waysoftheearth wrote:
Summary of Combat Mechanics
This information is FYI only. Players don't need to know any of what follows as I will be on hand to sort out all the game mechanics.
Armour Class
Armour
AC is descending, base 9. Light (leather), medium (mail), and heavy (plate) armour improves AC by
2,
3 and
4 pips respectively.
Helmets
Helmets are not included with armour but can be purchased separately. Wearing a helmet improves AC by 1 pip, but also reduces the odds of finding secret doors by half, and doubles the odds of being surprised.
Shields
A shield improves AC by 1 in frontal combat (but is ignored if attacked from behind). Missiles and light weapons all attack at -2 versus shields. Flails and whips attack at +1 versus shields, however (i.e., they effectively ignore them).
A shield can be sacrificed to ablate a wounding blow. A small shield will absorb up to 6 hit points. A large shields will absorb up to 10 hit points on a first hit, then up to 6 hit points on a second hit.
Combat Experience
AC improves by 1 pip for every 2 HD a PC has unless he is surprised, restrained or attacked from behind.
Dexterity
A dexterity of 18 improves AC by 2 pips while wearing only light (leather) or no armour. A dexterity of 14 to 17 improves AC by 1 pip while not wearing heavy (plate) armour. This benefit is forfeit if surprised, restrained, or attacked from behind.
A dexterity of 7 or less degrades AC by 1 pip while wearing heavy (plate) armour.
Initiative
When required, initiative is rolled with 1d6 per attack, adjusted for dexterity. Equal initiative indicates simultaneous attacks.
Variable Weapon Damage
Damage Dice are always six sided but are called as "dd" rather than "d6" to distinguish "3dd" from a regular "3d6".
Man-like creatures (including PCs) cause damage according to the type of weapon employed, while other monsters throw damage dice equal to their hit dice;
- Light weapons (such as daggers, hand axes, slings, short bows, etc.) and staffs typically cause 1dd.
- Normal one-handed weapons (such as axes, swords, maces, longbows, etc.) typically cause 2dd.
- Heavy, two-handed weapons (such as pole axes, war hammers, crossbows, etc.) typically cause 3dd.
- A 4 HD Ettin will throw 4dd.
- A 10 HD Troll will throw 10dd!!
Roll all the damage dice and sum like faces €“ the highest sum is the overall result. Thus a 2dd roll of 3, 5 is a result of 5 (because 5 was the highest result). A 3dd roll of 3, 3, 5 is a result of 6 (because 3 + 3 = 6, which is higher than 5).
Additionally monsters add half their number of HD (rounded down) to the result.
Attack Rolls
Roll 1d20 + HD + target's AC. Any result of 20+ is a hit. On a natural 20 roll
double damage dice.
Weapon Type Versus Armour Type
ShieldLeatherMailPlateWeapon TypeLight Weapon-2------Missile Weapon-2------Wrapping Weapon+1------
Damage Type(/td)
(/tr)
(tr)
(td)Slashing Damage(/td)(td)--(/td)(td)+1(/td)(td)0(/td)(td)0(/td)
(/tr)
(tr)
(td)Piercing Damage(/td)(td)--(/td)(td)+1(/td)(td)+1(/td)(td)-1(/td)
(/tr)
(tr)
(td)Bludgeoning Damage(/td)(td)--(/td)(td)0(/td)(td)0(/td)(td)+1(/td)
(/tr)
(tr)
(td)Untyped Damage(/td)(td)--(/td)(td)0(/td)(td)0(/td)(td)-1(/td)
(/tr)
(/table)
Fails and whips are wrapping weapons because they "wrap around" shields.
Clubs, staffs, whips and slings are considered "untyped damage" because these cheap weapons are poor against plate armour.
The attack modifiers given under
Weapon Type are cumulative with those given under
Damage Type. Thus, a PC firing a crossbow at an enemy wearing chainmail and carrying a shield would be -2 (for missiles versus shields) and +1 (for piercing attacks versus mail). So our PC would attack with a -1 modifier overall.
Fighting with Two Weapons
Typically, a second weapon must be a light weapon.
Using a second weapon offensively improves the odds of landing a hit, adding +1 to attack rolls. An even throw will strike with the primary weapon, while an odd throw will strike with the secondary weapon. A natural 20 hits with both.
Using a second weapon defensively (as a main gauche) causes opponents with light or normal-sized slashing or piercing weapons to suffer -1 to hit. A main gauche is ineffective against other attacks, however, including large weapons, bludgeoning attacks, missile attacks and other "monster" attacks (bites, tail-swipes, etc.).
Note also that a straight fighting staff can be wielded in the two weapons fighting style.
Defensive Fighting
A round of attacks may be forgone so that enemy attack in melee at -2 (or -4 against fighters and rangers).
Multiple Attacks
A PC (or monster) with
more than twice as many HD as his opponent attacks twice per round. A PC (or monster) with
more than thrice as many HD as his opponent attacks thrice per round. And so on.
If the lesser party has any number of extra hit points in additional to his whole HD, these count as one additional HD.
Initiative is rolled separately for each attack, and multiple attacks do not apply to missile fire.
Firing Into Melee
If the original (1d20) attack roll is an odd number, the missile will be targeted randomly (among plausible targets). The original attack roll will still apply.
Saving Throws
There is a single saving throw statistic.
A level 1 PC needs to roll a
15+ on a d20 to save. Each level thereafter reduces the required number by 1.