A remake of the classic Wizardry video games

Copyright Eric Pietrocupo


E-Mail: ericp@lariennalibrary.com


Wizardry Legacy

WL Adventures

Common Rolls

Filed in: GameBook.GBrolls · Modified on : August 20, 2021, at 05:26 PM - Visits 1827

I'll start explaining the rolls because they are the core of the rules and everything else refers to these rolls. There are 2 broad type of rolls the one that uses D20, and the ones that uses any other dices. There is a effort to normalise all die rolls as D20 for consistency.

D20 Rolls

Almost everything else is managed by D20 rolls, they are normally used to handle success or failure. There are 2 types of d20 rolls, those used as contested rolls and those used to roll against a Target Number(TN). In a contested roll, each side roll 1D20 plus modifiers, the opponent with the highest value wins. When rolling against a target, you need to roll 1D20 under a target number(TN) to succeed.

Some D20 rolls have some special success and failure depending on the natural number on the face of the die. This is will normally give automatic success or failure. The number can change according to roll and character skills.

Attribute rolls and Saving throws

You roll 1D20 and try to roll lower equal than the attribute to tests. This is a general purpose rolls that can be used in many different situation. Saving throws use the same mechanics. Any save you will make will be done against a specific attribute:

Ex: You want to check if your character get poisoned, roll 1D20 lower equal than your Vitality score to avoid getting poisoned.

Rolling natural 20 is an automatic failure, rolling a natural 1 is an automatic success.

Attack roll

This is roll is used to determine if you hit your target or not. It is applied to both physical and magical attacks. The attribute used to make the roll will change according to the weapon or spell used. Physical attacks will use "Dodge" as defense value, while magickal attacks will use "Deflect" as defense value.

The attacker roll 1D20 + the attribute used for attacking(defined by the weapon). The Target Number to roll against is 10 + the defender's defense value (dodge or deflect).

Ex: A fighter attacking with a sword must roll 1d20 + it's agility score of 16. While the target number to roll against is 10 plus 8 dodge given by the defender's equipment.

Various active effects can give modifiers to both the attacker or the defender.

A natural 19-20 will trigger an automatic hit, while a natural 1-2 will trigger an automatic failure.

Armor roll

If the previous attack roll is successful, the player proceeds to the armor roll. It is made by the attacker to know if the armor absorbed the damage. It will modify the following damage roll.

The attacker rolls 1D20 + the attribute used for the armor roll (defined by the weapon) The target number to roll against is the defender's armor rating. There is also an autohit and failure on natural 19-20 and 1-2. The outcome can have various results according to how well the roll was succeeded:

RollOutcomeWound
Autofail/Failed by > 101 Damage per damage dieNone
FailDamage 1/2None
SuccessRegular damage1 damage
Autosuccess / Success by > 10Double damage1 Damage per die in damage roll

There is also the notion of wounds that are persistent damage after the adventure is over. Requiring further healing or rest. Armor roll will change the outcome and only affect player characters.

Other rolls

Damage roll

The attacker with a successful attack roll will perform a damage roll. The result will be modified by the outcome of the armor roll.

The player will roll XdY+Z where X is determined by the proficiency of the character and Y and Z will be determined by the weapon. Most 2 handed weapons have a Z modifier, not all weapons does. The Z modifier is applied to each roll.

Ex: A fighter wielding a Greatsword (D8+4) have skills allowing hom to roll 3 dice. So the player rolls 3D8+12. The sum for the roll is 24, but the previous armor roll was failed, so the damage is reduced by half, which means 12.


Design Notes

  • There has been a massive streamlining of the game mechanics to make the system accessible and understandable by the player. I want to avoid the black box syndrome. So most rolls will simply be D20.
  • In decided to use 2 number for natural success and failure to give a flat 10% chance to hit or miss to anybody including monsters. That prevents impossible ranges. There could be skills that increase or reduce those natural numbers. The minimum is 1 number 5% change of auto-hit/fail.
  • TO THINK: Maybe having a base value of 10 for deflection might be too much for spells since you pay for it. Even if little equipment boost deflection. Could remove autohit/fail range for spells. Not sure it would really help. Or increase autohit and remove auto fail. Still, it's a bit weird that some spells, like status effect, would require 2 check, a deflection roll and a save.

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