So, I ran my first Conan game this past weekend. I'm a fairly experienced D&D 3.0 GM (never really got my hands around 3.5 -- our group had largely moved on to other games by the time it came around), and while I appreciated, in theory, the changes made by Conan, it wasn't until we played a session that they became truly vivid. A couple things I noticed:
1) I really like the way Conan handles defense and armor. It just makes combat feel so much more "alive" than D&D, and far more easier to picture (and describe, as a GM).
2) What troubles me is the combination of some of the feats with the high damage potentials of certain weapons and the 20 point insta-death check rule. In particular, the explosive power feat seems to be game-breaking, if used per the literal text. Does anyone use this thing without modification? I'm not much of a "house-rules" type. I figure this stuff has been play tested and balanced, and that any changes I make could well upset that balance. Also, I don't like "nerfing" a player after the fact. But I'm stumped here. I don't feel that the game will be much fun if I let this feat stand, and I'm curious as to the experiences of others.
If you're interested in how I reached this conclusion, read on. One of my players is a 5th level barbarian, with the explosive power feat. He attacks an apeman of 50 or so hitpoints who is grappling another one of the party members (and thus, is denied dodge/parry against non-grappling opponents). The barbarian is using a bardiche, which deals 2d10 damage. Thus, despite taking a minus 5 on his attack role, he is nearly guaranteed to hit (which he does). He rolls, and after factoring in the double STR bonus for two-handed weapons, the double power attack bonus for wielding a two-handed weapon (+10 to damage), and finally, the result of the 2d10 base weapon damage, a relatively mediocre roll results in him dealing some 90 points of damage (!!!!) to the mound of jell-o that was once an apeman.
What was really disturbing was that we calcualted that even had he rolled two ones on his damage dice, he would still have done over 50 points of damage, and given the 20-point insta-death rule, the apeman would have been faced with fortitude save in the 40s, which is obviously impossible.
Now, I was shocked at the time, as, I think, were my players (no less the barbarian's player, whose 12th level fighter in my old D&D campaign had never landed a single blow that came close to doing that much damage). I sort of played it off at the time as 'well, it's nice, but remember, it can be used on you too'. But thinking it over, it just seems game-breaking to have an ability such as explosive power that has relatively modest pre-reqs and no real downside, that can be used any number of times, and has such dire consequences. Yes, I appreciate that Conan is supposed to be a deadlier game, but doesn't this stretch that concept to the point of removing the challenge, resulting in no fun for anyone?
Sorry for the long winded post.
1) I really like the way Conan handles defense and armor. It just makes combat feel so much more "alive" than D&D, and far more easier to picture (and describe, as a GM).
2) What troubles me is the combination of some of the feats with the high damage potentials of certain weapons and the 20 point insta-death check rule. In particular, the explosive power feat seems to be game-breaking, if used per the literal text. Does anyone use this thing without modification? I'm not much of a "house-rules" type. I figure this stuff has been play tested and balanced, and that any changes I make could well upset that balance. Also, I don't like "nerfing" a player after the fact. But I'm stumped here. I don't feel that the game will be much fun if I let this feat stand, and I'm curious as to the experiences of others.
If you're interested in how I reached this conclusion, read on. One of my players is a 5th level barbarian, with the explosive power feat. He attacks an apeman of 50 or so hitpoints who is grappling another one of the party members (and thus, is denied dodge/parry against non-grappling opponents). The barbarian is using a bardiche, which deals 2d10 damage. Thus, despite taking a minus 5 on his attack role, he is nearly guaranteed to hit (which he does). He rolls, and after factoring in the double STR bonus for two-handed weapons, the double power attack bonus for wielding a two-handed weapon (+10 to damage), and finally, the result of the 2d10 base weapon damage, a relatively mediocre roll results in him dealing some 90 points of damage (!!!!) to the mound of jell-o that was once an apeman.
What was really disturbing was that we calcualted that even had he rolled two ones on his damage dice, he would still have done over 50 points of damage, and given the 20-point insta-death rule, the apeman would have been faced with fortitude save in the 40s, which is obviously impossible.
Now, I was shocked at the time, as, I think, were my players (no less the barbarian's player, whose 12th level fighter in my old D&D campaign had never landed a single blow that came close to doing that much damage). I sort of played it off at the time as 'well, it's nice, but remember, it can be used on you too'. But thinking it over, it just seems game-breaking to have an ability such as explosive power that has relatively modest pre-reqs and no real downside, that can be used any number of times, and has such dire consequences. Yes, I appreciate that Conan is supposed to be a deadlier game, but doesn't this stretch that concept to the point of removing the challenge, resulting in no fun for anyone?
Sorry for the long winded post.
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