I have been siting on this problem aswell.
But, Its lower down on my list of the many things I keep asking Richard to Add/Fix/Change/etc. I dont want to send him a huge list of things at once, so just bit by bit I release it on him. HAHAHAHAHA evil laugh....
But now that you have brought it up. Perhaps a discussion on this is required.
Perhaps a Selection Box for natural attack types on the monster editor and then one set of the stats 'Attack Dice', 'Nbr Attack Dice', and 'Attack Bonus'.
If the monster dosent get a certain attack type, the values are all set to zero.
We may need a 'Nbr Attacks' option as well for the case of 2 claw attacks etc.
Many creatures get natural attacks and also the option to use weapons.
If we use the Monster editor to record the natural attacks and their type. eg claw/bite/etc. and then just add weapons to the monsters inventory if we want them to use them.
The question would then, I believe, become how often can the weapon be used each round by the monster. I think the engine would have to have a list of natural attack types 'claw' is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, that can be replaced by the weapon attack.
So, in the case of a Troll:
Attacks -
2 x 'Claw' 1d4+3 Dam
1 x 'Bite' 1d8+4 Dam
If you gave him a Halbard it would become
2 x 'Weapon' 1d10+3
1 x 'Bite' 1d8+4
In the case above you will notice that the troll with his claw attack gets a +3 to damage from there strength when attacking with claws, monsters dont get weaker when they pick up a weapon so this bonus should carry over. It would apply when they used a weapon from their inventory.
what do you think? this seems to me to be the best way to do it.
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The Cauldron -
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