Opposed Rolls Combat System

I watched a video recently that described a combat system with possibly the best balance between authenticity and simplicity. I figured I'd take the idea and develop it a little.

"I missed!" "The enemy missed too." "Natural 1." "Enemy missed too, don't worry." "Aha, a critical hit! ... That's, uh... six damage."
Success in regular combat isn't just about hitting the opponent, it's about hitting an opponent without getting hit.
Shadow Fight, by Yerbol Bulentayev

At the start of its turn, a character gets a number of maneuvers determined by its level. (I'll keep the exact number vague since this would probably depend on the game you wish to make with this.) These maneuvers can be spent during the turn in the following ways:

• Attack. You attempt to strike another creature of your choice within the range of a weapon you wield. Roll the weapon's die, add a relevant attribute, and compare the result to the target's total for defense (see below). If your rolled total is greater, the target takes an amount of damage equal to the roll.
• Move. A maneuver can be used to move X spaces. X could be defined by your level, or armor, or just the same for everyone.

You can use maneuvers that remain in following mostly defensive ways even outside of your turn:

• Block. If you are wielding a shield when you are attacked, you roll its die and add a relevant attribute.
• Counter*. If you are wielding a weapon and your attacker is in its range, you roll its die and add a relevant attribute to it when you are attacked. If your roll is greater than the attacker's, you instead deal damage to the attacker equal to the amount rolled.
• Dodge. When you are attacked, you roll the die determined by your armor and add a relevant attribute to it.
• Strike*. If you are wielding a weapon and a creature leaves its range, you can attempt to attack it. (For the sake of brevity, works the same way as Attack would, and the target can use the above three maneuvers against it.)

* At your own discretion, the attacking maneuvers used outside of your turn might be restricted just to melee weapons.

All weapons, shields, and armor come with a die that you roll to see how effective it is. Shields and armor reduce any damage you take from weapons by their defined amounts.

• Dual-wieldable (2d4, 1d4 if just one is wielded)
• Ranged (1d6)
• Single-handed melee (1d8)
• Two-handed melee (1d10)
• Shields (1d12, damage reduction 2)
• No armor (1d10, damage reduction 0)
• Light armor (1d8, damage reduction 2)
• Medium armor (1d6, damage reduction 4)
• Heavy armor (1d4, damage reduction 6)

Action economy beyond this could exist too, of course, and I have no idea how this would work in the long run. What the hit points required for this system would be, what the distances would be, the height of the attributes, and so on is frankly something I'm too lazy to figure out right away. Unless I'd be making this into a full game, it feels like something someone else will be happy to do.

Now, someone might look at this and go "This discourages the players from attacking at all", to which I say... yeah? A battle isn't about enemies missing each other with 40% of their hits, it's about their hits clashing, and seeing who's gonna manage to damage whom. Unless you can make lots of maneuvers and take lots of hits, you probably shouldn't be on the front lines.

Until then, I hope you've enjoyed my article, and I would like to wish you all a wonderful day!