Combat

I'm eliminating Attacks of Opportunity and many feats. I'm trying to make feats simple bonuses and modifiers to the character. In place of that, I'm making maneuvers available to anyone who meets the requirements. Many times these requirements are a critical hit (succeeding by 10+) and sometimes may include such things as the type of weapon, the amount of damage done (usually wound damage), and maybe any combat styles they know (feats). Some existing feats need to be modified while others will be removed altogether.

The end goal is to provide a general framework for a character to develop (taking feats that would represent a specific style of training - like the different sword styles in Swashingbuckling Adventures/7th Sea).

You can break down the styles and grant benefits from there, maybe even as prestige classes. The base soldier class would represent general weapon training, while a prestige class would open up specific types of training - ways to fight. There are inherent advantages and disadvantages to each.

Goals:

• Dramatic. Eliminate the need for miniatures. They can be used, but should only be a point of reference, not a tactical mandate. One way is to eliminate Attacks of Opportunity. Another way to make combat more narrative is by changing the structure from Maneuver -> Success/Fail to Success/Fail -> Maneuver. Meaning the degree of success on a combat check opens up available maneuvers instead of attempting a maneuver and outright succeeding or failing.
• Efficient. Make combat quicker by eliminating die rolls and having most variables pre-calculated.
• Dangerous but fair. Combat should be inherently a dangerous activity, not approached lightly by anything. It should be gritty and lethal with enough leeway to allow characters to be seriously threatened without crippling the party. Characters should always be in danger, but it should not be life-threatening unless the player wishes it to be. One mechanic I found for this was use of action points. A character may gain action points by putting his character in mortal danger. In other words, if a player decides to make a "stand" against opponents, he will get bonuses by essentially opening himself up for character death. This is not to say that characters cannot be seriously wounded and left for dead, but the story won't dictate that they die at that time.