Player's Option crits, additional automation, and Hackmaster-style house rules

Version 0.3: Extension file updated in the OP.

Renamed the "Nat 20, hit by 5" and "Any nat 20" crit options to "As base, hit by 5" and "As base ruleset" to reflect that those two options now respect the threat ranges specified on a weapon. Did not implement this for the rules-as-written 18+ option, though, because that gets really weird.

Currently, except when set to "Off", this extension does not respect the bonus crit dice you can specify on a weapon in that same area that you can set the threshold.

Lastly, visually, you don't see the animation for the the extra crit dice you roll on a critical hit, but the dice do appear in the chat log. I hope to get the animated rolls working in the future.

I've updated this to version 0.4 (updated attachment in the OP).

• Fixed some bugs introduced during the previous bug fix with weapon type vs armor type to-hit modifiers not working.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where the toggle for Penetration Dice being enabled was accidentally tied to the HP kicker option rather then the Penetration Dice option.
  
  
• Added a toggleable option for Hackmaster-style armor damage. As armor accumulates damage, its effective AC level drops. Under these rules, armor also soaks 1 or more points of damage for each die rolled. Defaults for armor match Hackmaster rules, but can be configured via the item's properties. In the armor's properties, you specify how many points of damage it soaks per damage die by putting "DR: n" in there where n is the amount you want soaked. You can also specify how many HP each "level" of armor has via "HP:[n1,n2,n3,n4,etc]" where each number specifies how much damage the armor can take before it drops one effective AC level. So, for example, if you want Full Plate (AC1) to soak 2 points of damage per damage die for the player, and want to set up it's damage levels, you might put this in the "Properties" text field on the item: "DR: 2, HP:[36,24,12,10,8,6,4,2,1]". This would mean it can take 36 damage before dropping to AC 2, 24 more before dropping to AC 3, 12 more before dropping to AC 4, and so on.
  
  
• Added a toggleable option Hackmaster-style shield hits and damage. Detects when a miss is only a miss because the target was using a shield and reports it. Then, when you roll damage, damage is first applied to the shield, with any leftover (if enough damage is done that the shield breaks) flowing over and applying to the character. Uses some default HP totals (for instance, 12 hp total for a medium shield), but works best if you create some shields that match what's in Hackmaster (for instance, in HM a medium shield gives +3 AC and degrades after 5, 4, and then 3 hp of damage). HP can be specified the same was as for armor above.
  
  
• Modified the assumption about weapon size when it comes to Combat & Tactics critical hits with natural weapons. I'd been assuming creature size - 2 size categories. Found rules in Chapter 9 of the book that specified what various natural attacks' relative sizes should be and changed the code to match that.
  
  
• Added a toggleable option for Hackmaster-style Threshold of Pain check. A character's Threshold of Pain is equal to half of their maximum hit points. If they take a single hit that equals that threshold or higher, they save vs death (with a wisdom adjustment), and if they fail, they're unconscious for a number of rounds equal to however much they failed by. This is all automated, though you'll probably need to manually remove the "unconscious" effect in cases where it doesn't make sense, like when fighting zombies. Future plan is to check for creatures immune to threshold of pain and add support for different threshold amounts. For instance, in Hackmaster their are traits and flaws that can change it from 1/2 to 1/3 or 2/3.
  
  
• Added a toggleable option to switch to Hackmaster-style stat adjustments. Basically, it's using that ruleset's to-hit modifiers, damage modifiers, reaction adjustment, etc, instead of 2e's. Can toggle back and forth at any time and it updates appropriately.
  
  
• Added a toggleable option to apply a character's reaction adjustment from dexterity to initiative. This seems a little fiddly at the time you toggle it... it's possible the character sheet needs to be open when the toggle is flipped for the init value to immediately update. I'll look into improving that.
  
  
• Added an automated saving throw vs death when a critical hit occurs (if using the Combat & Tactics crit option). Still doesn't actually apply any effects of the crit though... it just saves you the trouble of rolling manually.

Really love this extension, Great job Sterno.
Found this little guy, when players forget to target a creature and you attempt to drag the result to the target it throws this error.

Script Error: [string "scripts/manager_action_attack_po.lua"]:386: attempt to index local 'rSource' (a nil value)

Thanks for the report, I'll get that fixed (I think I may have already a few weeks ago and just haven't updated this thread yet, but I'll double-check). I actually need to push an update soon because I have a few new options (HM-style fatigue, HM Thac0 charts for monsters, some changes so things like poison and psychic damage can't hurt armor and armor can't soak that kind of damage, additional penetration options so certain weapons like crossbows can penetrate on max die and max -1, and an option to ring the bell at the start of a combat round), plus a few bug fixes and some cleanup around the way crits and other messages are displayed in chat. Been holding off though because it's taken 3 weeks to get fatigue working correctly. I'd keep thinking I had it fixed and then my weekly game would roll around and it would work for me but not my players. Node-permission issues!

The biggest bug fix is that in the currently published extension the automation for weapon type vs armor type is replacing any other to-hit modifier rather than modifying it. So if you attack at d20+15 but your target's plate armor gives a -2, you end up attacking at d20-2 instead of d20+13. I wasn't noticing during testing because it's usually just players wearing armor, and most monsters have +0 to hit, so it wasn't coming up. I'll get the update pushed today or tomorrow, though anyone concerned can always just grab the latest from Github.

Thanks Sterno

Just uploaded version 0.5 in the OP. Does not fix the bug Frankison reported with dragging dice from the chat window, because that proves to be a difficult thing to solve (but I'll try to at least make it not blow up in the next version).

New things in this version:

• Fixed a bug where the weapon type vs armor type roll mods were replacing the roll's modifier rather than adding to or subtracting from it. For instance, if you were at +4 on your attack but attacked something in armor that should have given you a -2 mod, it was changing your attack to -2, rather than +2 (i.e., +4 - 2). My bad!
  
• Added a Use Fumbles Tables option, which occur on a natural 1. They're entirely text-based and don't apply any effects of stat changes, so you have to decide exactly what their effects might be and apply them manually. There are two options. One uses the Hackmaster 4E fumble tables, straight from the GMG. The other, named "Sterno Fumbles", is something based loosely off the Player's Option concept of Battlefield Events, but kind of applied to be fumbles rather than general events. I imagine I'm going to change that table a lot but it's what I'm currently trying in my game. You probably don't want to use that one, and should use the 2E ruleset's built-in ability to hook in your own fumble tables instead. The HM4 ones were complicated enough that I wanted to handle it with an extension though. If you have fumbles enabled, typing /fumble in the chat window will generate a fumble for you.
  
• Added the spell mishap tables from Hackmaster. You roll on the table by typing /mishap in the chat window. This option is the first thing I've added that's always enabled, but that's because it's not automated... you either type /mishap or don't! No automated effects here, just text.
  
• Changed the display of critical hit effects so they appear on their own line in the chat window.
  
• Added a Monster Thac0 Based on HM Attack Matrix option so that monster Thac0 is based on their HD per the Hackmaster GMG. Could potentially see adding another option here for the 1E matrix, but haven't done it yet. Note that it doesn't actually use the matrix perfectly, it just uses it to determine a Thac0. The main difference is that in Hackmaster (and I think 1e did it too), there are 5 ACs that a modifier 20 can hit. I went for the more simplified 2E method of just assuming every +1 on your roll is the equivalent to hitting one better AC.
  
• After a whole lot of pain, I got a Hackmaster Fatigue Rules option working. It's based heavily on Hackmaster fatigue but a little simplified. I do plan to add the Player's Option version of fatigue in the future. Fatigue behavior is discussed in more detail below.
  
• If you're using the Armor Damage rules, armor no longer soaks or is damaged by poison or psychic damage. Still trying to decide if other damage types belong in that category, but settled on these two for now.
  
• If you're using the Penetration Dice, d3s can now penetrate. You can also add the word "penetrating" to the damage type on a weapon, and it will penetrate on max die roll and on max die roll -1. This was to support the fact that crossbows in Hackmaster behave that way. Could make for some cool magic weapon properties too.
  
• Added a Ring Bell on Round Start option that just dings everyone at the start of a combat round.

Fatigue Overview

This is pretty much the Hackmaster fatigue system except I changed how you gain/lose fatigue to make it a little more automation friendly.

First off, every character has a Fatigue Factor. It's typically half their Constitution score. Then, a multiplier is applied based on their encumbrance level. Normal = 1.0, Light = .75, Moderate = .5, Heavy = .25, and Severe = 0. Hackmaster also has a few skills and talents that can modify someone's Fatigue Factor. On the character sheet "Main" tab, if you go to the Combat section and hit the gear icon, you can enter a Fatigue Factor multiplier which further modifies that Fatigue Factor. Most characters are just going to stay at 1 though.

Okay, so you got your fatigue factor, and for most unencumbered characters, it's equal to half their Constitution. This is how many points of fatigue you can gain before you start having penalties. So how do you gain fatigue? This is how it differs from Hackmaster a little (and to be fair, Hackmaster is a little vague on it). If you make any melee attack during the round, you gain a point of fatigue. If you make a ranged attack or cast a spell, you neither gain nor lose a point of fatigue. If you do none of the above, you lose a point of fatigue (down to 0).

If gaining a point of fatigue raises your current fatigue above your Fatigue Factor, the character makes a Fatigue Check to see if they gain a -1 STR/-1 DEX fatigue penalty. This check is a d20 roll that you want to have under the average of your Constitution + Wisdom. Fail the check, gain the penalty. Make the check, no penalty. Gain another point of fatigue next round, make another check! Keep failing checks, and the penalties keep stacking up! Note that the Strength loss can affect your encumbrance score, which in turn can lower your fatigue factor!

If you lose a point of fatigue and your current fatigue is less than or equal to your Fatigue Factor, and you have at least one fatigue penalty effect on your character, you make a Constitution check to try to remove the penalty. Success means you drop one fatigue effect (i.e., one -1 STR/-1 DEX effect). Failure means it stays there. However, if you ever get down to 0 fatigue, it clears all remaining fatigue effects without needing to make a check. Note also that a "Short Rest" or "Long Rest" also clears fatigue from all characters.

It should go without saying this is all automated, by the way, because who the hell would take the time to do this all manually?

Monsters are a little different. Because stats aren't as relevant for monsters are most just have 10 across the board in the Monstrous Manual records, the fatigue effect for monsters is -1 ATK and -1 AC instead of -1 STR and -1 DEX. This is different than Hackmaster, which says every time a monster would need a fatigue check, do a morale check instead to have them run away. I say, do both! Also note that monsters make their fatigue checks a little differently, as per HM rules. Instead of trying to roll under the average of Con + Wis, they try to roll under their morale score. If there is no morale score (or it's some gibberish I can't parse), it defaults to average of Con + Wis just like players, which is usually going to mean 9 or 10, since that's what most monsters have in their stats by default.

Also note that Fatigue Factor for a monsters is a little different. Player's used half their Con, modified by encumbrance. This wouldn't work for most monsters. Hackmaster had a supplemental book, the Hacklopedia Monster Matrix, which had fatigue factors for every single monster. I might eventually input all those, but for now, they just use 6. That's a tiny bit better than the average player, and eyeballing the values in the Monster Matrix, not bad as an overall average value. Obviously, though, a dragon might have more fatigue than a goblin. I'd like to eventually get something in there for this, but for now, if you really want a monster to be big and tough and not worry about fatigue, just give it a high morale and it'll never fail it's fatigue checks.


I need more testing in my own game, but I'm also considering having spells and ranged attacks given half a point of fatigue instead of no fatigue. Undecided. And I would like to give a means for the DM to manually apply a level of fatigue to someone for things that I can't really automate, like them doing a full run during their turn, trying to lift a heavy grate, etc. The only real way to do that right now is tell them to just smack a melee attack button that you'll ignore (but which will trigger the round-end automation for fatigue).

I haven't had a chance to take a look at this but I ran a game with the extension tonight and when trying to use the THAC0 Button from the main tab of the character sheet as an attack option an error is thrown. I apologize that I don't have a copy of the error but I'm also not 100% sure if its even related to the extension.

Haven’t looked yet but there’s a really high chance that’s my extension. Didn’t even really know that button existed and never used it. My guess is it acts differently than weapon actions and is blowing up because it can’t find weapon info. I should be able to make it behave like there’s no extension when you click it though.

What kids of things do you use that button for?

I use it for any attack that is not something carried by the player. Punching, Throwing a rock, hitting someone with a chair, snatching a dagger from the air with the juggling proficiency, etc...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sterno

I've created an extension for the 2E ruleset that adds the critical hits from Player's Option: Combat & Tactics, adds some additional automation for basic 2E rules (such as to-hit modifiers for weapon type vs armor), and also adds some house rules that are similar to rules seen in Hackmaster. Everything in this mod is toggleable... you can pick and choose which options you wish to use.

UPDATE: This post got too long, so additional features that came in after the original post are listed later in this thread.

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This is absolutely epic, thank you Sterno!