Toril 2.0: Combat Maneuvers

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Shevarash
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Toril 2.0: Combat Maneuvers

Postby Shevarash » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:45 am

Toril 2.0: Combat Maneuvers

Combat Maneuvers - bash, trip, shieldpunch, etc - are a staple of Toril's combat system, and have naturally been completely revamped for 2.0.

Combat Maneuvers 101

A basic combat maneuver can be attempted by any character. These maneuvers do not rely on skills for effectiveness, but rather use your ability scores and attack bonus to determine success or failure. This system allows for better scaling in that you can be effective against creatures of an equivalent level right away, rather than waiting dozens of levels before one of the old skills was even usable. It also allows for combat oriented characters - who have a much higher base attack bonus - to naturally be more effective than their frailer counterparts, while not restricting them completely.

Combat maneuvers all use one unified system, which allows them to remain balanced and work with each other predictably. As part of this system, rather than limiting combat maneuevers individually - such as bashing once every three rounds - you are simply limited to one combat maneuver at a time, and you must wait until that maneuver's cool-down period has elapsed before attempting another one. For instance, a bash will require you to wait 3 rounds before attempting another maneuver, while a feint will only tie you up for 2 rounds.

There are ways to improve at basic combat maneuvers, such as taking a feat that increases your effectiveness, or using a weapon or other piece of equipment that improves your chances.

Attacks of Opportunity

Of course, there had to be a catch. Most combat maneuvers force your character to drop their guard, briefly exposing them to attacks of opportunity. An attack of opportunity is just what it sounds like - your opponent gets a free attack on you. Every combat maneuver differs in how it draws attacks of opportunity. Some only draw an attack if you fail, others always draw an attack, and some never do. You can get around the attacks of opportunity in many cases by selecting feats that improve your maneuvers. For example, taking the Improved Trip feat will render you immune to attacks of opportunity while attempting trips.

Basic Combat Maneuvers

Here is a sampling of the basic combat maneuvers - and its important to note that while there are many familiar faces below, all of these have been completely rewritten from the ground up.


Aid - Grants an ally a bonus to their attack roll, while forgoing your own attack.

Charge - Initiate combat with a powerful charge that grants a bonus to your attack roll, and can knock your opponent off their feet. Mounted combatants wielding lances are especially effective at charging.

Disarm - Attempt to disarm your opponent's weapon. If you attempt to disarm while barehanded, you could end up wielding the weapon yourself.

Feint - Spend a round feinting against your opponent, and deny them their dexterity bonus to AC on the next round. Very useful for those hard-to-hit targets.

Flank - Sacrifice some attacks to circle around your opponent and deny them their dexterity bonus to any attack - not just your own. Sneaky types can follow this up with a powerful attack...

Grapple - Attempt to grab and hold your opponent, preventing them from moving or attacking anyone else. While grappling a creature, you can both try to attack one another, disarm weapons, or move rooms together, among other things. This can be a tricky maneuver to pull off, but can really pay off.

Shield Bash - The old favorite, works pretty much as you would expect

Shield Punch - Slam your shield into your opponent, causing damage and a chance to catch your opponent offguard.

Sunder - Attempt to destroy your opponents weapon or shield. While disarm is more of a cunning dexterity based attack, sundering is all about brute force. And no, don't worry - there is no permenant destruction of items though sundering will render an item unusable temporarily.

Trip - Attempt to trip up your opponent and send them crashing to the ground. Certain weapons, such as a spiked chain, can allow you to make a more powerful trip attempt by using the weapon rather than your own legs.

Throw Splash Weapon - Toss a flask of acid, a vial of holy water, or one of many other explosive weapons at a your target for area damage and effects.

There are a few more basic combat maneuvers, but we'll get into those later.

Advanced Combat Maneuvers

Advanced combat maneuvers simply refers to any maneuver that is not available to everyone. These maneuvers are either open only to a certain class, or are only available after selecting a feat. These maneuvers tend to be more powerful than the basic ones, and probably do not invite attacks of opportunity as often. There are many of these maneuvers, but here are a few for example:

Smite Evil (Paladin Class Ability) - This maneuver allows a paladin to make a mighty attack against an evil adversary. The paladin adds their Charisma bonus to the attack bonus, and then adds their level to the already increased damage for a powerful blow.

Sneak Attack (Rogue Class Ability) - On a succesful flank maneuver, a rogue can choose to make a devastating sneak attack, which deals massive damage to their victim and denies them their dexterity bonus to AC. Rogues have several related feats which allow them to vary their sneak attacks, but more on those later...

Whirlwind (Feat) - This maneuver allows your to whirl throughout the room and attack a great number of enemies in one round. And yes - its better than hitall.

Manyshot (Feat) - Notch several extra arrows to your bow to fire a devastating blast of arrows, with a slight penalty to hit.

Rend (Feat) - When wielding two piercing or slashing weapons, attempt to skewer your opponent and twist the blades to cause excuciating pain and substantial damage. Great for strong dual-wielding fighters.

Deft Strike (Feat) - Search for a chink in your opponent's armor, and striek them quickly where it counts, for increased damage at little cost. Great for dexterity fighters.

Conclusion

The combat maneuver system has been designed from the ground up to encourage tactical thinking during combat, rather than the old routine of standing still and doing the same thing over and over again. In order to be truly effective in combat, you will need to be able to make quick decisions and use your combat maneuvers effectively. This system should encourage much more engaging and interesting combat on TorilMUD.

Oh, and of course - mobs can use these maneuvers too. That should be interesting as well...
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Ragorn
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Postby Ragorn » Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:00 am

Very sexy.

Did you basically combine Charge and Bull Rush? Or what's up with Charge's knockdown ability?
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Shevarash
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Postby Shevarash » Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:21 am

Charge's knockdown ability replaces the speed doubling in D&D, which is not so useful in a text environment.
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Postby Arilin Nydelahar » Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:50 am

mmm. ranger stuff to do other than archery.
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Postby Thilindel » Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:32 am

Wishlist for the order of info released would be cool! I'd like to learn about rangers, and other classes skills too I guess. I'm too impatient to not have to ask :) Also wondering if there's any remote ETA for 2.0 implementation!
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Postby moritheil » Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:30 am

Nice to see that two-weapon rend made the cut! :D Thanks for the update!
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Postby Gormal » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:05 pm

This should be interesting! Do we have any sort of timeline for 2.0 implementation now that we're past the original hopeful date?
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Postby Ragorn » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:30 pm

Shevarash wrote:Charge's knockdown ability replaces the speed doubling in D&D, which is not so useful in a text environment.

That makes sense.

I do hope, however, that charge doesn't turn into the Toril 2.0 version of bash. Knockdown is no joke... for those unfamiliar with the system, standing up from a prone position provokes an Attack of Opportunity from everyone who threatens you, so "bashing" in a D&D context is insanely awesome. And while it's awesome, I'd hate to see 2.0 Fighters turn into bash-bots when they have so many other cool options.
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Re: Toril 2.0: Combat Maneuvers

Postby Cirath » Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:48 pm

Shevarash wrote:Mounted combatants wielding lances are especially effective at charging.


Mmm... Spirited Charge
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Postby Sarvis » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:34 pm

Grapple: Will grappling prevent flanking?
Whirlwind: Will you hit more enemies if dual wielding? What about with larger weapons.. maybe reach weapons like spears and glaives?
Trip: YAY! Well... assuming rangers can get it...

Of course, Feint sounds a lot like what I proposed for a new Ranger class a while back: http://www.torilmud.org/phpBB2/viewtopi ... highlight=

Ok ok, so that's pretty much how feints work anyway... but it gives me an excuse to point you at that thread for more ideas!
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Postby Ragorn » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:48 pm

Sarvis wrote:Trip: YAY! Well... assuming rangers can get it...

My assumption is that every class will have access to every one of the basic combat skills, since they're all standard combat maneuvers in D&D. You can sunder with your Wizard, if you REALLY want to.

Fighters have an advantage with the feat-based skills over other melee classes, however, because Fighters get many more feats than anyone else. Whirlwind is a great example. If you want to take the Whirlwind feat, you need to have Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack. For a Fighter who gets to pick 18 feats over the course of his lifetime, that's not all that unreasonable if you're interested in taking Whirlwind. A Ranger who gets 7 feats can still DO it if he wants to, but it represents a much more significant feat investment.

On the other hand, Two-Weapon Rend requires Dex 15 (which is fairly high). Rangers, who wear light armor and often dual wield, tend to put more of a priority on Dex than Fighters do. So TW Rend would be a no-brainer for Ragorn, but clumsy Gormal might not be able to take the feat at all if he doesn't meet the Dex requirement.
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