Friday, September 10, 2010

Level Based Defense Bonus in Old School?

A question for reader base.

If I was using Swords and Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord as the basis but I wanted to reduce magic items quite a bit, how much if any general bonus should I gave to AC at higher levels?

It seems to me that AC should go up a bit with combat skill and not just with magic gear so that a 10th level fighter is a bit harder to hit than a 1st level one.

My options to accomplish this seem to be some variations of....

Cyclopedia/Dark Dungeons Weapon Mastery

A slight modification of "Armor for All" at Retro-Roleplaying

Some kind of "parry rule" where I can take away from my chance to hit to take away from yours, possibly at a ratio ala Rolemaster or 3x's Combat Expertise feat . This would work better with raising AC but thats not an issue for me.

A flat class based bonus or maybe something else .....

What say you all?

4 comments:

  1. Isn't that what abstract HP do? i.e. Make it harder for one to get killed by a weapon blow.

    Fighting classes have more HP afterall.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've never cared for that idea personally. It just feel wrong to me.

    Also if thats the case, why have magic item "pluses" and instead just have them add extra HP? Its more consistent

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think Everquest D20 went the extra hp method along with AC pluses.

    The Palladium games give extra "hp" in the form of SDC for armor as well.

    I'd favor a parry bonus approach so higher defense isn't "always on" when one has an increasing defense with experience.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am leaning the same way JD. This way I don't have to change AC or monster stats that much.

    ReplyDelete