MPNP Combat Instances and Rounds
For obvious reasons, combat has to work differently in the PNP than in the MMO. For full combat information, see Combat and Magic.
Combat is divided into Instances and Rounds. And Instance is the whole of combat, a Round is a specific set of turns within combat.
Contents
Combat Instance
The entire battle, from encountering an enemy until the last enemy is slain, is considered one "instance" of combat. This typically includes all enemies currently in sight, though the WorldShaper can decide which units are and are not involved in the combat. The Game Master should signal start and end of combat.
With regard to Weave Spells, combat is generally very fast. Weave spells are enchantments that generally have a duration of several minutes to several hours. If a spell is cast before or during combat, it should generally be considered to last for the rest of combat. The WorldShaper is free to hand-wave this as needed.
Initiative
At the start of a combat, all players must roll for initiative for each character, this determines what order they may act in. This order persists for the rest of combat.
Initiative is determined by rolling 1d20 + Speed. If two characters tie on this roll, the one with the highest speed stat goes first. If they are still tied, flip a coin.
Additionally, any player who rolls a 20 for initiative gets 1 additional action per round.
Combat Round
A Combat Instance is divided into rounds, each round is a series of turns. Each player gets a turn for each character he or she is playing. When all characters, enemies, and NPCs have taken a turn, the round ends. If enemies are still present, a new round begins.
WorldShaper Note: Rounds do not have specific measures of time associated with them, however we can generally assume that they go by very fast. Estimate about 6 to 10 seconds if you absolutely need a time measure(say a bomb is counting down or something similar). Just remember that it call comes down to the two basic rules.
Combat Turn
A round is further divided into turns. Each player character and enemy gets 1 turn each round to make an attack, move, cast a spell, or perform some other action. The number of 'actions' available is equal to the speed modifier, rounded down to the nearest whole number, with a base minimum of 1. If the character has speed of less than 10, they have 1 action per turn.
Some actions count as Free Actions. Anything that says "as a free action" for example.
Attack Speed
As covered under weapon size, the size of a weapon modifies it's attack speed. Regardless of size, the first attack made in every round costs just 1 action. The ability to make a second attack is based on actions and modifier.
In order to make a second attack, you must have a number of actions equal to 1 + Speed Modifier. For a Medium-sized weapon, this means you would simply need to have 1 remaining action. For a Large weapon, you would need 2 actions.
- Small Weapons: the rules are slightly different as they apply to small weapons, since, as written, a character using a small weapon could make infinite attacks. A character wielding a small weapon may attack two times for each action point spent attacking. They may also attack one time without spending an action point if they have not attacked this round(Example: a character wielding a knife spends one point to move up to an enemy, they may still attack).
Dual Wielding
Characters dual wielding weapons may attack once with the off-hand weapon as a free action if they attacked already using the main-hand weapon and the weapon is Normal-sized. If the weapon is small, they may attack twice.
If they are wielding a Large weapon in the off-hand, they must spend 1 additional action to attack with it. For a Very Large off-hand the cost is 2 actions. This is in addition to the Size Modifier. Example:
A character has two Greatswords. They may attack once for 1 action point with the main-hand, and again with the second weapon in the off-hand as a free action. The weapon size is Large, so they may attack a third time with the main-hand for 2 points, and a fourth time with the off-hand weapon for an additional 3 points.
There is no point cost escalation beyond this, a character with 10 actions points could feasibly swing his swords six times per round.
DV
In Mage Wars PnP, every time a player or a unit is the target of a melee or ranged attack(an attack roll is made against them) their Base DV drops by 10 points for the duration of the round. This stacks, so a second attack will drop the DV by another 10 points. This does not effect AC.
Spellcasting
- Fast Cast: A fast-cast spell costs 1 action
- Slow Cast:
- From Memory: 2 actions
- From Spellbook: 4 actions
- Weave: Same rules as Slow Cast.
Since a Slow Cast spell may cost more actions per turn than a character has, the character will have to spend multiple turns casting.
Activated Abilities
Using an activated ability costs 1 action. Some activated abilities also involve making a melee attack(Injure, for example). In this case, the ability is combined with the attack and does not cost an "extra" action point. Activated Abilities can only be used this way on the first attack per turn, for any subsequent attacks the ability will cost one extra Action.
Magic-based Activated Abilities such as Enforce are applied to the next spell being cast and therefore cost 1 additional action point. Since using the ability and casting the spell are considered two separate actions, they are not subject to an interrupt the way a slow-cast spell is.
Movement
The playing field is divided into rough 1 inch by 1 inch grid squares, though a mat is not necessary. The squares represent 1 square foot, so the game is played on a 1 inch = 1 foot scale. Each player should have a miniature to represent each character they are playing. The miniature should take up no more than 1x1, unless the player has created a larger character.
Each character can move a number of grid squares equal to his speed each turn. Each declared movement costs 1 action. So if a player wishes to run up to one enemy, attack, and then run to another and attack again, they would need a total of four actions.
Combining Actions
Actions can be combined through the use of the Flourish system. Essentially, each level of flourish grants the player 1 additional action point to spend on his or her character's actions for this turn. If a character has only 1 action point to spend, and they would like to use it to run up to an enemy and attack, they would need a successful Level 1 Flourish.
However, a flourish does not grant universal actions, the player may only use these actions to carry out the effect described in the flourish.
Example: a character is wielding a very large weapon and and has only 4 actions. The player wishes his character to make a second attack on a target standing several feet away. Normally, this would require a total of 7 actions. The player succeeds on a Level 4 Flourish, granting a total of 8 actions, and then wants to use the remaining action to run towards another enemy. Unless that movement was described in the initial flourish, they may not use the remaining action.
