Actana
2013-07-24, 06:00 AM
After my previous 4e session yesterday, of which the first, supposedly "tough" encounter was entirely ruined because out of the five enemies, only one or two attacks hit during the entire combat, I was wondering about some sort of alternative hit system, where instead of rolling to hit, you'd rather roll to see if you miss. Hits would be the default order of things, and miss chance would be imposed by attack penalties, marking, etc, but they would be more significant than the -5% for a -1 penalty.
Instead of ever-increasing defenses, they'd remain mostly static. Level bonuses to defenses and attack would be eliminated. Class bonuses would remain, but instead of giving a bonus they'd give an appropriate miss chance to attacks against that defense. It might be prudent to give every class only a single bonus to a defense. Maybe give defenders a +1 to AC in addition to what they have, as boosting defenses doesn't work as well anymore.
Armor would be replaced with a level-scaling DR. Shields would likely still give a bonus to defenses. A light shield grants to AC, and a heavy to both AC and Reflex. Higher tiers or armor would grant bonuses to the defense they normally do. Heavy armor grants bonuses to AC, lighter armor to their respective defenses. Not sure if the bonuses should be limited, or keep the bonuses as is.
With armor granting level scaling DR, the level difference becomes a smaller issue. Lower level enemies are still a small nuisance, but they deal far less damage than a level appropriate enemy. Alternatively, for every two levels of difference, the attacker would take a -1 penalty to attack.
Feat bonuses from feat taxes (Improved Defenses and the like) would mostly be eliminated, though Armor Specialization would still exist (to keep defenders functional), as well as other kinds of situational defense boosts, like White Lotus Defense and the like.
Similarly, attack bonuses would be reduced. All proficiency bonuses with weapons would be reduced by 2, giving only the "accurate" weapons a bonus to attack. Or, if a +1 to too much of a boost, proficiency bonus could be removed altogether (though there'd need to be something to make up for it). Expertise feats don't give attack bonuses anymore, and only situational modifiers would give bonuses to attack, and in most cases the bonuses would be reduced to only +1.
In combat, penalties to attack and defenses would be reduced by half, with a minimum of 1. Marks, however, would be kept the same, making them highly important in keeping people alive. Stacking penalties might need some restriction, especially when it comes to solos, who should have a fair bonus to attack and defense to compensate (inherent +2 perhaps?).
Similar changes to all of the categories. It would likely require a large overhaul of going through feats and powers, seeing what works and what doesn't, but the general idea is to reduce attack and defense bonuses to not scale per level.
So how to make the bonuses more noteworthy? Instead of rolling a d20 to see if an attack hits, the attacker would roll a d10 to see if the attack misses (depending on the preference and general tweaking, could even be a d8 or d12). A 1 is always a miss, and every other roll is a hit. Each modifier would increase or decrease that hit margin by its amount. A -1 to attack would increase the margin of a miss to 2, and a larger penalty would increase the margin further. A +1 to defense would likewise increase the margin by 1, and penalties to defenses/bonuses to attack would decrease the margin. Hits would be more common, which would then make tactics a bit more relevant, since you can't just assume that "oh, they're not going to hit me anyway", unless you've both pumped up your defenses and lowered the enemy's attack.
Of course, there are a lot of things that need to be taken into account for this kind of change. Status effects are now far more common, and some classes that rely on rerolling attacks aren't as effective anymore. This is just idle theorizing for the most part, something to make my brain work in between other projects. I came up with this idea very quickly, and haven't given it too much thought or refinement.
Any thoughts on the system? Could it be make work with a bit more refinement?
Instead of ever-increasing defenses, they'd remain mostly static. Level bonuses to defenses and attack would be eliminated. Class bonuses would remain, but instead of giving a bonus they'd give an appropriate miss chance to attacks against that defense. It might be prudent to give every class only a single bonus to a defense. Maybe give defenders a +1 to AC in addition to what they have, as boosting defenses doesn't work as well anymore.
Armor would be replaced with a level-scaling DR. Shields would likely still give a bonus to defenses. A light shield grants to AC, and a heavy to both AC and Reflex. Higher tiers or armor would grant bonuses to the defense they normally do. Heavy armor grants bonuses to AC, lighter armor to their respective defenses. Not sure if the bonuses should be limited, or keep the bonuses as is.
With armor granting level scaling DR, the level difference becomes a smaller issue. Lower level enemies are still a small nuisance, but they deal far less damage than a level appropriate enemy. Alternatively, for every two levels of difference, the attacker would take a -1 penalty to attack.
Feat bonuses from feat taxes (Improved Defenses and the like) would mostly be eliminated, though Armor Specialization would still exist (to keep defenders functional), as well as other kinds of situational defense boosts, like White Lotus Defense and the like.
Similarly, attack bonuses would be reduced. All proficiency bonuses with weapons would be reduced by 2, giving only the "accurate" weapons a bonus to attack. Or, if a +1 to too much of a boost, proficiency bonus could be removed altogether (though there'd need to be something to make up for it). Expertise feats don't give attack bonuses anymore, and only situational modifiers would give bonuses to attack, and in most cases the bonuses would be reduced to only +1.
In combat, penalties to attack and defenses would be reduced by half, with a minimum of 1. Marks, however, would be kept the same, making them highly important in keeping people alive. Stacking penalties might need some restriction, especially when it comes to solos, who should have a fair bonus to attack and defense to compensate (inherent +2 perhaps?).
Similar changes to all of the categories. It would likely require a large overhaul of going through feats and powers, seeing what works and what doesn't, but the general idea is to reduce attack and defense bonuses to not scale per level.
So how to make the bonuses more noteworthy? Instead of rolling a d20 to see if an attack hits, the attacker would roll a d10 to see if the attack misses (depending on the preference and general tweaking, could even be a d8 or d12). A 1 is always a miss, and every other roll is a hit. Each modifier would increase or decrease that hit margin by its amount. A -1 to attack would increase the margin of a miss to 2, and a larger penalty would increase the margin further. A +1 to defense would likewise increase the margin by 1, and penalties to defenses/bonuses to attack would decrease the margin. Hits would be more common, which would then make tactics a bit more relevant, since you can't just assume that "oh, they're not going to hit me anyway", unless you've both pumped up your defenses and lowered the enemy's attack.
Of course, there are a lot of things that need to be taken into account for this kind of change. Status effects are now far more common, and some classes that rely on rerolling attacks aren't as effective anymore. This is just idle theorizing for the most part, something to make my brain work in between other projects. I came up with this idea very quickly, and haven't given it too much thought or refinement.
Any thoughts on the system? Could it be make work with a bit more refinement?