MRPG Combat and Magic

This page covers the basics of combat and spell-casting within combat.

Combat has three stages:

• Attack Roll
• Effect Roll
• Damage Roll

Percentage Roll

The basic roll for any action is a percentage roll. This can be done in a variety of ways, but the simplest is to use two 10-sided dice and roll one for the first number and the second for the last number. Any method is acceptable as long as it produces a number between 0-99.

Attack

Attack Roll

Each character has a score for Attack and Defense. When rolling for either of these actions, you add your attack or defense bonus to your percentage roll.

Dodge

Dodge Exists as a separate proficiency. In combat, the character rolls first for Defense, then again for Dodge, if either is successful, the attack is evaded.

Special Attacks

A 'Special Attack' is any kind of attack that uses an Activated Ability. Examples include Injure and Multi-Shot. Unless specified on the attack rules, special attacks must still roll for a normal attack and succeed. In addition, some special attacks have Star Ratings that must meet or exceed that of the target to be successful.

Some Activated Abilities can be used as a free action outside of a regular attack, at which point they have no roll. Some activated abilities(such as Multi-Shot) are specific special-attack abilities and must be combined with an attack. In these instances, the ability will be marked as a special attack.

Sneak Attack

Any attack that is unexpected counts as a sneak attack. While the decision as to what counts it ultimately in the hands of the World Shaper, the general rule of thumb is the target has to be reasonably unable to have reacted to the attack. In a Sneak Attack, there is no roll, the attack is an automatic success and moves to the Effect Dice stage.

Effect Roll

Each character assembles their own "Effect Dice" for use on attacks. This is a six-sided dice where each side has been mapped to an effect on a table. Some builds will be able to add additional effect dice for more damage.

Base Effects

The basic effects are: Glancing Blow, Light Strike, Full Hit, and Critical Hit. How the player assembles their effect dice is up to them, but the different types have their own values. Players get 4 points to build their base effect dice with, and earn additional points from Facets and by leveling up.

• Glancing Blow - 0
  • Base weapon damage only, no bonuses for quality or + values, or special effects

• Light Strike - 2
  • Base damage + special effects, no bonuses for + values or quality

• Full Hit - 3
  • All weapon damage counted

• Crit - 6
  • Damage Multiplied according to weapon critical multiplier

Other effects can be found as facets.

• Vorpal
  • Instant-kill, requires a Very Fine weapon.

A Thought

What if instead of letting it be customized via point system, its by facet?

E.G. everyone's basic table looks like this:

Side	Effect
1	Glancing Blow
2	Glancing Blow
3	Glancing Blow
4	Strike
5	Full Hit
6	Critical Hit

And then you earn facets to modify it, like:

• Extra Strike - replace one instance of 'Glancing Blow' with 'Strike' on your Effect Dice table.

The end result is the same: the dice is still customized, but there isn't a complex point system to keep track of. Crits can happen at lvl 1. And there can be much finer control over how a dice can be structured.

Another Thought

Multiple effect dice?

You have the table as above, you roll 3 dice, if any two match, that's your hit according to the table. Otherwise its a glancing blow(E.G. each attack that succeeds deals damage).

In this system, two 6s is a crit, 3 is a vorpal.

Could eliminate the percentage roll? Or do more with percentage role.

I like the idea of "Roll attack to defeat defense... succeed? now roll for how much you succeeded... now roll for damage."

What about removing damage rolls except on bonuses? E.G instead of having a damage dice, a weapon just has base damage:

• Longsword
  • Sub-type: Longsword
  • 1 handed
  • Base Damage: 6
    • Max Critical: 3
  • Size: Medium
  • Quality: Poor to Very Fine
  • Weight: 12
  • Minimum Level: 1
  • Special:
  • Base Value: 36

In this configuration, each + would add 1 point to the base damage, and you'd only roll if the weapon had special add-on damage features(like 1d8 fire damage). M

How about "Critical Multiplier" and "Critical Threshold"? In this system, the weapon has 2 effects on it: critical multiplier(how much the damage increases on a crit" and "critical threshold" how many dice have to match to get a crit. For most weapons this will be 2, but for some it may be 3 and for others it may just be 1(E.G. one 6 counts as a crit)

Will also add some feature where you can roll extra dice or if all 3 dice match that makes it extra special.

Damage Roll

Every weapon has a base damage dice, a + value, and might have additional effects that case damage. The various kinds of hits as covered in the Effect Dice determine how damage is dealt. On a Critical Hit, you roll for damage, then multiply it by the weapon's critical multiplier.

Defense

Defense is straightforward, when you become the target of an attack, you roll percentage and add your Defense.

Resistance

A subset of defense, this roll is used in a variety of circumstances.