Ye Olde Gaming Companye

[Metathiax]

I will be unleashing the following combat-related disciplines in my campaign. They have yet to be playtested but I thought I might share them anyway. Your input is welcome.

Monkey Grip : 5 skill points. Weapon Mastery II in weapon class F is a prerequisite. Monkey Grip allows a character to wield a class F weapon one-handed but with a -2 to-hit penalty.

Power Attack : 6 skill points. Weapon Mastery I in the same weapon class is a prerequisite. Power Attack allows a character to roll an extra d6 (2d6 on a critical hit) along with the weapon's base damage dice, keep the highest result, and then apply his modifiers when wielding a two-handed melee weapon.

Shield Bash : 4 skill points. A character with Shield Bash only applies a -2 to-hit penalty to his off-hand attack when using a shield offensively as described on page 25 of the GM's Book.

Weapon Finesse : 3 skill points. Weapon Mastery I in weapon class C is a prerequisite. Weapon Finesse allows a character to use his agility's on-hand to-hit modifier as a damage modifier instead of his strength's damage modifier when using a class C weapon.
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My campaign's rules
My Wayfarers review

[Chaoswarrior]

It's good to see some actual material related stuff posted again.

I would like to see your results on how the D6 for power attacks work with higher damage 2H weapons. Would the d6 really make that much of a difference? Maybe make it have higher ranks that allowed for higher dice.

Rank 1 -d6
Rank 2 -d8
Rank 3 -d10

But not allowing dice over the dice rolled for the weapon.

[Metathiax]

I somehow didn't notice your comments on Power Attack until now.

Here's my somewhat long-winded thought process on this one. Let me know what you think.

This discipline's main idea was to give two-handed weapons a bit more love while trying to keep it balanced and different to the other damage-increasing disciplines such as Bash (3 skill points; -3 to-hit & +2 damage once per round), Greatstrike (6 skill points; max damage once per hour), and Weapon Mastery (4 skill points for 1st rank; +1 to-hit & +1 damage) but keeping in mind that bonuses to damage are especially deadly in Wayfarers (vs D&D) due to the slower health point increase with levels.

As written, Power Attack slightly increases the average damage output (up to around +1) but does not increase the minimum or maximum damage. Its main purpose is to reduce the deviation, making it much less likely to roll low.

I've also considered using higher dice but its perfomance would then be more dependent on the weapon used and some weapons also use multiple lower dice (ex. 2d6 for greatsword or 3d4 for claymore). Furthermore, rolling an extra d6 for every successful attack felt more convenient than other types of die and it also nicely mirrored the effect of shields (extra d6 to reduce damage instead).

Here's a breakdown of the math involved in different scenarios (follow the links for details) :

1d6 weapon (ex. quaterstaff) (average = 3.50, deviation = 1.71)
vs
1d6 weapon with extra d6 (average = 4.47, deviation = 1.40)

1d8 weapon (ex. spear) (average = 4.50, deviation = 2.29)
vs
1d8 weapon with extra d6 (average = 5.23, deviation = 1.81)
vs
1d8 weapon with extra d8 (average = 5.81, deviation = 1.88)

1d10 weapon (ex. halberd) (average = 5.50, deviation = 2.87)
vs
1d10 weapon with extra d6 (average = 6.08, deviation = 2.36)
vs
1d10 weapon with extra d8 (average = 6.55, deviation = 2.25)
vs
1d10 weapon with extra d10 (average = 7.15, deviation = 2.35)

If we stick with the halberd example, you would have 10% chance of rolling a 1 without Power Attack, 1.67% chance with a d6 Power Attack, 1.25% chance with a d8, and 1.00% chance with a d10. I might be wrong but I'm worried that using a higher die would have it overshadow other disciplines such as Bash.

Since I'm implementing a new discipline, I prefer to give it a boost should it prove to be underwhelming after playtesting than having to nerf it once it gets picked by one of my players.
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My campaign's rules
My Wayfarers review

[Chaoswarrior]

I see your point. No reason to bring out the nerf bat without need.

Nice analysis.

In your games, does armor with such low absorbance really offset the damage that weapons in conjunction with damage increasing disciplines? I don't see PC's getting much better than 1d2 armor until 2nd or 3rd circle depending on how generous a DM was.

I was just wondering if it worked good as written or tended toward PC's taking lots of damage fast.

[Metathiax]