Fighting

Everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth.
- Attributed to Mike Tyson

Choose a fighting style:

When you attack with a bow:

• Benefits:
  • The target cannot use partial cover to negate a hit.
  • You may attack a target at long (instead of medium) range.¹⁾
  • You can attack a target using an arrow shot that takes a ballistic path, as long as it is within range. For example, if a target is behind a wall, you may shoot an arrow over that wall to attempt to hit a target, even if you cannot see the target.
• Drawbacks:
  • If you parry with your bow or crossbow, it is destroyed.
  • Attacking a target that is able to attack you within melee range imposes disadvantage on your attack.

If you have 5 ranks in fighting, you can hit any target with an arrow, so long as it's within range and the arrow's ballistic flightpath is unobstructed.

• Benefit: When you use your action to attack, your companion may make one attack of their own.

(Rambo-style - traps, exploiting environmental hazards)

• When you inflict an injury, you may instead inflict an injury with the condition 'grappled'. If you inflict an injury to a target suffering the 'grappled' condition, it gains the 'pinned' condition.

• Benefits:
  • You can improvise weapons from things in your environment. You can freely lift and wield up to two objects per turn as improvised weapons.
• Drawbacks:
  • Improvised weapons only work for one round (they break at the end of the round, your opponents learn to avoid them.)
    • Alternative: Improvised weapons break at the end of your next turn.
  • When you attack with conventional weaponry, you attack with disadvantage.

• Can use a magical ability as a weapon.
• Can make ranged attacks at medium range (as thrown) if the magical ability allows ranged effects.
• Can _ do something _ to cause an area of effect?

Requires GM approval. Veto'ed by default, because mounts in dungeons are a huge problem.

Benefits:

• Charge attack
• Inflict vulnerable condition easier due to weight of mount against unmounted combatant.

You can attack with parts of your body without suffering disadvantage.

• Drawback: You cannot use natural weapons to block.

• You can attack a target at short range as if they were in melee range.
• Cleave attack?
• Charge forward?
• Attack from behind cover?
• Brace against charge? (including movement towards with attack?)

If/while you are injured, you …

• can use toughness to negate damage
• once per combat scene, an injury you deal
  • increases in severity by one step
  • deal a second injury of equal severity

• Benefits:
  • You can negate 3 shieldable attacks instead of one.
  • You can negate shieldable attacks that attack targets adjacent to you.
  • If you and an adjacent ally are wielding shields, you can use your action to gain total cover.²⁾

• Benefits:
  • You can use an inspiration point to counter negations from blocks and parries
    • Alternative: When a target uses a damage negation, instead of negating your hit fully, then instead suffer an injury one degree less than you would have dealt if the hit got through. For example: You make an attack that would deal a mortal injury. The target uses a damage negation and suffers a severe injury instead of no damage.

If you have 5 ranks in Fighting, your hits with a two-handed weapon cannot be negated.

• Benefits:
  • Targets cannot negate damage from this fighting style unless they use the Verbal fighting style.
  • Can use this fighting style to defend others as long as they and the attacker are within verbal communication range.
  • Negates any form of physical cover that allows verbal communication to pass through it.
• Drawbacks:
  • Cannot use this fighting style to negate damage except from other combatants using the Verbal Fighting style.
  • Cannot damage targets that cannot understand you.

• Firearms & ray weapons:
  • Can attack at artillery ranges (2,000m or more without disadvantage)
• Artillery & Demolitions
  • Can destroy cover
• Psionic
• Vehicular
  • Can successfully attack using weapons that are mounted to the vehicle, or with the vehicle itself.

MAIN_ACTION
ACTION RULES A basic overview of how to make an attack and how to defend here. Plus a reference to the combat rules page.

Armor Training
Prerequisite: Combat rank 1.
You can wear armor without suffering disadvantage to sneaking, disadvantage in performing tasks requiring fine dexterity or control, and without suffering injuries of fatigue, exhaustion or exertion caused by wearing armor. You still suffer the normal movement penalty associated with wearing armor.

Death Touch Technique
Prerequisite: Combat rank 1.
As an action, you apply the 'death-touched' condition on a target. If the target moves more than 5 meters (15 feet) from the location where this condition was applied, they die. This condition can be removed and cured from a target afflicted with the 'death-touched' condition by reapplying this technique to the target. One cannot use this technique on oneself.

Alternative: When you cause a target to suffer the 'Vulnerable' condition, you may choose to have them suffer the 'Death-touched' condition instead. If the target moves …

Die Hard
Prerequisite: Combat rank 1.
No matter how many injuries you suffer, you cannot be inflicted with the 'Vulnerable' condition.³⁾

Dodge
Prerequisite: Combat rank 1, at least 1 Damage Negation.
When you use a damage negation, you can choose to negate the attack by dodging. When you do, you may move your character a distance of up any remaining movement your character has plus an additional 2 meters (5 feet).

Multi-attack
Prerequisite: Combat rank 1.
When you use an action to attack, you can attack twice instead of once.

Parry
Prerequisite: Combat rank 1, at least 1 Damage Negation.
When you use a damage negation, you can choose to negate the attack by parrying the attack. When you do, the attacker loses the ability to attack until the start of their next turn.

Vulnerate
Prerequisite: Combat rank 1.
: This feels like a good mechanic to include to ensure combat scenes end. But this ability as stated feels like a “mandatory” perk - should this just be baked into the basic combat rules? Is there a more elegant way to incur the same risk of continuing combat? Is just acquiring injuries enough? What about deathblows? Also consider renaming to “Destabilize” and causing the “Unstable” condition. The term “vulnerability” makes more sense as a term for certain types of attacks dealing more-severe injuries.

If you hit a target that already has two injuries that are severe or worse, you can choose to cause your hit to inflict an injury with the 'Vulnerable' condition. While a target has the Vulnerable condition, their combat ranks are considered to be zero (0), no matter what modifiers are applied. The 'Vulnerable' condition can be removed by using an action to clear the condition.