Originally Posted by: grimjester If, out of the box, your ODS is meant to be semi-realistic fantasy, then yes, no changes are needed. However, I think this brings up to other issues.
One issue is that a note should be made that this ODS is not initially geared for epic fantasy. People should know what they're getting. It's possible, as you've mentioned, to add skills, powers and items to make it epic though.
Well, out of the box I wanted it to be simply balanced, as in flat, as in no particular advantages to heroes or monsters. It's supposed to be mathematically neutral, so to say. Then tweaking comes along with other worlds as GMs modify for flavor. My first effort is toward getting the math to work with neutral system. Not that it's really balanced in the ultimate sense, though, as figuring out the actual total balance is beyond my pay grade, but for my purposes... that's the intent and so far it seems to be working out that way. Your observation that it is not epic fantasy is a good indication of that, so from my point of view that's a validation and pretty cool.
Also, not only can you add items, but you can tweak the world configuration itself, and make the entire world easier or harder.
Quote:
My second issue involves what I was originally thinking of when I made the initial post: Find a way to include the defender's weapon/shield/dodge skill as part of Armor Class. Granted, the system is currently simple, but potentially inaccurate from the perspective of story telling. Let me explain:
Let's say we have a 5th level mage and a 5th level fighter. Let's assume that their strength scores are the same and they have 15 hitpoints each. Neither is wearing armor, and they are fighting similar foes with melee weapons. The mage has spells and non-combat skills. The fighter has several combat skills. They are both getting hit by their similar foes. The fighter is no more likely to survive his wounds than the wizard. As far as dealing with damage received, they are equal.
In D&D, this is represented meaningfully by giving fighters more hitpoints per level. In other games, hitpoints never increase, but skills/talents/abilities cause the character to be hit less.
Note that the mage is a mystic and will not generally have as high a strength as the fighter, which means the fighters generally will have more life points on average than the mystics. This will not always be the case as some players will choose to not take Fighter class even when they can, but in general the idea is that Fighters are tougher than Mystics so far as Life Points are concerned, and I think it will usually work out that way.
Quote:
I'm not sure if this needs fixing, or if you'd want to fix it this way, but AC could be modified by the difference in a relevant weapon skill to the defender's DEX. So, if a player's weapon skill is 5 and his or her DEX is 3, the character's AC would increase by +2 when using that weapon as a defensive measure.
I'm sure that I'm not making myself clear, but I'm exhausted. I'll try editing this later.
That seems at first glance a little more complicated than I personally want the ODS to be, however, I could always add that as an optional rule. :) Thanks.
Edited by user Thursday, April 24, 2014 10:37:27 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified