Defence bonus in T20

[jodasi]

I have version one of T20. May or may not get V.2.

My long standing gripe with d20 srd for fantasy dnd 3.x is that any first thru third level can hit an AC 14 with great ease. He gets his BAB plus his Str bonus (or dex for t20) and well there you have it.

WOTC fixed that problem by providing class defence bonus in modern (since they get no magic items) and other companies have followed suit. Like blood and space does it also.

My old beef with d20 low magic fantasy games, and non magic games is that more experienced characters are still harder to hit.

Since any thing that hits you does stamina damage, and almost nothing raises your ac, Why is there no class defence bonus in T20?

Any takers... im pretty heated up here.

 

[Rover]

My dear Jodasi,
In T20, and other D20 avrients, experienced character can raise attributes and take certian feats as the progress. These can be used to make an experienced character harder to hit. Firtst thing that comes to mind it the uncanny dodge feat for Mercinaries. That means a charcater is never caught flat footed. That is one way.

Another way to look at it is that an experienced character, (or player) will be better at taking advantage of cover and tactics making them harder to hit. He or she will also more than likely know what armor to wear and when.

How you roll characters can also be a factor. I tend to be a little generouse when rolling characters because I prefer a more heroic/cinematic type of game. A character with an 18 or 19 dex is considerable harder to hit than your average joe.

Lastly, and yes I know it's a cop out, is to modify the rules IYTU.

IMTU we have a couple of house rules. First characters gain 1 life point per level. When armour is factored in this gives a good benifit to the PC.

Second rule we have, and this is a little off topic is that we roll initiative every round. We feel that this reflects the chaotic nature of combat, but it does favour the PC.

Remember the first rule is to have fun.

just my 0.02 Cr

Merry Festivus!

 

[jodasi]

good answer.

I like the extra life point. I found in another post that armor value adds into AC. Theses 2 things added to the rerolled init seems to fix things a bit in my head.

albeit, I think adding armor value to ac is the cheap way out of figuring out a good game mechanic.

ac:18... 10 & dexmod (2) & armor val (2 for leather?) & 4 (cover bonus kneeling behind your the bulkhead wrecked ship)

I guess its not to bad.

Maybe the armor should blot out some of the stamina hit also. 50% maybe? depending on if its laser or a bullet.

 

[wa11eye]

rover said "IMTU we have a couple of house rules. First characters gain 1 life point per level. When armour is factored in this gives a good benifit to the PC."
Thats a great idea! I wanted life blood to grow with the pc but wasen't sure how but now I know.
Thanks wa11eye

 

[Richard Saunders]

Originally posted by jodasi:
good answer.

I like the extra life point. I found in another post that armor value adds into AC. Theses 2 things added to the rerolled init seems to fix things a bit in my head.

albeit, I think adding armor value to ac is the cheap way out of figuring out a good game mechanic.

ac:18... 10 & dexmod (2) & armor val (2 for leather?) & 4 (cover bonus kneeling behind your the bulkhead wrecked ship)

I guess its not to bad.

Maybe the armor should blot out some of the stamina hit also. 50% maybe? depending on if its laser or a bullet.

-----------------------------------------------
Hello.
Any armor bonus you get already removes damage dice before it gets through to the player as "Constitution damage", I think its life blood (the one that dosnt go up with level).
So in your example above the leather will add to your armour class and remove the two lowest dice rolls for damage before its removed from your lifeblood.
Bye.

 

[justacaveman]

A couple of the house rules I use are:

Rigid armor (such as Combat Armor) reduces Stamina damage by half.

Critical hits only reduce the target's AR by half (instead of bypassing AR completely).

I also use the +1 Lifeblood per level house rule.

However, the best way to survive combat is to attack from ambush at a distance, then run away before the enemy can respond.

 

[justacaveman]

A clarification: Critical Hits only halve AR if the target is fully armored from head to foot (otherwise the AR is bypassed).

If you have a body location that is not armored, you had better keep it behind cover.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by LordRhys:
However, the best way to survive combat is to attack from ambush at a distance, then run away before the enemy can respond.

And if you're ambushed...*get outta there*! Combat is not something to take lightly in Traveller which is why I don't mind T20 combat as is. If you search the forums you'll find me asking about why a CON check of DOOM isn't in T20.

(though nothing's preventing you from implementing one)

Casey