Not everything is sunshine and roses; you won't always see eye to eye with others. Sometimes you can resolve your differences through conversation, bribery, or booze, and sometimes, someone's getting a punch to the gut, an axe to the face, or a magical wallop to their ribcage.
Combat continues until all opponents have either fled, called a truce or surrendered (and had it accepted) OR have their HP reduced to 0. At 0 HP, you are considered unconscious. Your friends have 4 turns to heal you before you are considered dead. Attempts at First Aid or minor Healing spells can buy time, but you need at least 1 HP to stay alive and conscious.
Basic, non-magical combat consists of two variables: your ability to hit your opponent and how much damage you cause when/if that hit lands. If you're defending, you have only one variable: your ability NOT to get hit.
The attacker's chance to hit is a simple equation: the attacker's Spd/Dex + any relevant skills they may have + a randomly generated number between 1 and 5 to represent luck. I prefer Random.org's Integer Generator for this, but any random number generator will work. The defender's chance not to be hit is exactly the same: Spd/Dex + any relevant skills they may have + a randomly generated number between 1 and 5. That's it.
If the attacker's total is greater than or equal to the defender's total, the blow lands and damage calculations begin. Otherwise, no damage is taken by the attacker. For narrative purposes, if the attacker's total is less than the defender's Spd/Dex alone, the blow misses entirely. If the attacker's total is less than the defender's entire total, then it may be considered blocked/parried. This has NO impact on combat, however.
In the case of the blow landing, damage is assigned. Someone fighting unarmed deals damage equal to their Str/Stam divided by 2 and rounded down (so if your Str/Stam is 3, you do 1 point of damage). Someone fighting with a weapon takes their weapon's damage total (as shown below) and adds that to the result (so if your Str/Stam is 3, you do 1 point of damage unarmed, but you have a sword, which adds 2 points of damage to that, so you do 3 points of damage). Armor mitigates the damage by the amount shown below. Some weapons give armor piercing effects (the crossbow, for example). For armor piercing: Armor value divided by 2, round up. In the case of leather armor, it is ignored entirely (a crossbow bolt would punch right through it). Slow weapons can only be used every other turn.
| Armor & Shields | Weapons |
|---|---|
| Leather: 1 | Daggers: 1 |
| Wooden Shield: 1 | Staves: 1 (but longer reach) |
| Studded Leather/Ringmail: 2 | Brass Knuckles: 1 (uses Unarmed skill) |
| Bronze Shield: 2 | Swords: 2 |
| Chainmail: 3 | Maces: 2 |
| Iron Shield: 3 | Axes: 3 |
| Plate: 4 | Bows: 1-2 (depending on type of bow) |
| Steel Shield: 4 | Crossbows: 3, AP (Armor Piercing) |
| Dragonscale Armor: 5 | Blunderbusses: 4 |
| Great Weapons: 5 (Slow) |
Who goes first is decided by Initiative. Your initiative is your Spd/Dex + any relevant Advantages. For example, if you took Quick Strike (which gives you +5 to your initiative) and have a Spd/Dex of 5, your initiative is 10. Ties are resolved by who has the higher Observation skill (if either do) or who has the higher HP.
Combat is broken up by turns (or actions) and rounds. Each round contains several turns. You only get one turn per round, however. The other turns are the actions of other people in your party and your opponents. So if there are 4 people in your party (including yourself) and you are fighting 2 opponents, there will be 6 turns in this round of combat: the 4 of you and the 2 opponents, in order of initiative.
If multiple opponents gang up on you specifically, you will suffer a -1 Focus penalty for each opponent beyond the first that is within melee range. So if you are taking on three guys by yourself with your sword & shield, your Focus will be 8.
For Example: The elven mage/scout, Voradiel, and his dwarven compatriot, Theordin, get into a fight. The dwarf, always one for a good tussle, starts the fun and games. His Spd/Dex is 6, and he's got Unarmed Combat at level 5. He rolls a 3 for luck and so his total attack score is 14. Voradiel, who has no Unarmed Combat skill, has to settle for luck to aid his Spd/Dex of 8, and rolls a 2, giving him a defense score of 10. Since Theordin's attack is greater than or equal to Voradiel's defense, it succeeds..:Main Index:.Theordin is QUITE strong, having a Str/Stam of 11. Divided by 2 and rounded down, that means 5 points of damage. Voradiel is wearing leather armor, which absorbs 1 point of incoming damage, thus letting 4 pass through. Voradiel, having 14 HP, is now down to 10.
Next round it's Voradiel's turn. Seeing that he's outmatched at hand-fighting, he grabs his staff. He's still using his Spd/Dex of 8, but where he was completely unskilled at hand-to-hand, he is level 5 at Melee Combat. He rolls a 2 but that still gives him an attack score of 15. Theordin is at 11 for his Spd/Dex of 6 and his Unarmed (still) Combat skill of 5; he rolls a 2 for his luck and so his total is 13. The attack succeeds, but the lithe elf isn't as powerful as the dwarf; his Str/Stam is only 6. He does 3 points of damage + 1 for the Staff, so 4 total. However, Theordin isn't wearing armor, so he takes the full 4 points of damage. He has his 17 HP reduced to 13. And seeing as how his buddy has a weapon now, he hefts his axe.
And now, of course, it's his turn to attack. He swings his axe for 11 (Spd/Dex + Melee Combat skill at level 5) + a whopping 1 for his luck roll, so his attack score is 12. Voradiel's 13 (Spd/Dex + Melee Combat skill) means he easily blocks the heavy weapon's swing, and the 2 he got on his luck roll only helps. He's still at 10 HP to his buddy's 13, but now he's on the offensive.
Voradiel gets lucky and scores a 5 to add to his 13. There's no way that Theordin's 11 can counter 18, even with a high luck roll, and the attack succeeds in knocking another 4 points of health off of his total, down to 9. The odds are a little better for Voradiel now. But on the next turn, Theordin gets a 5 for his luck as well. His total is now 16, and Voradiel's about to be out of luck, as he rolls a 1. That gives him 14 to defend against Theordin's 16, and...well, we know how that ends. The axe does 3 points of damage to add to the dwarf's already impressive 5 points of damage, and the leather armor only mitigates 1 point of that. The scout's health drops to 3 HP.
Not feeling too well, and sensing his impending demise, Voradiel holds up a hand. "However I have offended you, friend dwarf, I'm sure it's nothing a strong pint or two of ale can't fix, hm?" Theordin grins and shoulders his axe. "Aye, lad! Th're's not'in' tha' cannae be resohlved o'er a good fight or a good draenk!" He claps the elf heartily on the back, causing him to wince in pain as they head towards the bar.