The Gaming Den

How many different types of attacks can you keep balanced in one game?

For the sake of argument, use 4 attributes: Physique, Grace, Perception, and Willpower. One roll only targets one stat and only attacks with one stat, but it can be any vs any other. The basic form of an attack is two rolls (hit and soak) relying on different attributes.

So, dragon breath. How would you model it? My base inclination is that it should involve Phys vs. Phys. Would it hit automatically? In that case, how do you balance it against a thrown spear (which requires Perception to hit)? Just make it deal less damage?
Should graceful characters have an opportunity to dodge out of the way?

Similarly "Surrender!". This is a Will-based, Will-targeting attack that you throw at enemies when you want to take them out without continuing the fight. It's effectively an area SoD. You'd deal 'virtual wounds', and if those wounds are enough to knock a target out, the target surrenders. Otherwise the target is fine (but they can still surrender if they really want).
Would it makes sense to have this as a hit roll only which automatically deals one virtual wound? Does that even make sense (it wouldn't work against vastly weaker forces which were uninjured)? Or would it be another auto-hit?
How many different circumstance bonuses would you allow on the defense and attack (I can imagine a lot)?


Am I just conceptualizing these the wrong way? Should I not be using 2 attack rolls ever? Should dragon's breath require a Perception vs. Grace hit roll or something?

That's a lot of questions, but I'm fishing for opinions and logical arguments.

In theory, infinite kinds of attacks; in practice, if said attacks are one-at-a-time (without ToB boost-like combinatorial effects or piles of buffs, I mean), I do believe it'd be still more than you could actually create, if you did it carefully.

Dragon breath: PH vs. GR (easy roll) to hit, PH vs. PH to soak (whether you'll want this one to be easy or hard will depend also on which mitigation you choose for the area effect). Possible mitigations are easy soaking, taking fatigue/damage, recharge time, etc.

"Surrender!": well, having a single-attribute attack in a 2-roll system is a balance concern in itself; if you deal with it successfully, you'll actually have a rather easy time with a 1-roll attack, since the most important part of not using 2 attributes was already solved.

As for how that would be done, it seems that the fact that attacks will target all of your attributes already goes a long way towards making all desirable, even for a character who put all attacks in just one.

How many circumstance modifiers? It heavily depends on what kind of game do you wanna model best, so my only standard-issue answer's "as little as possible".