Flavour: considering defensive attributes.
Maybe I'm just a shit disturber, disturbing the shit of my own projects, but just looking at the defensive attributes of FOE, Armour Class and Evasion, I wonder if I can make them mechanically cleaner.
There are certain factors I want to take into account defensively:
- agility
- armour
- shielding skill
- parrying skill
Cursory thoughts tell me I can have three attributes covering things sufficiently:
Reduction: reduces damage actually taken on successful hits. Dependent on armour quality and Constitution.
Evasion: reduces successful hit chance. Dependent on Agility and the Dodging skill.
Deflection: negates some otherwise successful hits. Dependent on Shields skill, weapon skill and Agility.
In this system, AC becomes Reduction 1:1 and shielding and parrying are basically separated from Evasion to comprise Deflection. Shields skill is accounted for in itself. Weapon skill will have to be accounted for differently; it's not necessarily reasonable to assume that, given equal skills, parrying with a mace is as easy as parrying with a sword.
I suppose one way to account for deflection bonuses of weapons would be to assign a base deflection bonus to each weapon class, a characteristic alongside its accuracy and damage. This is in fact already sort of an attribute of weapons, except it's given in terms of an Evasion bonus (usually actually a penalty accounting for unwieldiness), so it's not painful to make the change. FOE doesn't have a gigantic number of weapon classes anyway, and I haven't created all the artifact weapons yet, so less painful still.
A complication, I suppose, is unarmed combat. It's plausible to suppose you could deflect an attack from, say, a club or a staff gracefully barehanded, perhaps a mace, perhaps an axe if you strike the broad side, but what about a sword or dagger? You'd have to be quick to strike them on the broad side. Or I guess there could be an assumption that you have calluses. Maybe the Deflection bonus is tied to your gloves? Gloves and gauntlets could then have a deflection attribute active when fighting unarmed. I suppose it could be simpler, with a more protracted progression in parrying ability corresponding with the Unarmed Combat skill.
The SLE will have to accommodate this. Which suggests that similar changes may be made to SouthLab and Soulthieves. Still, I have time to chew on this.
How enthralling to inhabit this skin, eh?
There are certain factors I want to take into account defensively:
- agility
- armour
- shielding skill
- parrying skill
Cursory thoughts tell me I can have three attributes covering things sufficiently:
Reduction: reduces damage actually taken on successful hits. Dependent on armour quality and Constitution.
Evasion: reduces successful hit chance. Dependent on Agility and the Dodging skill.
Deflection: negates some otherwise successful hits. Dependent on Shields skill, weapon skill and Agility.
In this system, AC becomes Reduction 1:1 and shielding and parrying are basically separated from Evasion to comprise Deflection. Shields skill is accounted for in itself. Weapon skill will have to be accounted for differently; it's not necessarily reasonable to assume that, given equal skills, parrying with a mace is as easy as parrying with a sword.
I suppose one way to account for deflection bonuses of weapons would be to assign a base deflection bonus to each weapon class, a characteristic alongside its accuracy and damage. This is in fact already sort of an attribute of weapons, except it's given in terms of an Evasion bonus (usually actually a penalty accounting for unwieldiness), so it's not painful to make the change. FOE doesn't have a gigantic number of weapon classes anyway, and I haven't created all the artifact weapons yet, so less painful still.
A complication, I suppose, is unarmed combat. It's plausible to suppose you could deflect an attack from, say, a club or a staff gracefully barehanded, perhaps a mace, perhaps an axe if you strike the broad side, but what about a sword or dagger? You'd have to be quick to strike them on the broad side. Or I guess there could be an assumption that you have calluses. Maybe the Deflection bonus is tied to your gloves? Gloves and gauntlets could then have a deflection attribute active when fighting unarmed. I suppose it could be simpler, with a more protracted progression in parrying ability corresponding with the Unarmed Combat skill.
The SLE will have to accommodate this. Which suggests that similar changes may be made to SouthLab and Soulthieves. Still, I have time to chew on this.
How enthralling to inhabit this skin, eh?