Redefining AC, roll for defence

[jdizzy001]

I borrowed this idea from Numenera. It goes like this: Players roll everything. I finally tried it and it works real well. In a nutshell it works like so: RAW, the player attacks as normal, they roll, add modifiers and compare it to opponents AC. Defending attacks changes, however. Instead of using a static AC which defaults at ten, keep all your modifiers, and drop the static base 10. Instead, when the opponent makes an attack, the PC will roll their AC and add all applicable modifiers for AC. This makes AC very dynamic and affords the PCs the opportunity to feel they are actively defending themselves.

In order to avoid excess rolling, the CK will add a static 10 to all monster attcks and will never roll. So, for example your orc with HD1 (thus a bth of +1 ) will now have a static attack value of 11 and each time ck attacks a PC with the orc, the pc must make a defend check with a difficulty equal to the orcs attack stat.

This worked really well today. It gave my players a sense of control over combat and really changed the critical hit narrative, as a nat 1 on the defend check would mean a critical hit imposed by the orc, or a complete fail on the part of the pc to dodge or parry the incoming attack. As a ck, it freed me up from having to juggle dice. All i had to do was tell my PCs who is being attacked and to make a defend roll.

Damage can be resolved RAW. Alternatively, a static number can also be used, average damage of weapon plus monster's HD, as an example.

[DMMike]

This past North Texas RPG Con I got a chance to play Superhero 2044 with Steve Perrin. S2044 does something similar, except that instead of D&D-ish combat systems where the defense is static and the attacker rolls to see if they "hit" or not, the attacks are all static and the defender rolls to see if their defense prevents a "hit" or not. It sounds similar to what you're describing, though personally I think I'd go with the S2044 system rather than some attacks are rolled while some defenses are rolled.

If there are any attribute checks in combat, would the players roll that too?

Mike

[jdizzy001]

Yes, any checks would be made by the PCs. This variant puts all the dice rolling into the PC's hands. They roll to attack the monsters, they roll to defend against the monster's attacks. The NPC blocks have all static numbers so the CK doesn't have to roll anything, except damage (If they want).

[Treebore]

The newest Hackmaster pretty much does the same thing as well.

[jdizzy001]

It feels very natural and makes for a great variant of the game.

[finarvyn]

I've run some games that way and it worked out fine. I've talked about it with some other DM's and the biggest complaint they have is that they feel removed from the action. Nothing to do during battles, particularly in 5E where a battle takes a longer time than in C&C.

[jdizzy001]

Interesting take on the variant. My only response would be that a DM doesn't need to feel a part of the action. The PC does, but that is a personal opinion.

[DMMike]

Devil's advocate here, but surely the DM/CK would still feel like part of the action in that they still have to set tactics for the opponents? After all, the player can only roll dice for opponents the DM/CK tells them are attacking?

Mike

[Treebore]

In Hackmaster, nothing is static, you roll attack and defense. I liked it because it kept everyone on their toes, and if you rolled bad on Defense, even the weak kobolds could ruin your day. Assuming they rolled well on attack.

[alcyone]

I've run Numenera. I found when I was playing that this mechanic didn't work for everything; it wasn't clear for example what to do when monsters would fight each other. There was something else similar that came up like that.

[jdizzy001]

@dmmike, You're right, the dm should be actively strategizing and indicating which monster is attacking. The ck shouldn't ever feel detached. After all, they are telling the story.

@aergraith, it may not be perfect but if npc's are fighting each other (IE two monsters fighting each other), that should be a matter of narration, not dice rolling.

[Lurker]

I do like the idea of this.

However .... I'm not sure I like the 'monsters get a static 10' ...that is a 50% advantage on paper and with my luck (esp on roll 20 etc) more like a 60 -66 % advantage ...