All About Combat
As you probably guessed, combat in Candle'Bre works very differently than it does in vanilla D&D. That's because I always regarded combat as one of the weakest points of the game's design. It's basically a fish-slapping contest. You roll to hit. Roll damage. I roll to hit. Roll damage and we take turns doing that until either the monster I'm running falls down, or you do.
It's boring. And yes, you can spice it up with descriptions and such but flowery language will only take you so far, and honestly, it's no substitute for mechanics. That's what I added here. Better mechanics that makes combat feel more dynamic and that make the specific decisions you make in battle matter. It's no longer just "roll to hit the whatever it is that's right in front of me."
Nossir. Now you can actually craft your character into a specific kind of fighter, and I think that's pretty cool.
Rethinking Initiative
All of that starts with a revamping of the initiative system. Here's the problem with 5e's initiative system: It's almost entirely dependent on luck. You roll a d20, and you get to add your Dexterity modifier, which tops out at 5. So your result can be anything in the range from 1-25 and you get to control 20% of that range, tops. That's what your character brings to the table. The rest is down to sheer luck.
Nahh. Hated it, and the fact that one initiative roll was good for the entire combat, forever and ever amen. Changed both.
In Candle'Bre, initiative is determined by a d6, and you want low, not high, because each "pip" on the die represents one "tick" of the clock - one second. What you're rolling to determine is what second you take your action on. d6-(Your Proficiency Modifier)+(your iMod) = Some Number of Seconds From NOW.
Notice how Dexterity doesn't even play a role?
That's because Dexterity already does a lot of heavy lifting in combat, improving your AC, and experience matters more, which is better reflected by your Proficiency Modifier--noobs are more likely to be caught off guard, and all that.
So what's an "iMod?" Great question. Everything you do in the context of combat (except moving from A to B) has an iMod. Every weapon you want to use to take a swipe at an enemy, and every single spell you cast. I know, because there are more than a thousand spells in the Candle'Bre universe, and I went in and calculated the iMod for each and every one of them so you don't have to.
And if, God forbid, you run into something that doesn't have an iMod already defined, unless your DM tells you otherwise, the iMod is 6. Six is the go-to number for anything that hasn't yet been defined.
So: d6 - (ProfMod) + (iMod) = Your current initiative roll (minimum 1).
Every time you declare a new action, you roll a new initiative number. So let's say you initially declare that you want to race to the rock in the middle of the battlefield and then take a pot shot at the Ogre Mage, and then, 4 seconds into your mad dash to get there, you change your mind and say, nope, Ima charge to the tree and fight the Hobgoblin hiding behind it - great! Roll a new initiative with that plan in mind.
I'm not even going to try to list off all the spells and what their iMod values are. Just know that when you crack open your splat book, if you're a spell caster, every spell has one. Jot down the iMods for the spells you know on your character sheet and you're golden. For the curious, here's a screen shot of a spell from one of the splats, just as an example (and you can also see what kinds of augmentations you can do).
Yeah, no joke. Every spell in the game has a table like that and some of them span more than one page, so - spells are cool. Seriously cool.
Anyway, as you can see, Vicious Mockery has an iMod of 5.
Fortunately, there's a much sorter list of weapons, and you'll find every single one of them listed on the tables to the right, with their respective iMods. Again, whatever weapon your character is using, just jot the iMod down next to it and you'll always have it on hand.
Movement
Movement happens automagically. Organically. Every tick (second), everybody with a 30 ft. movement rate gets to move 5 feet (one square). If you want, you can declare that you are Dashing. When you dash, you move 10' (2 squares) every tick (second) but - you don't get to count your Dexterity modifier as part of your AC because you are head down racing for some distant point on the battlefield. Up to you.
If your initiative number comes up before you get where you need to be to perform your action, awesome - it's considered automatically held until you are where you need to be. Then, once you perform your action, you declare what you're doing next, we figure out what the iMod for that is, and you roll a new initiative, with whatever number you get being the number of seconds from the "now" of the battle you're in that your next action takes place on. Get it? Good. Moving on.
Reactions
Reactions aren't a thing, or rather, they are a different thing than they are in 5e.
Every character has a "bubble" that extends 5' around them in all directions. Any time a bad guy inside your bubble does something, you can roll to see if you qualify for a reaction (this includes the act of a bad guy moving into your bubble). If you are proficient in the "Overwatch" combat skill which we'll get to in a bit - your "bubble" expands to your line of sight, which is pretty cool.
Also, if there's an ally inside your bubble and the ally gets hit, you get to roll to see if you qualify for a reaction if you want to and if you can use that reaction to do something meaningful.
The initial Reaction DC is 8 for Fighters and Rogues, and 11 for everybody else. Roll your secondary action die (whatever it is for your class) and add your Dexterity Modifier. If you beat the DC, you get a reaction.
Note that you can take multiple reactions on any given turn, but the DC increases by +3 for Fighters and Rogues and +5 for everybody else, so each reaction gets harder and harder to qualify for. Also note that many classes use something less than a d20 for their secondary Action Die, which means a DC of 11 isn't as easy to beat as you might be thinking.
The Reaction DC resets after you take your next ACTION.
See what this does? "Rounds" still exist, marking off six-second increments in battle, but your actions may or may not fall neatly into the context of a round. If you're casting a big, complicated spell, it might take you 2-3 rounds of combat to finish it! If you're playing stabby stabby with a dagger, you may get 3-4 attacks off in the same amount of time - it all depends. Combat is very fluid and not everybody is going to get to "do something" each round, and that's okay.
Changes to the "Help" Action
This didn't change much but...when you perform this action, the person you’re helping gets to decide on a case by case basis if he wants to take an advantaged roll, or increase his attack die by one step. In many cases (but not all) they work out to pretty much the same thing, but the particulars of your current position on the dice chain, or other in-game effects might skew your decision one way or another, so you get to pick.
Hide
This action has not changed at all. It's still a Dexterity (Stealth) check and you can't hide if someone is looking right at you.
Fumbles and Criticals
Both of these exist in the Candle'Bre universe, but with a few caveats. See, fumbles are tricky because they punish Fighters much more than anyone else, which is weird since Fighters are supposed to be really good at fighting, so here's how it works:
In Candle'Bre, a natural 1 is a Fumble. But ONLY if you roll that Natural 1 on your first attack in an attack sequence (if you are playing a class that gets multiple attacks per attack action). Now, Fighters can still get lots of attacks, but they aren't punished by the mechanical system. Even better, if a Fumble is generated, it's not dealt with until all other attacks have been made (so a Fumble doesn't negate all your other attacks - they still happen, and then we deal with the effects of the Fumble).
You can do this one of two ways. The fast way is to simply say that if you Fumble, you're considered "Off Balance" (see
Combat in the Basin for full details) until your next action, and you suffer a +6 penalty to your next initiative roll. The slower way is to roll against a fumble table like the one Goodman Games uses, or to come up with your own. I prefer to keep things moving, so I just go with the effects outlined above, but you can certainly get more elaborate if you like, and in the Campaign Settings book, you'll find a Fumble and Critical Tables if that's how you want to do it.
Unlike Fumbles, Criticals can happen on any attack in an attack sequence, which again, bolsters the power of Fighters. Goodman Games provides some scary/brutal crit tables, but again, having tried both, I prefer to keep things moving, so here's what I do when a character scores a critical:
The hit deals the maximum possible damage, PLUS:
- Roll normal damage and add it to the total, PLUS
- If the blow kills the opponent - Rule of Cool and allow the player to describe the kill shot, PLUS
Choose one of the following boons:
- The dice you roll for damage (above) are "exploding" (so if any die rolled shows the max value for that die, roll it again and keep adding damage), and you roll your next Initiative with Advantage
- Regain 1 Spirit Token if you're not already at Max.
- Regain one use of any class specific ability that you're normally allowed to use only a limited number of times per short or long rest (class dependent, but for example, if a Bard has already used all of his/her Bardic Inspirations for the day, then a Critical Hit could allow that character 1 additional use of Bardic Inspiration for the day).
On the topic of Critical Hits, we must pause a moment and explain a convention of convenience: We use shorthand to say that a natural 20 is a critical, consider that it’s possible to roll to hit using a d24 or even a d30. In those cases, a “Nat 20” is not a critical.
For a d24, a Critical occurs on either a 23-24, and on a d30, a Critical occurs on a 27-30.
If a skill or spell grants a wider critical band (say, you get an ability that says you now Crit on a 19-20), that “+1” to the band carries over to your new dice, so if you’re rolling a d24 and you have an expanded Crit lane, then you’d Crit on a 22-24 (or a 26-30 on a d30). Get it? Good!
Note too that Criticals are patently impossible if you’re rolling less than a d20. There’s no such thing as a critical hit on a d16, for example.
Finally, be aware that some characters may threaten a critical on something other than the max die result (again, an ability that grants a critical on a 19-20), but this is only true if the target is actually hit – so if your target has an AC of 20 and that’s what you roll, then it’s just a “regular” hit. This does not mean that creatures with an AC 20 or higher are immune to criticals, but it does mean that in order to land one, you’ll need to roll a bigger, better die.
The ‘Off-Balance’ Condition
I've added a new condition in Candle'Bre and that is "Off-Balance." By performing some actions, you can wind up in the ‘Off-Balance’ condition.
This state generally lasts from the time it is triggered until you take your next action. During that time, you either right yourself or someone will come along and push you over (knocking you prone). If you are off-balance, you don’t get to add your Dexterity modifier to your AC, and you suffer a +2 penalty on your next initiative roll.
If you are hit with a melee attack while you are off-balance, you must make a Dexterity check (DC 15) or fall over. If you are proficient in Dexterity saves, you get to add your Proficiency Modifier to the roll, otherwise, you don’t get to add anything. If you have a negative Dexterity Modifier, it is subtracted from your roll.
All of that serves as a preamble for the next article, which will introduce you to the Combat Skills themselves...
Comments