I don't know if this should go in actual play or in first thoughts since I have already playtested the current system but am having some second thoughts on how the game is built. Moderators, please feel free to move this if it is in the wrong forum though since I'm looking at new mechanics I thought it fit better here.

Basically, as some of you have read, I am working on the combat system of a game that utilizes cards and dice for combat. My questions are at the end if you want to skip past the mumbo jumbo background stuff.

The main idea of cards and dice are here to stay, we've found that to be the best mechanic for this game (you can see playtesting reports here.

What's come into question is how character combat styles are constructed.

Previously, I was using a point-buy system for the combat maneuvers (called techniques previously). This got to be pretty tedious and felt a bit unnattached from the system. Each player received 12 points for attacks and 12 points for defenses. I wanted to add special effects like different damage types, disadvantages, and other bits of modification to make some techniques affordable. Combat Styles are a collection of 10 maneuvers (weapons and armor are considered maneuvers for this game). A character must have 3 attack maneuvers and 3 defense maneuvers.

The problem is that the combat maneuvers became tailored to the character for whom they were designed. That isn't a bad thing it was just cumbersome to build and it took quite a long time to figure out the combat maneuver, what it could do, and so on.

I've started to think that it might be a good idea to re-design the build system from the ground up to be a bit more generic and allow for the same "generic" maneuvers to be available to characters who meet certain attribute requirements, such as 3 strength and 2 magic or 8 strength and 1 speed.

My questions:
Would you like points based on your attributes (Strength, Mind, Spirit, Magic, and Speed) which you could use to spend on combat maneuvers (the same amount of points for both attacks and defenses)?

For example: You have the following attributes: Strength 4, Mind 5, Spirit 4, Magic2, Speed 6. This would mean that you have a generic amount of 21 points for attacks and 21 points for defenses. Each time you "purchase" a maneuver, the points decrease, giving you less for the next maneuver, and so on. So in this scenario you buy a "light punch" (as you would find in a Street Fighter game) for 2 Strength points. You now have 2 Strength remaining and the remainder of your available points are untouched. Your next purchase is a "Light Dragon Uppercut" which requires 2 Strength, 1 Mind, and 3 Speed. You no longer have any Strength to spend, you have 4 Mind, and 3 Speed remaining. The actual attributes are untouched, the purchase points are just generated from those.

With this system, you cannot buy a maneuver that has a higher requirement than you have points, 21 points to be exact.

Would you instead like a set amount of attacks and defenses and be able to purchase just about anything within that range?

The general premise here is that your stats tell you the maximum number of combat maneuvers you may choose from but there are some limitations to keep the balance.

The system goes like this: Using the same scores above (4, 5, 4, 2, 6) you would be able to select 1 strength-based maneuver with a maximum cost of 4 then you would be able to select another with a cost of 2 and one final one at a cost of 1. The same goes with the other attributes except speed (6 in this case). You can choose 1 at your maximum attribute, another at 1/2 that score (rounded down), another at 1/2 THAT score, etc. until you reach 0. This would allow us these combat maneuver numbers:
Strength: 4, 2, 1
Mind: 5, 2, 1
Spirit: 4, 2, 1
Magic: 2, 1

These numbers are good for BOTH attack AND defense. I.e. with strength, you can have an attack at 4 and a defense at 4 then another for both at 2, then one last one at 1. For a total of 6 maneuvers, 3 attacks and 3 defenses.

Speed is used as "wild card" points and may help to purchase maneuvers that are a bit more expensive. So if you had an attack you wanted your character to have and it cost 6 strength, you could use 2 of your speed points in order to afford it. Speed works this way for both attacks and defenses only the score is not duplicated. There are 6 points total for either attacks or defense.

The maneuvers would still have requirements on them so if you had an attack that required 4 strength and 3 speed, your stats cover that. This would mean that you'd only have 3 speed to spread around as wild card points, however.

With this system, you can buy maneuvers that have requirements above your attribute scores.

Granted the second method is slightly more confusing, I think it's a valid look at a different way to purchase maneuvers. I'm leaning slightly to the first since all characters' are built with 21 points, this gives quite a bit of choice. This is quite a bit more than the current 12-point system which gives more choice.

What do you think? Do you have other suggestions?