Friday, April 01, 2011

EPT stats as 3-18 D&D

I thought it might be interesting to be able to do a direct comparison between the stats in Empire of the Petal Throne and D&D.  EPT uses percentile dice for stats but converting that to 3d6 ranges is just a matter of understanding the probabilities involved.  Note that you could quibble a point or two with my 3-18 spreads, since Professor Barker uses nice round numbers that don't map exactly to a 3d6 bell curve.

STRENGTH
3-9 Weak -1 to-hit
10-11 Average -
12-13 Strong +1 to-hit
14-15 Powerful +1 to-hit and damage
16-18 Superb +2 to-hit and damage

I like that each range band comes with a descriptive label.  'Superb' is kind of an odd choice for max Str though.  I would have gone with 'Mighty'.

INTELLIGENCE
3-7 Stupid -1 to-hit and damage, cannot parry, cannot use technological devices, cannot use spells greater than 2nd level
8-9 Dumb -1 damage, cannot use spells greater than 4th level
10-11 Average -
12-13 Smart +1 to-hit, use technological devices and spells easily
14-15 Brilliant +1 to-hit and damage, 40% detect secret doors, use technological devices and spells easily
16-18 Genius +2 to-hit and damage, 60% detect secret doors, 40% detect traps, use technological devices and spells easily

Being smart makes it easier to slay monsters and murder people.  EPT uses three difficulty classes of spells instead of OD&D's six spell levels, so I doubled the listed limits here and under Psychic Ability.

CONSTITUTION
3-7 Weakling -2 on hit dice, 30% revive chance, 40% magic healing failure
8-9 Puny -1 on hit dice, 40% revive chance, 20% magic healing failure
10-11 Average 50% revive chance
12-13 Healthy +1 on hit dice, 60% revive chance
14-15 Very Healthy +1 on hit dice and damage, 70% revive chance
16-18 Robust +2 on hit dice, +1 on damage dice, 90% revive chance, magic healing +1 pip per die

Doing your cardio also makes beating up people easier.  "Revive" refers to magical raise dead type effects.

PSYCHIC ABILITY
3-7 Non-Psychic Cannot use spells or magic
8-9 Barely Psychic Cannot use spells greater than 2nd level
10-11 Average Psychic Cannot use spells greater than 4th level
12-13 Somewhat Psychic +5% spell casting chance
14-15 Quite Psychic +10% spell casting chance
16-18 Highly Psychic +15% spell casting chance

To use the Psychic Ability stat in my own campaign I'd need to convert my overcasting chart to d% or d20.  It's currently a 2d6 chart based upon the spell throw rolls from Chainmail.

DEXTERITY
3-7 All Thumbs -1 to-hit and damage, Natural 1-4 on to-hit roll indicates wrong target (i.e. friendly) struck
8-9 Clumsy -1 to-hit, Natural 1 or 2 on to-hit roll indicates wrong target struck
10-11 Average Natural 1 on to-hit roll indicates wrong target struck
12-13 Clever +1 to-hit
14-15 Dexterous +1 to-hit and damage
16-18 Agile +2 to-hit and +1 damage

NB In combat characters of Dex 11 or less would need to roll d20 for wrong target possibility even when casting a spell that does not normally require a to-hit roll.

COMELINESS
3-6 Hideous May frighten others
7-8 Ugly Repugnant but not frightening
9-10 Average -
11-14 Good Looking Attractive to some degree
15-16 Very Handsome/Beautiful Turns heads on the street, frequent subject of marriage proposals and other propositions
17-18 Wildly Handsome/Beautiful May be subject to kidnapping attempts, blackmail, cash offers, etc

The 11-14 range for Comeliness squishes together three categories on the original chart that have no mechanical differences.

6 comments:

  1. Nice. While I think that there is nothing wrong with original EPT, I deal with a bunch of people who just prefer OD&D. This might help get them into Tekumel.

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  2. I've been considering doing this exact same thing. Nice work.

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  3. I had considered it too, then I stopped considering it and got lazy.

    So thanks for actually doing it.

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  4. Anonymous3:52 PM

    I'm with School Master on this, so thanks Jeff, great stuff.

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  5. You know, I’ve always liked the EPT let’s several stats contribute toward combat (Dragon Warriors also did this). But I never quite noticed that if you “luck out” on rolls, you could have a 1st level guy with +6 to hit and damage.

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  6. I forgot how the attributes in EPT are a clusterfuck of benies to hit and damage, regardless of logic. I was disappointed to see how Comeliness don't have adjustments to being attacked by other intelligent beings, on the grounds of "Die, you ugly beast!" vs "You're too beauty to die."

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