Homebrew Mechanic: Bumpercar Combat
I'm going to keep most of my reasoning behind developing this system below the cut but I think we can all agree that D&D's combat can be painfully static. I love fight scenes but after going down a combined stage combat/ videogame boss design rabbit hole I've realized that one of the primary elements is missing from D&D's combat system, namely: Movement
From a mechanical perspective, D&D combat needs movement to break up the monotony of non-spellcater characters throwing punches at eachother until one of them drops, to introduce increased risk and randomness without damage-spike abilities.
From a narrative perspective, D&D combat needs movement to introduce tension and to help put character into day to day fighting beyond just flavor text. Likewise, fights that give different opportunities for movement will feel different from one another, making them stand out in the party's mind.
So without further ado I present my fun new system, which will have your party and their enemies bouncing around the battlefield like a demolition derby:
Press the attack: If you attack a creature and your initial attack roll is higher than their constitution score, you can force them to shift 5 ft into any of the tree squares opposite from your position. You then move to occupy the space they did. Â
Back to a Wall: Â Walls and other substantial barriers grant attackers the benefits of flanking as if they were a threatening creature.Â
Give Ground: If you are attacked in melee and the initial roll is lower than your dexterity score you may shift into any adjacent square, forcing the opponent to move into the space you previously occupied. If you are attacked at a range, you may still shift, but the attacker loses any cover bonuses they might have till the start of their next turn rather than moving.Â
Tripping Hazard: If you force an opponent into a square that could be considered rough terrain ( such as if it was occupied by a chair, or down a slippery slope) the target drops prone.Â
First and foremost I'm saving this for my own use; this is a good concept and I want to think about it for my own D&D-like. Ranged attacks have the same fundamental advantage in games which care about spatial positioning that they do in real life, e.g. making kiting a valid strategy, but melee is pretty core to the fantasy of the sword-and-sorcery genre and I've been wanting a solid niche for it since I read the article I just linked.
That said, I also have some nitpicks about this specific execution:
*In 5E, Dexterity already has a lot more functions than the other five abilitystats, especially its direct competitor, Strength. Given that you specifically highlighted non-Rogue melee as an area of concern, it seems a little weird to dedicate so much of this system to DEX mains.
*By making this depend on unmodified rolls, Press Attack is going to become somewhere between useless and a weird rider on crits toward the endgame, and Give Ground is... not going to render you invincible like I thought, because it doesn't actually prevent you from taking damage, but is still going to trigger literally every attack for DEX-maining characters after Level 8 or so. I feel like there's a better way to do this. Maybe literally just make Give Ground a reaction, and the attacker chooses to follow or miss? And Press Attack as an option on every successful melee attack (against a creature you can shove?).
*This one's more an example of technical writing being hard, but I thought it was fun and hope you do too: by RAW, throwing a knife can let you push an enemy and then teleport to their space like a Naruto character. I want that to actually be allowed with a feat or something; it's cool.
Thanks for the critique! Always glad to see someone engaging with the systems I've brewed.
After playing around with the system summore I've just made it that shifting Is just something that happens when an attack beats (press the attack)/fails to beat (give ground) someone's AC by 5 or more. It saves me from having to keep more numbers on hand and is easier to explain to new-er players.
The knife teleport trick IS funny and if I'm not mistaken is already an ability in both daggerheart and the MCDMRPG.. great minds?
