How to easily make project eternity ruleset better then past infinity engine games.

[Failion]

Simply do not follow the past rulesets by the letter. Have a large variety of weapons and do not pigeon hole the classes into using certain weapons. For example a fighter has to use a two handed sword for maximum damage. Have weapon damage be practically identical across the board. How effective the weapon you are using depends on the enemy resistance to slash,blunt,pierce and the tactics you employing. DnD has cool weapons like spiked chains and what not but they are not "optimal". Because of damage differences is stupid. Weapons should be less about damage and more about what tactics they bring to the table. 

[Alexjh]

Simply do not follow the past rulesets by the letter. Have a large variety of weapons and do not pigeon hole the classes into using certain weapons. For example a fighter has to use a two handed sword for maximum damage. Have weapon damage be practically identical across the board. How effective the weapon you are using depends on the enemy resistance to slash,blunt,pierce and the tactics you employing. DnD has cool weapons like spiked chains and what not but they are not "optimal". Because of damage differences is stupid. Weapons should be less about damage and more about what tactics they bring to the table. 

 

To be fair, that wasn't ever really an issue in the IE games, a fighter could easily go with a sword and shield for more defense, dual wielding, two handed etc, and each had their plusses and minuses.  Besides, weapon damage DOES make a lot of sense, it's a bit daft to say that if you stabbed someone in exactly the same place with a) a flick-knife and b) a  greatsword that their damage would be the same.  That doesn't mean that the flickknife has no meirt - its easier to wield quickly, can be concealled, used in confined spaces etc,  but to say it does the same damage as a huge great blade doesn't make sense.

[JOG]

First of all they create a new set of rules specifically for the game so they ought to follow it. Never had any weapons issues in the IE games either, a fighter had tons of weapon profiency points, so you were free to use whatever setup you prefered, and frankly dual wielding was far superior to two-handed.

 

As for weapon damage, a greatsword is a versatile polearm while the flick-knife is a brawling-distance cutting and stabbing weapon.

 

If you ever witnessed a knife-fight, you'll know that it's rarely one stabbing the other, let alone fencing, the combatants cut each other until they drop from shock and blood loss, the victor is the one who stood longer. The Greatsword was designed to scythe away spears (to make place for the own infantry) and topple enemy riders. To kill the dismounted rider in heavy armor the warrior would then grab his greatsword by the blade and hit the knight with the cross-guard as if he were using a pick-axe.

 

IRL you don't need to drain someone of all his blood to take him out of a fight. The knife fighter with several cuts and the dismounted knight with a dislocated shoulder from the fall and one or two stabbing wounds from the greatsword's guard will both fade away from shock, and die, if they don't get medical attention.

 

Problem is, injury realism is hard to translate into interesting gameplay, and proper weapon usage (techniques, side-arms for close quarter combat etc.) would take a lot of work, and may be very confusing even to players that know how the weapons actually were used in combat; So we need other ways to distinguish the weapons, easiest by damage done, more complex by very similar base damage and much difference in the available special maneuvers (see the Drakensang games for a good example)

Edited February 9, 2013 by JOG

[AGX-17]

...Project Eternity is not a Dungeons & Dragons game. The ruleset is one of Obsidian's own devising. You're addressing a nonexistent concern.

Edited February 9, 2013 by AGX-17