Combat

Attack Rolls

When rolling attack dice, it is similar to making a skills check, but this is based on one's skills of combat. The results of hitting varies by method and weapon, but conceptually, it is really no different. Combat attacks use multiple sets of d20s based on the characters skills. In this case, the opponent’s Defense score is the TM. Some dice may meet the TM and others might not. As such this determines the variance of damage delivered.

One important difference with attacks versus the skill check above is that combat uses statistical outliers of raw numbers to prevent always and never hitting. Thus, the natural 20 and natural 1 raw score values have significance. Regardless of the math, if a natural 20 is rolled on the die, this die counts as a hit. Conversely, any time score of natural 1 is rolled, then that die will miss the target. However, traits like chance allows a single natural 1 in the dice pool of an attack to be re-rolled. Also, these special raw numbers merely indicate whether the die hits or misses in an attack; it does not guarantee a crit or a fumble.

While this will be discussed more later, when attacking with advantage, not only is an extra die added to the die pool, but further damage is increased by +2 points. Likewise, when attacking at disadvantage, the total damage is decreased by -2, which means the inflicted amount could result as zero or lower. Of course, negative damage cannot happen, but some attacks will be neutralized by disadvantage even if successfully striking the opponent.

Initiative

With the discussion about initiative rolls, it opens up more details about combat. Typically, this is a clash between two sides who swing melee weapons, shoot arrows, hurl projectiles, inflicts pain, and create magic effects. As processing all these events simultaneously is extremely difficult in any gaming mechanism, Enchanted Realms uses the popular concept of an order of turns as its way the resolve combat. However, what is not as common is the method, which we have come to call the Cool-Down Rondel Hybrid.

The key to understanding this method is to recognize that movement and actions are completely separate mechanics. Actions are an order of turns, as stated above, during which a creature makes an attack, starts pleading a divine prayer, activates an item, loads an ally’s crossbow, uses a healing salve, and so on. Due to other systems, players are often inclined to think these actions include the movement to accomplish the task. However, in this Rondel Hybrid, movement is theoretically constant, happening between actions -- or at least to opportunity to move is available between actions. Those opportunities will also occur in the order-tracking method, which will be explained below.

For ”initiative,“ actions are the primary focus. This will be a numerical value as the order of when the action occurs. As the battle begins, everyone starts with a random but modified value based on a d12. This score will be further adjusted by the Perception modifier. The counter starts at 1 and increments as the combat ensures through out the fight. The combat does not have artificial time segments like rounds, ticks or moments. Such mechanics usually mean opportunities reset for everyone on the battlefield for a new set of actions. Instead, the timer for a single combat is continuous, like a rondel, and never resets, always progressing upward until one side retreats, destroys the other, or a negotiation is reached.

For a brief moment, movement needs to be discussed again. Remember the details will be explained in the Movement section below. It must be mentioned here because an action can only happen if the desired result is within range. This should be obvious for combat — if the fighter is four hexes away from the intended target, then swinging the sword does no good. Thus, the fighter must either select a target that is within reach or hold the action more movement opportunities come up to close the gap. This could also be true for casting magic. If the axiom or incantation desired to use has a six-hex range, but the target is at a distance of ten hexes, then a different action would have to be taken or the action held.

With that aside out of the way, let’s continue to discuss how the rondel part of the system works. If unfamiliar with the term, rondel merely means small circle. The term is commonly used in board games where a token moves around the board in a circle (rondel) repetitively. The idea of a rondel is that other actions usually must be used before repeating the “big action.” The concept is similar here with the opportunity for movement being the provision steps before using the main action again. Then the cycle just repeats.

When the tracker reaches a number that matches an initiative belonging to a character/monster, then that entity gets to take an action. From time to time, players, NPCs and monsters will end up sharing the same initiative order; thus, tie-breakers on a d20 are used with the lowest value going first. Of course the API in Roll20 will manage this mechanism automatically.

After taking that action, the combatant will calculate its cool-down period, typically around the value of 10, but it can vary based on several factors, such as weapon speed, casting time, skills, stats, and die rolls. However, again, the API will manage most of this. Nonetheless, depending on the character, choice of actions and luck, certain characters might have one or two more actions than others during a combat; however, normally it will be close to even.

Below are a list of actions with the cool-down values:

To reiterate, after the action and cool-down period are calculated, then the combatant moves down to the appropriate position in the initiative tracker for its next action. Thus, if the action was taken on 6 and the cool-down value is 9, then the combatant’s next action would be in 15. The API will handle the math and move the character’s next rondel position.

Notice that there are footnotes on the above table for Change Action and Hold Action. GMs should base these on the honor system and not handle them with a heavy hand, but the idea is when a player was charging towards the monster but needs to divert and give aid to an ally, or when the weapon held from the last swing is not the one to be used next, then a little extra delay with d4s is added to reflect that adjustment. Again, this should not be enforced with strict monitoring as it will slow play and ruin the rhythm of combat.

An additionally important note about Hold Action is that it can only be used once consecutively. If action holding one’s action and the next initiative comes up with no option within range, the combatant has limited options. One can choose to reset the action, which sets the next initiative value using d4+8 without modifiers. Alternately, the creature/character can choose some sort of usable action, like applying a healing salve, casting a spell, etc. Lastly, one could choose to use full guard as the action. Whichever of these is chosen, this will count as a used action-turn when counting the number of actions before any effect expires. This will be more clear when reading magic spell descriptions. To clarify, no Change Action delay is needed when taking one of these alternate actions after a Hold Action.

Further, Magic and Skill actions also use modifiers based on the specific skill or magic type. Faith is used for divine magic, while Logic is used for axioms. Certain skills may have a modifier listed in their description; otherwise, Agility is used by default.

Additionally, there may be times when a Player-Character doesn’t really have an action to take. When this occurs, it should be assumed that the character goes into full guard, actively being defensive in the fray. Thus, that action and delay would be used for this. That said, remember that actions and movement are separate processes in the game. Thus, one can be in full guard but still be moving about on the map.

Actions

Continuing with how combat works, actions are what happens when one’s turn is taken. Keep in mind that an action happens in roughly one second of time for the character, even though it will be much slower for the players. Due to the fleetness and hustle of battle, some actions require a little prep while others can occur fluidly. As stated before, changing course can be costly. For all these reasons, this is why there is a d4 cost for changing intent or holding an action (mostly enforced by the honor system).

All that said, let’s break down what these actions listed in the above section mean and how to distinguish some of them. We hope the concept of a combat action is mostly obvious. This is swinging a weapon at the enemy. This is shooting an arrow at someone. This also includes all those grappling, pushing and tripping techniques. However, the phrase “battle-magic” might be open for interpretation. Essentially, the difference when casting a magical effect is whether that effect is also a direct attack on an enemy, which can only be interpreted as an attack (without wild lists of exceptional circumstances, at least).

Thus, if casting something that uses a touch-attack, that would be a combat action unless the magic description states otherwise. If the magic enhances the weapon in the same action (perhaps by using a reaction in conjunction) to deliver damage or debuff the enemy, then it would be a combat action, despite casting time or other delays. Magical effects that nerf the enemy but offer a save, such as confusion, would NOT be combat. There are reasonable uses for such a magical spell other than combat, even if it commonly used during a battle. Long-story short, these are the general distinctions for the usage.

Here are a few other combat actions that might need further explanation; most will have expanded details in the Advanced Mechanics part of the book. One is called “getting the drop,” which is a special attack to force a compromising situation to extort others to stop combat or change their actions. It will often involve a weak target. The other action that is not uncommon is the sneak attack, which is enhanced by a backstab skill. It is exactly as it sounds, an attack against a victim who is unaware the attack is coming. The rules of how the extra dice are added will be detailed later; however, this is also a combat action.

The option to “dash” as an action happens often, typically at the start of a combat to close the distance. This will be detailed a little more in the Movement section below; however, the overview is that one doubles his or her movement rate in lieu of taking a different action. This is similar but not quite the same as the “withdrawal action,” which permits a character to use defensive combat techniques to careful move away from an engaged combatant. This means that the enemy will not be allowed a flee-attack (explained later). However, as the movement system works, it is possible that the enemy could give chase and render the withdrawal ineffective.

Going defensive or often called “full guard” is a passive action, but an action nonetheless. What it does is for the next 12 initiative counts is make the character at disadvantage to hit for all physical combat, which will include any combat magic that targets the Defense score.

Why would one “hide” as an action? Possibly the character is over his head and needs to get away. However, there might be a more strategic reason, which would be to get out of the awareness of a specific target to re-enter the fray with a sneak attack. That said; one cannot use a hide action if being directly engaged in melee.

Magic use is partly described above. This is essentially anything that is not battle-magic but still involves using an axiom, incantation, scroll or even a magical item.

Skills seem straight forward, but it might be ambiguous to some. Some examples would be using engineering for make-shift weapon, psionics to make a mental attack, or even rendering medical aid to a victim. One might attempt to sway, intimidate or parlay amidst a brawl. These types of communication actions are considered skill actions, even if they are blind attempts without the proficiency.

Movement

In any turn-based combat system, movement is always a challenge and often becomes unbalanced with a lot of the other parts of play. Due to the timing of initiative, using total movement applied on one’s turn often creates unreachable targets -- or the opposite, no opportunity to run.

However, to resolve this in Enchanted Realms, we integrate the movement into the Cool-Down Rondel Hybrid for tracking initiative order. To be clear how this works, throw away the idea of movement speed as a number. Instead there are 9 movement tiers, which are represented by a color and a symbol as a mnemonic to help players remember them. The 9 tiers are listed to the right:

Every character, NPC, monster and so on will have an assigned movement tier. Thus, instead of having a movement measure in the feet or hexes, the tier is value used. The example column in the table is the default tier for the creature listed. This should give an idea of the speed of each tier. Now, encumbrance can still effect movement, but rather than lowering the number, it will drop the ladened being to a lower tier.

As suggested earlier, movement is where the rondel falls into the typical concept. Unless restrained or paralyzed, a character will always have the opportunity to move at least once before having an initiative action again. Depending on the movement tier in which the character belongs, there might be several short movements before the action comes around again. This will keep players engage while waiting for their turn to come around again.

In this interface, every third counter value will have a movement pattern with the color of the tiers as well as a corresponding number of hexes for that tier. Not every color will appear on every opportunity, specifically, the slower tiers will be mathematically unavailable at times. All battlefield creatures with matching colors for that opportunity are able to move up to the number of hexes stated for that counter value. In other words, in the image to the left, the counter value is two. Thus, if a creature were a Red-Fox tier, then that creature could move two hexes. Alternately, if a creature were a Green-Horse tier, then that creature would have the option of moving up to four hexes. Of course, terrain penalties for difficulty still apply; thus, if allowed two hexes but moving into a treacherous craggy spot with loose gravel, then movement ability would be halved -- or in this example, limited to only one hex. Further, if one hex is moved to normal terrain but the following hex is difficult terrain, then that second hex is not permitted, as one must have 2 hexes remaining to enter into a difficult-terrain hex.

How will this movement system affect the rules for flee-attacks/attacks of opportunity? Well obviously certain rules from the previous version must be revised. The quick answer is flee-attacks will no longer exist, but attacks of opportunity will (although less likely than before). Some give and some take have been factored to account for this change; however, the answers are balanced, and a detailed explanation will be given in the Advanced Mechanics section.

Reactions

A combatant is permitted an action approximately every 10 counts of the tracker; however, there is another opportunity for that entity to have further impact on the combat. This is through a game mechanic called a reaction. A reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some sort. This trigger can occur on the player’s turn or due to action of someone or something else. In terms of timing, unless stated differently in the description, the reaction happens immediately after the trigger condition occurs. Should the reaction interrupt another creature's turn, then that creature can continue its turn right after the reaction is processed.

However, once using a reaction, there is a cool-down period before another reaction can be used. That value is a static count of 8 with no modifiers. It will not be noted in the Roll20 tracker. Instead, the flex marker will be displayed on the character’s token, which will disappear 8 counts later.

Some reactions are basic ones which anyone can perform, while others require a skill (or possibly a magic spell) to be able to use. Reactions are not required to use, but they are limited to one use per creature per combat round. Just like actions, the reaction counter is reset at the start of the following round.

Examples: