Tweak RPG/Combat

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[edit] Table of Contents

Turn or Rebuke Undead

Skill Use

Skill List

Feats

Warrior

[edit] Under Construction

This section is still under construction. As the system developes more will be included here. For anything not covered here, please refer to the DnD 3.5 core rules, as the final product will include rules from various sources but will be more similar to the 3.5 rules than the Anime D20 rules.

[edit] Combat Basics

A combat round represents approximately 6 seconds, and can be roughly broken up as follows:

At the beginning of combat, determine if one group has surprised the other. If one group is totally unaware of the other group, then the group that is aware will get a surprise round, before regular combat begins.
Combatants roll for initiative, and then act in initiative order. The GM may have the combatants roll once for initiative when they enter combat, or at the beginning of each combat round.
Combatants act in initiative order from highest to lowest. Combatants may choose to hold their initiative until later in the round, however if they do not use it before the last person makes their move, they lose their initiative for that round, and must wait until the next round to act.
Combat continues in this manner until the encounter is resolved.

[edit] Surprise Rounds

If the GM decides that the situation warrants it, the potential combatants may have to make spot or listen checks to see if they notice the other party involved.

If both groups are aware of each other, then combat proceeds as normal. However, if one side is unaware of the other, then they are surprised. During the surprise round, the surprised party does not get to act and is flat footed. This means they will not add their dexterity modifier to their AC.

 Note:  This also means that if you are using active 
        defense rolls, the characters automatically
        “take 10” on the roll.

[edit] Initiative

When a character enters combat, they roll for initiative:

 Initiative = 1D20 + Dex + Misc Modifiers

Misc Modifiers will usually be something like +4 for improved initiative, or +2 for Blooded or similar. It is also possible that the GM may assess modifiers depending on the situation.

If two players tie for initiative, then the one who has the highest total initiative modifier (initiative score without the die roll) goes first. If they are still tied, then the two will reroll to see who goes first between them.

[edit] Actions in Combat

There are different kinds of Actions in combat.

They can be summarized as:

Standard Action
Move Action
Full-Round Action
Free Action
Swift Action
Immediate Action
Not an Action
Restricted Activity

In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.

In some situations (such as in a surprise round), you may be limited to taking only a single move action or standard action.

A Standard Action is an action that a measurable portion of the round to achieve. It is quite often used for attacking, using an item, or casting a spell.

A Move Action is an action that takes enough time to move your full movement. Some actions are considered Move Equivalent actions, and take up your move action for the round. You may also take a m ove action in place of a standard action.

In most cases if something happens to prevent you from using your move equivalent action for a round, you will be able to take a five fo step (Move 5 feet in any direction).

A Full Round Action is an action that takes the entire round to perform. You can still perform Free Actions, and a Swift Action, but little else. In most cases a Full Round Action will still allow you to perform a five foot step before or after the action.

A Free Action is an action that takes a very short amount of time, and thus does not count towards your actions for the round, within reason. There are limitations on the number of free actions one can realistically do in a six second span.

A Swift Action is one that is only slightly longer than a free action. You may perform one swift action in a round. A swift action can be performed any time you could perform a free action.

An Immediate Action is like a swift action, except that it can be performed at any time, even during another players turn. If you perform am immediate action during another players turn, then it counts as your free action for your next turn.

Some things are Not an Action, meaning that they take up so little time that they simply do not count as actions, or they are an integral part of performing another action.

Restricted Activity is a situation in which you are heavily restricted in what you may do. In most cases you will still be allowed a five foot step, but that might be the only thing allowed. Each situation will generally have it’s own circumstances and associated restrictions.

[edit] Standard Actions

In most cases a single attack counts as a standard action.
An Armed Melee Attack does not invoke an attack of opportunity.
An Unarmed Melee Attack does provoke an attack of opportunity. Note that some unarmed attacks count as armed attacks and do not invoke an attack of opportunity.
Ranged attacks invoke an attack of opportunity.
Many spells, and most combat related spells, are cast as a standard action. See the spell description for details. Spells that have a casting time of a standard action invoke attacks of opportunity unless cast defensively.
Using most Spell Trigger, Command Word, or Use-Activated Items counts as a standard action and does not invoke an attack of opportunity.
Using a spell completion item, such as a scroll, follows the same rules as casting a spell, and invokes an attack of opportunity. A spell completion item may also be used in a defensive manner, the same as casting a spell, in which case it does not invoke an attack of opportunity.
Most spell like abilities are treated the same as casting a spell.
Most Supernatural Abilities are treated the same as using a spell trigger item.
Most Extraordinary Abilities do not count as using an action, as they are normally reactive or passive in nature. Those that do require an action are normally a standard action that does not invoke an attack of opportunity.
You can defend yourself as a standard action. You get a +4 dodge bonus to your AC for 1 round. Your AC improves at the start of this action. You can’t combine total defense with fighting defensively or with the benefit of the Combat Expertise feat (since both of those require you to declare an attack or full attack). You can’t make attacks of opportunity while using total defense.
The "start full-round action" standard action lets you start undertaking a full-round action, which you can complete in the following round by using another standard action. You can’t use this action to start or complete a full attack, charge, run, or withdraw. This is useful in situations where you are limited to a single standard action for the round (i.e. in situations where you cannot perform a full round action in a single round, but you can perform a standard action).

[edit] Move Actions

With a few exceptions, most move actions do not require a check.

Movement is the simplest move action. You can move a distance up to your speed.
You can Climb up to one quarter your speed. You can climb at one half your climb speed with a -5 to your climb check.
You can Crawl five feet as a move action. This incurs an attack of opportunity.
Drawing or sheathing a weapon counts as a move equivalent action. If you have a +1 attack bonus or greater, then you can do this as a free action as a part of another move (i.e. you can move up to your speed while pulling or sheathing a weapon).
You can ready or loose a shield as a move equivalent action. If you have a +1 or higher attack bonus, then you may do this as a free action as a part of another movement. Drawing a weapon does not incur an attack of opportunity, but sheathing one may.
Manipulating an Item often counts as a move action. This can include picking an item up, getting an item out of or returning it to a bag, opening a door, moving a heavy object. This activity may incur an attack of opportunity.
Directing or Redirecting a Spell: Some spells allow you to redirect the effect to new areas. This is often a move equivalent action. See the spell description for details.
Standing Up from a prone position is a move equivalent action. This invokes an attack of opportunity.
Mounting or Dismounting a Steed requires a move action, and invokes an attack of opportunity. You can mount or dismount as a free action with a DC 20 Ride check (your armor check penalty, if any, applies to this check). If you fail the check, mounting or dismounting is a move action instead. (You can’t attempt a fast mount or fast dismount unless you can perform the mount or dismount as a move action in the current round.)
Some other actions and abilities may be described as Move Equivalent actions. See the descriptions of those abilities for more details.

[edit] Full Round Actions

Some actions take an entire round to complete. In most cases you will still be permitted a five foot step before or after these actions.

Full Attack Action: If a character is able to make multiple attacks per round, because of a high base attack value for instance, then in order to do so they must use a full attack action. A full attack action is a full round action that permits a five foot step before or after the action.
Casting a Spell that has a casting time or one round, is a full round action.
Some Abilities may require a full round action to activate.
Some skill checks require a full round action.
The Withdraw combat action is a full round action. This allows you to move up to twice your base speed in one round. The space that you start in does not count as a threatened space, however if you move through another threatened space then this movement incurs attacks of opportunity as usual. Additionally, you may only Withdraw using forms of movement that you have a listed speed for. As a special exception, if you are restricted to only being able to perform a standard action during a round, then you may use a standard action to Withdraw. However, this option only allows you to move up to your base speed, instead of double. You may not use a five foot step in conjunction with a Withdraw action.
You may Run as a full round action. While running you may move up to four times your base speed (or three times your base speed in heavy armor). While running, you lose your Dexterity Bonus to AC unless you have the run feet. You may run for a number of rounds equal to your constitution score. After this, you must make a Fortitude check every round to continue running. The DC for the first check is 10, and the DC increases by 1 for every additional check. Once the runner has run their limit, they must rest for one minute (10 rounds). During this period of rest they may not move at any speed faster than a normal move action. The character may not run over difficult terrain, or if they cannot see.
Moving 5 feet over difficult terrain is a full round action.

[edit] Free Actions, Swift Actions, and Immediate Actions

Free actions are those that take very little time to complete, and have negligible impact on the performance of other tasks. Free actions rarely invoke an attack of opportunity.

Free actions include things like dropping an item, dropping from a standing position to a prone position, speaking (within reason), preparing spell components to cast a spell, and stopping or starting concentration on a spell or spell like ability.

Swift actions take only slightly longer than Free Actions, and may be performed at any time during your turn. Casting a quickened spell, or a spell that has a casting time of a swift action, are examples of Swift actions. Swift actions will mostly impact spell casting. You may only perform one swift action in a turn.

An Immediate action is like a swift action, except that it can be performed during anyone’s turn. If you perform an immediate action during someone else’s turn, however, then it counts as your Swift action for your next turn.

[edit] Miscellaneous Actions

Taking a 5 Foot Step: In most rounds that you are otherwise unable to move, you may take a five foot step before, during, or after other actions. Characters with a speed of five or less cannot make a five foot step.
Some Feats require different types of actions to use. See the description of the feat in question for more details.
Some Skills are used as a standard action, others require full round or move equivalent actions. See the skill description for details.

[edit] Attacks Of Opportunity

Sometimes a combatant in a melee lets her guard down. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free. These free attacks are called attacks of opportunity.

[edit] Threatened Squares

You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Generally, that means everything in all squares adjacent to your space (including diagonally). An enemy that takes certain actions while in a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity from you. If you’re unarmed, you don’t normally threaten any squares and thus can’t make attacks of opportunity.

[edit] Reach Weapons

Most creatures of Medium or smaller size have a reach of only 5 feet. This means that they can make melee attacks only against creatures up to 5 feet (1 square) away. However, Small and Medium creatures wielding reach weapons threaten more squares than a typical creature. In addition, most creatures larger than Medium have a natural reach of 10 feet or more.

Note: Small and Medium creatures wielding reach weapons threaten all squares 10 feet (2 squares) away, even diagonally. (This is an exception to the rule that 2 squares of diagonal distance is measured as 15 feet.)

[edit] Provoking an Attack of Opportunity

Two kinds of actions can provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square and performing an action within a threatened square.

Moving

Moving out of a threatened square usually provokes an attack of opportunity from the threatening opponent. There are two common methods of avoiding such an attack—the 5-foot step and the withdraw action.

Performing a Distracting Act

Some actions, when performed in a threatened square, provoke attacks of opportunity as you divert your attention from the battle. Actions in Combat notes many of the actions that provoke attacks of opportunity.

Remember that even actions that normally provoke attacks of opportunity may have exceptions to this rule.

[edit] Making an Attack of Opportunity

An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per round. You don’t have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to.

An experienced character gets additional regular melee attacks (by using the full attack action), but at a lower attack bonus. You make your attack of opportunity, however, at your normal attack bonus—even if you’ve already attacked in the round.

An attack of opportunity "interrupts" the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue with the next character’s turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character’s turn).

[edit] Combat Reflexes and Additional Attacks of Opportunity

If you have the Combat Reflexes feat you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. This feat does not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you, you could make two separate attacks of opportunity (since each one represents a different opportunity). Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn’t count as more than one opportunity for that opponent. All these attacks are at your full normal attack bonus.

[edit] Attacking and Defending

More detail to come, but for now:

  Attack Roll  = Base Attack Bonus + Weapon Skill + STR/DEX Mod + Misc Mods + 1D20

  Defense Roll = Base AC + Dex + Misc Mods +1D20

  Parry Roll   = Base AC + Strength + Misc Mods   //Needs some work still

Notes:

Armor does not provide AC as it does in the Dungeons and Dragons system, but rather it provides DR like it does in many other D20 systems.
Base AC refers to the AC bonus provided by the characters class, including any points that may have been redirected to AC by sacrificing other class abilities.

[edit] Parrying an Attack

  Parry Roll   = Base AC + Strength + Misc Mods   //Needs some work still

If the character is armed, and realizes that they are going to be attacked, they can attempt to parry the attack instead of just dodging.