Combat Value Benchmarks In 6E

[Vondy]

Re: Combat Value Benchmarks In 6E

 

After a lot of thought, I like the way that CV is decoupled from DEX. It makes it easier to build the rogue who's not very combat-savvy but holds the cup-stacking record, for instance. When you convert a character now, there's the additional benchmarks to consider -- is this character naturally more capable of hitting his target/not being hit, or is it a matter of skill and experience? I've been going back over my character writeups from the last ten years, and there's more thought to be put into them. It's not a simple matter of changing the HD template and going with that!

 

I suspect we'll see lower base CVs in the future, but overall CVs won't change much. I hope it encourages players to come up with more descriptive actions in combat, in an attempt to get circumstance bonuses to attack rolls.

 

I don't really care how a character arrives at the number insofar as they've got a number.

 

Its less work to use flat CVs so I probably will.

 

Personally, I've set most of my converted characters to a level that reflects the published Pulp Hero characters.

[Rapier]

Re: Combat Value Benchmarks In 6E

 

I was excited and not-excited about the change.

 

One of the reasons I was excited was simply for the HD utility. Characters with Growth are fairly common, yet there was never a way to have them be Large (and easy to hit) without making them clumsy. The Disad was helpful, but that didn't actually change the DCV value. You always had to do that manually. Now I can go ahead and have a very nimble character that's easy, peasy to hit.

 

I was a little skeptical, because change isn't always good. Linked stats have made it through a lot of versions (and thus testing). As much as people complained I never had much of a problem.

 

The change is different. I'm not sure it's good or bad yet. It is a bit more expensive to get parity between 5E and 6E. But, I'm not so sure that is a problem. Over the years, it appears that we have systemically been promoting stat creep. A lot of the very old characters (1e, 2e and 3e) had rather low SPD and DEX. Granted, they had very few points (comparatively) but I'm not so sure they didn't have the right idea.

 

This last time around with 5E we tried to really limit SPD and DEX to 'reasonable' levels and its worked out very well. If everyone has a SPD of 3, a SPD of 5 is rather fast. Similarly, if DEXs in the low-mid teens are normal a 23 DEX is HUUGE! So I think this is good. I think it's a good thing to keep the numbers a little closer to earth.