War and Combat and the Siege Engine
I am just posting this BECAUSE I went haywire and overthought the ‘H’ ‘E’ double toothpicks out of this. I am now stuck on this and will likely do no work for a while figuring this out.
i will literally make this as complex as i possibly can if left to my own devices
I have decided to revisit the Siege Engine as a mechanic for combat. I am literally going to tear this rule down and rebuild it. This is not official.
Challenge Class (Base 18)
The basic siege rule is to roll a d20 versus a challenge level. That’s it in a nutshell. A d20 versus whatever the CK decides the challenge level is. Every roll is an attribute check. There are two types of attributes; primary and secondary.
I am going to switch things up a bit for some clarity. There is one challenge base. This is 18. To succeed at an attribute check an 18 or better needs to be rolled.
Attribute Check Modifiers (Same but use +6 for primes)
Again, this is very simple. Pick the associated attribute for the action. Add the attribute modifier, the level of the characters, and associated modifiers from the environment, spell enhancements, etc. If the character’s prime attribute is the attribute being checked against, add +6.
Challenge Level Modifiers (Same plus Armor as CL)
For the challenge level there is a lot of discretion on the part of the Castle keeper. This is discussed in the Players Handbook and the Castle Keeper Guide and won’t go over it again here. In thinking about the challenge level, rather than adding it to the base, for this discussion, I am going to be subtracting it from the attribute check. The only addition, for this discussion, it that armor is a challenge level.
Combat as an Ability (New Rule)
Consider: Str, Dex, maybe Con as combat attributes.
This would be cumbersome but might work. Combat would become an ability everyone shares. Basically, the capacity to fight. There would be four tiers to the ability. Each tier would get its own progression for their attribute check. See the chart below. This closely reflects what is in the current book. A few lose. I would also put monk and/or Bard in the Rogue or tier 3 categories
The immediate problem I see is that everyone would HAVE to choose strength as a prime to even have a chance of hitting.
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4
Fighter Ranger Rogue Illusionist
Barbarian Assassin Wizard
Knight Cleric
Bard Druid
Monk
Paladin
1 +1 0 0 0
2 +2 +1 0 0
3 +3 +2 +1 0
4 +4 +3 +1 +1
5 +5 +4 +2 +1
6 +6 +5 +2 +1
7 +7 +6 +3 +2
8 +8 +7 +3 +2
9 +9 +8 +4 +2
10 +10 +9 +4 +3
tier 1, 2 and 3
Tier I: add level
Tier 2; ½ level
Tier 3: 1/3 level
Why can't everyone use magi if everyone can fight?
Armor as Challenge Level (New Armor)
THE CLs are very important. Also consider damage reduction and deflection as inherent in armor.
A Sampling
CL 1 padded
CL 2 leather
Technically d4 min damage technically Damage reduction is 0-3
In the original document there were no armor classes (1). Armor was a CL.
No armor CL0
Leather CL2
Chain CL5
Plate CL8
Encased CL10
An attack was a siege check. An attack was a strength check. (2) A successful hit is scored on an 18 or better. (3)
As you can see in the chart below the chances to hit were high and the dice range was huge.
Prime Secondary Modifiers
+6 +2 Add level and modifiers as usual
1st level Fighter(P) Wizard (P) Wizard (S)
CL0 +7 +6 +2
Range 8-28 7-27 3-23
Chance to hit 50% 45% 25%
Current 55% 50% 50%
5th level Fighter(P) Wizard (P) Wizard (S)
CL0 +16 +12 +8
Range 17-36 13-32 9-29
Chance to hit 95% 75% 50%
Current 75% 60% 60%
In this chart only the BtH is added. As you can see, this differentiated the fighting classes in quick order and gave a preponderance of importance to strength as a prime even for nonfighting classes. It is a game where, at the end of the day, the swift sword rules.
Prime Secondary Modifiers
+6 +2 Add Base to Hit (BtH) and modifiers as usual
1st level Fighter(P) Wizard (P) Wizard (S)
CL0 +7 +6 +2
Range 8-28 7-27 3-23
Chance to hit 50% 45% 25%
Current 55% 50% 50%
5th level Fighter(P) Wizard (P) Wizard (S)
CL0 +11 +7 +3
Range 12-31 8-27 4-23
Chance to hit 75% 55% 30%
Current 75% 60% 55%
One: By original I mean the second or third draft because the 1st draft was almost wholesale rejected.
Two: This is not entirely true because for some types of attacks it was a dexterity check.
Three: In the original document the target number was 20. This was changed because it was viewed as too difficult.
Note: There were three iterations of the game in the development process before the final was settled on. All iterations have been lost except the final. The final was also reworked to some extent to accommodate current (circa 2005) gaming structures and was ‘off-balance’ from the first three iterations in certain areas. For example; through the first three iterations we kept the experience point valuations I had developed. In the final writeup, those valuations were amended for certain classes. Those original notes may be somewhere at Steve’s house. I routinely drop stuff off at Steve’s for safe keeping. I am very poor at keeping stuff. Steve is not. They may show up. There is a red notebook somewhere containing all those notes Mac and myself compiled under a yellow light on my front porch. This is why we call it the Red Book.
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