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.
Equipped Item Quality
Works the same as weapon size. Each quality is assigned a number, multiply it by character level.
1. Poor 2. Simple 3. Fine 8. Very Fine
Careful readers may note that Very Fine counts for double. It is Very Fine after all, its really nice.
Only held items and chest pieces count in this check, however, they both count. So a warrior carrying a Very Large Very Fine sword and wearing Very Fine armor is going to draw some serious threat. This can also be a problem for mages.
Also note that each item requires a separate calculation, meaning up to 3 items can be considered.(two in hands, one on chest).
Mage Wars PnP Note: In Mage Wars PnP Your characters are encouraged to be creative and take preemptive steps to mitigate threat through roll-play. A player may, for example, opts to drape a piece of sack-cloth over his breastplate to hide that it is Very Fine. That same player may also rip away the cloth as part of a flourish in order to draw attention away from a friend. This is called being smart, and you should recognize this.
Spellcasting
Spellcasting gets a little bit tricky. Mobs will want to attack a mage who is actively casting a slow-cast spell, in order to disrupt the spell.
Stealth
Rogues(and anyone who felt like trading for it) have have the Stealth special proficiency. Stealth is a passive effect that permanently lowers PAV. It can effectively reduce it to zero, which means a mob will never attack unless actively attacked by the rogue.
Stealth is tough as it relies on speed, inteligence, and dexterity. In simplest terms, it is making yourself look small, unimposing, or blend into the background all together. While there are no "stealth checks" there are instances where stealth is ignored.
Stealth Equation: PAV - ((SPD * INTmod) + (DEX * INTmod) * Stealth)
In nearly ever case, this will reduce the stealthy character's PAV down to the lowest and can even reduce it to zero.
Evasion
Characters who have the Evasion special proficiency will have access to the Evasion Tree, which provides a whole slew of rules to mitigate/reduce these things. Rogues especially make use of this as their primary strategy is
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.
How PAV Works
First of all PAV works primarily on field of vision. In most cases, it doesn't matter how high your PAV is if you are behind the mob, they can't see you to attack you. However, this is not true for actions that cause your PAV to dramatically spike. If a character does something that causes their PAV to shoot up drastically, all of the mobs in the combat zoen will take notice, turn, and look at him, and then probably move to attack. Tankety-tank.
Each mob will have a Field of View listed on it(hope you brought your protractor). GMs do not have to be precise, but try not to be too far off base. Blindness, either by mobs that are naturally blind by virtue of having no eyes, or have been blinded by a blindness affects the calculations dramatically. Blind enemies still have the ability to "sense" attack value and attack speed, and will still be drawn to a dramatic spike in PAV, but will otherwise ignore things like weapon size/quality/etc.
PnP Suggestions
Since there's a lot of math in here, the GM is encouraged to take some latitude. Feel free to use approximations or to just punish uppity players. There is no I in Team, but there is a meat, as in your are dead-meat if you don't play as a team.
