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View Full Version : Original System Prone Condition balance



Flik9999
2015-10-31, 06:31 PM
Hey so I have a bottom up D20 system that takes elements from many different systems (Pathfinder, 2e, bit of 4 and 5).

Now the system is build on players only ever getting one attack, which simply does more damage as they level up. Now I have seen the 5E prone which doesn't seam that strong and the 4E one was just a little bonus for defenders who wanted to stay sticky.

Pathfinder had a system which meant you had to build a huge amounts of feats for trip to be effective. In my system accuracy stays roughly 50% throughout the levels as it uses bounded accuracy and armour increases to keep up with the increase in attack bonuses.

I have 3 defenses AC, MD(Magic defense) and CMD.

My question is, as monsters have weaknesses for example brutes are easy to hit with weapons, spellcasters are resistant to magic this is meant to bring tactics into which target you attack depending on what type of damage you do.

Now does trip granting a +4 to AC, a +4 to allies attack rolls and a garanteed attack from you and adjacent allies seam overpowered. The goto tactic for melee seams to shift theoretically from hit things to, trip things then hit them with your opportunity attack, in pathfinder this would mean you did less damage as you couldn't full attack with an attack of opportunity but with only a single attack it is a lot stronger.

My skills work the same as in AD&D 2e if you have the skill roll under your stat (which never increase beyond what the dice gave you). If you don't have the skill your attribute is halved for the check. I have difficulty modifiers as well (-4 for hard, +0 for normal, +4 for easy).

Im looking for ideas which still make trip builds viable but balance them so the ideal optimised party isn't 4 melee who trip the enemy then wail on them with opportunity attacks. That sort of thing would never happen as people build what character they would like to RP in the context of their character.

Im currently playing a thief who trips people and im noticing my damage is actually higher than if I was focused on stabbing the enemy, does this seam broken as my role is more battlefield control if im tripping enemies.

Im looking for sulutions that would still keep tripping viable and grant a good advantage to the tripers team, but not the most viable tactic for killing stuff as I think it becomes less like D&D and more like MMA when that becomes availibal.

To put it into context of the other maneuvers, Grapple is identical to pathfinder, you grab them, pin them then sit there the rest of the combat with them disabled, disarm means they have to spend a standard action picking up thier weapon, and dirty trick blinds them (-5 to attack rolls), until they spend a standard action clearing out thier eyes (this does not provoke).

Im looking for solutions that balance trip but still make it a worthwhile tactic for your team.

The prone condition (At the moment)
-4 to Ac and melee attack rolls
Speed is 0.
Provokes an attack of opportunity when standing up.

EDIT:Also would like to add that unlike in pathfinder where monsters with 4 legs+ or were larger size had huge CMD bonuses. Monsters are designed simply and I have not used modifiers such as these when developing monsters.