So if you have a low-DX, high-ST figure fighting a high-DX, low-ST figure, Mr. Low-DX can defend and attack every turn, thus making himself harder to hit, while also still having a chance (albeit a small one) each turn to hit Mr. High-DX. And he can keep doing this for longer than his opponent can. Plus, if he's wielding anything heavier than a broadsword, he's doing enough damage that he only has to land a couple of blows. You'd have to do some math and tinkering (how exactly does this defense work - is it standard "opponent has to roll 4 dice" or what?) to make sure the playing field stays even, but I think it could be relatively simple gameplay-wise once you figured it out.
Original Melee is a pure tradeoff between ST and DX, implying that they are, and should be, of equal value in combat. IQ and combat talents complicate things, because they often allow you to get more mileage out of your already-good attributes (Fencing and Two Weapons let you capitalize on DX, Warrior and Veteran make your ST go farther by stopping damage, etc).
Most of the above is probably achingly obvious to everyone else, if that's the case, please forgive me for restating it :)
On 8/22/13 4:35 PM, raito@raito.com wrote:
Hey, I'm pretty literal, too. Just not to the point of wanting to model every body movement. And it's usually not a block or parry itself that is what's taking the effort, it's the body movement. As for 'planned' defensive maneuvers, that doesn't happen much. Most of the ones that eat energy are the unplanned ones. So in that sense, planning to use fatigue for defense during a particular turn doesn't make much sense. But there is definitely some times when extra energy goes into defense. Whether it was worth it or not is the question. I can burn energy into extra defense when I fight, which usually means body movement of some sort. And I mean intra-hex movement, nothing like moving from hex to hex. If they'd miss me anyway, I blew the extra energy for no reason. Neil Gilmore raito@raito.com ===== Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com. Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body "unsubscribe tft"
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