Chapter VI: Combat, Damage & Movement
• For big monsters without armour, the easiest thing to do is just ignore the hit location rules until such time as a Critical Hit (see page 133) is scored. Since big monsters don’t wear armour, the location of every single hit doesn’t much matter until the creature starts taking Critical Hits. If a creature has multiple of the same body part (four legs, two heads, etc.), then hits are scored on the nearest one. If two are equally close, dice off between them. If a creature has unusual body parts, substitute using common sense. For instance, a hit might strike a mutant’s tentacle instead of his arm. r anged a TTaCks Ranged attacks are made in the same way as melee attacks, with a few exceptions. First, opponents may not dodge or parry a missile attack. Second, characters can’t make ranged attacks if engaged in melee combat, unless armed with a pistol or crossbow pistol. Third, characters must have a line of sight to the target. This means that nothing obstructs the character’s view of the target. If a character can’t see his opponent for any reason—be it an intervening tree, wall, ally, or other enemy, or fog, darkness, etc.—he cannot shoot. The Ballistic Skill Test to hit may be modified by circumstance. Opponents behind cover, for example, or partially obscured by mist will be harder to hit. The GM should use Table 4-1: Test Difficulty to adjudicate each ranged attack. Firing a missile weapon such as a pistol with the secondary hand imposes a –20% BS penalty. A –20% BS penalty also applies to all shots taken at long range. See Chapter 5: Equipment for details on missile weapons and their ranges. Shooting into Melee Sometimes, a target will already be engaged in melee combat. This makes the target more difficult to hit. A character can make a ranged attack at an opponent engaged in melee, but suffers a –20% Ballistic Skill penalty. Extreme Range Shooting a missile weapon beyond long range is usually a waste of time. It is quite difficult to hit a target so far away with a single shot. In dire straights, however, such shots may be attempted. A character can fire at a target up to double long range away, but must take the aim action first. Furthermore, even with the aim, the character suffers a –30% Ballistic Skill penalty to the attack. T esT d IffICulTy In C ombaT The rules for Test Difficulty apply to combat. They can be used to reflect the effects of terrain, the weather, the tactical situation, and a variety of other factors. Table 6-2: Combat Difficulty provides • •
o pTIonal : s wIfT a TTaCk V arIanTs
• A character must use one of the following in a primary hand: Dagger, Foil, Hand Weapon, Morning Star, or Rapier. A character must use one of the following in a secondary hand: Buckler, Dagger, Hand Weapon, Main Gauche, Shield, or Sword-breaker. A character may use either hand to make an attack. This does not give any extra attacks. Attacks from a secondary hand suffer a –20% Weapon Skill penalty. A character can parry as a free action once per round. This parry can be used at any point during the round. The limit of 1 parry per round remains in effect. h IT l oCaTIon C omplICaTIons The basic rules for hit locations (see Making an Attack , page 129) are simple enough. They do, however, make two assumptions. First, that characters are fighting a bipedal humanoid, be it Human, Orc, Beastman, or Elf. Second, that it is possible to reach all parts of the body when attacking. Obviously, these won’t always be the case. When unusual situations crop up, use the following guidelines. • If it is impossible to reach a location with an attack then it is obviously impossible to strike there. A missile attack against a Soldier behind a battlement, for example, could not hit his legs. Similarly, a Halfling couldn’t hit a Giant in the head with a sword. In these cases, restrict the hit locations to those that are reachable. If a hit location is unreachable, the GM should apply the hit to the nearest reachable location instead. If attacking a mounted opponent (a Goblin on a wolf, for example), the player can choose whether to attack the mount or the rider. • • • • The combat system is designed with ease of play in mind. On a character’s turn, he takes his actions, then the next combatant takes his turn and does the same, and so on. This system works well from a playability standpoint, but some players may find they want more realism where multiple attacks are concerned. If the players don’t mind the added complication and the GM agrees, one or both of the following optional rules can be implemented: Staggered Attacks When a character takes the swift attack action, he makes a number of attacks equal to half his Attacks Characteristic (rounded down) on his turn. At the end of the round, after all combatants have taken their turns, he can take his remaining attacks. If there are multiple combatants making swift attacks, the end-of-the-round attacks are made in Initiative order. Declining Accuracy When making so many attacks in just one round, a combatant may not be able to maintain his normal level of accuracy. In this variant, a character takes a –10% cumulative WS penalty on each attack after the first (to a minimum WS of 10%). The first attack in a round thus has no penalty, the second –10%, the third –20%, etc.
examples for some common situations. u lrIC ’ s f ury !
Normally, when hitting with an attack, the resulting Damage Total equals 1d10 plus the weapon’s damage. When the player rolls a 10 on the die, the character may have struck a particularly brutal blow. Roll to hit again, using all the same modifiers as for the initial roll. If this second roll is successful, this unleashes the fury of Ulric, the ancient and revered God of Battle. The player can roll an additional 1d10 and add the result to the Damage Total. Should the result of this die also be a 10, Ulric has indeed smiled upon the character.
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