And we are back again this time with part 4 of the old Dragon Ball Z conversion from 2003. It definitely hearkens back to a younger time for myself (I'm 36 now in 2015, so I was 24 when I wrote this thing).
Enjoy this classic conversion of mine. Also with D&D 5th edition out I might be convinced to write a new conversion of DBZ for those rules...but only if I see enough comments asking me for it. If I don't see any then I won't put the time into it.
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Section 4: Combat
Combat with
the martial warrior or with Saiyans and Namekkians is pretty much the same as
usual. The only new things are the
addition of Ki powers. Ki powers are
pretty much ray’s of sorts. Rays, like
“Ray of Frost,” or “Ray of Disintegration,” all require roll to hit using the
characters ranged attack bonus. Same
thing goes with energy waves. How ever
there are times when a character may add an energy blast as part of a standard
action. This is done when part of a
combo.
Combos
Characters can only add energy
blasts to melee attacks when performing a combo. As such you use the characters unarmed attack
bonus and not their ranged attack bonus.
With melee attacks the character’s bonuses to hit remain the same. However when a character makes a ranged
attack, the bonus to hit for that attack needs to be recalculated, unless the
characters unarmed attacks make use of the character’s dexterity to hit rather
than strength. If not then just subtract
the character’s strength modifier from the bonus to hit, and then add in the
character’s dexterity bonus to hit. So
if a character has a strength of 14, and a dexterity of 17, and were level 20
as a martial warrior, they would have a BAB of this for their unarmed attacks:
+17/+14/+11/+8/+5. Now the character
does 2 melee attacks, an energy blast and then another melee attack, followed
by another energy blast their BAB for the combo attack would look like this:
+17/+14/+12/+8/+6. This total does not
include the progressive +1 bonus to hit, but with that bonus included though
the BAB for the combo (if all attacks hit) would look like this:
+17/+15/+14/+11/+10.
Powering Up
The act of
powering up is an awesome sight for anyone who has never seen this before. Powering up creates a field of energy around
the character often referred to as an aura.
This aura is rather flame like and is visible to anyone who isn’t blind,
although it is transparent and does not always have color in it, usually. Powering up also has another unusual side
effect, it effects the area around the person as well. (Note though that this is not to the extent
that it is done in the show.) Powering
up will cause light and small things around the character for a number of feet
equal to the characters power level to levitate up into the air. This is enough to levitate small rocks,
insects, cut grass and other loose bits and ends to rise into the air.
This has no
real practical use and is just an after effect of gathering all that energy
together in one place. Additionally in
order to use their ki powers, namely their energy waves and other such fighting
techniques, the martial warrior often must perform some sort of gesture and or
speak a fraise. This helps to focus
their energy properly to create the desired effects. Thus oftenly full round attacks tend to have
specific names and gestures, while attacks that count as a single action
usually don’t.
On the
subject with unarmed fighting things also work the same. Like a monk the martial warrior does not
provoke an attack of opportunity when attacking unarmed. However unlike any other class, the martial warrior
has little to no training in the use of weapons and armor. And unlike monks their unarmed dice damage
does not as increase quickly as their but they are able to eventually do far
more damage than a monk can, additionally they can increase their strength
instantly to levels that no normal being can reach with out an assortment of
magic items and/or spells.
Another
thing is flying while tied up.
Technically when tied up, a character looses their Dexterity bonus to
their AC. Things are a bit different for
a character who can fly, but is still tied up.
While you do loose your Dexterity bonus to your AC, you do not however
loose your speed bonus when flying. Also
a character generally can only power up 5 times in a day, however a character
may power up until they have used all of their energy.
Recovery
Recovering
is still the same when it comes to Hit Points.
Ki is recovered much in the same way how a magic user or psychic
character recovers the use of their abilities.
The character must rest for 8 hours.
After resting for this long the character can use their powers
again. Although the Hearty Appetite feat
can allow a Saiyan or Half Saiyan to Power Up a bit more often than they
normally would. Meditating can also help
to recover ki. A character who meditates
for 1 hour regains a number of ki points equal to their Wisdom score. DM’s take note though. In the official Dragon Ball Z RPG, characters
recover ki at a rate of their power up per hour of rest. So if you have a Power level of 245, and you
have a power up of 49, you would get all of your energy back in about 5
hours. DM’s, you have the choice of
which style of recovery you prefer to use.
The first type is more along the lines of how things generally work in
D&D, the second type is more for how recovery of ki works in the anime.
Power Actions
Components: Unlike spells, Ki powers have no physical
components like the scales of a fish or the eye of a bat. Instead they are purely ki energy (life
energy or spiritual energy which ever you prefer), but some require specific
gestures and phrases or a single action in order to use. Then of course the character has to focus
their energy properly in order to get the desired outcome. These phrases are often done to help the
character to focus their energy properly.
Concentration:
The character needs to concentrate at some level in order to focus their
ki. Sometimes this is easy, other times
it’s hard. Ki powers that require a
standard action are considered instant uses of sorts, and do not need a
concentration check in order to really focus the characters energy to pull
these off. However with larger powers,
namely more personalized powers like the personal energy wave and other attacks
that are full round actions, you do need to make a concentration check. However the check is only needed when
something happens that can cause the character to loose their
concentration. Failing a Concentration
check causes the character to loose their turn, and they do loose some of the
energy they were putting into the attack, only ½ of it. Since the character’s power doesn’t have a
“Spell Level” or anything else along those lines the character substitutes the
number of dice in damage that the attack will do as the DC modifier. So if the energy wave being fired does 9d6
points of damage and the character is being attacked they have to beat a DC of
10 + damage +9.
Power Struggles
These are
contests of will between a person countering the energy blast or spell of an
opponent. In order for there to be a
power struggle, the damage’s of both the attack and counter attack must be with
in 1d of each other. Additionally the
person must decide immediately whether or not to let the attack go (canceling
their energy blast/spell/power) or to fight it.
The attacks hit at about mid way between each other. During this time neither person can do
anything else besides maintaining the energy blast/spell/power. The event becomes something of a contest of
wills. With 2 energy blasts connect you use the rules for continuous fire. As soon as one of the energy blasts damage
total is equal to double the other one at the start of the next round (both the
character and opponent get a chance to pump more energy into the attack). At the start of the next turn if one of the
energy blasts total damage is double that of the other energy blast it, then
that energy blast over rides the other and strikes home. The person does get to make a reflex save,
but the DC for the save increases by 2 for every die of damage in the blast. With spells and certain other powers, the user
of the spell or power must make constant Will checks each round. The person using the energy blast still gets
to just uses the continuous fire rules.
The spell/power user has a DC of 10 +1 for every die of damage in the
other attack. In order to beat the
attack the character’s Will check must beat the DC by at least ½ of the
adjusted amount. So if an energy blast
has 7 dice of damage in it the magic user, psychic or what ever needs to beat a
DC of 17 by at least 7 points, as such they would need to get a total of a 24+
for their roll. Power struggles only
continue until there is a winner or until the person who’s attack was
countered, decides to just let the attack be countered, they do however need to
keep the countering attack from become too powerful and blasting through their
spell/power/energy blast. At the end of
the round they can decide whether to let it be canceled or keep fighting.
AC Vs. Touch Attacks
Unlike most other folks, the
martial warrior, like a monk, is very apt to dealing with touch attacks. They retain their full AC since they do not
wear armor and have their Speed bonus to their AC.
The Mechanics of Transforming
I’ve had
the question asked, how does loosing energy from being transformed effect the
character’s normal power level. Prestige
classes like the Super Saiyan or the Kaioken Attack feat, provide an increase
in the character’s power level. When a character
reverts back to their normal power level, it is reduced by a percentage
proportionate to the amount of energy used while the character was
transformed. So if a character has a
base power level of 450, and they transform into a Super Saiyan, their power
level increases to 563. Now let’s say
that in a fight they end up using 200 points of energy reducing their Super
Saiyan Power level to 363. When they
revert back to normal you would subtract 25% from this new total to get how
much energy the character has left in their normal from, which would be
272. A character’s power level can not
be reduced beyond zero, however when a character reverts back to normal after
expending all of their energy while transformed they must make a Fortitude
save, DC 10 +1 per 20 points of energy that makes up the character’s power
level. If the character fails this
Fortitude save they automatically are rendered unconscious for 1d4 hours, or
until some of their power level can be restored. If they make the save they can continue to
operate, but are fatigued and suffer a -4 to all actions until they can rest
for 8 hours, or regain at least half of their power level.
Part 3 is here! Part 5 is here!
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