From: goldm@rpi.edu (Mitchell E. Gold)
Subject: Re: Palladium RPG comments
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
	<1992Dec9.193434.13188@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca> <42274@sdcc12.ucsd.edu>
	<GOLDM.92Dec10095141@sage4a.rpi.edu>
	<1992Dec10.165305.8868@odin.diku.dk>
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 20:13:41 GMT

In article <1992Dec10.165305.8868@odin.diku.dk> torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen) writes:
>>I'll address the combat issue more in my forthcoming article.
(okay, I guess I'll address some of it here and clear it up later)

>1) The armour rules essentially say that the armour stops all damage
>of blows that hit the armour until it is in tatters, after which it
>stops nothing. O.K, the chance of hitting where the armour doesn't
>cover increases when the armour is damaged, but the basic problem
>remains: the very lightest cloth armour is able to stop almost any
>single blow, after which it is in tatters.

Per the combat rules: A roll of 1-4 will always miss, a roll of 5-20 will
hit unless parried or dodged. If the roll is a hit and equal to or less
than the armor rating, then the armor takes the damage. If it is greater
than the armor rating, then the person takes the damage. This saves a bit
of time in calculating split damage. Armor rating is approximately the
percentage of body covered, and SDC is the strength. For chain mail with
an AR of 13 (65% body coverage) and SDC of 44, a roll of 1-4 will miss,
5-13 will hit armor and 14-20 will hit the person. If the defending die
plus all parrying or dodging bonuses is greater than or equal to the
attacking die plus all striking bonuses, then the blow is parried or dodged.
A rule which we rarely follow but may is that if armor drops to half
its full SDC, its AR goes down by 1. If its SDC falls below one-third
its maximum SDC, its AR goes down by another 1. If the armor no longer
effectively covers a person, then an attacker will avoid hitting the
armor and begin hitting the person easily.

>2) The rules for level increase states that you add one d6 to your hit
>points, which start at PE+1d6 at level 1. This means that at level 12
>a Troll will have 18D6 HP and a Gnome will have 14d6,

  Actually they both have 4d6 PE, so they'd have 16d6 each. Hit points
aren't a direct measurement of getting tough enough to withstand a blow,
it also represents being able to shake off a blow or roll with a punch
so that an N point hit will do a smaller fraction of damage as you gain
levels. This is similar to AD&D, and to quote from the AD&D DM's Guide:

    "It is quite unreasonable to assume that as a character gains levels
     of ability in his or her class that a corresponding gain in actual
     ability to sustain physical damage takes place. ... Because these
     reflect both the actual physical ability to sustain damage ... and
     a commensurate increase in such areas as skill in combat and similar
     life and death situations.... Constitution affects both actual ability
     to withstand physical punishment hit points (physique) and the
     immeasurable areas which involve the sixth sense and luck (fitness)."

Despite the apparent toughness of a particular race, experience should
more or less equally determine how well a being can avoid damage.

>3) Allowing priests to use healing touch every other melee round with
>no other limitation means that a large party with just a single priest
>will be up to perfect health very shortly after a combat is finished.
>I added a limitation based on the level of the priest, but I have
>heard suggestions of letting only the last wound be healable, which I
>found interesting.

This does become an abuse. Our particular house rule is that all wounds
may be healed, but to whatever level they are healed by a priest, the
same priest can heal no more unless a new wound or maximum is gained
through other means.

    Ex. A person has 50 hit points and takes 20 points of damage in a
    combat. A priest in the party heals 5 points, leaving a local
    maximum of 35 hit points. Unless the person hurt takes a new
    wound, that priest can do no more healing. If the wounded person
    drinks a potion of healing and gets 10 hit points, the local
    maximum is raised to 45, but again the same priest can not
    have an effect on the old wounds. Any number of priests and
    healers may attempt to heal wounds. This has resulted in many
    churches receiving large tithes as adventuring parties need a
    great deal of priests/healers to attend them.

>4) Priests and to a lesser degree all magic users are extremely
>powerful compared to non magic users.  A priest can use any armour,
>can have a soldiers combat skills and use any weapon. And this is in
>addition to all the priestly abilities. Furthermore, a priest doesn't
>have to go looking for spells, he just gets them at every level
>increase. The other magic users are in different ways also very
>powerful. In particular some of the low level spells are simply too
>powerful to allow (Charm for example).

Priests should also represent their church and deity and have duties that
they have little foreknowledge of. They are at the church's beck and call
and if they do not answer the call, they will quickly stop being priests.
In one of my campaigns, our priest (of the god of war) was told by his
deity (in a dream) to go build a shrine at the site of the greatest battle
of the decade (which we'd witnessed a few months before). This involved
by the landing around the site, consecrating the ground and supplying all
the material with which to build the shrine, out of his own pocket. This
can really eat into resources.

Most priests only have mercenary hand-to-hand skill, but depending on the
aspect of the god/goddess may only have a non-men-at-arms hand-to-hand skill
or may have a ranger's or thief's skill (for say the Huntress or the god
of Deception). Also, we say that the priest only gets as many new spells
as he can get (which is usually one per level, at or below the level of
the priest, so a 5th level priest may have at best one spell of each level
up to 5th, but may choose to have lower level spells for some utility).
As per AD&D, the priest can ask for a particular spell, but only gets
what the deity/GM allows.

Yes, charm is fairly powerful, but its limitations are that it can only be
cast at one person at a time, the victim remembers everything he has undergone,
and if the victim is put in a situation which is obviously fatal, the person
will hesitate and get another saving throw (at +2).

>I have put various limitations on the magic user O.C.C.s. A priest can
>not have better than mercenary combat skills, A Warlock can not so
>easily summon elementals, and in general the number of other skills
>that these classes have are reduced. I have, however, strengthened the
>healer O.C.C. so he is no longer weaker in his own field than a
>priest, which he is in the original rules.

Good, as a GM you have final authority of what goes in your campaign. If you
find balance better this way, more power to you. Much of the game balance as
is was hashed out in playtesting, and certain rules abuses or oversights may
tip that balance.

>5) The damage dice for the one-handed axes make these by far the best
>weapons to use. I have reduced these, and in general adjusted the
>weapons dice a bit. Also, weapons are dirt cheap compared to other
>items in the price list. I have multiplied the price ofmost weapons by
>10, but allowed inferior weapons (-1 to parry or strike or both) to be
>obtained at lower prices.

Note that the mace and chain is also a one handed 2d6 weapon. The limitation
is that the progression of strike and parry bonuses is lower than for say
swords. Economics is another situation altogether. If you think weapons should
be harder to come by, then that is the flavor your campaign should take. In
our campaign, superior weapons are rare (based on the ability of the local
blacksmith), but for a good deal more money, an alchemist can magically enhance
a weapon. We use a scale of 1,000 gold for a +1 to strike or parry or damage, 
an additional 8,000 gold for the second plus and an additional 27,000 gold for
the third plus. (e.g. a +1 to strike and parry sword would require a sword of
at least average craftsmanship (no minuses), plus 2,000 gold for the magic.
A +2 to strike and +1 to damage weapon would cost 10,000. These are minimums,
and if an area is flooded with money, prices will inflate to what the market
will bear.)

[Good points deleted]
--
 Mitchell Gold     /  middleman of
 sundance@rpi.edu /  rec.games.frp.archives


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc