Combat overhaul: converting characters and monsters from other games

1. First, optionally, we're going to adjust your HP and IP in line with my notes on damage scaling. You now have IP (injury points) equal to your Constitution or Body score divided by 3. I don't bother tracking IP for monsters.

If you want to keep your old HP, that's fine. In some cases (AD&D fighters) it'll be a lot more than in my system; in others (magicians in everything other than LBB OD&D), somewhat less.

2. If you are adjusting your HP, ask if your class has low, medium or high HP progression, and then use the following chart to roll for your new HP.

HP progression by level; the pattern continues in the obvious way until level 10, at which point it's just +1 per level. I'm not sure why I ordered the columns like that.

If you're converting a monster, just give them 1d6 HP per HD in the original.

3. Simply give the character Attack Dice (AD) equal to their attack bonus in the original. (If you really want to get fancy, you can use martial arts to fuck with their AD, but I haven't written that up yet.)

4. You won't have a static AC. This can be annoying because you frequently have to recalculate it. The rules for deriving TNs for attack dice are here. They are really compressed though, so below are the terms made explicit.

Your character will be hit on:

  • 7/8 if the cannot dodge, their armor is ineffective, and they have form inferiority
  • 5/6 if they cannot dodge and their armor is ineffective
  • 4/6 if they can dodge but their armor is ineffective
  • 3/6 if they can dodge and their armor is somewhat effective
  • 2/6 if they can dodge and their armor is mostly effective
  • 1/6 if they can dodge and their armor is fully effective
  • 1/8 if they can dodge and their armor is fully effective and they have form superiority

(I use "armor is ineffective" and "attack fully penetrates" synonymously.)

For any of those middle values, increase the TN by 1 each if they cannot dodge or they have form inferiority, or decrease the TN by 1 if they have form superiority. You might also throw in an extra plus or minus 1 or 2 to represent some supernormal factor -- dragon scales harder than iron, giants so tall you can't reach their vital organs, magical armor, etc.

4.5 Now you have to figure out what will penetrate your character's armor, and by how much. You don't actually have to do this in advance, you can usually just ask "How effective is that, given what I'm wearing?" and come up with a good answer in 2 seconds.

For instance, plate armor: full penetration by giant clubs, 2/3 penetration by ogre clubs and troll claws, 1/3 penetration by maces and hammers, no penetration by any other mundane melee weapon. (This is what I think, you might have a different idea of how armor and attacks work.)

Meanwhile a stiffened linen gambeson has full penetration from two-handed melee weapons, 2/3 penetration from a short-distance arrow, spear, or sword 1/3 penetration from a medium-distance arrow or dagger, and no penetration from fists.

5. Remind everybody that they have to declare their spells and ranged attacks at the beginning of the maneuver phase, that spells won't go off until the end of the maneuver phase, and that if you shoot a bow you probably don't get a melee attack during this maneuver phase.

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