Play by post combat

[Zee]

in the effort to keep stuff flowing with out combat bogging down every little thing here's my idea for how to handle it. Rather than a round by round it'l be more of a win or loss roll for the typical "trash" fights with "boss" fights being handled differently.

"Trash" fights would be 1d100 modified by a characters "combat potential" which is HP+AC+max damage+level

Such as bob is a level 8 fighter specialized in the two handed sword with a damage bonus of 2 from his strength. Bob has 50 HP and his AC is 3.

A 1d100 would be rolled, say he rolls a 30. That 30 would then be added to his personal "combat potential" He has 50 HP that would be added to the 30 he rolled giving him 80. Being level 8 and specialized in the 2 handed sword he gets 2 attacks a round. The max damage of a 2 handed sword is 10 (always assume a small/medium creature), because he gets two attacks a round his max damage would be 20+2 for specialization plus another 2 for his strength bonus for a total of 24. The 24 would be added to his earlier 80 now giving him 104. His AC is 3 which is an improvement of 7 from the starting AC of 10. So he would get 7 added to his roll for that, taking his 104 up to 111. Lastly he is level 8 which would add another 8 giving him a total of 119.

Bobs "combat potential" is 89. Having figured that out when he gets in a fight it would simply be a 1d100+89.

Bob fights a goblin who has a total roll of 118, very close but since Bobs roll was higher he beats the goblin with out taking any damage.

Bob later fights an orc who rolls a total of 159 this time Bob only managed to roll an 11 on his 1d100. Adding that to his combat potential of 89 bob ends up with a 100. Bob kills the orc but loses some health because he lost the roll.

The idea being that if you manage a higher roll than your opponent then you win with out taking any damage. If you roll lower you win but suffer some HP damage. HP would be lost at a rate of 10% of Maximum HP for every 10 that your roll gets beat by. In the above example since Bob lost by 59 he would lose 50% of his HP. If he lost by 1 he would lose 10% if he lost by 100 then he would have been slain.

Another thing to take into account would be tactics. Which would be a penalty I would apply to the "bad guys" rolls based on how the character approaches the combat. But i'll get into that if anyone thinks this sounds fair in the first place.

My idea behind this is it would allow stuff to move along with out getting bogged down by combat. With the player usually winning (as lets face it they usually do, cause well if you lost a majority of the fights you were in everyone here would've had 20 different characters ) but it certainly isn't guaranteed, because well lets face it some times those 1's happen.

The formula used is relatively complex but the good thing about it is that once you have it figured out, it doesn't change unless your character changes. Lastly i'm more'n willing to help anyone figure out what their "combat potential" would be if this method sounds good.

[Paks]

That sounds fine to me. I like your thinking.

[Zee]

Sorry for poofing there for a week. I headed out of town and had no internet access when i got there. Anywho, i'm getting a lap top here in a week or two and i know a guy who can turn my phone into what is essentially a wireless modem, so shouldn't be a problem again .

[Zee]

Alrightie, for an example please see the second page of Paks' thread "A good soak". For an explanation of what occurred:

Paks made (I rolled for her this time so we could all see how it works) one roll for each bad guy. I then made my rolls for each of the bad guys. I then matched her rolls against mine taking her first roll and matching it against my first roll, and her 2nd against my 2nd and her 3rd against my 3rd. To keep things simple for the player they'l always use the same roll unless something changes with their character (they gain a level, get a better weapon, haven't fully recovered HP from a previous fight, etc etc). Where there any specific tactics involved that should imply a penalty to the player or a bonus to the player I will add those automatically into my bad guys rolls. With the format being 1d100+combat potential +/- penalty/bonus.

Such tactics that would imply a penalty or bonus may be the character being overly surrounded by skilled opponents, or picking a couple of club wielding bad guys with a bow before they get to the character.

To determine the tactics combat can be started one of two ways, either I initiate it in which I set up a scenario and tell you how many bad guys there are and you respond with how you want to approach the combat followed (in the same post) by your rolls (only specifying your target for each roll, if you wish, if not i'll match them up as best i can). Then I will post with the bad guys rolls and a follow up post with the results. You will then RP the combat/your next step as you desire.

The other option is if you chose to initiate the combat in which you will state how you would like to approach the combat. I will then post my rolls for the bad guys. You will then post your rolls. Then type out the results in parenthesis followed by RPing the combat and your next step.

So in short the second person to roll will put in parenthesis at the top of their next post the results so we can check against each other. Seeing as determining whether you win or lose and what percentage of HP you lose is all done "behind the scenes" as it were.

As always, please voice any thoughts or opinions so they may be scoffed at accordingly :-p.

[Zee]

Ok after some fiddling, it looks like you can only put one modifier in the Dice. So when combat occurs I will roll according to what needs to actually be rolled and then in parenthesis explain the penalty or bonus based on the situation. If I don't explain any bonuses or penalties, then there aren't any. To keep things simpler for the player I will add any bonuses they receive into the bad guys rolls as a penalty on their part.

[korth]

just a quick note here or suggestion if you decide to try running this in 3.5E at any time in the future - check out this variant rule system http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/playersRollAllTheDice.htm

Been a long time since I did much with 2e, so I'm not sure that you can use this rule set for 2e very easily

[Jereth Ingsbe]

As stereotypical it sounds for a warrior to say..... I'm confused.

In our current combat, I'm not sure how I calculate Jereth's bonus, help?

[Zee]

Naw yer fine I calculate bonuses and penalties,  both the players and the bad guys into the bad guys rolls. So the player just has to roll a d100 + their combT potential.

[Jereth Ingsbe]

I suppose you just laid out the language for me. See I don't know what the combat potential is ......

[Zee]

Oh sorry, I thought I messaged ya with it. It's a static number that'l always be used unless something changes. It consists of the sum of a characters HP, AC, Max Damage, and Level.

Max damage being the confusing one is the maximum damage a character can do in one round. Say a character has two short sword attacks with a strength of 16 and specialization in short sword. Short sword damage is 1d6, 6 obviously being the max, with two attacks a round that would be 6*2+12. Then since the character gets a bonus of 3 because of specialization you would add 6 (the bonus of three counts on both attacks) to 12 for 18. Then finally the character gets 2 additional damage on each attack for four. Making the characters max damage a total of 22, which would then be added to the HP, AC, and level.