RE: (TFT) Minimum ST for armor?

["Ty Beard" <tbeard@tyler.net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tft-owner@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-owner@brainiac.com]On Behalf Of
> Matt Picone

> Why would it "complicate mechanics" to say that shields reduce an
> opponents chance to score a hit?
>
> To me it sounds as simple as saying:
>
> "Figures who attempt to strike an opponent who carries a shield suffer a
> penalty to their attack roll based on the size of the shield:
>
> Small Shield: -1
> Large Shield: -2
> Tower Shield: -3
>
> "
>
> Not too complex... but is it really right?

Matt --

It "complicates" the system in that it adds a new concept -- defensive
ability -- to the combat system. Though to be fair, this already exists with
certain monsters that get a DX minus due to agility, etc. And there are a
host of other considerations that need to be dealt with -- facing,
effectiveness vs various attack forms, etc. The bottom line is that this
idea would add a new subsystem, so I think that it could reasonably be said
to "complicate" the game. Of course, as the author of any number of things
that complicate the game, I cannot say that this is enough to render the
idea invalid.

My real problem with it -- and I have messed around with an almost infinite
variety of defensive rules for TFT over the years -- is that it plays havoc
with the 3d6 bell curve. In your proposed system, a normal man's chance of
hitting (adjDX 10) drops from 50% to 16% if his target has a tower shield.
That seems rather extreme to me, but it is the minimum adjustment is every
shield is to be given a defensive effect. With a large shield, his chance is
cut in half -- 50% to 25%. And even with the humble small shield, his chance
is cut by a third -- 50% to 33%. Against a good warrior (say, adjDX 12), the
percentage drops from 74% to 37% (tower shield), 50% (large shield) and 63%
(small shield). Against a DX 9 warrio, the effects are disastrous -- he
drops from a 37% chance of hitting to a 9%, 16% and 25% chance respectively.
A low DX figure will be massacred by a figure equipped with a tower shield,
it seems to me.

Note that the reductions get smaller the better your DX is. So this system
severely punishes lower DX figures and has a progressively smaller effect on
high DX figures (it has no effect on a figure with DX 18 and very little
effect on one with DX 16).

Once again, the real problem appears to me to be the 3d6 bell curve.

Now, if you used my TFT d20 mechanic, the adjustment would be -5% for small
shields, -10% for large shields and -15% for tower shields, no matter what
the figure's DX is. And the effect would be significant on *all* DX levels
through DX 19. It would also not hobble lower DX figures.

--Ty
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