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Feb 5, 2013 -- 10:22PM, da_duke wrote:

Ghost,
How does this apply to NADs vs AC?

If a monster has an AC of 30 and a level 15 warrior rolls a 10, how is that different than the wizard that has three targets of different REF and rolls a 10? 

Also, how does this distinguish between a Great Axe and an Executioner's Axe when they both have the same max damage?

I am interested in your system though. 

We play 4e ofcourse.  We apply it to NADs and AC.  It's a hit chart for everything.  Only purpose is to eliminate dice rolling to determine damage with extra gravy with fumbles and crits.  Again the Hit Table purpose is to eliminate extra dice rolling for damages.. and instead 1 Roll Determine to Hit AND Damage, and it only applies to Damage Roll that requires an Attack Roll.  Any static damage that don't require an Attack Roll and a Dice Roll for damage don't apply.  

For the effects to apply it has to "hit".  A miss does nothing.  If 10 is a hit, against AC or whatever, Damage = 50%.  Now the percentage is only for damage that require dice rolls.  Static bonus such as magic item, stat.. don't get broken down.  Full static bonuses apply anyway if played out regularly.

This means, majority of time when our pc "hits", if encounter monsters are equivalent or bit higher level, the results of the damage be 50% and up since the PC's will need to roll around 10+ give or take a few to hit.  Mathematic average in 2d10 to roll 8-14 is 58% so each turn in a balanced encounter play, chances are pc will roll 8-14, 58% of the time, doing 50% damage.  The 3% higher hit ratio then the 1d20, (8-14 being 35% of the time, and 10+ 55% of the time), but we felt that no one gets excited on a miss on their turn.. we get excited on a hit, so that extra 3% bonus was significant then not.

Now against a low defense such as Will defense, the PC attacking the low defense may hit with lower roll, (not necessarily because of level difference or tactical bonuses).. but we felt a low defense is no different then fighting lower level and the Attacker can choose to add a control effect to the low "hit" roll of 4-5 instead of damage .  Low NADs didn't make a negative difference at all during our encounters.. and everything from Will, Reflex to AC were in play.   Rolling low such as 4-7 and then hitting the defense meant simply 25% damage with extra options if rolled 4-5 to hit.

For the mage hitting 3 targets with a burst or blast, the mage would have to roll attack rolls on each.. depending on the roll, the % damage and/or it's effects would apply individually.  Again nothing else changes except you don't roll the damages.  What you initially rolled to hit determines the damage. 

Now the difference of Great Axe and Executioner's Axe. Executioner's Axe has a Brutal point of 2.  We adapted the "Brutal value" as added Static value to the damage per extra dice.  So.. with a hit with Excecutioner's Axe, lets say a regular wielded by heroic (10 lvl, +4 str, no other static value damage).  Lets say 50% was the result.  12 x .5 = 6+ 4+2, resulting in 12 pts of damage.  If it was a +2 magical exe axe, then brutal static value for the crit be +6.  It's not perfect but we didn't want to ignore the "brutal" weapon properties all together, and it worked out well so far.  

We use this for paragon and epic... We never tried it on heroic tier 1-10 level.  For 1-10 level I don't think a home brew system is required.

Now a low level requiring high roll to hit a higher defense or higher level.. chances are he will miss most of time, but when he does hit, it will be a significant hit.. meaning 17 or higher roll to hit, everytime he hits he will be doing 100% damage and up. We decided that was great since even in the movies, weaker opponant may miss stronger opponant alot, while the stronger toys with the weaker, but when the weaker do hit.. its usually not a "scratch" but a dramatic game changer.  We thought how this plays out with the chart was good mirror of that.

Funny thing is, in one encounter alone, I rolled a 2...3 times, stunning myself for 1d4 rounds each time.  That 1% chance do come into play more often then I thought, but it adds Vegas excitement when it happens.  When it happens to monsters, its also a tide changer.  Losing fight can turn into a winning fight.  That variable element of chance seem to add so much fun.   This is what 1d20 can't give.  5% is way way too high to make it epic and there is no average roll.  We know for mathematic certainty with 2d10 that 8-14 will be rolled 58% of the time.  And everything below and everything above is a much lower chance roll but with added interesting outcomes for the variable.

For crit affecting paragon paths such as Dagger Master, or Epic Feats.. you can reasonably transfer the percentage value to the table.  For instance Dagger Master can crit with a dagger with a roll of 18-20.  That's a 15% chance in 1d20 terms.  Switching that to 2d10.. that would be a crit on a roll of 17+ which is 10% chance.  On the chart we use 19 as "all crits" effects.  Epic critical only requires a Natural Roll of 20.  So a dagger master will crit on a roll of 17-19 having the 19 crit effect, and Natural 20 being epic critical.  

Any Feat that gives weapon crit at 19-20 (10% 1d20), it would transfer to 18-20 (6% chance 2d10).  

Even though the % is lower transferred to 2d10, since the effect is higher, crit also causing a stun etc, and epic crit doing epic result, it balances it out fine.

Majority of the rounds, when a "hit" is involved it will usually be 25% to 75% damage 80% of the time(6-16).  100% damage 7% of time(17-18), 25% damage or slide, prone, daze target 7% of the time (4-5), Fumble, Critical Fumble 3% of the time (2-3), Crits and Epic crits 3% of the time (19-20).  These others only play out at low total percentage of 20% of the time.....but with very interesting results.

So basically we broke up the combat damage system to;  80% of the time 25%-75% of damage will be done when we "hit", and this math appears to be true when we tally the encounters up when we play, math being math it averages out close to correct given enough rolls.  20% of the time.. something special occurrs, out of which 6% of the time.. something really special occurrs either with fumbles or crits, out of which 1% of the time.. epic critical occurrs.  During our sessions only one time a player rolled Natural 20 for a epic hit.  Ofcourse I personally rolled Natural 2's 3x in one encounter.... you got to luv math but the variables and odds definitely makes things exciting.

How fast does our table go?  Since everyone's damages are broken down already 25/50/75/100/150% per basic, at-will, encounter, daily Powers;  Each player turn... What you roll?  13.  It's a hit.  I did 35 points.  Next... player.   what you roll?  10. It's a miss.  Next player.  What you roll?  17.  It's a hit. I did 55 points.  Next..and so forth.  With the added flavor of fumbles, crits, critical fumbles and epic crits when those rolls happen.  

And most of our time spent in a round in an encounter is making Tactical Decisions which shouldnt be rushed since thats fun part of combat round and it is what we want... not dice rolling and adding dices causing unneccesary time lag to the game.

As long as you are not stuck with 1d20 and don't mind 2d10 to simulate and adept into 1d20 with much higher variables and predictable average results due to the combination of numbers which 1 dice can't give..you can try and test this out your self with your friends.  It changed our combat faster and more exciting, and ao far no problems.
 

Yes TheFenis, we roll 2d10 and whatever the number (2-20) if its a "hit" we apply the hit result.  Damage is precalculated by % break down, (not static damage but only dice damages) for all charactors and monsters rounding .5 decimals down if decimal exist.  All we do is Roll, hit, say the damage.  Doesnt take us 3 seconds To determine.  Thats how fast our round goes.

Yes.  Instead of 1d20(1-20) we swapped to 2d10 (2-20) to add math variables of 1-100 with predictable avg, instead of 1-20 variable.  We tried twicking 1d20 but just wasn't getting the variables we wanted.  It should be what variables one wants then choosing the dice to represent it then vice versa.  Happens to be 1d20 dnd core variable system can easily be tranformed to 2d10 so it was easy transition, and we got the variable we wanted with added "average"  built in with 2 dices then simple 1 dice.

This allowed us to make nat 20 and nat 2 epic since its extreme low frequency of occurance on table.  100 rolls before 2 or 20 is rolled is the odds.  Me rolling 2's 3 times was a variable fluke..kinda like getting a Royal Flush..but that appears to add excitement regardless.  We felt epic critical effect should have equal epic fumble effect and being stunned 1-4 rounds with saves every round was appropriate compared to 150% dmg and 45% of going unconscious on a nat 20 roll.  

We been using this for past 7  sessions and for the dm and players its been working out golden so far Without any problems.  

If we stuck with 1d20 variable, then nat 1 dazing for 1-4 rounds and nat 20 doing some added crit effect may be viable...BUT with 5% chance, anything more interesting cant be added since its table top frequency occurs too often.  1 out of 20 roll odd wasn't working for us hence forth increasing the variable with 2d10.

Predictable "average" was a bonus..why % 2d10 (1-100%) is inferior to adding two dices to get same 1-100 variables.

Now we only use 2d10 for combat and skill checks.  Rest such as making saves everything else not related, we use 1d20.  Saves in particular, you cant use 2d10 (2-20) to represent 1d20, since nature of save is straight up 55%  success and 45% faiulure chance and 2d10 wouldnt represent that properly, unless you switch 2d10 as % but keeping any changes simple, streamlined and stable adaptation to exisitng system is also important.  We are not trying to create entire new system after all, just adapting.

We tried timer but never worked.  Player gonna spend the time he she feels regardless of timer to make tactical decisions, and bietching about it at the table or punishing player by skipping him/her was counter productive to player fun.  So...we decided to evolve & twick system to shave off serious amount of time on the mechanical aspect (without losing challenge, engagement and variable risk) and allow players to spend their time on the decision making aspect...which is what players want...at least at our table.

Again this is Paragon and up.  System works fine until then. It don't show signs of breaking down until players start leveling paragon and into epic.