The 'Counter' house rule for LEITL

[larsdangly]

Thanks for the feedback! Indeed, there is a lot in common between what I posted and your earlier post; I suspect anyone who really playtests this stuff extensively will work their way to something close to what we are doing. Some quick reactions:

1) I prefer that the declaration of the action happens before the attack roll because it obviously raises the value of the Counter (parry, whatever) substantially if you only spend your action on it when a foe has succeeded in hitting you (and, because I used Opposed Roll mechanics) you know the margin of their success. I would have to try it at the table to be sure, but I suspect this is too unbalancing; certainly too much of a power shift to do it just to avoid awkward conversations when players waffle.

2) I love your opposed damage roll idea. I don't know why it never occurred to me; it is quite elegant. It has the disadvantage of adding another die roll. That's a significant factor and would argue against the approach in some circumstances, but here the foe is making a damage roll anyway, so there is no cost to speed of play. And it adds a bit of drama, which is always welcome in a combat system. I actually haven't been using any parry/counter/reaction sorts of rules at my table in past months because I committed to playing RAW until I really had Legacy Edition down pat. But now that I'm titrating in some house rules I think I'll experiment with your suggestion. It has the great advantage of removing a whole block of rules details.

3) You can totally use your off hand to block, parry, grab or disarm weapons of all sorts; these techniques are central to most of the medieval 'fight books' I've encountered in a HEMA context. These methods rely on the fact that even a lightly gloved hand can avoid being cut by a blade if it is grabbed appropriately, and by methods that target a foe's wrist or arm. I would say the potential that you mess up the technique and get hurt is covered by the fact that you will take damage if you fail or lose your opposed Counter roll.