The Adventurers' Guild

I'm currently developing a game that takes some inspiration from BT. It'll look and feel quite different, but the underlying mechanics will share a lot from BT and the list of monsters/items from BT is heavily influencing mine.

To that end, I'm trying to understand the mechanics of combat in term's of dice rolls and how stats play a part. Is it just using the D&D system, or is something else going on here?

I managed to find this guide, which tells me quite a lot, but I need more detail.

daddyjones wrote:I'm currently developing a game that takes some inspiration from BT. It'll look and feel quite different, but the underlying mechanics will share a lot from BT and the list of monsters/items from BT is heavily influencing mine.

To that end, I'm trying to understand the mechanics of combat in term's of dice rolls and how stats play a part. Is it just using the D&D system, or is something else going on here?

I managed to find this guide, which tells me quite a lot, but I need more detail.

To-hit is based on the character's AC. The strength stat provides a bonus. In BT3 a random 2d8 roll is added that isn't in BT1.

Damage is based on the weapon's damage dice. Unarmed combat by a monk has a separate dice table.

You came to the right place. Drifting is the expert, and could answer most actual specific direct questions. For more specifics, read some of the posts in this particular forum. Specifically the one titled msdos disassembly, and the one titled Item & Moster Specs. If there are things you don't understand then, come back here and ask.

Thanks for the replies.

I shall do as suggested and look at those other posts and return if I have questions!

Thanks again.

Wow - those threads were gold!

Still have a couple of questions, though:

1) Does strength provide a bonus to "to-hit" or to damage? I thought I read somewhere about Str-17 being added to damage.

2) Given that the AC determines "to-hit" (counter-intuitive!) and that (in BT1) the lower the AC the better, is it simply a case of whichever character (the player or the monster(s) in question) has the lowest AC "wins" - i.e. if a player is attacking a monster and has a lower AC than the monster they'll always hit? That seems unlikely - is there not some sort of dice roll involved?

3) how are the number of hits determined? A higher level monk, for example, often hits two or more times in one turn, is this simply attached to level, or is there a dice roll in that as well?

daddyjones wrote:Wow - those threads were gold!

Still have a couple of questions, though:

1) Does strength provide a bonus to "to-hit" or to damage? I thought I read somewhere about Str-17 being added to damage.

Strength just provides a bonus to "to-hit".

daddyjones wrote: 2) Given that the AC determines "to-hit" (counter-intuitive!) and that (in BT1) the lower the AC the better, is it simply a case of whichever character (the player or the monster(s) in question) has the lowest AC "wins" - i.e. if a player is attacking a monster and has a lower AC than the monster they'll always hit? That seems unlikely - is there not some sort of dice roll involved?

In BT1 there is no dice roll in "to-hit". Lowest AC (with bonuses applied) wins.

daddyjones wrote: 3) how are the number of hits determined? A higher level monk, for example, often hits two or more times in one turn, is this simply attached to level, or is there a dice roll in that as well?

Some classes get an extra attack every 4 levels with a max of 8.

Thanks - that's very helpful.

drifting wrote:

daddyjones wrote:Wow - those threads were gold!

Still have a couple of questions, though:

1) Does strength provide a bonus to "to-hit" or to damage? I thought I read somewhere about Str-17 being added to damage.

Strength just provides a bonus to "to-hit".

Could you re-check this one? In my experience, strength just provides bonus damage. Specifically, at strength 16 it adds 1 to each attack, at strength 17 it adds 2, and at 18, it adds 3 damage to each attack.

Maven wrote:

drifting wrote:

daddyjones wrote:Wow - those threads were gold!

Still have a couple of questions, though:

1) Does strength provide a bonus to "to-hit" or to damage? I thought I read somewhere about Str-17 being added to damage.

Strength just provides a bonus to "to-hit".

Could you re-check this one? In my experience, strength just provides bonus damage. Specifically, at strength 16 it adds 1 to each attack, at strength 17 it adds 2, and at 18, it adds 3 damage to each attack.

You're right. I was looking at BT3, not BT1.

drifting wrote:

daddyjones wrote:Wow - those threads were gold!

Still have a couple of questions, though:

1) Does strength provide a bonus to "to-hit" or to damage? I thought I read somewhere about Str-17 being added to damage.

Strength just provides a bonus to "to-hit".

daddyjones wrote: 2) Given that the AC determines "to-hit" (counter-intuitive!) and that (in BT1) the lower the AC the better, is it simply a case of whichever character (the player or the monster(s) in question) has the lowest AC "wins" - i.e. if a player is attacking a monster and has a lower AC than the monster they'll always hit? That seems unlikely - is there not some sort of dice roll involved?

In BT1 there is no dice roll in "to-hit". Lowest AC (with bonuses applied) wins.

daddyjones wrote: 3) how are the number of hits determined? A higher level monk, for example, often hits two or more times in one turn, is this simply attached to level, or is there a dice roll in that as well?

Some classes get an extra attack every 4 levels with a max of 8.

Also, it's worth mentioning that the "no hit roll" applies to the PCs. Monster attacks did get a roll (a d12) with the formula (IF Monster AC - d12 < PC AC, the Monster hits). Which is why Monsters could sometimes hit/miss the same character, but PCs that could hit a particular monster would ALWAYS hit that monster, and if it WAS a hit, would always hit with ALL attacks - assuming the class got multiple attacks.