Combat System

How Combat Works

Fighting in Bloodline is resolved with each attack or parry representing a single stab, swing, spell cast, or shot of a weapon.

 

Melee and Ranged Weapon Proactive Actions permit the chance to be resisted by a Reaction. Thus, even if a character manages to strike an opponent, the foe is permitted their own roll to see if they can parry or evade the blow before it lands. Parrying Ranged Weapons require a Shield.

 

The same philosophy is not used with Spells. Spells have the benefit of much greater range, damaging multiple Hit Locations, ingrained Special Effects, and not having to Engage opponents to take a Proactive Action against them.

 

As a drawback, most Spells have the Defender auto-roll their Evade, Endurance, Acrobatics, and or Willpower depending on the Spell and uses the best result. This costs no Action Points for the Defender, but still costs the Mage an Action Point.​

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Close Combat (Attacks, Parries, Evade, Wait)

Close Combat is handled in the following step-by-step manner:

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1. Using Start Turn, a Character then uses Move and uses the Engage ability on an enemy or multiple enemies within their weapon's range.

2. The Attacker spends an Action Point to Melee Attack an enemy, rolling a 1d100 and trying to be below their Combat Skill.

3. The Defender may spend an Action Point to Parry, which rolls their Combat Skill, or Evade, which rolls their Evade or Acrobatics (whichever is higher). Alternatively, the Defender can also elect to Wait if the Attacker failed, saving themselves an Action Point. Using Wait counts as a failure, however, so if the Attacker succeeded they gain a Special Effect. Wait must be used if the Defender has no Action Points.

4. If the Attacker achieved a Success and the Defender a Failure, then the Attacker’s weapon damage is applied to a random Hit Location, minus the Defender’s armor there. The Attacker may now also select a Special Effect to use.

5. If the Attacker achieved a Success and the Defender a Success, then weapon sizes are compared, damage calculated, and dealt to the appropriate location if any gets through the parry and armor of the Defender.

6. If the Attacker achieved a Failure and the Defender a Success, then the Defender takes no damage and may now select a Special Effect to use.

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Armor and Encumbrance

Armor reduces any damage which penetrates the defender’s Parry.

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Encumbrance is equal to your total Armor value across all Hit Locations. Every 6 (5.5+ rounds up) Encumbrance gives

• -1 Initiative Bonus

• -1 Movement Rate.

• -4 Evade

• -2 Acrobatics

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Engagement

A character is considered Engaged if within melee weapon range of an opponent.

 

This does not necessarily require that both combatants can reach each other; only that one of them can be potentially struck by the other. Once a character has Engaged with an opponent, they can no longer freely Move. Using the Move ability costs an Action Point, and the Movement Rate is halved.

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Climbing

If your character cannot immediately walk up a space, having to jump or climb it through the mechanical Conan methods, you must use the Climb action. It is a Free Action you can perform on your turn, but still requires actual Movement to be available (Combative Move, Move, Pivot, Close/Open Range) 

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The Climb ability checks your Athletics or Acrobatics, whichever is higher. On a failure, you cannot mount the obstacle. On a success, you can.

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Cover/Line of Sight

You are encouraged to be tactical and utilize cover. If you are unable to be seen or logically struck, then don't let others try to do it anyway. And if you are an Attacker and see your foe is well behind cover, or hard to see through your character;s eyes, reconsider firing that arrow or spell and get a better vantage point. You would want the same courtesy.

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Damage Reduction

If a defender succeeds in parrying, then they reduce an attacker’s damage, if any, according to the comparative Size of the weapons used. 

 

Each size of a parrying weapon less than an opponent's means 25% of the damage rolled is dealt to the Hit Location struck.

 

For example, a Greatshield (Huge) parrying a Great Axe (Huge) would block all damage; a Longsword (Large) would reduce 75% of the damage; a Shortsword (Medium) would stop 50% of the damage; a Dagger would stop 25% of the damage.

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Evading

Evading in combat is to throw oneself clear of an attack rather than Parrying or Waiting for it to strike. This allows a character to garner a success without the potential damage breakthrough of a greater sized weapon hitting their parry. But, a failure means all damage will land upon them if the Attacker was successful in their attack. All or nothing.​​​​

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Fate Points

Fate Points represent that strange force differentiating our adventuring heroes in Thedas from everyday folk. Call it fate, karma, or simple good fortune. Fate Points are the same for all, starting at 3. They cannot be replenished and can only be used to Cheat Fate.

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Cheat Fate can be used anytime your character is struck with a Killing Blow. Unless they have a pre-approved PK ticket on your character, approved due to escalation, No Value Life (NVL), or other high-tier circumstances agreed upon to make Fate Points moot in a certain situation.

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Luck Points

Luck Points represent a burst of adrenaline or showcase of willingness to persevere and can be used for:​​​

• Desperate Action: Gain +1 Action Point.

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All characters start with 1 Luck Point, gaining an additional 2 with every 6 points put into Power. Only 1 Luck Point is regained on Rest. None are regained on Recover.

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Outnumbered

Although the systems of Bloodline are meant to be more realistic and lethal, we still have exceptions to protect and foster roleplay. This includes 3v1, 5v2, 7v3, 9v4... and so on, situations. Any time a group is double the size of the enemy group + 1, the following applies:

• Killing Blows must be pre-approved from an Admin Ticket. No player can suffer a Perma-Kill in an Outnumbered fight without one unless they consent.

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Out of Action Points

In a situation where a Defender is unable to Parry due to having no Action Points remaining, or, confident in his ability to weather the blow, elects not to Parry by using the Wait ability, they are treated as having automatically rolled a Failure. This has the consequence of granting a successful Attacker a Special Effect.

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When a Character runs out of Action Points, a status will appear above their head stating 'No AP'. When that Character uses Start Turn or End Turn, it will automatically recover their Action Points, inflict 1 Fatigue, and End their Turn if it wasn't already, preventing any Proactive Action from being performed.

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In Character, this is seen as a character having exhausted their stamina for combat and taking a moment to recover their breath, allowing them to fight on—or to gain the wisdom to retreat.

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Parrying a Missed Attack

Even if the Attacker misses their initial attack roll, the Defender has the option to spend an Action Point to Parry. Although it may seem disingenuous to parry an attack which will miss anyway, a strategic Defender can use this to their advantage to gain a Special Effect, potentially weakening or incapacitating a foe.

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Passive Blocking / Ward Location

Passive Blocking allows a character armed with a weapon to hold it in such a way that it covers a chosen location (or multiple locations when using a shield or a polearm)

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Any attack which hits the location Warded automatically receives damage reduction based on the character's average weapon size, reducing damage as if it was parried. This does not mean a successful parry occurred, however, and an Attacker can still use a Special Effect.

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Shields and certain larger, defensive weapons have access to Warding more locations. All weapons can Ward at least 1 location. The smartest places to Ward are the Head and under armored places, or the torso as it has the largest dice range.

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Pre-buffing

If a character does not have the Surprised status they are permitted to perform 1 buffing action, then they are to use the Reset Action Points Debug ability. The ability used cannot target enemies or affect them in any way, the caster can only affect themselves and allies in the pre-buff stage once.

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Special Effects

Fighting is far more than simply injuring or killing an opponent. Combative arts teach many methods of defeating a foe, perhaps rendering them helpless or forcing them into situations where they must capitulate, without necessarily needing to cause them harm.

 

Special Effects represent these techniques and are only useable when a character has a Success and their foe a Failure.

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Certain Special Effects are only able to be used Offensively, others only Defensively, and some can be used either way. Certain Special Effects can also be limited to specific weapon types, or must be learned.

The Special Effect table below is not considered to be comprehensive, but it has the most common.

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Special Effects Table