I'm getting some traffic from Something Awful. Don't know why; they want people to register to see that section of their forums, and I'm not going to do that. So, all I can do is say "Welcome, Elf!"
Based on the number of visits and which posts are getting hits, it seems to be the You Go First post. That's as good a reason as any to make one trivial correction. Before checking DEX order, sort the characters and monsters involved into magically fast, normal, and magically slow. The Haste spell or a potion of speed makes an affected character go first, even when facing something with high DEX. The Slow spell makes the victim go last, along with the zombies and automatons. If there are two or more Hasted combatants, the higher DEX goes first, but all Hasted combatants go before those not affected by Haste.
Just a minor tweak.
Your system would work well with OD&D or Holmes Basic. Do you roll a die for tied Dex or have them go simultaneously?
ReplyDeleteIt was pointed out to me recently that in the original B2 for Holmes, Gygax has the hasted skeletons in the Temple go twice per round - once at the beginning, before everyone else based on Dex, and once at the end. So there's some published support for Haste beating Dex scores.
I swear I've read some game material somewhere that formally stated Hasted creatures go first, Slowed creatures go last, so I'm not really being original, here. B2 would certainly confirm that it was at least an informal rule.
DeleteI've said else that you can use a die roll to break ties, but since a tied die roll means simultaneous actions, I'm actually leaning towards just skipping the die roll. Sometimes, you want the craziness of two opponents killing each other.