Don't mistake what I said on RNG for what's going into the mod. Status effects/spells won't have RNG outside of what I stated in regards to having bonus Aptitude.
Using AP to get stronger effects is certainly a thing in the form of draining willpower, grit, or boosting your own aptitude. But it won't be particularly RNG-driven.
I suppose I don't view RNG the same way most people do. RNG does two things: It presents unknowables that force you to plan for the worst, and it gives a lot of granularity to an otherwise binary system.
The unknowables thing would be fine, if the worst case scenario could be planned around. But in RPG's it often can't and thus forces a reload. It may not happen often but it really does feel like the game is dicking you over.
The granularity would be fine.. If players did spells in batches of 100. In the long term it evens out and the player understands this. But it just feels wrong to me.
Unknowables/unknowns are of course what makes a tactics game interesting - with how hard it'll be to stun enemies, I'm aiming for enemies to fill that void. Without a threat of losing I don't think games are particularly fun.
Dodging however is very much a thing. If you have a 100% chance to hit and you try to hit something with 50% dodge, then you'll hit that particular enemy 50% of the time. If you have 150% chance to hit then you'll always hit it. Hitting an enemy is Chance to Hit - Dodge Chance. So yes, you'll be able to raise your chance to hit and lower their dodge to make you more and more likely to hit the enemy with your weapon, which will be important if using a low chance to hit weapon (battleaxe) or trying to hit a high dodge enemy. Or both.
Dodging and weapons in general could be viewed as a bit of an experiment on my part. Going to see if I can make RNG work as long as there's non-RNG ways to game the system into being 100% successful with what you do, but isn't required. I guess.
Crits are also still a thing, blocking is only going to be on player characters (never enemies) and will essentially act as a bit of a saving throw towards attacks.
