Post by MaesterofMadness on Feb 26, 2016 7:17:33 GMT -5
After last summer, my group went off across the country for college, and now play over roll20, as we can't meet in person. I discovered I much prefer playing in person, and part of that is my dislike of online battle maps. This became especially obvious when I started DMing again. So, drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, I decided to streamline the movement system of D20.
The rules
First and foremost, eliminate horizontal movement. You can move forward & backwards, you can fly, burrow, and swim, but moving left to right on the map is completely non-existent in this ruleset.
The battle map is now divided into range bands. Each short range band is a 30ft area. You have your central band, and how many bands away from if is measured by the scale of a battle. In addition, for simplicity's sake, the more distant bands are bunched together as larger bands, as below.
Medium Band: 2 Short Bands
Long Band: 4 Short Bands
Extreme Band: 8 Short Bands.
A Standard battle will involve 7 short bands (3 to each side of the central band), 4 medium bands (2 to each side), 4 long bands (2 to each side), and 2 extreme bands, one to each side. So a standard battle map is set up like this.
Extreme Band
Long Band
Long Band
Medium Band
Medium Band
Short Band
Short Band
Short Band
Central Band
Short Band
Short Band
Short Band
Medium Band
Medium Band
Long Band
Long Band
Extreme Band
Everything is measured in these bands. If your melee reach is less than 35ft, you can only target creatures in the same range band as yourself. For every 30ft, or part thereof, on a ranged attack, you can target one additional range band away, to a minimum of adjacent range bands. (For example, if you have a throwing star, with a 25ft range, you can target anyone in your range band, and either adjacent range band, but if the range was 90ft, you'd be able to target people up to 3 range bands away.)
Flanking
If you have an ally in The same band as you and your target, you are considered to be flanking the target.
Moving across bands.
When you spend your move action moving, you move a minimum of one movement band, regardless of your movement speed. Unfortunately, the five foot step is eliminated, so moving bands always provokes attacks of Opportunity. For every 30ft of movement, or part thereof you possess on your movement mode, you can move one short band with a move action. If you possess a fly, burrow, or swim (if appropriate) speed, you may use it for your movement. Creatures that are not using the same movement mode cannot make melee attacks against a creature using any of these modes, and vise versa. That is, only creatures on land can make melee attacks against other creatures on land, and only flying creatures can make melee attacks against flying creatures.
Note that, since you can move one band regardless of your speed once per round as a move action, a creature can cross from an extreme band to a long band (which would normally require 240ft move speed) in a single move action. This favors slower creatures at longer ranges, so some DMs that dislike this might declare all bands are short bands.
Area attacks are unusual, as normally the number of creatures it effects is hard to determine abstractly. To determine an area attacks area of effect, divide its area by 30, rounded up. This is how many short bands the attack effects. Then, see below for how many characters per band you effect. Its range is calculated as per a normal ranged attack.
Cone: Effects half the characters in targeted range bands
Line: Effects one character in each targeted range band, +1 creature per 5' width the attack possesses.
Blast: Effects all characters in targeted range bands.
Burst: As Blast, but centered on caster.
Flash Stepping
Treat as a standard movement mode, calculate range bands after the roll.
These rules create a far more cinematic battlefield, as a fireball to an extreme band will devastate a far larger area, and two melee fighters in that extreme band have 240ft to fight In, while still remaining adjacent mechanically.
The rules
First and foremost, eliminate horizontal movement. You can move forward & backwards, you can fly, burrow, and swim, but moving left to right on the map is completely non-existent in this ruleset.
The battle map is now divided into range bands. Each short range band is a 30ft area. You have your central band, and how many bands away from if is measured by the scale of a battle. In addition, for simplicity's sake, the more distant bands are bunched together as larger bands, as below.
Medium Band: 2 Short Bands
Long Band: 4 Short Bands
Extreme Band: 8 Short Bands.
A Standard battle will involve 7 short bands (3 to each side of the central band), 4 medium bands (2 to each side), 4 long bands (2 to each side), and 2 extreme bands, one to each side. So a standard battle map is set up like this.
Extreme Band
Long Band
Long Band
Medium Band
Medium Band
Short Band
Short Band
Short Band
Central Band
Short Band
Short Band
Short Band
Medium Band
Medium Band
Long Band
Long Band
Extreme Band
Everything is measured in these bands. If your melee reach is less than 35ft, you can only target creatures in the same range band as yourself. For every 30ft, or part thereof, on a ranged attack, you can target one additional range band away, to a minimum of adjacent range bands. (For example, if you have a throwing star, with a 25ft range, you can target anyone in your range band, and either adjacent range band, but if the range was 90ft, you'd be able to target people up to 3 range bands away.)
Flanking
If you have an ally in The same band as you and your target, you are considered to be flanking the target.
Moving across bands.
When you spend your move action moving, you move a minimum of one movement band, regardless of your movement speed. Unfortunately, the five foot step is eliminated, so moving bands always provokes attacks of Opportunity. For every 30ft of movement, or part thereof you possess on your movement mode, you can move one short band with a move action. If you possess a fly, burrow, or swim (if appropriate) speed, you may use it for your movement. Creatures that are not using the same movement mode cannot make melee attacks against a creature using any of these modes, and vise versa. That is, only creatures on land can make melee attacks against other creatures on land, and only flying creatures can make melee attacks against flying creatures.
Note that, since you can move one band regardless of your speed once per round as a move action, a creature can cross from an extreme band to a long band (which would normally require 240ft move speed) in a single move action. This favors slower creatures at longer ranges, so some DMs that dislike this might declare all bands are short bands.
Area attacks are unusual, as normally the number of creatures it effects is hard to determine abstractly. To determine an area attacks area of effect, divide its area by 30, rounded up. This is how many short bands the attack effects. Then, see below for how many characters per band you effect. Its range is calculated as per a normal ranged attack.
Cone: Effects half the characters in targeted range bands
Line: Effects one character in each targeted range band, +1 creature per 5' width the attack possesses.
Blast: Effects all characters in targeted range bands.
Burst: As Blast, but centered on caster.
Flash Stepping
Treat as a standard movement mode, calculate range bands after the roll.
These rules create a far more cinematic battlefield, as a fireball to an extreme band will devastate a far larger area, and two melee fighters in that extreme band have 240ft to fight In, while still remaining adjacent mechanically.