Combat
From Lunos
Combat: The Combat ability itself is used primarily for dodging and tactics. The sub-skills are divided up as follows:
Archery – used for ranged weapons with a mechanical assist, primarily bows.
Projectile – any weapon that does not rely on the strength of the user, such as crossbows and magic.
Thrown – any projectile weapon used without mechanical assistance of any kind.
Brawl – any combat maneuver relying primarily on bodily contact.
Martial Arts – this skill is not rolled, but instead represents the damage rating of your unarmed attacks.
Weapon – the use of any melee weapon.
Combat is resolved in rounds, each of which represents a time period of about 6 seconds. During each round you have two actions, which can each be used for one of the following actions:
Attack: you make a roll using Agility + Archery, Thrown, Brawl, or Weapon. This may represent a single powerful attack or multiple smaller attacks, but the mechanical effect is the same. You lose one dice for each opponent beyond the first that you are attempting to attack. If you roll more successes than an opponents defense roll, you hit. Extra successes are used for maneuvers. You may only make one attack roll per round (but see Power Attack)
Defense: you make a roll using Agility + Combat. This roll determines the difficulty of attacks made against you (if you forgo a Defense action in a round, the difficulty to hit you is 1). You lose one die from this roll for every two opponents beyond the first you wish to defend against. You may make only one defense roll per round (but see Full Defense)
Parry: a parry is a type of defense action using your Weapon skill and adding the rating of your weapon. Parrying is thus often a slightly better choice if you have the proper skills and a good weapon, but the difficulty of defending against ranged attacks is increased by 2.
Move: you move up to 20 feet plus 2 feet per dot of Athletics (modified as usual by sub-skills).
Other: any other activity you may be engaged in, such as riding a horse, steering a ship, balancing on a ledge, unlocking a door, fixing something, etc. Using both of your actions on another activity represents working at the pace you would outside of combat.
Flurry: this action is used when you need to fight competitively while accomplishing some other task. You make both an attack and defense roll, but both are at a -2 dice. You must have at least Combat 3 to perform a Flurry.
Power attack: you use both of your actions on a single attack, receiving two bonus successes on the roll.
Full defense: you use both of your actions for defense, receiving a bonus success on the roll and halving (round down) any penalties for defending against multiple people.
Lunge: you gain an additional action this round (for a total of three, lunging does not cost an action) but next round you only have one action and it is at -2 dice. You can’t lunge two rounds in a row.
Magic: it takes a single action to use any activated or continuous magic effect, or to maintain a ritual.
Initiative is still being fine-tuned. It will be based on the Reflexes ability.
Health: You have a number of health levels equal to 5 + your Body. As you take damage, the number of health levels you have taken imposes a wound penalty on all of your actions. You start with one health level of each level (minus one penalty to minus five penalty) and each point of Body provides one additional level, starting with the largest penalty. When your wound penalty exceeds your Willpower score, you fall unconscious or are otherwise overcome with pain. There are three different types of damage you can receive:
Bruising: mild surface damage that heals quickly.
Wounding: serious flesh wounds that take time and care to recover from.
Trauma: broken bones and other internal injuries.
Bruising damage is dealt by blunt instruments and colliding with solid objects, and wounding damage is dealt by sharp things and energy. Whenever you take more than three points of damage from a single source, the extra damage is inflicted as trauma damage. Once your health levels have all been used up, you are unable to take more than very minor actions (crawling or pushing a button, whispering a message) and will die within 5 minutes if you do not receive medical attention. If you receive any more damage before recovering at least one health level, you die. Magic is possible, but it takes one minute to activate and the exertion kills you afterwards (unless it was a healing spell)
Armor provides protection against damage by adding to your Body score when determining damage received. Certain types of armor also have additional effects against specific types of damage. Heavier armors also inflict a penalty on Agility, Dexterity, and Awareness due to their encumbering nature. The Dexterity and Awareness penalties can be avoided by not wearing gloves or a helmet, but this leaves you vulnerable to the Avoid Armor maneuver.
Weapons provide a similar but opposite effect, adding to your Body score when determining damage dealt. Weapons also allow you to deal damage of types other than bruising.
Maneuvers: combat maneuvers allow you to impede your opponent in other ways besides just dealing damage. Each maneuver ‘costs’ a certain number of extra successes from your attack roll. If you declare your intention to use a specific maneuver before rolling (except for increase damage or coup de gras), you gain a single ‘free success’ that can be used only on that maneuver. If you declare ahead of time that you will forgo dealing damage, you receive an addition ‘free success’. In both cases, you must still hit your opponent normally and roll a number of additional successes (if any) equal to the remaining number required for your intended maneuver.
Name Cost Effect
Grapple 1 You engage the target in a grapple. See “Grappling” below.
Increase damage 1 You inflict an additional point of damage. You may perform this maneuver more than once.
Push 2 You push your opponent up to 5 feet You may perform this maneuver one additional time for a total of 10 feet.
Tag 2 You perform your attack in a particularly amusing or humiliating fashion, demonstrating your superior skill
Disarm 3 You remove one of your opponent’s weapons. You may catch the weapon yourself or fling it up to 20 feet away.
Stun 3 You daze or otherwise occupy your opponent, reducing them to one action on their next turn.
Trip 3 You make your opponent fall over. It takes one action or a difficulty 3 Agility + Athletics roll to get up again.
Avoid Armor 4 You attack through a weak point in your opponent’s armor, negating any bonuses it was providing. If your opponent is missing large portions of armor, this maneuver costs two successes less to use. You may no use this maneuver on magical armor.
Coup de Gras 5 You deal additional damage to your opponent equal to the amount necessary to use up all of their health levels (but not kill them instantly unless you make another attack).
Threaten 5 You place your opponent in a vulnerable position, such as a knife to the throat. Starting at the beginning of the next turn, as long as you maintain an action to continue this situation, you may continue your attack with the original number of successes in response to any event you are aware of.
Grappling: Once a grapple has been initiated, each person involved must use one action at the beginning of each turn on the grapple. Each person rolls their lowest two of Agility, Brawl, and Body. The person who rolled highest determines who involved in the grapple may act that round. People who cannot act may take only actions not requiring movement, such as speech or Magic. People who can act may use the remaining action in any of the normal ways for combat except Move, and may also choose to leave the grapple. If you attack, use the result of your grapple check as the attack roll and your opponents grapple check as the defense roll. No weapons of medium or larger size may be used while in a grapple. The following additional maneuvers are also available:
Name Cost Effect
Pin 4 You place your opponent in a disadvantageous position, giving you two automatic successes on grapple checks until your opponent wins one.
Choke 3 You cut off airflow, causing your opponent to become unconscious in a number of minutes equal to their Body and die one minute later.
Weapons: Ranges are subject to change after I look up what they should be The defining mechanical characteristic of weapons is their size, that is what determines most other game statistics. The figures represented below are for bruising weapons, wounding weapons should have their cost increased one level. +0 weapons are improvised weapons such as tables, sticks, and chairs. Weapons with a rating greater than +1 increase their cost just like equipment. Range indicates the optimum distance in meters the weapon can be used, each increment of that distance beyond the first imposes a -1 penalty on the attack roll, up to a maximum of five additional increments. Archery weapons use triple the listed range, and the cost is for the bow.
Size Cost Damage Range Examples
Tiny (-4) 1 +0 10 Dagger, Sling
Small (-3) 1 +1 20 Hatchet, Club, Boomerang
Medium (-2) 2 +2 40 Longsword, Quarterstaff, Bow
Large* (-1) 2 +3 50 Spear, Battle Axe, Longbow
Polearm** (0) 2 +3 - Lance
- Large and Polearm weapons impose a -1 penalty on all rolls using them if your Body score is less than 4.
- Polearms can be used against opponents two spaces away, but impose a -2 penalty when attacking in a square next to you
Projectile Weapons
Armor
Armor protects you from injury. If you are not wearing armor of any kind, your Body is treated as if it were two points lower when determining wounding damage received. +1 armor costs Resources 3, increasing as standard for equipment (+0 armor is available). +2 and +3 armors cause you to take a -1 penalty to Agility, Dexterity, and Perception rolls. Additionally, the following modifications are available, each raising the cost by one level: Rigid: this type of armor is thick and heavy, reducing all bruising and wounding damage you take by an additional 2 points, but causing an additional -2 penalty. Flex: lightweight and flexible, this type or armor provides no penalty and reduces wounding damage by an additional point, but does not protect against bruising damage.
