Worlds of Thorn. Pounce Ability.
One of the more interesting ideas I had for my game is a race of cat people, some of whom become adventurers. Because the males are basically kicked out of their birth pride upon reaching adulthood they're the ones most likely to take up a life of adventuring.
Not long after I decided to include these Cat People (I really need a good name for them) I came up with a neat combat ability they can learn and named it Pounce. My initial thought was that when this ability is active they just sit there watching and attack anyone who strikes at them or one of their team mates. One of my second thoughts was that I wont this to be usable when berserk is active. Unfortunately I was forced to agree with my daughter when she said this was overpowered.
Now I am happy because I think I've figured out a way in which I can make Pounce and Berserk active at the same time without it being brokenly strong.
The character has to activate the pounce ability in battle. I don't think this really helps balance it and is in place mainly so that in battles where the player doesn't wish pounce to be used it won't be automatically activated. Actually, I think this makes the ability more useful because you don't need to activate it in fights where it would be useless.
The character doesn't pounce on every attacking foe. There is a percentage chance equal to the percentage fullness of the Action Bar plus the character's level in pounce. There is a chance equal to 10% of the pounce chance that a pounce will strike the foe before the foe's strike hits the target. When a pounce is made the action bar is emptied.
Pounce is not activated when enemies use distance attacks. This includes things like bows and spells. Pounce can be activated when a foe uses an attack that strikes several party members up close, however it only has one chance, not one chance per party member attacked.
Pounce must be at level five before it can be combined with Berserk. Berserk works by having the character attack a random front-line foe whenever the Action Bar is full.
Pounce can trigger counter attacks, but not when the pounce results in a preemptive strike. In these cases the sequence looks something like this: Foe attacks, Catkin Pounces, Foe counters by attacking Catkin.
Editing because I forgot to mention that when Pounce is active the character normally can't take other actions.
I believe this set of rules makes Pounce a powerful, but not overpowered, ability.
I'm also thinking about making it so that Catkin avoid using weapons and wearing armor. This, however, is as yet undecided.
Not long after I decided to include these Cat People (I really need a good name for them) I came up with a neat combat ability they can learn and named it Pounce. My initial thought was that when this ability is active they just sit there watching and attack anyone who strikes at them or one of their team mates. One of my second thoughts was that I wont this to be usable when berserk is active. Unfortunately I was forced to agree with my daughter when she said this was overpowered.
Now I am happy because I think I've figured out a way in which I can make Pounce and Berserk active at the same time without it being brokenly strong.
The character has to activate the pounce ability in battle. I don't think this really helps balance it and is in place mainly so that in battles where the player doesn't wish pounce to be used it won't be automatically activated. Actually, I think this makes the ability more useful because you don't need to activate it in fights where it would be useless.
The character doesn't pounce on every attacking foe. There is a percentage chance equal to the percentage fullness of the Action Bar plus the character's level in pounce. There is a chance equal to 10% of the pounce chance that a pounce will strike the foe before the foe's strike hits the target. When a pounce is made the action bar is emptied.
Pounce is not activated when enemies use distance attacks. This includes things like bows and spells. Pounce can be activated when a foe uses an attack that strikes several party members up close, however it only has one chance, not one chance per party member attacked.
Pounce must be at level five before it can be combined with Berserk. Berserk works by having the character attack a random front-line foe whenever the Action Bar is full.
Pounce can trigger counter attacks, but not when the pounce results in a preemptive strike. In these cases the sequence looks something like this: Foe attacks, Catkin Pounces, Foe counters by attacking Catkin.
Editing because I forgot to mention that when Pounce is active the character normally can't take other actions.
I believe this set of rules makes Pounce a powerful, but not overpowered, ability.
I'm also thinking about making it so that Catkin avoid using weapons and wearing armor. This, however, is as yet undecided.