8/8/2019 The Art of Combat

1/6

The ArTofCombATCo m b A T o p T i o n s f o r

WA r r i o r , ro g u e & mA g e

b y m i C h A e l W o l f

~ s u p p l e m e n T # 2 ~

8/8/2019 The Art of Combat

2/6

Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf

The Forge Stu-dios, Pawel Dobosz and Maciej Zagorski. Usedwith permission.

From The Imperial Forges is 2010 Michael Wolf. Some rights reserved.All contents of this document (aside from the artwork) have been licensed under a Creative Com-mons BY~NC~SA 3.0 Germany license.

For more information check out www.creativecommons.com and www.stargazergames.eu.Warrior, Rogue & Mage is Michael Wolf

pleAsenoTe: ThisWholebookmAybefreelyCopiedAndshAredforpersonAluse!

8/8/2019 The Art of Combat

3/6

In WR&M armor adds to the Defense of a char-acter, making him harder to hit. This is remi-niscent of classic fantasy games, speeds up play

but is not very realistic. It also can lead to thestrange situation that certain characters cantpossibly hit a well-armored opponent. The fol-lowing options allows GMs to handle armordifferently. It is highly recommended to use theprecise hit option when using alternate armor.

Instead of increasing Defense the armor now

reduces the damage taken. The listed Defensevalue If the armor worn is the amount of dam-age that the armor reduces from each attack.Please note that shields still grant their Defensebonus.Example: a soldier is wearing chain armorwhich has listed Defense of 5. He is hit by anattack which causes 7 damage. Because of hisarmor, he only suffers 2 points of damage.

Instead of increasing Defense armor adds ad-ditional hit points that are used before the char-acter is damaged. The listed Defense value ofthe armor times five is the number of additionalHPs granted. When the armor reaches zero hitpoints it is considered destroyed and must be re-placed or repaired. Hitpoints granted by armordo of course not heal naturally.Example: a soldier wearing chain mail armor

(25 hp) gets struck by an axe which causes 3damage. This damage is subtracted from the ar-mors HPs. The armor is now down to 22 hitpoints.

In WR&M the precision of an attack does notadd to the damage caused. Especially when us-

ing one of the armor options, this can lead toabsurd situations, where armor cant be over-come by the characters or their adversaries. Thisis where the precise hit option comes in. Whenusing that option, the damage caused by an at-tack is increased by the margin of success of theattack roll. This additional damage is capped atthe maximum damage the weapon can normal-ly cause. The maximum damage for a weaponwith 1d6 damage is 6 for example.

exAmple: A soldier using a sword attacks anopponent with a Defense of 6. His attack roll isa 9. So the margin of success is 3. He then rollsfor damage. With a damage roll of 4 plus the 3additional damage, he causes 7 damage to hisopponent.

8/8/2019 The Art of Combat

4/6

Characters wielding any melee weapon can tryto parry attacks. In order to be able to parry they

also have to be aware of the attack. Parrying al-ways consumes the defending players combataction. If you already acted this turn, you canchoose to forfeit your next action instead. Thisdoes not apply to characters with Dual-wield.They can use their off-hand weapon to parryfreely.

To parry successfully the result on a Warriorcheck has to be equal or higher than what

the attacking player rolled. The GM may addmodifiers to that roll when parrying against amuch stronger foe. There should also be penal-ties when you try to parry a swing by a two-

handed sword with your dagger. Players canadd in their weapon skill bonus when tryingto parry. Its usually not possible to parry ranged

attacks.

Dodging works similar to parrying. You haveto forfeit one combat action and your check re-sult has to be higher than your opponents at-tack roll result. But in the case of dodging Rogueis used and players can add +2 if they have theAcrobatics skill. When trying to dodge missileattacks you have to use Mage and Awareness

instead. Especially in the case of dodging fast-travelling projectiles like crossbow bolts or bul-lets, GM discretion is advised.

This talent allows you to protect one of yourallies from, by jumping into the way of the at-tack and taking the damage instead of them.This talent is most effective when used withthe alternate armor rules. In order to do so, youmake a Dodge check against the attackers at-tack. When successful you take the damage in-stead of your ally. Armor applies as normal.With GMs discretion this can also be used byyour henchman, if you also have the henchmantalent. He then can use this talent to protect his

patron.

Your great skill in your weapon of choice allowsyou to parry even missile attacks. You have topick one weapon of choice which you must be

skilled in. You can then use this weapon to tryto parry ranged attacks directed at you. Parry-ing missile attacks always costs you one combataction, even if you have the Dual-wield talent.

nimblefighTerThis talent allows you to dodge without forfeit-ing a combat action.

8/8/2019 The Art of Combat

5/6

8/8/2019 The Art of Combat

6/6