Blades Runner
Posts: 623
Joined: Thursday, 23rd December 2010, 19:17
Parry VS Shields
In gamewise terms it’s no better. It is nobrainer for melee character to use a shield if he wants to live. Twohanded weapons in most cases are left behind because it doesn’t matter how much more of a punch they have. Another line of defense is always better.
So, before combat moves go in and parry goes as one of such moves for some weapon type, I have a proposal to submit.
Add a new skill – Parrying.
Depending on a weapon type wielded and skill level character will have PR (parry rating) which replaces SH on a display. (When shield is wielded, character will block instead of parrying for balance sake). So, when there is equipped a two handed weapon or a single one-handed weapon – there will be displayed PR instead of a SH.
I don’t really know how works attack on an opponent after a block with a shield, but I suppose it should slow next attack of a character. While parrying lets you counterattack an opponent immediately after successful deflection.
Each weapon type have hidden multiplier for parrying and can be displayed in a way “This weapon is bad/good/excellent to parry with”
It goes in such order (from worst to best):
Daggers, Whips (1) – Useless for parry
Unarmed (2-4) – special cased*. About that a bit later.
One-handed flails, maces and axes; sabers (3)
One-handed swords (4)
Two-handed flails, maces and axes (5)
Two-handed swords (6)
Polearms and staves (7)
*Unarmed combatants learn to grapple opponent’s limbs to interfere with it’s swing instead of actual parrying of a weapon. Imagine a kobold swinging a club at your monk. Your character quickly grabs it’s hand and twists it away from himself, dealing a powerful kick in the groin meanwhile. In another scenario, monster’s blow can be avoided by preemptive hit to attacker’s hand/tentacle/pseudopod which will deflect direct hit from a character.
For unarmed PR should scale not only with Parry skill but also with UC skill. The more character is skilled in martial arts – the more chances he will be able to deflect blows with his bare hands.
For actual combat situation not only skill and weapon should play a role (PR). Size of a character and opponent also very important. The bigger the monster – the harder to parry its attack and vice versa – small monsters’ blows are easier to parry. Same applies for a player species – spriggans are awful with parrying (they can have great aptitude though, but size makes it very hard to parry a minotaur’s axe). While Ogres can withstand stone giant’s attack by parrying it.
PR should be weighted by Dex. As far as I know, SH influenced with Str so it would be quite symmetrical.
Now for bad news. 27 Parry with best weapon type is still worse by a notch than 27 Shield with large shield, BUT it adds choices, alternatives and some line of defense for users of twohanded weapons and UC.
Lastly here is comparison of two skills:
SHIELDS:
Pros:
Good defense in melee
Good defense against ranged attacks
Cons:
Hard to find shield in early-game
Slower attacks after blocking
Interferes with dodging (should be more severe than right now)
Interferes with spellcasting (should be more severe than right now)
PARRY:
Pros:
Decent defense in melee
Easy to find proper weapon to train with in early-game
Do not interfere with dodging
Do not interfere with spellcasting
Do not slows attacks after parrying
Cons:
Inferior defense against ranged attacks (effectiveness gained only around 10+ skill level)
Worse defense in melee without skill investment.
I was unable to find similar proposal in the devwiki so after some feedback I’ll add it there maybe.