When combat begins, I will usually preface it with the situation. Whether it is in a cellar or on a cart, the environment is there for a reason. I will have a rough idea on some tactics that you can employ to swing the dice rolls in your favour,however I am definitely open to novel ideas so long as they’re within the realm of possibility.
Wild dice have been nerfed since our last session: while you can continue to roll if you continue landing on sixes, the bonus applied to the original roll will be halved, rounded down (e.g. you roll a 5 for your bonus wild dice roll. You stop rolling and add 5/2 = 2.5, rounded down is +2 to your original roll).
With that said, the universe will be operating on a patchwork of B-Rated action movie logic and pseudo-physics. Newton’s laws still roughly apply to conventional schools of magick, some leeway will be given due to the presence of, well, magic. So allow for the world (aka your friendly DM) to have a tiny bit of leeway in terms of inconsistencies, but do not hesitate to point out any glaring contradictions.
Now, without further ado, let me outline how combat works in this campaign:
Initiative[]
When combat starts, everybody rolls to determine who goes when. This is to see when everyone notices and their relative priorities in combat. This is done by rolling all of your Perception dice, alongside with any other dice from skills that benefit this (e.g. training). I will also take into account any circumstantial modifiers, such as being unaware, under the influence of an Illusion spell, etc. If you guys can set up combat in favour to you before it even starts, the initiative rolls will reflect that.
I will tally the rolls with highest rolls going first. In the case of a tie, the defender goes first. If the tie is within either the attackers or defenders, the furthest from the “action” (epicentre of the battle) will have their turn first over the ones that are closer.
e.g.: The group is attacked by a group of three bandits. Because they ambushed the group, they gain a flat +10 to their initiative roll. They all roll a 15 with their modifier. Tassadar rolls 15, Archibald rolls 15, Porp rolls 17, Orn rolls a 16 and Eva rolls a 9. The encounter looks roughly like this with respect to distance from the “centre:”
B1 B2 B3 (centre) P T O A E
Then, the initiative list would look like this: P, O, A, T, B1, B2, B3, E
Initiative Rerolling: In their own turn a character can choose to reroll his initiative. This will simply reroll his Perception check again, with the new sum replacing their old one, regardless if it is higher or lower. However, this action cannot be taken with any other action and will take up the character’s entire turn.
Turns[]
In a turn, your character can generally undertake multiple actions. They can attack, defend, and do various other actions that may change the tide of battle. The more actions a character tries to undertake, the harder it is for them to complete them all successfully in the span of time of a turn. This is where the multi-action dice penalty comes in: for every action past the first, the character will take an -1D penalty to all of the actions that he/she chooses to undertake. e.g. Eva tries to charm an aggressive wolf and stab Tassadar in the same turn. She would roll her normal charisma dice minus one dice for the charm attempt, and her coordination dice minus one dice for the attempt to backstab Tassadar. If she tried to do charm the wolf, command her cat and backstab Tassadar, the penalty would -2D for all of the actions. You must announce all of your actions before you “lock in” your choice. I will allow leeway at the beginning, but consider that a grace period and not the norm.
With that said, there are free actions: that is, movements that are too small to really count as individual actions in themselves but still could possibly hold significance. This can be shouting a few words at friendly/hostile characters, shuffling forwards a metre or other small tidbits. Each character gets one free action per turn, which does not count towards their multi-action dice penalty. After that though, even free actions will start to apply towards multi-action dice penalties. Certain classes, skills and attributes might add to the number of free actions you’re allowed to do, or even convert otherwise normal actions into a free action.
When it reaches your character’s turn, you must call out all of your actions before confirming. I will no longer allow for you to “tack on” additional actions depending on the success/failure of the first action. In other words, you plan out everything you want to do, and then you let your character go off and do his/her thing for that round. As such, you must say that you wish to defend after you attack, or else your character will not be able to block/parry/dodge when they finish their attack.
Moving[]
Any movement of less than half of the character's movement can be said to be a free action. Any more than that would a standard action.
If the character is currently engaged in combat and wishes to move, they must first disengage with the enemy. This means that they must roll their agility roll versus the enemy’s agility. If they succeed, they are disengaged from the combat for the turn. Keep in mind disengaging multiple enemies requires you to use one action per enemy, complete with the multi-action dice penalty.
If you wish to simply exit battle without disengaging, every enemy that is attacking you will get a free hit on you.
Attacking[]
Attacking is done with a weapon (or lack of it, in some cases). Any weapon’s chance to hit is reliant on the user’s attributes and training. As a general rule of thumb, any melee weapon that is smaller than a bastard sword and cuts/stabs relies on Coordination to hit, whereas any weapon that is either bigger than a bastard sword or bashes/bludgeons relies on Agility to hit. If there’s any ambiguity in a weapon’s to-hit property, don’t hesitate to ask. Of course, training is also applied onto these base attribute dice rolls. Dual wielding is heavily penalized by a flat -2D to the to-hit modifier, unless the character is trained in dual wielding. Certain skills or stances might also change the attributes that a weapon uses to hit.
Grappling[]
A grapple can be initiated on a player (or enemy's turn), and will count as an action. To successfully begin a grapple, the grappler must roll higher in a Physique roll. Succeeding this roll will raise the grapple counter by one in their favour. In grapples, rolls are mainly done to affect the grapple counter: each participant's goal is to beat out the enemy and obtain a high grapple counter in their favour. Each grapple participant, on their turn, can choose to "contest" the grapple. This is a simple Physique test, adding relevant skills. The "attacker" in the contest must beat out the "defender" to raise the grapple counter by one in their favour. If the attacker beats the defender by 10, the grapple counter is raised by two in their favour instead. However, if the defender scores 5 higher than the attacker, then it is a reversal where the grapple counter raises by one in favour of the defender. At each successive stage of the grapple counter, it counts as an extra "stack" of staggered for the enemy. For example, if Eva is wrestling a catboy and the counter is one point to Eva's favour, then the catboy will be staggered and receive a -2 to their natural defensive to-hit score (it would be 8 now). If the counter is two points to Eva's favour, the catboy will receive a -4 to their natural defensive to-hit scores.
At three points, unique moves and opportunities open up. The attacker may now choose to either throw, pin, or take down the enemy.
Throwing the enemy will hurl the enemy in a certain direction. If they do not hit a surface after [Attacker Physique Roll] tiles, they will land on the floor and take 2D6's worth of damage. If they are thrown down an elevated position, they take 2^(number of stories they fell)D6's worth of damage, capping at terminal velocity. Yes: if they fell three stories then that would do 8D6 damage. If they instead hit a wall, an object or person, the damage done by the throw will be multiplied by 1.5x and the damage both applied to them and the object/person they were thrown at. Of course, throwing the enemy will reset the grapple counter.
Pinning an enemy will subdue the enemy. This means that they will no longer be able to contest the grapple counter, but must attack the person they are pinned by in order to break free: they must do at least 25% of the attacker's HP before the pin is broken, decreasing the grapple counter by three. In this state the natural to-hit of the pinned enemy is zero.
Take downs will inflict a very large amount of damage on the enemy. This amount starts out as a flat [Attacker Physique]D66, but can be modified depending on the usage of environmental hazards. This will also decrease the grapple counter by three, and leave the attacker staggered for the next round.
While grappled, players and enemies can still make attacks as normal. However, if they decide to attack, their next grapple roll will be modified, at a -2/-5/-10 rate depending on if the grapple counter is +1/+2/+3 in their favour. If you are disadvantaged in a grapple, you can attack with no penalty. If the character is staggered from a source that is not the grapple, they will lose -2/-4/-6/the stagger penalty to their grapple rolls so long as they are staggered.
Ranged weaponry can be simplified into this: longbows use agility to-hit, and small bows / crossbows use coordination to-hit. Longbows in this sense would be pretty much any bow that is longer than 1.2 metres long and requires considerable draw tension to maintain a notched arrow. Ranged attacks will usually suffer to-hit penalties if the enemy is too close and/or is on guard.
Magic is much more difficult to encapsulate with such a ruling: different forms of magic require different to-hit checks, and I will handle those individually. As a general rule of thumb,
Once the to-hit is determined, it is checked against the defender’s save roll. If the attacker’s roll is higher, then the attack lands and damage is calculated.
Called shots can be arranged, but these will confer an additional bonus to the defender’s save roll.
Every weapon in the game has its own natural damage dice. This is then augmented by the wielder’s strength / affinity. For every single melee weapon, additional scaling is applied by dividing Physique by two, and rounding. For un-armoured enemies, this scaling bonus is then added to the natural damage dice of the weapon, and rolled for damage.
Bows, slings and ranged weapons that require manual strength (ask for clarification if unsure) will also scale off of Physique, but Physique is divided by three and rounded normally for this (e.g. Physique of 2D, 2/3 = 0.6..., 0.6... > = 0.5, therefore this individual receives a scaling bonus of 1D). Crossbows do not scale off any attribute, but Physique will speed its reload.
Magic scales off of the respective magic branches. The scaling, again, varies for the different spells and we will have to work them out on a case by case scenario.
Defending[]
For every character, they retain enough of a combat sense to move with the flow of the battle. As such, the natural save score is 10, without any training / modifiers. If your Agility is above 3, for every point in that you will gain one additional point to your natural save score (e.g. Orn, with an Agility of 4, will have a natural save roll of 11).
Armour also plays a very large role in negating damage. If the enemy is using a cutting weapon to strike at your armour, the weapon’s natural damage dice will be rolled first, without scaling. If this number is not higher than the cumulative AR rating of your defense, no damage will be done, regardless of scaling. If it is higher, then take the total damage done and subtract it by the AR. The same applies to you, when attacking armoured enemies.
e.g. Tassadar has a shortsword that has a natural damage dice of 1D+2. He is trying to hit a bandit, who has padded leather armour for 4 AR. Tassadar succeeds in his to-hit roll, but gets a 4 on his natural damage dice. As such, tie goes to the defender and the bandit will not incur any damage, even if Tassadar would have rolled a 5 with his scaling bonus for 9 theoretical damage.
If it is a blunt force weapon and the natural damage dice is not enough to break through armour, then scaling is added and the sum divided by two before being applied onto the armour again.
Ranged weaponry is calculated slightly differently: all projectile damage (whether the projectile is a rock / musket ball / arrow) will be treated as a sharp attack at first, and calculated as such. If the natural damage roll to overcome armour is insufficient, the damage will then be divided by two and treated as blunt force and calculated as such.
Of course, you can use an action to have your character better defend themselves. There is blocking, parrying and dodging.
Blocking[]
This is only possible if the character has a shield. By doing this, they will hide behind their shield and add the shield’s AV (Armour Value) to their natural save score, making them harder to hit. However, because the shield itself can only take so much abuse, any roll that is between 5 and the defender’s new NSS (natural save score) will instead cause the weapon to hit the shield, prompting a damage check to the shield.
Parrying[]
This is only possible if the character has a weapon (or is sufficiently skilled in unarmed combat). The character will roll their Coordination dice with bonuses, and this sum will be their new save score until is their turn again, even if it is lower than 10. Parries can only block attacks from two targets (more with training). If defender is overwhelmed or backstabbed, he/she is staggered and becomes open to subsequent hits, lowering their save score to 8 until it is their turn again. Parries cannot stop ranged attacks and certain other attacks.
Dodging[]
The character will roll their Agility plus any bonuses, and this sum will be their new save score until it is their turn again, even if it is lower than 10. Dodging will only work for one attack (more with training / acrobatics), and after that your save score is reset to 10.
Worst comes to worst, a character can choose to solely focus on defense. This will bar them from even moving the slightest amount and have them assume either a blocking, parrying or dodging stance. By committing to a total defense, a flat +5 modifier is added to the save score, in addition to the fact that blocking will make it so that the attacker must roll between a 10 and the new NSS to hit, parrying will be able to block three targets’ attacks, and dodging will work for two attacks. Be careful: smarter enemies will use this opportunity to rest up and maybe even plan out ways to break your guard....
-Flanking: each side of the token that is taken up by an enemy gives a +1/+1D/+1D and every turn the party member will choose one person to show their backs to (auto backstab)
Last Gasp[]
Unlike the mooks / villains that the party will likely encounter, the party members are all filled with determination and purpose, and will try their very best to prevail, even inches from death. When any member is reduced to zero HP, they will enter what is called "Last Gasp." In Last Gasp, the party member will go prone and attempt to reduce their presence, maintaining a natural to-hit of 10. Most mindless creatures will lose interest and move on, but more intelligent enemies might be inclined to deliver the coup de grace. Each turn, the character must make a "Death Save." This is a roll from the character's Physique and either Charisma or Perception. With each passing turn, there is an incremental malus from bleed out applied to the Death Save (-1D on the second turn, -2D on third, and so on). The results are then taken to the subsequent table:
| Summed Dice | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0-4 | -3D HP immediately |
| 5-9 | -2D HP immediately |
| 10-14 | -1D HP immediately |
| 15-19 | No effect |
| 20-24 | +1D "stored healing" |
| 25-29 | +2D "stored healing" |
| 30-34 | +3D "stored healing" |
| 35-39 | Rally at 2D HP |
Stored healing is continually stored by the downed character, and is only used when a healer stabilises the character, at which point the stored healing is added to the amount the healer heals. If this results in positive HP, then the character will exit Last Gasp and become able to fight again (although it's very likely they'll need some proper rest and recuperation!). If the downed character is still sitting in negative HP, they will be stabilised and no longer have to roll for Death Saves, but will require proper medical attention outside of the instance to recover.
Rallying will immediately set the character's HP to zero, after which 2D will be rolled and added to the character's HP, allowing them to rejoin the combat immediately.
A character will only pass away when their negative HP has surpassed their maximum HP pool. Try not to let this happen!
Criticals[]
Most weapons will have to achieve a critical hit roll that is double to triple of a normal to-hit score. For example, if the natural to-hit is 10, the critical threshold is twice of that for dagger/sword/most one-handed weapon. Two handed weapons generally have a 3x crit value, but this can be decreased with extenuating modifiers. While these make up the “player” side of the modifiers, there exist a large number of conditions, moves and attacks that can drastically alter the player or the enemy’s critical modifier. Here is the table that corresponds to critical values that are based on attacking (positive is good), for the 200% level of multipliers. Multiple all numbers here by 1.5 when calculating for the 300% crits.
| Stage of Crit Value | Percent above to-hit needed to crit |
|---|---|
| -5 | 500% |
| -4 | 400% |
| -3 | 350% |
| -2 | 300% |
| -1 | 250% |
| Baseline | 200% |
| +1 | 133% |
| +2 | 100% |
| +3 | 80% |
| +4 | 66% |
| +5 | 57% |
Now, what influences these “stages” of crit values:
-Each point of agility above 3 = +1
-Each point of agility below 3 = -1
-Each point of perception above 5 (4) = +1
-Being in stealth (backstab) = +2
-Target is staggered = +2 (+1)
-Each point of the target’s physique above 4 = -1 (-2)
-Every two levels of training for a weapon = +1
-Every level of the target’s dodge skill = -1 (-2)
-Target is committing to a full defense = -2 (-3)
-And tons of other stuff!
Do note that ranged weapons are x3 their critical threshold naturally, and follow by the highlighted yellow blurbs instead of the white numbers and lines.
Stealth[]
Stealth can be attempted by any member of the party, but will fail if they are already engaged in a melee. The roll is an agility based one plus any relevant skills (cough stealth). This will go up against your opponent’s acumen roll. If you succeed this roll, you will be concealed to the opponent and will gain an automatic stealth crit modifier. In stealth, you must roll for another stealth check each time you decide to move, with a +3 modifier (already hidden). There is no penalty for wearing light armour, a -2 for medium and -6 for heavy (plate) armour. There is a +2 for dim light and -6 for daytime light conditions. Items can assist with stealth drastically!
Healing[]
Healing is a task typically done out of combat, but the healer can also choose to heal in the middle of a battle. As such, the mechanics will be explained here. Healing typically involves magical means, but poultices and bandages also either complement or even replace magic. Either way, healing will be somewhat abstracted in this combat system.
The party will start with one heal per instance; this means that the members will have to confer as to who will heal who. The healing roll is Intellect based, adding in any relevant modifiers. When it is rolled, the dice are summed to determine how much healing will be done:
| Summed Dice | Dice Received |
|---|---|
| 10-14 | 1D |
| 15-19 | 2D |
| 20-24 | 3D |
| 25-29 | 4D |
| 30+ | 5D |
The healed will then roll the appropriate amount of dice and add the said amount to their health points. e.g: Tassadar decides to try to heal Porpituous, and rolls a 16. 16 is between 15-19, so Porpituous will roll two dice to determine how many hit points was restored to him.
The party will receive more healing based on the summed healing levels and restoration levels of all of the members, divided by three, and rounded normally. If any party member is reduced to Last Gasp, they will be unable to contribute their healing level, so plan accordingly!
e.g: Eva has level one healing, and Markarth decides to get a level of Restoration magic. (1 Healing + 1 Restoration)/3 = 0.67, which rounds up to one additional heal per instance. The party decides to heal Orn before they enter the next room, thinking that their party still has another heal to use. However, Markarth is viciously mauled by a thrall in the fight and is now sitting at -3 HP. Now the party's summed healing potential is 1/3 = 0.33, which would remove the additional heal, leaving Markarth on the ground, presumably stablised but unable to continue.
Also, additional items or artifacts can boost the number of times that the party can heal. Keep an eye for these for long dungeon crawls!
Special Actions[]
There are a multitude of different actions that characters can undertake if they so choose to. These can range from climbing walls to parkouring off of a cart. These will be determined, again, on a case to case basis.