tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post1569518268028448393..comments2024-03-26T04:58:54.326-04:00Comments on The Wandering Gamist: Better Fighting Value Tradeoffsjedavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-83180441491142571852016-07-14T20:52:15.945-04:002016-07-14T20:52:15.945-04:00D'oh, errata. Don't tell my players, or w...D'oh, errata. Don't tell my players, or we'll never see an assassin without a shield again (especially since shields aren't called out as prohibiting thief skill use).<br /><br />Huh, I hadn't really looked at the mercenary angle of this line of thought at all. Excellent point on forgetting NPC parties as a source of loot in my item frequency calculation; that is where my players have historically found most of their Misc Magic items.<br /><br />Yeah, I'd like to do a fuller analysis of fighting styles, but evaluating the offensive styles is a lot trickier. I'm also concerned that really Solving it will take a bit of the fun out of playing the game. Incidentally, two-weapon fighting really benefits from sword proficiency, because using a magic weapon in off-hand adds to-hit.jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-57614976442030485502016-07-14T18:19:12.648-04:002016-07-14T18:19:12.648-04:00As it happens, I'd been working on revamping t...As it happens, I'd been working on revamping that whole thing as well, though with a slightly different endpoint in mind - in that I want to break out Fighting into more granular chunks so I can allow a character to define their martial prowess as a function of pre-adventuring training (the guy that was Light Infantry in his youth is different from the street-thug) - and presenting that as, at least internally, XP balanced, if not completely able to mimic the standard Fighting category builds - that way lies madness.<br /><br />Honestly, once you've been, say, a Crossbowman in what I've done so far, which includes chain, shields, a crossbow, and infantry weapons (swords, polearms, spears, plus whatever), adding in the remainder of the "junk weapons" that Fighting 2 adds over Fighting 1's Broad categories isn't much of real value, and as you note, the additional armor training is where the value is. <br /><br />I don't have it fresh in-head, but I'd cross-referenced magical item availability versus troop-type availability versus NPC party composition and...swords are always king, even worse when you include Guns of War units. Honestly, it'd have to be a conscious Judge decision to change that, as the eventual primacy of swords is very much a real-world cultural thing, I guess. <br /><br />And I'd paused the project for various reasons before I'd incorporated the larger "apparent value" of some weapons over others, though your post here has reignited interest in finally finishing it for at least internal use - the fact you've seen the same things I have (fighting Style comparative values, vs shields-as-armor, or the mirror-image of thief v. cleric, etc...) at least lets me know I'm not crazy. I'd be real curious to see a full analysis if the Fighting Styles vs. each other in the same vein as the AC one you did....perhaps part of that is defining the breakpoints where you're starting to Cleave certain HD of foes either automatically or at some expected success rate, and where it's worth dropping your shield to get the extra damage (survivability measured in "not getting hurt" versus "eliminating people hurting you"?) ((and the ability of the Fighting 2 non-traded classes to switch between modes, then, informs us of the value of the tradeoff system I guess))..anyway. Rambling at this point.<br /><br />Assassins do get shields, FWIW; that was errata, fixed in the latest PDF/print.<br />Koewnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01417138644425141883noreply@blogger.com