How do you feel About Ker Nethalas' damage rules?
Hello, everyone! Today I'm coming to you with a simple but important question: What do you think about how damage works in Ker Nethalas (and Carnage & Aether)? I'm talking about the fact that you must compare the rolled dice to the Damage Dealt table, which implies an extra step when compared to what most are used to. I had my reasons when I chose this particular way of doing it, and I still think they are very valid: it avoids swinginess and allows me to better balance encounters. But I know many people find it confusing or annoying, so moving forward with the game, I'm looking to see if it's something I should re-evaluate. Most of you know that I have a planned expansion that will see you journeying through the depths of Iskandria, deeper still than Ker Nethalas. This will imply a jump in difficulty, and I was wondering if it would be maybe a good moment to introduce more traditional ways of dealing damage.
So what do you think, do you like how damage is handled in Ker Nethalas, or would you prefer something else? Keep in mind that this is just a theoretical question, and that I am not going to change how it works in the core game, this is just me exploring ideas for the future.
Comments (17)
I love the damage table, it has also been used and referenced by authors of solo modules for other ttrpgs. Only thing i feel less positive about the damage rolls, is that spell damage is a bit unrealible and even weak in early game, its very easy to roll weak hits and deplete your resource pool since your aether pool will be relatively low when you start.
Thanks, this feedback is really useful to me!
I’m not crazy about it but it is very different. I’d like to see what you come up with though.
I don't want to deviate too much from this core mechanic in the core books, but I'll see if I try new things for future supplements.
I love it! Pretty sure when I first read that part of the book I told my partner "this is pretty clever" they didn't care but I sure do
Thank you!
"it avoids swinginess.." this.
I don't mind the combat rules. Sure at first they were a bit confusing. Mainly working out what was magic based, and what was physical. When determining armour mitigation. But they are pretty easy to wrap your head around after using them a few times. Sidenote: I feel like the damage dealt table should prevent power creep, with any additions down the road. Meaning all the masteries remain relevant, no matter how many we get. Should also mean encounters always remain a challenge, which is what you want from a game....well it's what I want from a game. 😁
yep.
At first I didn’t like it, but have grown to really appreciate it. This gets crunchy when you get into +1s and I have friends who were initially turned off by it. But if people understand the “why”, it makes it easier to adapt. One change could be that monster damage is fired and only the PC rolls on the table…
Thank you for your valuable feedback!
My only issue with it is that I could never remember the table and always had to look it up. In parts that is because it doesn't follow an easy to remember scheme. 1 is 0, then 2,3,4 is 1, 5,6,7 is 2 and then only 8 and 9 are 3, and 10 is already 4. So maybe if it would be something like halved rounded down, 4max (1 is 0, 2-3 is 1, 4-5 is 2 until 8+ is 4) that would be easy to remember. But of course also change the math...
Yeah I considered making it easier to remember in a few ways, but then while playtesting everyone seemed to be able to learn it pretty quickly after a few fights so I didn't think it was an issue. I made it short, trying to help with that.
I don’t mind the “extra step” in the current method. In fact, I prefer this approach to damage scaling and use it in other solo games when I can. Thank you for open this up for discussion!
Thanks for your feedback!
Allows for changes to damage or types of damage without changing the rules. Future-proofs it
Yeah, like I said, makes the game easier to scale and predict!