Why would the goblin do such at thing. maybe if the paladin inadvertantly stepped on the Goblins turf and (in the eye of the goblin) poses a serious threat to his wife and kids then things would be clear. But the typical "You are attacked by 5 goblins, you strike and hit, No3 hit for 56 pts" is just numberjuggling. And quite pointless.
If you are too concerned about that make some of the enemies posessed. Or something to do with magic. You can have soulless demons or zombies crawling out of the earth at any time, in any number. Maybe they are even attracted to heroes experience points
. Is a more complex combat system something to think about? Maybe you could expand the usual options of attack, move and inventory a bit. I think it could be quite interesting (at least for me as I know a little about swords and stuff) to have more options. Parry or dodge, your speed/perception level determines how much information you get on the enemy attack. You then can exploit an enemies miss by selecting from a few other options such as swing or stab, maybe selecting a target are, maybe even trying to disarm the enemy. YOu could allow a great variety of actions (increasing with experience - your level 0 peasant would only know one attack move "hit with stick" and one defensive move "jump back", while your paladin could do all sorts of fancy stuff).
For example if you fight someone with a halberd and have only a sword you are bound to have great difficulties until he misses and you can close the distance, putting him at a disadvantage.
Every action you take in combat is followed by a reaction from your opponent, (this is not like the typical fight of fools where the opponents take turns hitting each other until one drops!).
a problem would be that the battles would take very long, but in most rpgs this is the case anyway and if i am to choose between
1)defeat one orc in combat (..and as he charged, his axe over his head i sidestepped and kicked him in the knee, by the time he was up i had my sword to his throat)
2)killed 36 goblins (goblin 1 - hit, goblin 2 - hit.....)
...well.
At least this is the kind of thing i have been looking for.
I know this makes the math extremely complex and nasty to handle but i think it would be worth it.
Another thing about combat: I´d let everyone use every weapon, just put a penalty (speed and fatigue) on them if they don´t have enough strength.
I wouldn´t use attack frequency (average hits per minute are ok if you want it more on the statistical side) but rather speed of attack, as in combat you get action-reaction-type stuff almost always (a second attack could be possible with a fast character against a golem for instance). This would influence the difficulty of parrying or dodging the attack, as well as some strength related factor(and speed) to determine damage.
PS: i´d like to hear more about your project
