MRPG Threat
Threat determines which mobs attach which players. The player generating the most threat within a mob's Field of Vision will be the target of attacks. Whenever the mob is hit for damage, it will attempt to turn towards the source, if its struck again it will turn back.
Threat is determined by Perceived AV, which is Variable AV subject to a series of modifiers(number and size of equipped items, quality of equipped items, etc).
Contents
Threat Determination
Different mobs evaluate threat in different ways. These tables and equations are a sort of guidline and will be used in the final video game, in pen and paper the GM is encouraged to take some latitude.
Threat is determined based on five key areas:
- Attack Value - in simplest terms, the player with the highest attack value generates the most threat.
- Attack Speed - players who attack faster also gain notice
- Weapon Size - big weapons = uh-oh!
- Equipped Item Quality - shiny objects clearly draw attention.
- Spellcasting - just so the mages don't get left out. Players who are actively casting slow-cast spells as well as those throwing a lot of fast-casts.
How Threat is Calculated
Each area has a score associated with it, add up the scores and you get Perceived Attack Value or PAV. Whomever has the highest PAV gets attacked first, and so on, in that fashion. Different mobs may ignore certain factors, for example: blind enemies can't see how big your weapon is or how shiny your gear is.
Attack Value
This one varies a bit during combat. At the start of battle, PAV uses the characters highest POSSIBLE attack value(the bigger number from the attack range). After the first round of attacks has been rolled, it uses the highest rolled attack. Characters who did not roll an attack in this round revert to using their lowest AV.
Attack Speed
Attack Speed can cause some serious threat generation. Basically, for every time a character attacks during a single round, their base AV is added to threat. This does not count for the first attack, but counts double for the second.
Example: A character has a base AV of 100, first attack PAV is unchanged, second attack, it is increased by 200, third attack another 100 is added, and so on.
Now, this can be used in one of two ways. Rangers and rogues may want to avoid drawing extra attention to themselves, so multiple attacks might need to be avoided. On the otherhand, a character who is acting as the party's 'tank' could make multiple innefficient attacks just to drastically increase their PAV.
Weapon Size
Size does matter, but not much. Each size rating is assigned a value:
- Small
- Medium
- Large
- Very Large
- Immense
Multiply this by character level, add that to PAV.
Weapon Quality
Works the same as weapon size. Each quality is assigned a number, multiply it by character level.
- Poor
- Simple
- Fine
8. Very Fine
Level Gap
If there is a significant level gap between players in a party of say more than 4 levels, in some dungeons this will cause all of the mobs to automatically attack the lower-leveled players.
Notes
Somehow use whatver is equiped in your hands for this calculation.
Also, maybe some mob-types see casters as bigger threats? use the spellbook to determine this.
