The current thread on the Big Purple is giving me ideas. It's about whether OSR fighters should have "cool manoeuvres" or not. (And frankly, I think they should, or the wizards and clerics should be brought down a couple notches as well. Fighters are inherently cooler than other classes, but it should be made clear even to fighter-haters, too!)
AFAICT, the two main objections to the fighters having such manoeuvres is a) we don't want to describe each swing, and b) we want more down-to-earth fights. I agree with the latter, FWIW. But let me address how it could be done.
So, I admit I don't get it why people would equate "more powerful/interesting fighters" with "more detail how
a swing happens"? 4e proves it ain't so IME. At least, I often can't imagine
the specific actions from the movements on the grid.
And it's even arguable whether a
4e fighter is more powerful than a OD&D Fighting (wo)man. I mean,
just how often does a 4e Fighter kill 4 kobolds in one attack, minions
or not? The 0e Fighting man can do that. So it's about having more interesting options baked in the system (that is, on top of everything else you could and should be doing!)
But fine, let's get
down-to-earth. You know what rule would make OSR/TSR-era D&D more
down-to-earth while also reducing complexity?
"When the fighter
attacks a non-fighter of the same or lower level, he rolls for damage".
Possibly add "....rolls the d20, but applies it as damage".
There,
you have it. A 1st level Fighting (Wo)Man is a Veteran. IME, when a
veteran fights some young buck and sees an opportunity, meaning "his/her
turn in initiative came", the other guy is in for a world of hurt. Seen
that happening, it wasn't pretty. And no, when a fencing expert feints,
you'd better start praying for your soul.
Yes, that makes them the masters of
the battlefield. Just like Clerics are masters of the religious matters
and healing, and just like Wizards are the only ones that can cast
spells... no contradiction here. Keep in mind, they can still fight
back, they just need to pass his AC. There's no option for the fighter
to cast a spell, not even with a roll, so it's still not equal, just
less unequal. And of course, everyone rolls against a higher-level
enemy, so it doesn't mean anyone overshadowing the rest in "boss
battles" (assuming you've got boss battles).
-A Fighter always rolls
for damage one die type higher. He or she can kill you with a knife as
fast as a normal human can hurt you with a shord sword. That also means
the warrior is never unarmed (rangers and paladins don't get that
increase, but get the benefit of not being unarmed). The warrior can
choose whether to deal subdual or normal damage, too.
(To anyone that
objects, think of a warrior that can shatter bones with punches and
break joints as a simple move. No, Monks aren't the only ones that get
to be good unarmed fighters - just look how many wrestling matches
Hercules had, how many of them ended in death, and what happened to the
local though who tried to fight with Odysseus. Or, to put it in another
way: beginning of the 20th century, one Japanese Judo sensei sees an
European Fechtbuch. His reaction: "Wait, Europeans practiced ju-justsu
in 17th century?"
Knowing that, I have a special message for anyone
who tells me only Monks should have unarmed options. Said message
translates from Bulgarian as "fuck off").
But fine, that's more powerful, but not really all that interesting. Let me see what else I can think of.
-Adapting the system of Stunts from Dragon Age and effects from the Bo9S and 4e.
Hey, pay attention to THIS sword!
Inflict a penalty of (your level) to the attacks of anyone in hand-to-hand range with you, who tries to attack anyone else.
A sword is hanging above our heads.
Double your damage dice before rolling (2 effects).
Fortuna rules it all.
Make your damage rolls explode, Savage Worlds-style. Self-explanatory.
Trip, and you fall.
The enemy rolls an opposed attack roll against your roll, or is down.
Your blade, it's mine, your soul, like ice...
The enemy rolls an opposed check against your attack roll or is disarmed.
Get lost, fucker!
Push/Shove. The enemy rolls Fortitude or Reflex/Save vs Death or Wands. Failing it, he/she is pushed back.
"Aren't you Isabel's husband? Just don't hit me with the horns!"
That's simply a taunt
(yes, you can try taunting without an effect, but it's your action for
the round with most GMs I know...). The enemy rolls a Will-based save
with a penalty of your level. A failure means the enemy gets a penalty
of (half your level, roudn up) to attacking anyone else. A second
successful Taunt on the same enemy gives them half that (round up again)
to AC, as they're sacrificing their defence. A third Taunt leads to
them having your Charisma as penalty to their to-hit rolls, because
anger blinds them and makes them predictable. Further using Taunt has no
effect.
Note: The Charisma penalty is always negative to the enemy,
even if you have a -1 on Charisma. Equally, even if you have a +0, the
penalty is still -1.
On top of that, taunts aren't penalised for
being used on the same enemy (see below). You are, however, penalised for using them
on more than one enemy in a single fight.
Warning: Doesn't work on non-sapient creatures. Opponent gets a +3 to their roll if you don't share a language, or +5 if you don't share the same culture. If you're different to the point where your cultures have different meanings for common gestures, and you don't share the language, this is impossible to do. The GM might warn you if (s)he thinks it reasonable for you to have spotted that.
Cleave in 'twain!
Deal maximum damage on
one of your dice, and roll another. That means that if you attack with a
2d6 two-handed sword, you deal 2d6+6 damage. If you hit with a
two-handed axe, deal 1d12+12 damage (or if you're playing OD&D, deal
1d6+6 damage). This effect costs as much as 3 normal effects,
Traps hidden inside traps...
Feint:
until his next action, the enemy has Your Intelligence modifier as
penalty to either his AC or his to-hit roll. You must choose which one
now.
Can you fight what you can't see?
Blind: until his next action, the enemy has a -4 to attack you.
On his action, he can make a Fort/Save Vs. Death save to end the effect,
or close their eyes and attack blindly. Doesn't work on constructs and
other creatures lacking eyes. Opens an enemy to backstabbing/sneak attacks. You need two Manoeuvres to activate this!
Bind: this requires the enemy is armed
with a weapon. Until his next action, they've got your Strength modifier
as penalty to hit (see Taunt), and your Strength modifier as penalty
against attacks from other characters. If they have another weapon that
can be used up close, like a knife or rock, they can avoid the penalty
to hit, but not the AC one.
The drawback is, the same AC penalty
applies to you as well. he one that binded can choose to releast the
Bind. Otherwise, the only way out is for the enemy to win a Str/Dex
opposed check with you (each of you picks which one to use).
Stun: if
you're using a bashing weapon, it's automatic. Otherwise, the enemy can
choose to roll an opposed to-hit roll against your roll. If the stun
succeeds, until enemy succeeds a Fort Save/Save vs Death, their attacks
and defences suffer a -4 penalty. This costs two effects.
And here it's coming again...: roll to hit again, against the same enemy or another you can
reach in this round (even with a missile weapon if you have one ready).
This costs 2 effects, or 3 if you want to change weapons on the fly.
It's all in the feet.
You can move one hex on the battlemap. If you activate this at the cost of 3 effects, you pass behind the enemy's back and can backstab. On his turn, he needs to win an opposed Dex check in order to turn around without giving you an opening for attacking immediately.
...and so on. I'm pretty sure I can make up others.
How
do you get effects? Roll a d6 along with the d20, on a 5, pick one
effect. On a 6, pick two. You can elect to "save" an effect and deal it
later when you roll another effect.
On 7th, 13th and 20th level, you
add one more die to roll. Yes, teoretically, you could roll 8 effects.
In practice, that only happens 1:1296 times.
Whenever you repeat a
manoeuvre, however, that enemy gets a +1 damage against you, and you
have a -1 on your saves against their spells until the end of the
current combat. It pays to be unpredictable.
Keep in mind, you can
deal effects even if you failed to hit. You can't add damage to an
attack that didn't deal damage, but that doesn't prevent you from taking
down an enemy.
-As above, but you pay for stunts with Elan points
instead. You get 1 point for dropping an enemy, i.e. dealing the
decisive strike, or after an attack if you take voluntarily a -5 penalty
on your roll to hit and a -3 on your AC and damage until the end of the
round. The two are cumulative, so you can take the penalty, drop an
enemy nevertheless, and get 2 Elan points instead of 1 at the end of the
round.
To add 1 effect on an attack, pay 1 point. To add 2 effects,
pay 3 points. To add 3 effects, pay 10 points. Your points are lost
whenever you have a rest. However, you need to hit successfully.
-Adapting
the On Mighty Thews system - get effects depending on your roll to hit.
For each 2 points you beat the necessary number, you get 1 effect to
invoke.
As you can see, nothing here looks like magic powers, which
is one of the objections to the 4e powers (including one of mine - I know all
of that is possible, but some powers seem too dependent on the enemy to
be able to invoke rgwm with any reliability in a fight. Hence, they seem
magical - to me. That's however NOT due to the system, but to me having a different idea from the designers what fights look like, including epic fights).
