House Rules for Shield skill in RMSS

Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 19:21:33 -0500 From: Matt B To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: [RMSS]: Two weapon fighting
>On Sun, 11 Feb 1996, Fredrik Sellevold wrote:
>
>> I have a player who has designed his character to fight with a main gauche
>> and a rapier. All fair, but he is very disgruntled with having to parry
>> equally with both weapons, as he wishes to parry with the main gauche and
>> attack with the rapier.
>The reason for reducing both OB's with the parry amount is that the
>character uses part of his concentration on defending himself instead of
>launching an all-out attack.
>What your player basically wants to do is to perform two things at the
>same time. Personally I wouldn't allow that, or you would suddenly find
>that EVERYBODY uses two-weapon combo.
>> Does anyone have any ideas of how to satisfy him and maintain play balance?
>If the other persons (PCs and NPC) were allowed to develop skill ranks
>with their shields, thus adding to their DB's game balance might be
>conserved ;)
>This also goes to show why your player should be denied the pleasure of
>attacking 100% with his left hand and defending 100% with his right hand...

Well maybe what does need to be done is some sign of how people are better at using a shield than others.

Meaning, this should be something that is developed with a maximum. If that 20th level fighter picks up a full shield, he gets +25, where as that big Troll that can barely fit his hand into the handle get the same +25. Does this seem right to you? Ok, throw in some mods for size, etc, or maybe the shield is Full for the Normal size human, but in his hands it becomes a target shield.

Still, the 20th level fighter has been using a shield for 5 years and knows to keep it up and where to place it to enable to "parry" for an advantage.

It just does not make sense that two characters get the same bonus for using a shield. A shield, sure it blocks, but where do you hold it so you can still swing a sword? A lot of fighters have a tendacy to push the sheild out away from their bodies when they swing a sword, thus creating a consistant opening for the attacker.

Just off the top of my head I would propose something like this:

Wall Shield    +15
Full Shield    +10
Target shield   +5

Develope ranks in each with the progression 2*0*0*0*0, cost for a fighter would be (each) 1/1/1

So by 5th level the character could be fully trained. (unless I errored in my math :)

Maybe to show progression beyond that have a level bonus of .5/lvl, so at 10th level he could have a Full Shield that is +30.

Just a thought.

mattb@dino.gi.alaska.edu
-------------------------
eat moose meat, 10,000 wolves can't be wrong.

Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 15:10:22 -0400 From: Matt To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Discussion: Lack of Shield Skill
At 10:09 AM on 8/21/96, David K. Spencer wrote:
> Hello all:
>

> However, lately I've been wondering about the way RM handles shield use.
> My players and I were discussing this the other day, when it became clear
> that an incredibly talented warrior with years of experience under his
> belt gained the same benefit from a shield as a wimpy scholar who had
> never even touched one before.
> -Dave

I brought this up a while back, but rather give extra bonuses to higher level dudes and throw off game balance, I proposed using the skill as a percentage of shield bonus you get.

Make the progression for shield a straight -15*5*5*0*0. You could change that so that you can train above 100% of normal, but I don't think I would.

So if you have 10 ranks in Shield, you would have 50% of the normal bonus (round up). So a normal shield that has a +25 to DB would be +13 for one with 10 ranks.

The Developement Cost could be the same as the cheapest armor type. (ie, a fighters cheapest armor cost is 1/1/1, so the shield DP cost would be 1/1/1).

That would put the fully trained around 5th or 6th level for fighters.

Alterately you could change the progression to -15*5*5*3*1 or even -15*5*3*1*.5, but that would give no upper limits to the developement and you could end up with some very outrageous shield bonuses.

  mattb@dino.gi.alaska.edu
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| ftp://asfqm.images.alaska.edu/FTP/          |
| http://deepthought.gi.alaska.edu/WWW/mattb/ |
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Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 17:47:18 -0400 From: Matt To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Discussion: Lack of Shield Skill
MattB wrote:
>Make the progression for shield a straight -15*5*5*0*0.  You could change
>that so that you can train above 100% of normal, but I don't think I would.
>
>So if you have 10 ranks in Shield, you would have 50% of the normal bonus
>(round up).  So a normal shield that has a +25 to DB would be +13 for one
>with 10 ranks.
>
>The Developement Cost could be the same as the cheapest armor type. (ie, a
>fighters cheapest armor cost is 1/1/1, so the shield DP cost would be
>1/1/1).
>
>That would put the fully trained around 5th or 6th level for fighters.
>
>Alterately you could change the progression to -15*5*5*3*1 or even
>-15*5*3*1*.5, but that would give no upper limits to the developement and
>you could end up with some very outrageous shield bonuses.
>

Aahhh! I'm replying to myself...

Actually, I just wanted to add that the stats for shield should be AG/AG/ST, but that could add as much as 60 to the shield skill. I would play it no stat bonus

I think I'm going to play test the -15*5*5*1*0 progression.

This would mean that untrained your shield would be -15 + shield bonus.

Trained would be (shield bonus*skill)/100

So at 4th level, a fighter could have 12 ranks in Normal Shield, that would be: 25*(60/100) = 15

That is, if you don't include adolencent and hobby ranks. With the progression the way it is, and no adolencent and hobby ranks, the fighter could be up to 100% of shield by 7th level, and add 1% more per rank bought above that. So maxed out the total could be 110%, that would make a Normal Shield max out at 27.5.

  mattb@dino.gi.alaska.edu
 ---------------------------------------------
| ftp://asfqm.images.alaska.edu/FTP/          |
| http://deepthought.gi.alaska.edu/WWW/mattb/ |
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Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 18:11:03 -0400 From: Darryn.Glass/NBK/SoftNet@tower.clark.net To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Discussion: Lack of Shield Skill

Here's an idea. If you want to add a Shield Skill, make it a 0*1*1*.5*0 and have it add to the normal shield bonus. This allows the character to improve his skill at blocking with a shield, but also allows the Mage that happend to pick one up to get some bonus. It also limits the maximum to around +25 extra or so (which should not overly unbalance things). As har as development cost, I would say it should be about the same as your most proficient weapon category. The progression can be adjusted if you think that shields play a larger role, but anything above 0*2*1*.5*0 would unbalance things (I think at least). That would give a bonus of +35.

Darryn Glass


Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 00:12:27 -0400 From: Matt To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Shield Skill

At 7:46 PM on 8/21/96, William Beatty wrote:
> Could someone please repeat the shield skill think again.

This is what I wrote before:

I brought this up a while back, but rather give extra bonuses to higher level dudes and throw off game balance, I proposed using the skill as a percentage of shield bonus you get.

Make the progression for shield a straight -15*5*5*0*0. You could change that so that you can train above 100% of normal, but I don't think I would.

So if you have 10 ranks in Shield, you would have 50% of the normal bonus (round up). So a normal shield that has a +25 to DB would be +13 for one with 10 ranks.

The Developement Cost could be the same as the cheapest armor type. (ie, a fighters cheapest armor cost is 1/1/1, so the shield DP cost would be 1/1/1).

That would put the fully trained around 5th or 6th level for fighters.

Alterately you could change the progression to -15*5*5*3*1 or even -15*5*3*1*.5, but that would give no upper limits to the developement and you could end up with some very outrageous shield bonuses.

  mattb@dino.gi.alaska.edu
 ---------------------------------------------
| ftp://asfqm.images.alaska.edu/FTP/          |
| http://deepthought.gi.alaska.edu/WWW/mattb/ |
 ---------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 15:27:37 -0400 From: Psychlone@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Shield Skill

Here's a suggestion....

Shield DB = Shield Value + (Shield Value * Skill %)

Shield Value = 20 + any enchantments, metals, etc.

Example: Warrior with 40 in shied skill would get 20 + (20 * .4) = 28 shield DB.

BTW, this is not my own..... I take it directly from the Gemstone III system, which itself was based on RM.

Psychlone


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