Dodge

[Trifletraxor]

Dodge – A defensive skill performed in reaction to an attack to avoid damage. The result depends on the level of succes of the dodge compared to the the attack. With five levels of success (fumble, failure, normal, special & critical), the dodgers success can range from 4 levels worse to 4 levels better than the attacker. If the dodge is of equal success level or better, the dodger takes no damage from the attack. If three levels of success better than the attack, the dodger also gets a free attack. If four levels better, the dodger first unblances the attacker so that he fall and then gets the free attack. If the dodge is a failure, the dodger takes the appopriate damage if the attack was a success. If the dodge is a fumble, the attack is considered to be one level of success higher than rolled (except for critical attacks, as they allready are as good as they get).

attack/dodge	fumble	failure	normal	special	critical
fumble	No damage	No damage	No damage	Free attack	Trip attacker & free attacks
failure	Normal damage	No damage	No damage	No damage	Free attack
normal	Special damage	Normal damage	No damage	No damage	No damage
special	Critical damage	Special damage	Normal damage	No damage	No damage
critical	Critical damage	Critical damage	Special damage	Normal damage	No damage

As long as the dodger is able to give it his full attention (not attacking or spellcasting in the same round), this skill can also be used against missile attacks if a successfull perception roll is made. The full dodge skill can be used against thrown missiles. Projectile fire like arrows, bolts & slingstones, is a hard task to dodge (½ skill).


The more encumbrance a character carries, the harder this skill is to perform. This part of the skill is still under developement. It should restrict heavy armor users, as dodge otherwise would be to powerfull. Possible solutions:
1) For every ENC, subtract 2% from the dodge skill.
2) If carrying more than 7,5 ENC armor, this skill becomes a hard task (1/2 skill).

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A possible houserule for dodge. What do you think?

SGL.

[frogspawner]

"Meh". I agree that Dodging should be more important in combat, and have my own houserule for it. But your rule is based on the old 'Opposed Roll' concept, which I don't like, so I'd better not comment further - it'd only be negative.

[jean]

It is worth a try.
Maybe the ENC penalty is too high
Maybe 2 free attacks is too much an advantage, I'd give a free attack with a bonus instead

[Merak Gren]

Hmmm

Too many free attacks for my liking. I agree that a good doge should allow you an opening, but the failure in a dodge will just allow the attack to suceed.

Also, the enc penalties. This will depend on the base level of encumbrance that you carried when trained. So if you are a warrior trained to fight sword and shield plus chainmail, your base enc should reflect this and your trained skill is normal for your level of enc.

Alternatively, if you are a primitive warrior with loincloth and spear, your normal skill dodge should apply to mirror that enc.


Just some thoughts.

[Triff]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

But your rule is based on the old 'Opposed Roll' concept, which I don't like, so I'd better not comment further - it'd only be negative.

I'd say it's based on levels of success, but then I'm not familiar with the old opposed rules, just the new mrq & brp ones.

Originally Posted by jean

It is worth a try.
Maybe the ENC penalty is too high

Originally Posted by Merak Gren

Also, the enc penalties. This will depend on the base level of encumbrance that you carried when trained. So if you are a warrior trained to fight sword and shield plus chainmail, your base enc should reflect this and your trained skill is normal for your level of enc.

Alternatively, if you are a primitive warrior with loincloth and spear, your normal skill dodge should apply to mirror that enc.

If you are a warrior trained to fight with sword and shield in chainmail, it would be natural that you parried instead. The primitive warrior with loincloth and spear should be a better dodger I think.

With a heavy armor, the dodge skill gets to powerfull, as it will downgrade specials and criticals. Then it becomes much better than parries. With some punishing ENC rules, it would be good for those in light armor. The ENC rules would have to be tweaked so that you would prefer parry with heavy armor, but making dodge a viable alternative for those with light or none armor - maybe the minus should be given based on the type of armor instead of ENC itself.

Originally Posted by jean

Maybe 2 free attacks is too much an advantage, I'd give a free attack with a bonus instead

Originally Posted by Merak Gren

Hmmm

Too many free attacks for my liking. I agree that a good doge should allow you an opening, but the failure in a dodge will just allow the attack to suceed.

2 free attacks for a critical dodge vs. a fumbled attack might be to much. Yup, I'll lower that to one. The attacker will have to roll on the fumble table in addition, so that should be enough.

I'm going with criticals at 1/100th of skill (rounded up), specials at 1/10th of skill and fumbles at above 91%+1/10th of skill (00 always a fumble), so fumbles will happen more often than the new default (with upgrading of your foes attack if you fumble the dodge against him).

SGL.

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by Triff

I'd say it's based on levels of success, but then I'm not familiar with the old opposed rules, just the new mrq & brp ones.

Well, you've got a matrix for results: until the other guy does his roll, you don't know what your roll means. For me, that's 'Opposed Rolls'.

[Triff]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

Well, you've got a matrix for results: until the other guy does his roll, you don't know what your roll means. For me, that's 'Opposed Rolls'.

Parry influences the meaning of an attack roll just as much.
A rolls his attack, B rolls his dodge or parry, A rolls his damage (or not, if there's no point).
Isn't that the way it usually goes?

SGL.

[Rurik]

As a matter of semantics, 'opposed roll' usually means you are comparing the actual rolls (numbers rolled) against eachother.

I don't have BRPZero but It sounds like that uses a table pretty much like Triffs. It is only comparing levels of success, not actual rolls.

[RMS]

Originally Posted by Triff

Parry influences the meaning of an attack roll just as much.
A rolls his attack, B rolls his dodge or parry, A rolls his damage (or not, if there's no point).
Isn't that the way it usually goes?

SGL.

This depends. In old RQ (and some other BRP varients?) you still needed to roll damage because it could go through a parrying weapon to do damage, damage the weapon, knock back the defender, etc. In RQ2/3 the amount of damage rolled is determined only by the attack roll and the amount of damage parried is determined by the parry roll.

In general, I like your ideas. However, I might do something a little less drastic:

Succeed by 2 levels and the dodger seizes initiative, but doesn't get a free attack. Granted this only helps if the dodger is 2nd, but it's frequently the person with less armor, lighter/shorter weapons that is dodging so they have a good chance of going last (w/ strike ranks).

Succeed by 3 levels and get a free attack. Succeed by 4 levels and get a free attack, plus some other small bonus.

I'd have a failed dodge simply fail to do anything, and a fumble leaves the character on the ground so they have a lost action getting up: give up an attack, or similar later. I wouldn't give the attacker a free attack based on any attempt to dodge. That's too drastic for me.

[Atgxtg]

Interesting. I agree with too many free attacks. In a RPG where characters get one attack per round 2 free attacks is a lot.

My suggestions:

Replace "free attack" with "sidestep". The dodger gets to mode to the side of the foe. This allows them to move 1 pace/meter/yard/hex, and get a "attacking from unshielded side" bonus worth +10%.

Replace "trip attacker & free attack" as a "sidestep" but have the attacker make a DEX roll or the the dodger gets behind them for double the bonus.
I'd only reserve the "trip" reuslt for when the attacker fumbled rather than just fails. And just chancege the DEX roll to see if he falls down.


I'd replace the gland slam result of "trip attack plus two free attacks" as "sidestep" plus "trip/fall" and a free attack"


That cuts you doen to one free attack, but a lot of chances to get into a advnatagous position.