Etapa de filtrado anal´ ogico de la se˜ nal EMG

C^OMBAT From Arduin Grimoire I (Pages 50 – 52) M^AIN C^OMBAT T^ABLE From Arduin Grimoire I (Page 59)

B^RAWL C^HART From Arduin Grimoire I (Pages 62 – 63) MELEE CHART From Arduin Grimoire I (Page 54) MISCELLANEOUS NOTES From Arduin Grimoire II (Page 1) COMBAT RULES From Arduin Grimoire II (Page 70) N^OTES O^N F^IGHTING M^EN A^ND T^HE U^SE

OF WEAPONS From Arduin Grimoire II (Pages 72 – 73)

C ^OMBAT

Fantasy gaming has a tendency to bog down during the combat phase of play. The following notes and tables have been produced after much play testing and observation of “real” combat as practiced by the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. (which, I might add, is as close as one will ever come to the real thing, this side of a time machine.)

Generally speaking, combat takes place in a series of “melee turns”, these turns being six seconds in duration. Ten melee turns constitute one regular movement turn. However, rather than dividing movement by 10 in order to determine the movement rate during combat, characters are considered to move their full movement rate each melee turn. This is because all normal movement turns are predicated on the characters moving at a very slow walk, searching diligently for traps and secret doors, whereas a melee turn is at full speed. So remember: a character covers the same distance in a melee turn as in a normal movement turn – he or she is just moving faster.

Having play tested and watched “real” combat, I came to the conclusion that certain things should be incorporated into fantasy combat. Here they are:

• Only two warriors may fight side by side in a 10' space at full efficiency, or only one man with a two handed weapon. If two two-handed weapons or three regular weapons are wielded within that space, then the warriors involved suffer a -2 penalty on their attack rolls.

Although it is nearly impossible to get three two-handed weapons into use in such a small space, four normal weapons may be wielded, but at -4 on the attack – unless the weapons used (all of them) are spears, which may be wielded phalanx fashion. Carrying this one step further, if there are three spearmen with shields fighting together in that 10’ wide corridor, add 2 to all of their defenses, and if there are four of them, add 4 to their defenses.

• Speaking of spears and other long weapons, the longest weapon in any melee will always strike first regardless of opposing dexterities. On the other hand, because of the unwieldiness of spears and pole arms in close combat, after the initial round of combat, the spearman will suffer a -2 penalty on attacks if his opponent steps into him and forces him to shorten up on his shaft. The best way to counter this, of course, is to be in one of the aforementioned phalanxes.

Shields play a real role in combat, one which most fantasy rules fail to explore fully. So here are my ideas on shield use in close combat:

• On any melee turn, a Warrior with a shield may elect to strike with it instead of with his weapon. Because the striking area of the shield is so large, +4 is added to the attack. The shield will do one point of damage, plus one additional point for every point over 15 of the Warrior’s strength. In any case, the shield will “push back” a similar-sized opponent, and has a 2% chance per experience level of knocking him down.

• A shield covers the front of the Warrior and the side on which it is carried, but the side with the weapon is uncovered, and does not get the shield’s bonus to armor class, unless a facing movement is made by the Warrior to cover that side before he is engaged in combat. Also, when attacking diagonally across one’s shielded side, subtract -1 from the attack, as the arm has to travel in an armor restricted direction, and over an obstruction (the shield).

• Based on the difference in level between the attacker and defender, there is a 15% chance per level of difference (assuming that the attacker’s level is higher) that the attack will slip past the shield, so that it cannot be counted in the defender’s armor class. Those of equal level always have a 5% chance of getting past an opponent’s shield, and, of course, those of a lower level than those they attack have no chance to do so.

Enough on shields. Here are a few more ideas on combat in general.

• In movement and combat, the more armor one wears, the more restricted one is. Armor

class 2 or 3 subtracts -3 from Dexterity and Agility. Armor class 4 and 5 subtract -2, and armor class 6 and 7 subtract -1. These penalties are always subtracted before combat.

• In combat, the person with the highest Dexterity attacks first, assuming relatively equal armaments. It is also possible to get more than one attack in a melee turn, but that also depends on superior speed or dexterity. For example, an Orc has a DEX 7, and he faces an Elf with a DEX 17. The Elf attacks first at 17, and ordinarily the Orc would attack next at 7, but since the Elf is more than twice as fast, his second attack comes in at 8 ½ (half of his dexterity of 17), so in effect he attacks twice before the poor Orc can even attack once.

Another example: an Amazon with DEX 18 and carrying a rapier engages a pirate with DEX 9 carrying a spear. The pirate, by virtue of having the longer weapon, will attack first, but the Amazon, by virtue of a faster Dexterity, can elect to parry rather than using her first attack, and then counter-attack with her second. You will note the pattern of these combats.

If a person has at least twice the Dexterity of his opponent, then he will get two or more attacks, depending on the actual Dexterity. It is even possible to get three or more attacks in a turn if you are that much faster than your opponent. The timing of these attacks is ascertained by dividing your Dexterity by the number of attacks. (You have a dexterity of 18; your opponent has a dexterity of 6. You will get three attacks, one each on 18, 12, and 6, at which point the enemy will get an attack in return.)

• You will also note that a superior Dexterity can always elect to parry instead of attacking. To determine whether a parry is successful, just roll your normal attack roll. If a hit is indicated, you have successfully parried the attack. In the case of fangs and claws instead of weapons, here is how it works. A dragon normally gets two claws and a bite (or breath) each melee turn, so his attack is already broken up into three phases by the simple virtue of having two separate claws and a head. So if his Dexterity is 10 and yours is 15, you attack first, and there is no worry – but if his is 16 and yours is only 8, then his first claw strikes on 16, his second at around 11, then you attack on 8, and finally his bite follows at 5 or so. The pattern will hold for all monsters regardless of the number of appendages they use in combat. Just divide that number into their dexterity, and you have the pattern of their attack.

• A shield can be used to block a specific attack in much the same way you parry against a weapon. If you have the higher dexterity, and you do not want to risk getting hit by the cockatrice, you roll your normal attack, at +4 because of the size of the shield, and if you hit, you block the attack. Remember, though, that this is in lieu of your normal attack.

One further note: full Elves only have the option each and every melee turn of moving and then attacking, of attacking twice (regardless of relative dexterities), or of moving double the normal movement rate. So as you see, an Elf could move his normal movement allowance, then decide that his opponent might just eat him, and elect to “keep on trucking” and move again, thus covering twice the distance a non-Elf could have covered.

One of the real problems of melees is that there is always one idiot who hollers “I’m firing my crossbow at such and such”, totally ignoring the fact that nine of his friends are in the way. Here is how you discourage such stupidity: for every person in a given 10’ area that the dummy fires into, there is a 25% chance of hitting the wrong target. Roll the percentage chance first, then determine (by random roll, excluding the intended target), who he actually hit. After he has killed off a few of his friends, the turkey will normally get the message.

A factor in any melee is the combatant’s ability to force his opponent back so that he may trip over some obstruction (his dead friend, for example), or fall down some stairs, or what have you.

Therefore, consider any attack that is one less than the number needed to hit to push the opponent back a distance of 3’.