house ruling polearms

Summary:

the evolving nature of polearms in the game

house ruling polearms

cr0m 20 Mar 2010 16:28

Last night at session 22, we agreed to limit the awesome power of polearms a little. Previously we'd been using them to attack over the front ranks of the party, in melee without penalty, etc, and I felt that they were too powerful.

Here's what we agreed on last night:

• they can hit enemies 5' away (ie over the front rank)
• they can't be used in melee
• they use regular initiative

All subject to change as we play test.

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Chris
Vancouver Red Box: a site for old school D&D

Re: house ruling polearms

cr0m 25 Mar 2010 06:00

I stumbled onto Armed Combat on a blog called Middenmurk, and now I've got another take on polearms. The author points out that reach is a huge advantage, and that two-handed weapons aren't slow, so they shouldn't always strike last.

Instead he proposes that on the 1st round, 2-H weapons win initiative before 1-H weapons.

And optionally:

• They continue to strike first until the 2-H weapon wielder misses or is hit by his opponent.
• A 1-H weapon wielder that hits the above strikes first on the next round.

He also proposes that spears, though 1-H, are considered 2-H weapons for reach. His rationale is that they have reach and the resultant popularity would mimic the historical popularity of the long pointy stick.

To counteract the advantages of 2-H weapons, he proposes that shields ought to be +2 to AC, which he justifies by noting that a shield blocks way more than 5% of incoming blows.

This stuff is fiddly to keep track of, but it might be fun. What do you think?

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Chris
Vancouver Red Box: a site for old school D&D

Re: house ruling polearms

Quendalon 25 Mar 2010 14:17

In the Glantri game, we have a long-standing house rule that two-handed weapons strike first in the first round. Unfortunately, we often fail to remember this. Remembering even more fiddly detail seems unlikely for us, though this may be due to our advanced age and incipient senility.

Re: house ruling polearms

cr0m 25 Mar 2010 16:53

I'm also concerned that tracking separate initiatives on any given round will be a hassle or slow things down. Right now I use group initiative because it's so fast (and we have a fun mini-game where the same player rolls for init until he loses, then the die passes to the right).

Speaking of which, I need to revisit initiative and the combat order. The [Declare Withdrawal/Retreat], Move, Missile, Spells, Melee is rubbing me the wrong way lately. I'd like to do something more freeform and interpreted, but haven't figured out what.

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Chris
Vancouver Red Box: a site for old school D&D

Re: house ruling polearms

Quendalon 25 Mar 2010 20:10

Speaking of which, I need to revisit initiative and the combat order. The [Declare Withdrawal/Retreat], Move, Missile, Spells, Melee is rubbing me the wrong way lately. I'd like to do something more freeform and interpreted, but haven't figured out what.

Last week we tried something along the lines of:

1) Roll initiative
2) Declare actions in reverse initiative order
3) Act in initiative order

This bypasses the whole Declare Withdrawal issue entirely. It also makes initiative more dynamic: if you win initiative, you get to see what the opponent is planning to do before you decide your own actions. We need to try it some more to determine how well it works, however.

You may want to check out the combat order in Holmes Blue Book. If I recall correctly, it's a bit more intuitive. For instance, both sides move at the same time, so if two opponents advance on each other they'll actually meet in the middle!

Re: house ruling polearms

cr0m 25 Mar 2010 22:10

That's pretty slick, Q. Now I want to try it. Let us know how it works out for your gang.

Vancouverites, do any of us have a copy of the Holmes basic book? I'd like to check that out too. Last week there was a simultaneous initiative and I had the party and some skeletons meet in the middle, which I thought made the combat seem more freewheeling and tense, especially since it wasn't clear at first if the party would be able to bottleneck them in a doorway.

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Chris
Vancouver Red Box: a site for old school D&D