Combat & Tactics
Combat & Tactics
Combat in Al'Akwannon follows a variety of meta-game rules to help manage time, actions and effects. While these do not perfectly emulate how things would behave in reality, it draws a balance between what can be accomplished in a certain amount of time while allowing attacks and defenses to be managed. Info on weapons, armor, weapon proficiencies, non-magical equipment, the elements of time (real time vs artificial game abstractions, such as melee rounds, turns, etc.) are all contained in this area. Keep in mind that not everything is here, there are a variety of non-weapon proficiencies that can influence attacks and there are things outside of attacks that can come into play. Use the various rules outlined here as guidelines to ensure the story element you are working through is as managed and balanced as possible and realize that this particular part of the game is a bit more rules heavy than the story telling elements and aspects.
We will look at changing the "attacks/round" designation to "actions/round" in "combat" actions can be a myriad of things, spells, attacks, movement, grabbing things, knocking stuff over, etc. This may both better organize what can be done as well as provide special capabilities to benefit specific classes (i.e. - warrior may gain a bonus "attack action" only, rogue may gain a bonus "generic action" only (aka - non attack, non spell), wizards & priests may gain a bonus "spell action", etc.) This will be play tested in the next game.
Another change to be introduced in the next campaign will be advantage (ADV) and disadvantage (DIS). Being at advantage will be situational, rather than a set of predefinied things (so you will not automatically gain advantage by flanking or attacking from an elevated position). Howevere, this will also open up more opportunities to be at advantage that would not normally be considered (i.e. - you've simply caught someone off guard, you're a hunter, hunting your usual prey, you've taken an extra melee to line up a shot, etc.) The same thing will apply for disadvantage. However this is an excellent method to be employed when you outclass opponents. If your warrior is a weapon master and is fighting those with merely weapon proficiency, they'll automatically be at disadvantage.
Rules for ADV and DIS are virtually the same as other systems that use it. When gaining ADV on a roll, you will roll the die/dice twice and take the better/more preferred result. This could be an attack, a save, a skill roll, even a damage roll depending on the circumstances. For DIS, you will roll the dice twice and take the worse outcome of the two. For players, this will be an extra layer especially for skills. I.e. - you are attempting to use a skill to cover an area not truly covered by your expertise (i.e. - you use a healing skill in place of a poison skill to determine what manner of poisoning is in place and the best method of treatment, that healing roll would be at disadvantage.)
Combat PDF Reference
Combat Reference
Weapon Info