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View Full Version : more realism for ac and parry/block mechanic



Goodkill
2016-09-17, 10:22 PM
i posted this elsewhere before i saw that there was an actual homebrewing section, which is where this properly belongs. my post about this got buried in the 3.5 forum.

anyway i had something i was going to use in my video game but abandoned it because copyright forced me to use a different system than d20.

it's called deflection armor class and it's very simple. basically instead of ac armor gives a deflection bonus, which is the same concept as ac except it is a smaller number. in addition all armor gives damage resistance. that's about all there is to it. shields also give a deflection bonus but only to the front and side squares.

the other thing i was going to use in my game, to make combat more spontaneous and interesting, was a parrying and blocking mechanic. this is just an opposed attack roll or opposed roll with the deflection bonus of the shield added instead of the attack roll, which i just realized as it is doesn't work very well for shields (in addition i was going to do just 10 levels probably so attack bonus doesn't soar to crazy heights anyhow). i'm sure it can be balanced though. it was going to be something that required good timing on the part of the player, though another GITPer said that he thought it would make PnP combat laggier. this mechanic needs some more work before it could be used.

homebrew FTW!

TheDerpyAlicorn
2016-09-18, 02:37 AM
Sounds like the Armor as DR rules from 3.5 Unearthed Arcana. If you haven't read it, you should, as it talks a bit about the design issues and how it affects other parts of the system. As well a few other armor mods you might find worthy of polishing.

I believe the basics of these alt rules are available on the srd.

D20 isn't really built for it, but depending on how deep you plan on changing it, you might consider sticking to a pattern of easy to hurt but hard to hit on one side, and on the other side have hard to hurt but easy to hit.

That make any armor a viable choice depending on combat style. (in my opinion, anything that makes "higher numbers" not always better to be a good thing)