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Tinydwarfman
2010-07-17, 07:28 PM
How does the playground feel about the Aim Pool mechanic from the Iron Heroes Archer Class? Basically, for those who don't know, you can spend actions aiming to get Aim tokens, which you can then use for you special shots. I am making a homebrew adaption/expansion of the IH archer for 3.5, and I was wonder how I should adapt it for use with 4 tiers of shots, or how I should change it in general.

awa
2010-07-17, 07:54 PM
i like the idea of the aim mechanic and i feel it's pulled off pretty well their are some abilities that im not particularly impressed with but that's true for all the 3.5 characters as well.

What do you mean by 4 tiers of shots

Tinydwarfman
2010-07-17, 08:44 PM
Instead of the normal Deadeye shots you have until level 11, I'm changing it to 4 levels of shots, like warlock invocations. Trick, Deadeye, Heroic, Legendary, and finally Epic in place of the usual Legendary.

Glimbur
2010-07-17, 08:46 PM
Do you have to aim in combat? Does the aim pool start empty in every fight? If so, those abilities had better be really good, because actions are very expensive.

I would start every fight with a few tokens in the pool or grant them a token every round or every other round, depending on how granular you want the system to be.

Tinydwarfman
2010-07-17, 08:49 PM
You have to aim in combat, but at low levels you can pull off a shot by spending a move action to aim, and at higher levels, you gain tokens with free actions once per turn, and more if your target doesn't move. I was thinking about starting each combat with one or two tokens already in the pool though. A big problem with the original system was that in most cases it was better to simply rapid shot than spend time aiming, unless you had a chance to aim beforehand.

Tinydwarfman
2010-07-17, 09:06 PM
Here is the current amount of tokens you get for aiming. (1-10 shots cost 1 or more, 11-18 costs 2 or more, legendary costs 10 (for good reason))

Starter
Move: 1
Standard: 2
Full round: 4
Opponent remains still: 1

Improved (10+)
Free: 1
Move: 2
Standard: 3
Full round: 5
Opponent remains still: 2

Supreme (15)
Free: 2
Move: 4
Standard: 6
Full round: 10
Opponent remains still: 4

Gametime
2010-07-17, 09:09 PM
I like the system. Proper use of aiming can make your next turn more effective than two tokenless turns would otherwise have been; the throwing-dagger focused archer in my current campaign finds the tokens very useful against heavily armored targets. It's a bit of a corner case, though, and most of my players satisfy themselves with the actionless token-gaining methods.

I removed the targeting restriction on the aim pool, though. Using actions to get future benefits is okay, but using actions to get future benefits only to have the enemy you were aiming at die is a real downer. I haven't noticed any real brokenness resulting from just letting aim tokens apply to all enemies, and it mitigates the possibility of losing the whole pool at a bad time. (You still only get aim tokens against one enemy for not moving, though, not against all the enemies you can see that didn't move.)

awa
2010-07-17, 09:12 PM
I always kinda liked the way it made sniping possible spend a few round watching them from hiding before combat at long range then open up with a powerful attack but one problem i see is that the archer was balanced against non casters. The archers of course going to run into many of the same problems as fighters against full casters at higher levels of optimization.
In many instances a full attack will be better then the special abilities unless you upgrade them.

edit
I kinda dislike the aim at any one on principle because i picture it as aiming at a single target.

Tinydwarfman
2010-07-17, 09:16 PM
Should I add in more Aim Pool upgrades since there are more levels of shots? What do you all think of giving the Archer free tokens at the beginning of an encounter equal to what he would usually get from a move action?

I think I will also drop the "against one target" clause, because many of my trick shots have AoEs, and don't make much sense for a "aiming at one target" theme.

Tinydwarfman
2010-07-18, 05:38 PM
What do you think about this revision:

Starter
Move: 1
Standard: 2
Full round: 4
Opponent remains still: 1

Improved (5+) (level before you get Deadeye shots)
Free: 1
Move: 2
Standard: 3
Full round: 5
Opponent remains still: 2

Greater (10+) (Level before Heroic)
Free: 2
Move: 4
Standard: 6
Full round: 10
Opponent remains still: 4

Supreme (15+) (Level before Legendary)
Free: 4
Move: 8
Standard: 12
Full round: 20
Opponent remains still: 8


Epic (20+) (Level you gain your Capstone shot)
Free: 8
Move: 16
Standard: 24
Full round: 40
Opponent remains still: 16

I will also let you spend addition aim point to combo your shots - e.g. Spend points for both Hamstring Shot and Tripping shot to trip + slow.