Combat
問：Can Armour reduce the damage from a weapon to 0?
答：A: Yes.
問：Can Armour reduce the damage from a weapon to less than 0? That would mean a hit would heal you, right?
答：Nice try, but no.
問：Matthew Sprange said on the forums that you can react to a failed attack roll. Is that true?
答：Officially, no – there is no provision for that in the rulebook. As an optional rule, sure, you may find some use for it. The combat tables allow it out of a sense of completeness – this is a kind of ‘placeholder’ for us, allowing us to introduce new rules in the future. For the basic rulebook alone, however, there is nothing ‘official’ to permit this. What you do at your own gaming table is up to you though!
問：Do we use the Very High Skills rule on page 21 for combat rolls?
答：It could have been more implicit in the Combat chapter but no, you do not. Combat rolls are distinct from Skill tests in this sense. The object of this, incidentally, is to create a shift in the dynamics of high level combat, focussing reactions into the bottom right hand area of their respective tables. Why do this? Because high level combat (or, at least, high level combat between high level opponents) should be about more than just swinging swords at one another - the object is to beat your opponent’s reactions or, more specifically, deny him reactions, in order to ensure your attack gets through. There are several methods of doing this built into the rules set already, so have fun finding them!
問：Some people say that you make a double roll in combat if you perform a reaction (roll to hit, then another set of rolls for the results of the reaction), while others say it is all based off one roll. Which is it?
答：All else being equal, combat works in the following way;
- Roll to attack. If you fail, it ends right there. If you succeed, keep your Weapon skill roll on the table.
- If the attack has been successful, a reaction may be declared - Dodge or Parry, for the purposes of this discussion, it doesn’t matter.
- Your opponent rolls, effectively making this an opposed test, his Dodge or Parry against the Weapon skill you have already rolled in Step 1.
- Compare the two rolls like an opposed test - the only difference between a ‘true’ opposed skill test and these combat rolls is that the result is compared to on the tables on pages 50-51.
There are not two sets of rolls in combat for the attacker - he just rolls once, and the result of that roll is what the defender compares his Dodge/Parry to. This is covered, for Dodges, on p50, last paragraph of the first column. Parry has a similar paragraph.
問：But the example on page 61 suggests the double roll system. . .
答：May the Good Lord of Gaming save us from examples! They are the bane of publishers, as they are often written, for various reasons, when the rules have been completed but the last stages of development are still going on. If something changes in the eleventh hour, the rules will be updated accordingly but, because of the way they are written, examples sometimes get left behind. If there is a problem in a rulebook, you will normally find it in the examples! In short, the example is in error and you should go by the text of the book on pages 50-51.
問：Isn’t it always better to dodge than parry? In fact, why would I ever parry?
答：Well, part of me wants to say ‘well, duh’! Yes, it is always better to not be in the way of an incoming weapon. However, there are other factors to consider;
- Some weapons (and certainly shields) are very good at parrying, especially against lighter weapons. No, they won’t stop a hefty Great Axe, but that weapon was designed to smash through even skilled parries. Get out of the way. Against a Shortsword, you will have more success.
- Becoming skilled in Dodging requires you to divert skill rolls into a new area, whereas parrying relies, in the main, on your own Weapon skill.
- You can take advantage of free parries with a second weapon or shield.
- Most importantly, you will not always be able to dodge effectively, if you are up against a wall, surrounded by enemies, etc. . .
問：If the attacker rolls a critical and the defender parries, then is the damage critical (i.e. maximum damage) or does this occur only if the defender fails (where the result says ‘attack succeeds and becomes a critical hit’)?
答：The latter.
