The Mech Battle is in some ways the simplest vehicle combat method to reproduce with the D&D 4th Edition rules. For the most part, mechs use the same mode of transportation that Player Characters do – their feet. Even if your mech model has four legs instead of two, or even wheels, it still travels along the ground at movement rates equivalent to that of regular combat.
What then is required to run a Mech Battle? The difference is largely in fluff. The quickest conversion method is to scale up everything your players can do on their own, perhaps with some variance in the range and damage of their mechs’ weapons. This method accurately reflects the Guymelef-style system used in Escaflowne or Avatar, where pilot actions are translated directly into mech actions.
If instead you’d like to emulate the combat styles used in Gundam Wing or Exosquad, where the abilities of the mech are inherent to the vehicle and not the pilot, then the simple way is to hand-pick a mech’s powers as if it were a player character itself, with special focus on ranged powers. Don’t let yourself be restricted by the class templates presented in the Player’s Handbook. While a mech will be most effective if you choose all of its powers from classes with the same role, drawing from two or more classes may give you a better selection of ranged powers. Be sure to re-fluff the powers and present them in one package to your players. Also make sure that your players choose classes and feats which will help them in both personal and vehicle combat. You may give each mech a few special abilities, but try not to go overboard.
When building enemy mechs for your players to fight, it is perfectly acceptable to use the re-fluffed stats of creatures from the Monster Manual. Be sure that your fluff includes a new name – one that your players can easily recognize. You can even re-use a name later on to reflect a model upgrade of an old enemy’s mech, with the stats from a higher level monster of the same role.
The most complete conversion of the 4th Edition for mech combat would be to build the vehicles from scratch using the vehicle creation rules I am developing. Stay tuned for more vehicle combat methods and eventually the full vehicle creation rules, which I will release in PDF form when they are ready.
Related Downloads: Ships, Tanks and Mechs clip art page, free to copy, modify and distribute.
Magnificent website. Lots of useful information here. I am sending it to several buddies and also bookmarking it. And naturally, thank you to your effort!