Novus combat skills

[Fidoric]

First, I find Novus combat system very good.

Lately, I was thinking of a possible simplification of Novus combat skills. Instead of having one skill by weapon category, I was toying with the idea of having only three skills : melee, thrown, missile. That would give you very broad AB. That way, you are sure that a fighter with a high skill with a broadsword would not be too clumsy with a mace or a staff, which is not ridiculous per se and rather realistic. OTOH, I am aware that it is very generous as a few ranks in a single skill give you a benefit with many weapons. It may be that it is unbalancing regarding character development.
For more specialization, I was considering using talents. For example, a character could develop a affinity with swords or bows by acquiring a talent equivalent in scope with the current weapon groups (axes & hammers, bows...). Each of this talent, rather than give you additional AB, would grant you access to combat moves and/or styles, but only for the considered weapon group.

Maybe it could be better with more combat skills, for example 1-handed, 2-handed, polearms... instead of just 3 broad combat skills ?
Any thoughts ?

BR
Fidoric

[samwise7]

I think it is an interesting idea.  It really comes down to what you want out of the game.  I tinker with just about every RPG I've ever played.  I've been trying to play the rules as is so far for the playtest but some of my houserules are creeping in, hehe.

[imported_Rasyr]

First, I find Novus combat system very good.

Glad you like it.

Lately, I was thinking of a possible simplification of Novus combat skills. Instead of having one skill by weapon category, I was toying with the idea of having only three skills : melee, thrown, missile.
That would give you very broad AB. That way, you are sure that a fighter with a high skill with a broadsword would not be too clumsy with a mace or a staff, which is not ridiculous per se and rather realistic. OTOH, I am aware that it is very generous as a few ranks in a single skill give you a benefit with many weapons. It may be that it is unbalancing regarding character development.
For more specialization, I was considering using talents. For example, a character could develop a affinity with swords or bows by acquiring a talent equivalent in scope with the current weapon groups (axes & hammers, bows...). Each of this talent, rather than give you additional AB, would grant you access to combat moves and/or styles, but only for the considered weapon group.

Maybe it could be better with more combat skills, for example 1-handed, 2-handed, polearms... instead of just 3 broad combat skills ?
Any thoughts ?

Fidoric -- prior to the release of the Open Beta, we actually did try, at one point, going that  direction with the Combat Skill (3 skills, weapon groups as talents). While I don't remember all of the details, I do remember that there were issues with it, most likely balance issues, along with some other compatibility issues with other portions of the rules.

[Fidoric]

Thanks for the quick answer Rasyr.
And I think like Samwise7, tinkering with a game system is almost a second nature to me... I may be trying this one day.

[imported_Rasyr]

Tinkering is always a good thing (I am another tinker at heart) -- the important thing, however, is to have fun. That is the number one thing of all, in my opinion.

Novus is very well suited for tinkering, I think. I did my best to make sure that the core was solid and well balanced (well, as balanced as is possible for a system), while including all of the core elements required for later expansion. This also gives GMs plenty of room to tinker with the rules in various ways.

[Fidoric]

Another idea along this line came to me last evening.
In order to give trained fighters a wider access to weapon groups, what about using a "Weapon dabbler" talent (10 CP for example), allowing a trained fighter (someone with combat training 1 or 2) who has developped at least 3 different weapon groups to use his smallest skill rank with any weapon ?

For example, Bob the mighty has Combat training 2, he has developped Axes&Hammers, Swords and Spears. His lowest melee weapon rank is 6. He then buy the Weapon dabbler talent for 10 CP. He could now use any melee weapon he gets his hands on as if he has 6 ranks in it.

None of this has been playtested but I wish to have your opinions. In my mind, it could be a way to expand the abilities of the fighting guys without giving them more firepower, only a greater versatility.

[imported_Rasyr]

First thought -- it means that they would never have to purchase more than 3 Combat Skills, ever... That is a huge boost in power, I think.

Don't forget that we are removing the negative modifiers to unknown skills, and they would still get their stat bonuses to using those skills.

The main problem I see with any talents that allow using any other sort of bonus instead of purchased skill (especially one that can increase), is that the player then loses incentive to actually buy the skill and use a smaller total bonus (for any length of time).

Now, I could see something like a "Weapon's Master" talent that allows for a +2 bonus (much like the Natural Ability talent) for all Combat Skills. This bonus could then stack on top of the Combat Training bonuses. So, with the base bonus of +2, and the stat bonus, that would allow for a small starting bonus, and still encourage buying ranks in the skill.

[Fidoric]

I agree with the necessity to encourage skills development. Your solution with the +2 bonus is enticing but I am almost sure that such a talent will be primarily bought to boost a character main weapon skill. I am trying to imagine a way to give combat trained characters a large versatility without boosting their bonuses, something that would be to weapon skill what spell bases are to spell casting.

[imported_Rasyr]

The problem is that there is no easy way to create what you are wanting while still keeping things balanced. The two (weapons and spellcasting) are handled in very different ways. In order to get what you want, you would need to completely redesign one or both of the subsystems so that they worked identically.

The Combat Skills are already closer to Spell Bases than they are individual spells - as they represent skill in a whole group of similar weapons.

I have tried to come up with various ways to get what you want, but they all require heavy rewriting of the existing rules for combat. I would have to change it from the current rules to where making an attack was a static, unchanging TN, and then having an opposed roll to reduce/avoid the effects of the attack. -- Too complicated, IMHO.

[Fidoric]

Neither can I think of an easy way to do this... at the moment.