Passive Defense and 4e

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Plane

I do like the idea of defenses and armor working together somehow, like maybe a partially complete parry somehow makes it less likely to pierce DR in 4e. Which I think T-Bone's "glancing blows" rules in Pyramid accomplish, since half the basic damage would mean less likely to get past DR.

The stand-alone rule on my site is here. The idea, for those who want to re-introduce 'glancing blows' that bounce off armor a la 3e PD, is: a) first, define what such a blow is, and when it happens; and b) let DR handle the stuff about blows bouncing off.

It works out to this:

Definition:

• A graze is an off-center, glancing, fleeting, or other blow that doesn't strike "squarely".
• A graze occurs on an attack that just hits (roll succeeds by 0) or an Active Defense roll that just fails (roll fails by 1).

Main effects:

• Halve basic hits (as much of the energy slides on by).
• Double DR for the oblique angle (same effect as "sloping armor" on vehicles).

Miscellaneous effects (ignore if you like!):

• If the graze happened because of a poor TH roll, also give the defender +2 on Active Defense (as the attack is nearly a miss to begin with).
• If both attack and defense rolls yield a graze, apply both effects: 1/4 basic hits, x4 DR.
• Change impaling or piercing damage to cutting if that would be lower (same effect as "tip slash").

That's the rule. It makes for more "flesh wounds" that save even unarmored PCs, and lets many blows that would have penetrated armor "glance off" instead (without requiring adjustments, as PD required, to prevent cannonballs and falling pianos from comically bouncing off armor).

So I like it, though the above doesn't represent varying levels of PD (other than as created by varying levels of DR). There are some ideas for that in the text. Or, running with Varyon's thoughts, one could introduce a roll that varies the DR multiplier, with armor type/quality modifying the roll. That'd start bringing back the feel of varied PD!