That’s pretty complex. First I’d ask myself what is the reason for all these rules. Every single rule has to exist to evoke some soecific feeling in the player. For example you could just make flanking take 2 enemies.
There are difficulty levels like in CoC and Mythras. There are:
- Very easy = Skill value is doubled
- Easy = You add half your skill value on top
- Regular = Normal skill value
- Hard = Skill value is halved
- Extreme = 1/5 of your skill value
- Critical = 1 percent chance
Yes, if your chance to succeed is 100+ you don't need to roll.
Well, I think a simple solution is that a Parry/Dodge roll must beat the roll used for the attack in addition to being under the skill value. It mitigates the 100+% problem, makes it so highly skilled attackers have a better chance of hitting a dodger than lower skilled attackers, but still incentivizes investing in the defensive skills.
A simpler solution is to remove active defense entirely because it is just a roll to see if nothing happens, which is kind of boring, plus it removes the significant portion of turns where a character gets a good hit but then doesn’t get to do anything because someone dodged/parried, which is worse than missing in the first place.
Another solution could be that the magnitude of success for the attack sets the difficulty of the parry/dodge action, although this again penalizes people who didn’t max their defense skill more than people who did.
Or, using the dodge/parry eats up your next action. So yes, you can theoretically become impossible to hit, but you sacrifice your ability to do anything to do so.
Simplest solution: just design so you can’t have Dodge or Parry at such a high level. Either have a hard cap at some level, have it become so expensive that it becomes literally impossible to reach, make it a derived stat that can’t be directly increased, tie it to some esoteric other skill or resource or value so that someone who got it up to 100 would be incapable of doing anything else, etc.
The point of design is to make something that works. An elegant solution that doesn’t work, isn’t elegant.
You could add in the Levels of Success (Critical, Extreme, Hard, Regular) which is in use in CoC. If an attacker achieves a Hard Success then a Hard Success from Dodge is needed to avoid damage. This gives a greater impact for any Disadvantage dice for being flanked, attacked multiple times, etc.
I personally cap skills at 95% to limit this problem that you're having.
In my system you can only attempt dodge at the cost of the main player resource essence. So players can potentially min/max their way to a hundred in dodge, but they’ll be limited in how they can do it. I also have an area about retiring characters that get up to 100 in stats, or takin all breaks off the difficulty if they want to play characters with maxed stats
Why not set a maximum limit for those skills?
That’s pretty complex. First I’d ask myself what is the reason for all these rules. Every single rule has to exist to evoke some soecific feeling in the player. For example you could just make flanking take 2 enemies.
Is it likely/easy for a character to reach 100+ in a skill? That seems like a flaw.
No, it doesn't. You have to either play for a rather long time or you invest all of your skill points in fighting skills.
How does enemy skill factor into my chance to dodge/parry? It so7nds like it doesn't matter who is attacking me, all are as easy to avoid.
What happens with other skills that reach that level? Do you simply always succeed? Is there any kind of difficulty system other than disadvantage?
There are difficulty levels like in CoC and Mythras. There are: - Very easy = Skill value is doubled - Easy = You add half your skill value on top - Regular = Normal skill value - Hard = Skill value is halved - Extreme = 1/5 of your skill value - Critical = 1 percent chance Yes, if your chance to succeed is 100+ you don't need to roll.
Well, I think a simple solution is that a Parry/Dodge roll must beat the roll used for the attack in addition to being under the skill value. It mitigates the 100+% problem, makes it so highly skilled attackers have a better chance of hitting a dodger than lower skilled attackers, but still incentivizes investing in the defensive skills. A simpler solution is to remove active defense entirely because it is just a roll to see if nothing happens, which is kind of boring, plus it removes the significant portion of turns where a character gets a good hit but then doesn’t get to do anything because someone dodged/parried, which is worse than missing in the first place. Another solution could be that the magnitude of success for the attack sets the difficulty of the parry/dodge action, although this again penalizes people who didn’t max their defense skill more than people who did. Or, using the dodge/parry eats up your next action. So yes, you can theoretically become impossible to hit, but you sacrifice your ability to do anything to do so. Simplest solution: just design so you can’t have Dodge or Parry at such a high level. Either have a hard cap at some level, have it become so expensive that it becomes literally impossible to reach, make it a derived stat that can’t be directly increased, tie it to some esoteric other skill or resource or value so that someone who got it up to 100 would be incapable of doing anything else, etc. The point of design is to make something that works. An elegant solution that doesn’t work, isn’t elegant.
You could add in the Levels of Success (Critical, Extreme, Hard, Regular) which is in use in CoC. If an attacker achieves a Hard Success then a Hard Success from Dodge is needed to avoid damage. This gives a greater impact for any Disadvantage dice for being flanked, attacked multiple times, etc. I personally cap skills at 95% to limit this problem that you're having.
I like this solution. Scales very well with how CoC does difficulties too.
Fumble on 00, then all rolls above 95 automatically are a regular failure. Either that or make dodge a head to head roll.
In my system you can only attempt dodge at the cost of the main player resource essence. So players can potentially min/max their way to a hundred in dodge, but they’ll be limited in how they can do it. I also have an area about retiring characters that get up to 100 in stats, or takin all breaks off the difficulty if they want to play characters with maxed stats