February 27th, 2009
REACTIONS
TO OD&D: RANGED COMBAT
Let's
start this essay with a couple of quotes from "Volume 1: Men &
Magic" regarding ranged combat. First, from the Alternative Combat
System attack matrices on page 20:
Missile
hits will be scored by using the above tables at long range and
decreasing Armor Class by 1 at medium and 2 at short range. |
To
put this rule in context for those who aren't familiar with
OD&D,
allow me to explain: Both melee and long-range missile attacks use the
same attack matrices. But at medium distances missiles receive a +1
bonus and at short ranges they receive a +2 bonus to hit.
Compare
and contrast this with 3rd Edition. Here both melee and ranged attacks
use the same Base Attack Bonus, but at medium and long ranges the
missile fire suffers penalties.
One critique of 3rd Edition is
that ranged combat specialists are at a significant disadvantage
compared to melee combat specialists. How many of those complaints
would disappear if you implemented an OD&D-style system of
giving
bonuses for close range missile attacks instead of penalties for
distant missile attacks?
(And how many more would disappear if
you took the equally radical step of giving ranged attacks a Dex-based
bonus to damage like the Strength-based bonus that melee attacks
receive? All of them. But I digress.)
(EDIT:
It has been pointed out that the word "decrease" might actually mean
that Armor Class is improved against missile attacks at medium and
close ranges. I hadn't really considered that possibility because it
seems natural to me that the closer something is, the easier it is to
hit
with a missile weapon, but it's certainly true. This, by the way, is
why I don't miss the "lower AC is better" days in the least. Is that
+2 a bonus or a penalty? Only her stylist knows for sure.)
And here's another quote
from "Men & Magic", this one from the "Bonuses and Penalties to
Advancement due to Abilities" table (which, like many things in
OD&D, is only partly about what it says it's about):
Dexterity above 12
|
Fire any missile at +1 |
Dexterity below 9 |
Fire any missile at -1 |
To
understand the importance of these entries, you first have to
understand one other thing: There are no equivalent bonuses (or
penalties) for melee attacks.
So, once again, we see OD&D giving
a significant advantage to ranged combatants compared to their melee
brethren. In doing so it stands in contrast with 3rd Edition (where
ranged combatants require special equipment, class abilities, and/or
feats to even begin equalizing with melee combatants).
It stands
in even starker contrast with 4th Edition, where ranged combat has been
completely nerfed for the convenience of the miniatures game. And this
is slightly ironic because I suspect one of the reasons that
OD&D
is so friendly to ranged combat is because of its roots in the Chainmail wargame: Chainmail
needed to cope with the reality that charging ranged attackers
Agincourt-style is, historically speaking, a really dreadful idea. One
that people have been willing to repeat time and time again throughout
history (World War I, I'm looking at you), but a really dreadful idea
nonetheless.
PALIMPSEST
INVERSION
Of
course, all of this goes out the window if you interpret the
OD&D
rules slightly different. Here's a quote from "Volume 2: Monsters
&
Treasure":
Attack/Defense
capabilities versus normal men are simply a matter of allowing one roll
as a man-type for every hit die, with any bonuses being given to only
one of the attacks, i.e. a Troll would attack six times, once with a +3
added to the die roll. (Combat is detailed in Vol. III.) |
This
little paragraph is incredibly confusing for many reasons: First, the
basic combat system is largely detailed in Volume 1. It is not
meaningfully discussed in Volume 3 (only Aerial Combat and Naval Combat
are given any substantive treatment there).
Second, based on its
formatting and context the passage appears to be referring to an
"Attack/Defense" entry on the table immediately preceding this text...
but no such entry is to be found. It's actually referring to Hit Dice.
(A troll has 6 + 3 HD, hence the +3 bonus it receives.)
Third,
the most literal interpretation of the paragraph is "monsters
attack like men once for every HD they have". There are two problems
with this: First, the Alternative Combat System has separate attack
matrices for men and monsters -- so if monsters end up attacking "as a
man-type", what's the point of the attack matrix for monsters? Second,
the text only refers to monsters... which means that monsters get 1
attack per HD, but the PCs don't. I don't really see any way for that
to be viable, do you?
For the most part, as far as I can tell,
this passage is almost universally ignored. Or used only when the Chainmail rules are
used for mass combat.
But one way in which it has been interpreted
is that everyone (monsters and men alike) get 1 attack per round per HD.
However, by combining that with certain
rules from Chainmail,
another interpretation also arose: Everyone (monsters and men alke) get
1 attack per round per HD... but only when engaged in melee.
Which,
of course, immediately shifts the pendulum of power away from ranged
combat and places it rather firmly and definitely in favor of melee
combat.
CONCLUDING
THOUGHTS
In
lump sum, therefore, OD&D serves -- in its many-faced way -- as
excellent fodder for a discussion of how ranged and melee combat should
relate to each other.
But this also speaks to one of the broader
themes in these reactions to OD&D: There are many who like to
talk
about "old school" gaming as if it was some sort of unified style of
play, but could there be any larger bifurcation of play styles than
those created by the disparate interpretations of the mechanics we've
seen here?
In one set of mechanics, ranged combat has a
distinct
edge. Smart use of a sling or bow is strongly advantageous, leading to
combats being conducted from the maximum possible distance. (And even
when the combat tightens up, there's still every reason to continue
using your ranged weapon if you can.)
But in the other set of mechanics, the
melee fighters grind up the battlefield -- completely outclassing the
damage-dealing capabilities of the ranged combatants through their
sheer number of attacks per round.
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