Varg Vikernes 3.0 RP MYFAROG had a better one but he couldn't balance it so he left it out in 4.0. essentially if you got hit the armour would absorb damage
That it is and I say that for over forty years now. But still for some reason D&D rules, while all the other systems that at least tried for immersive yet workable armor systems from the late seventies forward remained niche at best. Runequest anyone? Chivalry and Sorcery? Midgard? Harnmaster? I played all of them and I'd take any of those over D&D any day.
Finally got the mod working, dumped the files here C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Pathfinder Kingmaker\Mods\BagOfTricks\ModifiedBlueprints\
Then ingame went to the mods tab of Bag of tricks into modifiedblueprints and chose to instant patch the game with the new values.
This mod is a good base for general improvement of AC system.
The general idea of armor hard capping AC bonus from dex is , wrong at least.
It should be soft capped not hard capped. For example max dex bonus X , past X only half of remaining dex bonus counts. Dodge bonus should be counted into this cap and defensive fighting traits should not give dodge bonus but new other bonus for example called defensive style. As very dodgy chars should be able to dodge better in some medium or heavier armors than non dextrous chars.
Heavier armor should be giving DR, DR should stack as it is still weak and enemies ignoring DR should ignore only half of DR.
The soft dex cap on armor should be raised or lowered with strength bonus fatigue and con bonus.
Speaking of which , STR should be giving some small bonus to AC if char can parry current attack with current weapon - for example for this purpose small halfling with small sword could not parry big ogre club, unless the small halfling has bigger STR than ogre from buffs or some similar conditions and the like. And DEX should ne giving some small ATK roll bonus to melee weapons even without weapon finesse. This would also balance Rogue / Ninja classes vs Fighters and similar a bit and would make more sense.
And chars with weapons with longer reach - spear halberd and similar should receive bonus on AoO vs chars with weapons with smaller reach.
Speaking of Kingmaker - All area of effects abilities should have Area of Effects approx. halved = 50% to reduced to 70% since its just too strong, most encounters in game can be resolved with simply Entanglement - burning entanglement spike stones and the like - stacking area of effects magic and walking away from enemies, and on top of that AI should be avoiding these effects , not all of them, high level or immune enemies and allies could walk thr. them. Grease is especially powerful even vs. high level enemies.
Haste ability should be nerfed to oblivion, I remember that in some older DnD game Haste gave fatigue after duration ended.
Craft Magic items and CotW and Fast travel mods could be part of the vanilla game.
And Rogues and Ninjas should receive bigger BAB or damage or some buff to their combat capability in trade for lowered sneak attack for example. Not saying that these classes are too weak but also backstabbing AI enemies is just too easy for player even with Proper Flanking while micro intensive and not RP. And their dmg without sneak attack just mostly suck unless multiclassed.
Aldori Swordlords or Duelist or sorry I cant remember exactly but in general Parry and some abilities from those classes should be available to fighters, for example like traits. It is just too dumb to only one prestige class have Parry ability while assuming that fighters do parry regularly in combat.
And most importantly Knockback and losing ground / gaining ground in melee should be implemented based on STR / Size / stance / class / morale and Luck (roll). In this situation, a troll boss could just throw your tank away while not killling him and charge your back line - casters.
If you like this post please share it somewhere for some devs. so they hopefully implement it in their next game because Im most likely not going to do it anytime soon.
Edit: 5-Foot Step in turn based mode should give AoO at penalty (vs acrobatics-mobility bonus) , because 5-foot step + standard action cast a spell is a sure way to cast spell in melee VS. while in non turn based mode using acrobatics mobility ability is weak.
And some spells should have some small cast time and should be interruptable similarly like in some older DnD games. There should be feats that when a cast is interrupted caster preserve spell slot for later use.
With Area of effect reduction There should be 2 new metamagic feats basically can be applied to all pathfinder DnD games - Nova and Line. Nova - name is just an example taken from those Blizzard spells like WoW Frost Nova - Area of Effect is cast centered on Caster while caster is not affected by the area. Line - Circular area of effect can be cast in line. - Advantage longer potential range, disadvantage - smaller area overall.
Completely breaks balance and makes armor too op. It is already balanced originaly, you have 8 armor from it so a completely two average guys, one with armor would have 18 ac and the one without 10. The guy without armor would need dice roll of 19-20 which would be something akin to lucky blow to eye slits, using weapon they have proficiency in. Better idea would be having armor give damage reduction instead but that's still very wonky balance.
I wouldn't really call it balanced since, in this game at least, bath robes wearing freaks are the true tank meta and even anyone with some amount of Dex can match fullplate in AC with little to no problem.
given the game is based on 3rd edition D&D in which normal earth humans are at most level 5 in the system, anyone matching full plate with their dex isn't human. so, yeah, it's balanced. magic doesn't exist in the real world so you can't really bring that into your argument about balancing armor for realism. anyway, generally, a non-hero is generated with a 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8 stat array, so assuming they're a particularly dexterous normal guy, they're looking at a 16 Dex for +3 at level 5. that's not competing with full plate. they're still going to want to wear armor. mundane armors are competing with mundane people. that's the balance.
DR is somehow useless, in pnp regulations it is said to be not multipliable, while in game you can add all DR/- up to almost 30, but in Chapter 6/7 the feys have the feat that could neglect your DR. So maybe more AC is useful.
Pathfinder is fundamentally gamist first, narrativist second, and simulationist third. You're throwing a mod at a game that was designed to do the opposite of what you want, and this is made visible by how you've compromised your original design choices by lowering the AC. First edition The Dark Eye, Das Schwartze Auge in the original german, is closer to what you want, but I haven't got a clue whether the video games made for that tabletop system have english versions or whether they're any good, and I don't know whether the later editions stayed close to its original, brutal simulationist game mechanics. This game is not the genre of game you want to play. Your disagreements with it stem from the fact that it was made specifically for other people. You are a heavy metal fan attending a jazz concert, complaining that the music sucks. Play games that are designed for you.
if you dont like the mod dont use it i also made a closer balenced version on request also even if you dont count the ac changes the weight of the items was way way wrong everything was 50lbs i fixed that if you want a version with just that being fixed i can do that to any way have fun and i have tried The Dark Eye years back
94 comments
I am looking to do something similar, maybe even more extensive.
Let's be honest the AC system in DnD is utter crap.
But still for some reason D&D rules, while all the other systems that at least tried for immersive yet workable armor systems from the late seventies forward remained niche at best.
Runequest anyone? Chivalry and Sorcery? Midgard? Harnmaster? I played all of them and I'd take any of those over D&D any day.
Then ingame went to the mods tab of Bag of tricks into modifiedblueprints and chose to instant patch the game with the new values.
The general idea of armor hard capping AC bonus from dex is , wrong at least.
It should be soft capped not hard capped. For example max dex bonus X , past X only half of remaining dex bonus counts.
Dodge bonus should be counted into this cap and defensive fighting traits should not give dodge bonus but new other bonus for example called defensive style.
As very dodgy chars should be able to dodge better in some medium or heavier armors than non dextrous chars.
Heavier armor should be giving DR, DR should stack as it is still weak and enemies ignoring DR should ignore only half of DR.
The soft dex cap on armor should be raised or lowered with strength bonus fatigue and con bonus.
Speaking of which , STR should be giving some small bonus to AC if char can parry current attack with current weapon - for example for this purpose small halfling with small sword could not parry big ogre club, unless the small halfling has bigger STR than ogre from buffs or some similar conditions and the like. And DEX should ne giving some small ATK roll bonus to melee weapons even without weapon finesse. This would also balance Rogue / Ninja classes vs Fighters and similar a bit and would make more sense.
And chars with weapons with longer reach - spear halberd and similar should receive bonus on AoO vs chars with weapons with smaller reach.
Speaking of Kingmaker - All area of effects abilities should have Area of Effects approx. halved = 50% to reduced to 70% since its just too strong, most encounters in game can be resolved with simply Entanglement - burning entanglement spike stones and the like - stacking area of effects magic and walking away from enemies, and on top of that AI should be avoiding these effects , not all of them, high level or immune enemies and allies could walk thr. them. Grease is especially powerful even vs. high level enemies.
Haste ability should be nerfed to oblivion, I remember that in some older DnD game Haste gave fatigue after duration ended.
Craft Magic items and CotW and Fast travel mods could be part of the vanilla game.
And Rogues and Ninjas should receive bigger BAB or damage or some buff to their combat capability in trade for lowered sneak attack for example. Not saying that these classes are too weak but also backstabbing AI enemies is just too easy for player even with Proper Flanking while micro intensive and not RP. And their dmg without sneak attack just mostly suck unless multiclassed.
Aldori Swordlords or Duelist or sorry I cant remember exactly but in general Parry and some abilities from those classes should be available to fighters, for example like traits. It is just too dumb to only one prestige class have Parry ability while assuming that fighters do parry regularly in combat.
And most importantly Knockback and losing ground / gaining ground in melee should be implemented based on STR / Size / stance / class / morale and Luck (roll). In this situation, a troll boss could just throw your tank away while not killling him and charge your back line - casters.
If you like this post please share it somewhere for some devs. so they hopefully implement it in their next game because Im most likely not going to do it anytime soon.
Edit: 5-Foot Step in turn based mode should give AoO at penalty (vs acrobatics-mobility bonus) , because 5-foot step + standard action cast a spell is a sure way to cast spell in melee VS. while in non turn based mode using acrobatics mobility ability is weak.
And some spells should have some small cast time and should be interruptable similarly like in some older DnD games. There should be feats that when a cast is interrupted caster preserve spell slot for later use.
With Area of effect reduction There should be 2 new metamagic feats basically can be applied to all pathfinder DnD games - Nova and Line. Nova - name is just an example taken from those Blizzard spells like WoW Frost Nova - Area of Effect is cast centered on Caster while caster is not affected by the area.
Line - Circular area of effect can be cast in line. - Advantage longer potential range, disadvantage - smaller area overall.
Now do i think it is OP? Yeah, i do.
>>Still has Leather Armour instead of Gambesons
>>Is Sad
Also, why all Caps in the description? Makes it look like the Mod was made by a 12 year old.
Pathfinder is fundamentally gamist first, narrativist second, and simulationist third. You're throwing a mod at a game that was designed to do the opposite of what you want, and this is made visible by how you've compromised your original design choices by lowering the AC. First edition The Dark Eye, Das Schwartze Auge in the original german, is closer to what you want, but I haven't got a clue whether the video games made for that tabletop system have english versions or whether they're any good, and I don't know whether the later editions stayed close to its original, brutal simulationist game mechanics. This game is not the genre of game you want to play. Your disagreements with it stem from the fact that it was made specifically for other people. You are a heavy metal fan attending a jazz concert, complaining that the music sucks. Play games that are designed for you.