Post by Skir on Oct 29, 2012 16:24:48 GMT -8
In vampire as it stands, the attacker always wins, much like in chess. Like in chess, an attack that was attempted always succeeds, the question is simply whether the aggressive piece will survive the next turn. So too, in Vampire. Any character, even with zero exp, can pump to all 10s in physicals, jump outta nowhere, and throw away his character to kill yours. In a game of continuity and roleplay, this is sort of bad policy. On top of that, Fortitude is the weakest of the physical disciplines, and defense is weaker than offense overall because there are more options for assault than protection in Vampire.
All characters have a means of doing aggravated damage for 0 exp, either with created, transformed or borrowed agg weapons, or simply their normal vampire bite attacks, and with enough physical disciplines like Potence and Celerity can outspend a given character's ability to defend themselves. There are simply too many options available for attackers and defenders run out of options to further improve, even considering the collection of a few exotic defense powers belonging to rare clans like Salubri.
Generally you don't get to act in the combat that kills you. You don't get to make interesting decisions about how to proceed, you don't even usually get a turn before you are dead. That is with Fortitude. I don't think the Fortitude power is doing its job. Fortitude 5 should be just as impressive as Potence 5 or Celerity 5. People with those levels of powers are feared for what they can do in a fight - for the same amount of exp, your Fortitude should mean the same, not just give you a glimmer of hope you might survive to round 2 before dying.
Staff is proposing a new mechanic for Fortitude. The mechanic is simply this:
Fortitude adds dice to soak equal to its level, and those dice can be used to soak Aggravated Damage. Additionally, you may spend a blood point to convert those soak dice to soak *successes* for one round. This can be done as a reflexive action.
This makes the mechanic functionally identical to the mechanic for Potence in V20 - dice that convert to successes for 1 blood per round. That means it is roughly on par with the opposite discipline in power.
The result is that combatants with Fortitude will usually get to make various actions before being creamed by assassins, get a chance to retaliate, run away, use majesty, whatever it is that they would do when attacked suddenly. This would make combats last more than one round, make combats more of a back and forth with some additional risk on the attacker's part that his target may get away or kill him instead. Overall, this will discourage PC death because of these additional risk factors, and make combat when it does happen more fun and less of a downer for the person getting attacked because you can at least make decisions and take actions in your own combat.
We would like to discuss the various intricacies of this chance with the player base and hold a vote at game on November 10th. We are on hand to discuss the impact on the game that this creates and it's benefits and drawbacks.
All characters have a means of doing aggravated damage for 0 exp, either with created, transformed or borrowed agg weapons, or simply their normal vampire bite attacks, and with enough physical disciplines like Potence and Celerity can outspend a given character's ability to defend themselves. There are simply too many options available for attackers and defenders run out of options to further improve, even considering the collection of a few exotic defense powers belonging to rare clans like Salubri.
Generally you don't get to act in the combat that kills you. You don't get to make interesting decisions about how to proceed, you don't even usually get a turn before you are dead. That is with Fortitude. I don't think the Fortitude power is doing its job. Fortitude 5 should be just as impressive as Potence 5 or Celerity 5. People with those levels of powers are feared for what they can do in a fight - for the same amount of exp, your Fortitude should mean the same, not just give you a glimmer of hope you might survive to round 2 before dying.
Staff is proposing a new mechanic for Fortitude. The mechanic is simply this:
Fortitude adds dice to soak equal to its level, and those dice can be used to soak Aggravated Damage. Additionally, you may spend a blood point to convert those soak dice to soak *successes* for one round. This can be done as a reflexive action.
This makes the mechanic functionally identical to the mechanic for Potence in V20 - dice that convert to successes for 1 blood per round. That means it is roughly on par with the opposite discipline in power.
The result is that combatants with Fortitude will usually get to make various actions before being creamed by assassins, get a chance to retaliate, run away, use majesty, whatever it is that they would do when attacked suddenly. This would make combats last more than one round, make combats more of a back and forth with some additional risk on the attacker's part that his target may get away or kill him instead. Overall, this will discourage PC death because of these additional risk factors, and make combat when it does happen more fun and less of a downer for the person getting attacked because you can at least make decisions and take actions in your own combat.
We would like to discuss the various intricacies of this chance with the player base and hold a vote at game on November 10th. We are on hand to discuss the impact on the game that this creates and it's benefits and drawbacks.