Core D&D: part 5

Combat in d&d, as has been discussed before, is abstract almost to an extreme: in early versions, often there was group initiative, with all weapons dealing 1d6 damage, modified only with magic swords that would give a bonus to attack only, and often only a bonus of +1.

This simplicity isnt bad (in fact, i see it as an advantage in the great scheme of things), but it isnt conducive to many that think in terms of actions (i swing my sword) instead of results (i beat the monster).

An easy solution to this is to keep damage seperate from the weapon being wielded (as hit points arent measures of health but of the ability to continue fighting) and give each weapon or class of weapon bonuses to certain combat maneuvers or advantages vs other equipment based on things like weight, length, and quality.

Im quite liking the idea that your combat roll is a hybrid ability/skill check and reaction check since it gives us the ability to score critical hits (good reaction) as well as SUPERcritical hits (very good reaction). Now, critical hits as an increase in damage i think is bland, as well as unnecessary bookkeeping, so my solution is simple: critical hits give combat manuevers, supercriticals ability damage. A way to handle that is to roll on some kind of dismemberment table to see which ability gets injured (as well as their corresponding specific organs), but a simple -1 to Con works just as well (with 0 Con here being death).

Combat manuevers themselves are harder to reckon, as there are multiple implementations that could work that deal with different mechanics as well as have varying levels of crunchiness. The crux seems to be whether one describes combat in terms of locations, with different combatants inhabiting different spaces, like when using a grid system. I can see the appeal, but i cant think of a good enough system to put into place where the added complexity pays for itself (that can be another post). One possibility is having a combat manuever just add a +1 or +2 bonus to an ability check based on what you want to try to do (it could even be a contested check between you and your opponent).

Weapon differentiation is a bit simpler to handle: longer weapons gain +x damage when fighting a shorter weapon (where x is related to how much hp is the norm, something to be decided). Certain weapons, like spears, may give a bonus when fighting against opponents on horseback, or will give maneuver bonuses tied to one of the abilities (certain polearms may give increased strength maneuver bonuses, a staff or whip dexterity, and possibly even an Aegis-type charisma maneuver bonus applied to certain shields).

A weapon may have bonuses and maluses based on wieldiness and quality, with heavy weapons decreasing your effective manuever bonus and masterwork weapons increasing that and maybe damage too. Enchanted weapons would raise up to two of your ability modifiers (still have a max of +3) depending on quality, with some possibly having spell effects related to them (the ever-present fire swords come to mind)