/td][td] DR 5/Piercing [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Breastplate[/td][td] DR 5/Bludgeoning [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Heavy Armor[/td][td] -[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Splint Mail[/td][td] DR 7/Piercing [/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Banded Mail[/td][td] DR 7/Slashing[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Half Plate[/td][td] DR 8/Bludgeoning[/td][/tr]
[tr] [td] Full Plate[/td][td] DR 9/Bludgeoning[/td][/tr][/table]

[Nomadic]

First off, I really like this. The defense + armor thing seems to mesh well.

On the DR thing, I think it makes sense. I mean how often is a dagger going to go through plate armor? If you want every weapon to always deal some damage you could limit it so armor lowers damage to as low as 1 provided they beat the defense roll. So they will always take 1 damage at least on a successful hit.

[Seraph]

First off, I really like this. The defense + armor thing seems to mesh well.

On the DR thing, I think it makes sense. I mean how often is a dagger going to go through plate armor? If you want every weapon to always deal some damage you could limit it so armor lowers damage to as low as 1 provided they beat the defense roll. So they will always take 1 damage at least on a successful hit.

The idea was not necessarily to have every weapon always deal damage, but to have every weapon always have a chance of dealing some damage.  But your suggestion might be the best way to go about that anyway.

[Loch Belthadd]

Maybe if you beat their defense by a certain amount you ignore the armor bonus. This would represent finding weak spots in the armor such as joints.

[Seraph]

Maybe if you beat their defense by a certain amount you ignore the armor bonus. This would represent finding weak spots in the armor such as joints.

I had considered this, or a variant of this, when I was considering having Critical hits ignore armor.  For the sake of streamlining I was playing with the pretty standard "beat/beaten by 5" rule.  I quickly noticed, however, that this led to a ridiculous amound of Critical hits.  Regardless of whether it was a critical hit that did this or simply some other mechanic, this still results in armor being useless half the time.  Also, I believe the idea of a critical hit was always about hitting them in just the right spot, so having a separtate idea relating to finding a joint or a chink becomes redundant.