Project 39 - Defenses

Project 39 is the nickname I've used for my various attempts to make an Ozzified d20 that falls between 3.5 and 4e. Rather than make a new tag for my a la carte home-brew, I've been using the Project 39 tag, so I might as well call the class-less version by that name.

To the matter on hand, I've been chewing on defenses. I've decided to do away with Armor Class or Defense Bonus (the mechanic used in Modern d20). Star Wars Saga does a similar thing, though their system with armor can get kind of messy. I also have to consider my use of Combat Skills.


Just using Reflex as a defense has some problems. Say Phil Farmer, who has a total of +3 with swords, is fighting Bill Badass, who has +10 with swords. Let's assume their Reflex Defense is the same. Their target numbers are the same. Bill's superior skill doesn't help keep him from getting hit.

What I'm considering is a set of feats that allow the character to use an appropriate skill as defense. This means with that feat and wielding a sword, Bill would have a Defense of 20 (10 base + 10 for swords) against a melee attacker instead of his Reflex Defense. But this doesn't help is Oscar the Ogre decides to lob a cinder block at Bill.

As for calculating the base Reflex, Fortitude and Will Defenses in the absence of class bonuses I came up with a simple idea. Instead of a given Defense being 10 + stat bonus + class bonus + level bonus + feat bonuses it would be Stat plus feat bonus. If you have a Dex of 13 (and no applicable feats) your Reflex Defense would be 13.