Archmage wrote:I know you (and others) are talking about using percentile dice here because FE numbers get expressed to the player that way, but FE uses a two-roll system where you get to keep the better result (it's just hidden from the player). Consequently, the RNG isn't flat; average results are more common than extreme ones. Dice pools accomplish this, but I think they do so in a clunky fashion.
From that angle (and to keep numbers small and manageable) I really think you want to use a system like 3d6 + modifiers. Set your TN based on how often you want people to succeed against opposition with tied stats. A nice side consequence of this is that the +1 you get from having weapon triangle advantage alters your chance of success more when you're approximately tied with your enemy statwise and becomes less relevant when you've already got a huge stat disparity. Crits (for triple damage!) can happen only on an 18 or whatever for most classes/weapons, which means they'll come up infrequently enough that PCs shouldn't die to a lucky mook crit (<1% of rolls); class features/killing edges might let you crit on a 15+ (10% of attacks) or even 13+ or something silly like that when stacked (which is 25% of your attacks).
3d6 does sound pretty tempting. Things will never get to the point where you are rolling 40 dice at once and it's easier for people to track at a table than percentiles, averaged or otherwise.
The next statblock I throw together, I'll try to have a section for derived stats like speed, hit, evasion so they can be clearly distinguished from the bases that can level up.
On the subject of character advancement, I definitely don't think people should level up mid-fight. Plus, if everyone involved in a battle levels up afterward without tracking XP, you take out degenerate incentives like constantly healing 1HP on your units as they level up and spending half an hour dancing once you've surrounded the enemy archers so they can't attack.
You hit NPC mooks 75% of the time or better.
You are hit by NPC mooks 25% of the time or less.
The average character (PC or NPC) takes 2-3 successful attacks to KO. So PC durability is about ~10 attempted enemy attacks. FE protagonists are almost always greatly outnumbered and survivable characters either dodge basically everything OR take minimal damage.
You might want different numbers, but those feel about right to me and I'd tweak accuracy, damage reduction, and avoid to hover around them.
P.C. Hodgell wrote:That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
shadzar wrote:i think the apostrophe is an outdated idea such as is hyphenation.
Actually, True Hit isn't roll-and-keep, it's average two dice which pushes results to the center instead of making them higher.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
Ah, okay. So my explanation was wrong, but the idea that FE curves the RNG to reduce the probability of extreme high and low results stands. In any case, you don't have to do that for a TTRPG if you don't want to--in the video games it's more to reduce player frustration over "improbable" outcomes killing characters. (Which you can extrapolate if you want.)
P.C. Hodgell wrote:That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
shadzar wrote:i think the apostrophe is an outdated idea such as is hyphenation.
Whipstitch wrote:I'd argue that Nephenee is also pretty overrated.
I've really got to disagree, seriously, she's competitive on her own, assuming you train her up from her slow start in PoR. But give her resolve and she will go from solid front lines unit to just rofflstomping everything. I'm not even kidding it's kind of absurd how well she synergizes with that skill.
I said she was overrated, not that she's bad--she's consistently cited as being one of the best units in PoR despite having a slow start and a class with mediocre caps in her fastest growing stats. That's enough to put you in the good-but-not-great pile when you remember how stupid the mounted units are in that game--Kieran and Oscar can contribute right away and quickly become dodge tanks the second they get any kind of experience lead. You know, because the devs thought it'd OK to let them bad touch the weapon triangle while enjoying a +Evasion support for some reason.
