Camdin's Combat Tweaks

[Camdin]

I have gotten a chance now to playtest my combat tweaks, and I've refined them a little. The players in my chron like these rules for their simplicity as well as their chance for inflicting lethal injury. They don't even mind that the rules get used against them.

I wrote these rules following the suggestion in the Core Book that a Narrator come up with some way to reward Exceptional Successes in combat. Further, I don't really like the "one-hit opponent" concept. I understand where the idea comes from, but it just doesn't work for me.

Here goes. Comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms are all welcome.


Combat and Injury
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A character or NPC that makes a successful attack rolls damage as follows:

Marginal Success: Graze. The attack hits, but deals 1d6 less damage. If the weapon normally only deals 1d6 of damage, the roll on that die is halved. Only the roll is halved, not the attacker’s Strength bonus or any bonuses inherent to the weapon.

Complete Success: Hit. The attack hits and deals normal damage for the weapon.

Superior Success: Solid Bow. The attack deals an extra 1d6 damage.

Exceptional Success: Mighty Blow. The attack deals an extra 1d6 damage, and the attacker is allowed to re-roll any die with a result of 6 and add that to the damage done.



Instant Death (Normally used only with unimportant NPCs; major NPCs and PCs are immune at the Narrator's discretion)
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When reduced to Dazed or worse, an opponent must make a Vitality test or suffer an instantly fatal injury. The TN of the Vitality test is determined by the Wound level. The test is only rolled when the Wound level changes.

Dazed: The opponent must make a TN 5 Vitality test or die immediately.

Injured: The opponent must make a TN 8 Vitality test or die immediately.

Wounded: The opponent must make a TN 11 Vitality test or die immediately.

Incapacitated: The opponent must make a TN 14 Vitality test or die immediately.

Near Death: The opponent must make a TN 17 Vitality test or die immediately

[Aldaron]

I've been using a simple system which has worked so far:

Marginal success: x1 damage
Complete success: x1 damage
Superior success: x2 damage
Extraordinary success: x3 damage
Legendary success (16+ above TN): x4 damage

This means, a warrior with a longsword and 10 Strenght (2d6+5 dmg) will do, on average:

Marginal or Complete: 13 dmg
Superior: 26 dmg
Extraordinary: 39 dmg
Legendary: 53 dmg.

It allows PCs to take out "little guys" like Orcs pretty easily once they have a decent number of Advancements (since, presumably, those involved in combat would be upping their Armed Combat/Ranged Combat ranks).

It also means it's unlikely that an Orc is going to take down a PC with a single hit (though there's always the chance of rolling double-sixes).

Major NPC villains, however, have a far greater chance. It also means that PCs are more likely to put ranks into increasing Swiftness reactions (for Dodging) or more likely to parry. I've found this is good because it means even the best warrior is still spending most of his time running and parrying when surrounded by twenty Orcs.

It also saves mucking about with Critical hit tables and such - the better you hit, the more damage you do.

Additionally, I'm toying with the idea of making it that better success levels cause bleeding: 1 success = 1 WP / hour bleeding, 2 successes = 1 WP / minute, 3 successes = 1 WP / round.

Haven't implemented that yet, but I'm thinking about it...

[dustin]

Here is what my players like (they have a fetish for rolling for weapon damage):

First we have to establish the "health" of an enemy. This is figured as follows: base health times hale levels plus TN Equivalent(FB&WM). Example: Uruk Hai 12(base health) times 1(hale levels) plus 2(TNE--this is a TNE of 10 for a group of four which is a TNE of 2.5 per Uruk). This is a total "Health" of 14(12 * 1 + 2).

Next is the Attack Roll vs Defense. The difference on a successful attack is the Hit Bonus. The HB is scaled into a Damage Bonus as follows: 1-5 = +3, 6-10 = +5, 11-15 = +8, 16+ = +10. (Effectively eliminating an armor class)

Now, for the Damage Roll. Roll as normal then add the Damage Bonus and subtract the target's armor. This is the number of Hits. The hits are also scaled as follows: 1-5 = 1 Health, 6-10 = 5 Health, 11-15 = 10 Health, and 16+ = 15 Health.

Combat Example: Urr has an AC of +10(+2 Nim, +6 Skill, +2 Longsword) vs an Uruk with a Defense of 12. Urr rolls a 7 +10 =17 attack roll. His Hit Bonus is 5(17-12) for a Damage Bonus of +3.

Damage Roll: Urr rolls a 7, +5 for Longsword, +2 for Strength, +3 Damage Bonus = 17. Subtract the Uruk's armor (6) for a total of 11 Hits. This means the Uruk has lost 10 health points, leaving him with 4 left. On average, it will take 2 to 3 attacks to kill an Uruk Hai, which is what his TN Equivalent (2.5) might "suggest".

This also makes larger and more powerful enemies tougher to defeat. For example, a cave troll has a health of 73 (21 base health, times 3 hale levels, plus a TNE of 10). An oliphaunt has 120!

Any comments, suggestions, and critiques are, of course, welcome.

[lord SMiLE]

I like your ideas Alderon. It's pretty simple, and I always liked the idea of rolling higher on the attack roll increases damage. Good stuff. No need for crit tables with that. It's almost assumed since you are doing more damage, you are hitting some vital spots.

[Camdin]

I like the idea of "Legendary Success." I like the sound of it, too ... it evokes a wonderful sense that the character has done something that bards will be singing about for ages.

Do you apply that to other tests, or just combat?

Back on topic for the thread, I get the feeling that there are as many "combat tweaks" as there are LotR narrators! LOL

[lord SMiLE]

Being new to the forum, I've been looking over the old threads, and it appears that most of the tweaks for the game revolve around the damage and mook rules. Tell me if I'm wrong, but that's the impression that I get. With the way the Health attribute works, a typical person with 8 health has like 40 points until he's dead right? That's more than a typical person has in D&D say. They might have a dozen points in that system.

[Camdin]

You're absolutely right, SMile. The one-hit, two-hit, and three-hit "mook rule" leaves a lot to be desired.

I don't mind the PCs having "40 points" or whatever -- they are supposed to be heroes, so I don't mind letting them be heroic.

But there must be a better way to depict the heroes wading through dozens of orcs than just saying "if you hit it, it will die."

[lord SMiLE]

Maybe if you get rid of the various levels of the death spiral for NPCS? The PCs of course can go through the various levels until their dead, but do the local townfolk and orcs as well? Maybe there's a way to just simplify it, and say if a townfolk has 6 health, he can only take 12 points of damage until he's dead. In cases like these, simple fixes are always best, since they won't interfere with the rest of the rules system too much. Sort of like the damage multiplier options above.

[Karth]

I use a system similar to the two above...

Marginal success: x 0.5 damage
Complete success: x 1.0 damage
Superior success: x1.5 damage
Extraordinary success: x 2.0 damage or x1.0 damage plus special effect
Each additional level of success: add x 0.5 damage (to x 2.0 damage, or to x 1.0 damage with a special effect)

I use modified mook rules as well. They're similar to the one-hit, two-hit, and three-hit mook rules in the Core Rulebook, excepting that mooks become one-Health level, two-Health level, or three-Health level opponents, depending on the party's average number of advancements and what I feel suits the situation best. For example, a 0-advancement to 15-advancement party's mooks might be:
1-Health level: most non-aggressive animals
2-Health level: Orc, wolf, half-orc, human warrior
3-Health level: Uruk-hai, warg, lesser giant spider

For a party with an average of 60 advancements, the table would look a bit different, with the creatures mentioned all dropping to become 1-health level opponents, and some nastier creatures added to the top of the list as 2-health level and 3-health level opponents. These health levels include only one level of "healthy," no matter the opponents' size (which is taken into account by making said opponent a higher health level mook/a non-mook until higher levels).

[lord SMiLE]

I think I prefer damage multipliers for greater successes than changing the mook rules. The real question is: do you believe that it really should be narrator fiat when it comes to this, or do you think that all bases should be covered in the combat system? In other words, do you think mook rules in and of themselves are a cop-out?