group position in battle

[gulca]

A group always consist of 2 lines, front and back.

If a group is 1 person, that person is always in the front line. And you will always need at least 1 person at the front line.

If a group has more than 1, then default assignment are casters at the back and tanks in front. In the situation where there are only 2 castors, the group leader will be in the front line. You can switch anytime outside battle. 

Here are the new rules during combat between the 2 group.

1. Melee always go through the front line first with the exception of pole arm, bows, whips.
2. Back line cannot melee except with the said weapons.

Castors
1. There is a high chance of aggro spell disruption if you get hit on that round. You get 50% chance of retaining the failed spell.
2. Non aggro spell will have minimal chance of disruption, and you always retain the failed spell.

Thieves
1. They can flank back line targets if they are out of combat. However once they are in combat, their melee is redirected to the front line.

What does all these means?
1. It means that to successfully kill the other group, you will have to waste the front line before you can get the back line.
2. The back line will be buffing the front-line and in the case of mages, they will be fragging the other group. And they are at the mercy of long range/spells or thieves.
3. Battles will be slower, because healers are always at the back and they fall only after the tanks fall.
4. Mage bombs will be non-existent cos they will always be distrupted in melee because they are at the front line. 
 

[snax]

neat thought, perhaps miscs would also hit either row
but aside from that, I could see soloing being a bitch to all the sudden have a 50% chance of disrupting any spell casted either as a) a buff caster or b) a soloer

[Boots]

I like the ideas, in theory. Could you post a supposed 5v5 fight?

Wouldn't this make pole arms bows and whips(misc) the most valuable weapons?
I could see all groups using only these weapons and still targetting the healer.

I suppose it would make more sense (though less realistic) to have NO weapons hit the backrow for long, or give the guard skill automagically to the first row. If an odd number of people,there must always be more in the front row. so 2front 1 back in a 3 man group is the only combination...

[btown]

I also like this idea from the OP

[gulca]

The origin of the idea comes from the typical setup of a D&D adventure.

Mages and casters in general *are* supposed to be weak in melee. They don't just rush into the front line of any battle.

The dumb strong tanks are the ones that protect these weak spell casters from the point end of daggers and swords.

So adventurers head out in groups, main buff tanks cover the front, and caster classes at the back for support.

In cases where you have no real tanks (solo caster or a group of casters), you just don't go to dungeons unless you hire some grunts from the local bar.

Now explaining the idea of spell disruptions.
- Casters are most dangerous (even in dragonlance series) when they manage to get the spells off. However, it is very taxing to their mind and concentration. You just don't cast a spell like you do spitting out a gum when you have darts/arrows/blades coming to your head every single round. You'll be lucky if you don't get the spell wrong and have them targeted back to your own group.

As to what weapons can go hurt what lines. Since we have max of 4 lines (min of 2 lines) in any battle, we have the following definition

0. Short range melee: This is default weapon, and can only hurt adjacent line, ie front line to opposing front line.

1. Pole arms, whips (Long range melee): This can cross 1 line. Ex, back line ppl can reach opposing front line target. Front line can reach opposing back line. Not every classes have pole arm skills. This limits or makes some particular classes more useful. Because of the long reach, it will have -hr on short melee (ie front line vs front line).

2. Bows and crossbows: This can cross 2 lines. Ex, back line archers can aim at opposing back lines. We can still disallow bows for short melee or just put some -hr on adjacent line. So an archer can shoot (without penalty) the enemies both front and back line if they are at the back line. They can only shoot the back line (again without penalty) if they are on the front line.

3. Long range spells (like magic missile, ice storms) can be cast on any target (ie it crosses 2 lines). Chance of disruption kicks in every round if they are hurt by spells/melee/long range.

4. Short range spell can only touch adjacent lines. This include buff spells, or spells like harm/shocking grasp where touching is involved. Can only be used when casters are on the front line.

Changes in "kill" command.
1. Kill "any opposing member": Melee attempts on targets that you cannot reach will result in random targets on the opposing team that you can reach.