Ok, new idea to test.
Forget fatigue above. Each character is going to have an Energy Budget, a single number equal to the sum of all his/her attributes. (So players can invest experience in raising their attributes, which will increase their overall endurance and help stave off fatigue.) As actions are performed, points are taken away from this Budget (or added to the Budget, if you eat, sleep, meditate, etc. to recuperate energy).
To perform an action, two d10s are rolled against the Energy Budget. If the dice roll is higher than the Budget, it's a failure due to fatigue. Note that this gives everyone a decent number of "free" actions -- two d10s can hit a maximum of 20, while the initial value for the sum of attributes before racial modifiers is 35.
In practical terms, this means the fighters here will have a certain number of swings where fatigue won't even be an issue. In most runs, Vor should be strong enough to finish off Oduro before fatigue even begins to hinder him -- which is as it should be. A more experienced Oduro, however, would in theory be able to take advantage of the fact that Vor's energy budget is going to dip into die roll territory faster, drawing the battle out long enough to give him a chance. Sort of like Ali pulling the "rope-a-dope" trick on Foreman. In theory, this also manages to express the fact that a high level Oduro
can
defeat Vor -- but certainly not by overpowering him with physical power.
Running this idea:
Oduro has leather armour (-1 damage), a buckler (+1 defense), and a sword (+1 fatigue).
Vor has full plate mail (-5 damage, -2 CRD, +2 fatigue), no shield, and two spears (-1 each attack, +1 fatigue).
Initiative Check:
Oduro: 5+2+7 = 14
Vor: 3+4+2 = 9
Oduro goes first.
Round 1:
Oduro attack:
Oduro: 2+6+8 = 16
Energy Budget: 37-2-1 = 34, roll irrelevant
Vor: 4+7-2+4 = 13
Oduro hits. (And the CRD change makes this fight a lot more reasonable, as Vor's no longer unhittable!) Damage = 1.5*3 - 5 = -0.5 --> 0. Hm.
Vor attack 1:
Vor: 9+4-1+1 = 13
Energy Budget: 35-2-2-1 = 30, roll irrelevant
Oduro: 2+6+1+9 = 18
Blocked.
Vor attack 2:
Vor: 9+4-1+7 = 19
Energy Budget: 30-2 = 28, roll irrelevant
Oduro: 2+6+1+4 = 13
Hit. Damage = 1.5*9 - 1 = 12.5 --> 13. Oduro's HP = 27-13 = 14.
Round 2:
Oduro attack:
Oduro: 2+6+1 = 9
Energy Budget: 34-2 = 32, roll irrelevant
Vor: 4+7-2+2 = 11
Oduro blocked.
Vor attack 1:
Vor: 9+4-1+4 = 16
Energy Budget: 28-2 = 26, roll irrelevant
Oduro: 2+6+1+1 = 10
Vor hits. Damage = 13. Oduro's HP = 14-13 = 1
Vor attack 2:
Vor: 9+4-1+6 = 18
Energy Budget: 26-2 = 24, roll irrelevant
Oduro: 2+6+1+9 = 18
Blocked. But by now we're looking at one virtually dead elf.
Round 3:
Oduro attack:
Oduro: 2+6+4 = 12
Energy Budget: 32-2 = 30, roll irrelevant
Vor: 4+7-2+6 = 15
Blocked.
Vor attack 1:
Vor: 9+4-1+6 = 18
Energy Budget: 24-2 = 22, roll irrelevant
Oduro: 2+6+1+2 = 11
Hit. Death.
