MOtUD: COMBAT REWORK! AC and PPR!!

[Thayion516]

Here you go folks! A complete Combat Rework! Enjoy!

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=376703

AC has been Reworked into a Mitigation Curve!

Protection Rating (like DR) has been applied to Armor Types!

Much Much More!

[BrightAsh]

mhhh, sounds to me like the links to PnP are completely gone now... So there is absolutely no way to prevent damage from happening? If my epic DoS is stepping into waterworks he will get hurt... See that happen? an Epic level 20 fully geared fighter will get hurt by some squishy kobolds with wooden spears...

Anyways, enough dooooomness from me, serious question now

If you are proficient in your armor, you will have a starting Physical Resistance Rating, modified by whether it is light, medium, or heavy armor, that increases as your Base Attack Bonus increases.

A Mithral Full plate says it is a medium armor... But basically it is heavy... will that be taken into acount on PPR, or can I toss my Tier3 cavalery full plate and grab an average +5 full plate?

[edit] srry for double post in other thread. my bad

[Stillwaters]

A Mithral Full plate says it is a medium armor... But basically it is heavy... will that be taken into acount on PPR, or can I toss my Tier3 cavalery full plate and grab an average +5 full plate?

According to posts made during closed beta - this was a last minute change and thus they didnt factor mithral into the changes. a dev posted that mithral would work as it does on live (changing armor type to 1 cat lighter) and that it WOULD lower the PRR value of the armor, they also said they would take another look at it later (think after the august enh pass) and see if it could get patched.

TLDR:
Mithral Heavy = medium PRR
Mithral medium = light PRR
Mithal light = light PRR

[donblas]

A Mithral Full plate says it is a medium armor... But basically it is heavy... will that be taken into acount on PPR, or can I toss my Tier3 cavalery full plate and grab an average +5 full plate?

To paraphrase Feather of Sun, the devs only chucked in PRR into their already hastily improvised (Torc's word) combat system at the last minute and forgot about different materials (like mithral), so it's too late to change now. Mithral full plates (including lvl16 or 20 cavalry plate) are medium armor for PRR it would seem from his answer.

[thomassmith2]

First of all let me say that I, like many, agree that a change to the combat system to make AC more relevant is long overdue. I am extremely pleased to see Turbine addressing this and think that the new system is in many is much better than what we had.

However the new system is unintuitive and confusing in many ways. In particular the way each element (dodging, Armour etc.) is represented several times. For example:

The ability to dodge blows is represented both by your Dexterity bonus to AC and by your dodge %.

The ability to ignore damage is represented directly by PRR and DR as well as indirectly by the bonus your Armour gives to AC and, to some extent, Fortification.

I also feel that flat percentages don’t really reflect conditions like dodge or concealment very well. While my character’s skill with a weapon should makes very little difference to their chance to hit an incorporeal opponent, I think it should make to easier to hit an opponent who is trying to dodge or who is using the terrain to shield themselves.

What I am wondering is, since we are now deviating from the D&D rules anyway, would it not be possible to have just three combat statistics - Attack Bonus, Defence Bonus and Armour Class?

Attack Bonus = A characters ability to hit an opponent. It could be a base 10 + the characters modified BAB for the weapon they are using (to keep it comparable with Defence bonus – see below).

Defence Bonus = A characters ability to dodge, duck and evade blows. It would be a base 10 plus modifiers for dexterity, the dodge feat tree (dodge, mobility and spring attack) and things like insight bonuses, a monk’s wisdom bonus to AC, rogues uncanny dodge, etc. . This would be capped by heavy armour and would reduce a characters chance of being hit.

Armour Class = A character’s armour’s ability to reduce damage. It works like PRR dose in the current (new) system. Modifiers for armour (and armour enchantment), shields, natural armour, Deflection bonuses etc. and abilities such as DR, Fortification and PRR are all reflected by additional bonuses to Armour Class. Armour class reduces the amount of damage taken per hit. Abilities such as Sunder and those that reduce fortification would reduce AC.

If this was the system used combat could look like similar to the way it does in the new system. The chance of an attack to succeed would be:

(Attack Bonus/Defence bonus)/2 (round up to nearest 5% if a d20 is rolled). A roll of 1 would remain an automatic miss while a roll of 20 would remain an automatic hit.

Damage would be reduced by AC as per the table in the release notes for PRR at the moment.

The obvious problem with a system like this is the need to rebalance combat throughout the game. Without this the chance for a character to be hit will be a lot higher while the amount of damage they take will not necessarily be proportionately lower. Features like Critical Hits would also need to be adjusted due to the removal of fortification (but then the idea that everyone needs a heavy fort item or that creatures that are supposed to be immune to critical hits, like undead and oozes, can be made vulnerable by “reducing” their fort never sat well with me anyway).

So, am I just a bit thick in not being able to get my head around the ever growing number of values used in combat (AC, Dodge, PRR, DR, Fortification etc.), or would a system like this be more intuitive for new and old players alike? Please tell me I’m not alone.