Predicting opponent's movements to attack

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

I think the OP was looking for bonus to both attack and defence

The OP does say "a flat bonus to hit with any attack", so the people suggesting ways to model a bonus TH are, indeed, addressing the OP. Fair enough!

I guess I should be addressing the OP directly myself: Cursed_Lich, are you sure a bonus TH is what you want? I ask because, while it'd make sense in game systems that only have TH rolls, it doesn't really work in GURPS, with its TH and defense rolls. "Break through their defenses" literally suggests a penalty to the defender's defense roll, not a bonus to the attacker's TH roll.

A precog power that augments attacks with "apply -X to any active defense vs the attack" would seem to fit your description on the nose, and would be a cool power. But I don't really know how to price it.

If there isn't already some version of this, or some suggestion of what it should cost, in Powers or elsewhere, I imagine each level could be built as +2 DX, with limitation "For TH purposes only" (-X%) and "Only to reduce TH penalty from use of Deceptive Attack" (-Y%) . . . then given a snazzy name and described as simply "Reduces foes' active defenses by -1".

But it may not be quite as simple as that. Should such an ability also boost Feint rolls (compounding the above reduction in foes' defenses)? Then there are oddball situations like Acrobatic Guard, that actually apply TH penalties to attackers for defense-like actions by defenders; should the ability also reduce those TH penalties?

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

FWIW I think I agree with you re animal handling, maybe a better way to do it is the animal doesn't get penalty to hit, but you get a bonus to defend?

Agreed; that's how I house-ruled it long ago (with a mention or few on my site). So Animal Handling-15 would let you reduce animals' AD rolls by 1, and give you a +1 bonus when they attack you. Double those at Animal Handling-20.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

It starts to get common in melee combat with skill levels above 20 (below that, you're still worrying about other penalties). At 26 skill, you can do a full Deceptive Attack with effectively no penalty to yourself.

I see it commonly at skill 17+, occasionally at 16, definitely at 14-16 if they AOA(Determined). Almost never if final skill is 15 or less.

What I do see at skill 13-15 is Feint if the Player thinks their foe has a slightly lower skill (like 2 or more difference).

[Anthony]

Deceptive attack is generally net worthwhile at (pre-DA) skill 14 against a foe with a defense of 10-17, net worthwhile at skill 16 against a foe with defense of 8-14 (above that range you're better off hoping for a crit, below you're better off attacking normal).

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I see it commonly at skill 17+, occasionally at 16, definitely at 14-16 if they AOA(Determined). Almost never if final skill is 15 or less.

What I do see at skill 13-15 is Feint if the Player thinks their foe has a slightly lower skill (like 2 or more difference).

That's largely why I don't see it at lower levels. Darkness, terrain, alcohol, SM, hit location, there are lots of penalties in combat. DA is always the last penalty considered.