Low Defense / Attack Rolls made redundant?

[shonuff]

Personally, I find DA to be similar to many other PnP RPGs... the early levels are where the challenge is, but the godlike status imbued at later levels seems to be, IMO, exacerbated by the bell curve of 3d6.

[RenoGM]

I don't think the attack roll is redundant; I just think of it as the "Stunt Roll".

One of the things that annoy me with other RPG's is the concept of "missing" my target it melee; really? How many sword fights in movies do the combatants fail to make contact with their opponent? Looking at well done fight scenes the combatants "hit" each other with almost every swing of the sword; some blows are parried, some just strike armor, but they all tend to physically strike the opponent. The real question about how successful an attack roll was,isn't whether the or not you "hit" the target but whether or not your attack was "effective". In this case "effective" revolves around inflicting damage and/or pulling off a stunt.

Anyway, I like the DA mechanic and what the bell curve manifests in game. It provides a more cinematic experience and keeps my players more engaged in the action; win/win in my book!

[shonuff]

1. I've always believed that a miss is a deflection off of an opponent's weapon/shield/armor/etc. It could also be a miss, such as a swing that narrowly goes over someone's head or some such.

2. I've also felt that HP is an abstract term, and that combat isn't just whittling and cutting away until someone bleeds to death, but the ebb and flow of combat and fatigue until the finishing blow.

[Bardwulf]

1. I've always believed that a miss is a deflection off of an opponent's weapon/shield/armor/etc. It could also be a miss, such as a swing that narrowly goes over someone's head or some such.

2. I've also felt that HP is an abstract term, and that combat isn't just whittling and cutting away until someone bleeds to death, but the ebb and flow of combat and fatigue until the finishing blow.

Spot on, I couldn't have said it better myself. HP as the old term means hit point, which in turn refers to the point at which you get properly "hit" at 0. Everything else is fatigue leading to it.

Yeah, who's to say that a miss has to mean you missed? exactly. There's not a parry in the game, so some of it must be that for a start, and so on.

[Etarnon]

I will take a moment here to state clearly that if all your combats are hits and they are "Boring" the fault lies in the stories being told, and the encounters being presented.

If the encounter is set up in such a way that the feeling is that it's "just a time waster, as we wade through these guys that we are always gonna hit" I suggest, get a real sense of the dramatic.

Here comes 6 easy guys to our 6 high level heroes does not work.

Stem the tide against 24, or 40. You NEED to get those hits, one two three four..."Hey, Look, I got my four, Gents, I'm heading back to the aid station!" while they alll fight on, doomed to die where they stand.

It's a sort of tale where the heroes at higher levels can go at a few guys at once, and maybne make it, until the enemy bad guy is in your face, protected by magic, and you are wounded, already near death, but MIGHT make it through if you are lucky, and have the aid of allies, because you are a hero, worthy of such comrades.

Mechanically, a wholew bunch of godd ideas are in here as variants, but I think it's a story problem, and a perception of what the system is and should be.