Open Beta verion 0.5 Thoughts & Questions

[Fidoric]

It would be great to ave the class creation rules. Do you still plan to introduce another "tier" of spell caster (minor adept ?) to make those limited spell casters ?

[samwise7]

Initiative -- the problem with allowing it to be implosive, we also state elsewhere that an initiative of zero or less would result in the character taking no action in that round, and initiative is only rolled once per combat normally, so that could result in a character not allowed to partake in the combat...

I think taking no action as a player is a bad move... it's just not fun.

Having class creation rules is a good idea in my opinion.

[Fidoric]

Some questions after intense re-reading :

1. On p46, in the advanced martial arts - throw description, it is stated : The foe being thrown cannot weigh more than 3 times the Encumbrance capacity of the character performing the throw. If I read correctly the encumbrance limit on page 36, this is twice the character strength value (this should be reminded within the throw paragraph). It means that an average human is limited to throwing a 20-pound foe. Either I understand something wrong or a modification is needed. Maybe you could consider that a character can throw up to his own weight plus his strength value ?

2. How to handle sneak attacks from behind ? From what I gather from different places in the book : if you succeed to strike after a succesful stealth roll, you gain an extra boon point (p23, stealth) and if the target is unaware of the attack, its defense drops to 12+magical bonuses. I suggest that a new special situation be added on page 39 explaining that situation, something like : if the foe is ambushed (caught unaware from behind), his defense drops to 12 and the attacker gains an extra boon point. Maybe it could go along with a position bonus for the attacker, or do you consider that the defense drop is enough of an advantage ?

3. Do armor penalties to speed (p31make ) make speed bonus drop below zero or not ? I think it so. But then I have another question. Does a negative speed modifier makes your defense drops below 15 ? I think it should. But in that case, someone wearing a full plate armor would have a -5 speed penalty. That could make his defense drops to 10, which is less than the defense of a target being caught unaware or immobile (DEF 12, page 16).

4. On page 32, it is mentioned that some bracers give a bonus to a character's DEF. I haven't found any bonus anywhere. Or is it a reference to the advantage given to unarmed fighters when fighting defensively versus armed opponents (p39) ?

That's all at this time.

[imported_Rasyr]

I am presuming that you are reading the Deluxe version - since the page number for question #1 fits.

1. On p46, in the advanced martial arts - throw description, it is stated : The foe being thrown cannot weigh more than 3 times the Encumbrance capacity of the character performing the throw. If I read correctly the encumbrance limit on page 36, this is twice the character strength value (this should be reminded within the throw paragraph). It means that an average human is limited to throwing a 20-pound foe. Either I understand something wrong or a modification is needed. Maybe you could consider that a character can throw up to his own weight plus his strength value ?

You are thinking "Encumbrance Unit".  In short, because I kinda changed things with Encumbrance at one point, this doesn't make total sense. Basically, your Encumbrance Capacity is going to be a multiple of your Encumbrance Unit (i.e. 5x your Encumbrance Unit --- a modifier of -20 from the encumbrance).

Thus, if you have a Strength Stat of 15, that gives you an Encumbrance Unit of 30 lbs. Thus, your encumbrance capacity is (5 x 30) =  150 lbs and 3x that means you can throw a foe who weighs up to 450 lbs (i.e. 3x Encumbrance Capacity).

2. How to handle sneak attacks from behind ? From what I gather from different places in the book : if you succeed to strike after a successful stealth roll, you gain an extra boon point (p23, stealth) and if the target is unaware of the attack, its defense drops to 12+magical bonuses. I suggest that a new special situation be added on page 39 explaining that situation, something like : if the foe is ambushed (caught unaware from behind), his defense drops to 12 and the attacker gains an extra boon point. Maybe it could go along with a position bonus for the attacker, or do you consider that the defense drop is enough of an advantage ?

Note that the target must be caught COMPLETELY unaware for the change in DEF to take effect. In melee combat, that (the reduced DEF) won't happen, even if you are able to get in a sneak attack.

Now, I will be adding in some positional bonuses in the next version - to account for such things.

3. Do armor penalties to speed (p31make ) make speed bonus drop below zero or not ? I think it so. But then I have another question. Does a negative speed modifier makes your defense drops below 15 ? I think it should. But in that case, someone wearing a full plate armor would have a -5 speed penalty. That could make his defense drops to 10, which is less than the defense of a target being caught unaware or immobile (DEF 12, page 16).

Yes, it could --  I have been thinking about having the character's Str bonus reduce the size of the penalty before applying it to the Speed Bonus. Looks like I may need to go ahead and do that.

4. On page 32, it is mentioned that some bracers give a bonus to a character's DEF. I haven't found any bonus anywhere. Or is it a reference to the advantage given to unarmed fighters when fighting defensively versus armed opponents (p39) ?

It is a reference to magical Bracers and/or bracers made of special materials (i.e. Bracers of Defense - page 97).

[Fidoric]

Thank you for the explanations Rasyr.

[Fidoric]

I have another question: how do you handle mounted combat in Novus ?
Do you need a specific talent or do you use your riding skill to overcome a given penalty (though this mechanism is not used in Novus AFAIK) ?

[imported_Rasyr]

I don't think that I have actually included any rules for Mounted Combat within Novus. I will have to think this over..

But, off the top of my head, I would suggest requiring a riding roll to control the mount properly.

The Basics: In fact, you could use the Riding roll (say Base TN 20 - adjusted for the specific terrain conditions; TN 20 represents optimal conditions - to properly control/direct the mount) to determine the effectiveness of the character's Attack Bonus (i.e. if the total is below 20, then that amount below 20 is subtracted from any Attack Bonus -- i.e. a total Riding roll of 17 would mean -3 to character's Attack Bonus), while rolling above 20 on the riding roll would not give a bonus, unless the character earns a boon point and spends it appropriately. (Note to self -- work this into the description of the Riding skill)

Of course, there are all sorts of special conditions or situations that could apply. For example, foot soldiers with spears/polearms who set their weapons against charges would definitely strike the horse first (and get the same bonus damage as a Moving Strike would get), unless the rider has a lance of his own and then it would boil down to who struck who first due to actual weapon length.....

[Fidoric]

20 is the TN for riding check in a melee environment, so I would go for that value.
I propose two other points:

1. a mounted attack costs two additional AP, showing the difficulty to fight from horseback and allowing only one strike every other round except if you go for a fast attack or, for example, buy a "mounted warrior" talent cancelling this penalty.

2. a snag on the riding check makes it impossible to attack this round, reflecting the fact that you have to cling to your saddle and that your mount is going its own way.

[imported_Rasyr]

Some good suggestions there