Combat Mechanic
Entering Combat
Combat begins when two or more creatures try to physically or magically confront one another. An Initiative skill check is made to see the order creatures and characters will go in. If a nat20 is rolled, that creature will be able to go twice before others can take their actions. Re-roll any ties. Sometimes, role play is more important and the DM may not require Initiative during a combat scenario. This is entirely up to the DM and situation.Surprise
If surprised, you lose your turn for the first round of combat. This includes losing use of any reaction for one round, measured from the beginning of combat until the start of your turn on round two. Once order is decided, positions are finalized. This can be through a drawing or miniatures. Then combat begins!Damage
The damage that a spell, attack, or trap does is based on two things; the inherent damage of the spell or item and your ability to use that item. So, damage is calculated by the die roll for the item or spell and then adding to it your Attribute modifier that you used for the attack and any modifiers from Feats. For example: I swing a longsword with +3 STR, +3 Bladeweilder. Damage = d8+3+3 = 14 damage potential. Spells work the same way. Damage from Fire Strike with +2 WIS, +3 Spell Caster, and +5 Spell Master = d6+2+3+5 = 16 damage potential.Reactions
You are allowed a reaction when you are targeted by an attack. Your reaction sets the DC that the attacker must meet or beat. You are also allowed one Ready Action a round to an event. A Ready Action is an action that is triggered by an external event.- Block: reaction to an attack where you try to stop the attack from hitting you. The Block roll sets the DC for the attack, if the attack meats or beats your block, you are hit. A criticial success on a block allows you to chose one: either grapple your attacker or disarm your opponent. Some attacks, like spells or grenades, are impossible to block. Good role playing and DM's discretion can subvert this.
- Dodge: a reaction to an attack where you try to avoid the attack. Your reaction sets the DC for the attacker to be successful. The attacker must meat or beat your dodge roll in order to hit you. If you critically succeed on a dodge roll, you can move up to 30 feet and do not provoke any opportunity attacks.
- Counterattack: a reaction to an attack where you let the attack hit you but you can attack in return. You must meat or beat their attack roll in order to counter attack (opposite of the dodge and block mechanic.) If you beat their attack by >5, take half damage. If you beat the attack roll by >10, you can redirect the incoming attack anywhere you wish and deal damage of your own. If you roll a nat 20, then you avoid all damage, redirect the attack, and you can immediately take a turn.
- Special Ability: A special ability, or other feature of the game may allow you to react to a specific triggering event. For example, the feat Snapshot allows you to react to all glyph drawing within your range and try to interrupt.
- Opportunity Attack: If an opponent attempts to move past you or attacks you and then attempts to move away, you get a free swing at them. They can try and dodge, block, or counter attack. The opponent must be within 5 feet of you. The feat Sentinel increases this range to 10 feet.
- Interrupt: If a character is attempting to draw a glyph or complete a complex action and are within 5 feet of you, you can try to interrupt them. This is a successful Speed check against the Speed of the character trying to draw the glyph or complete the action. This causes the spell to rebound on the caster or the action to fail. Interrupt can be part of a Ready Action. Interrupt success is between the interrupter's and interuptee's speed rolls, the higher value wins.
Your Turn
Each round, during your turn, you can move, take one action, and a bonus action. During any part of your turn, you can do things that take little or no time and don’t interfere with your movement. These activities take very little time, though there may be limits to the number you can perform in a turn. Examples include:- Palming ammunition from your Quick Use list (such as arrows, bolts, sling bullets, grenades, or shuriken).
- Dropping an item to your feet or within 5 feet of your current location.
- Dropping to a prone position. (Standing up from prone, however, takes half of your movement for the turn.)
- Speaking (you can always speak, even when it isn’t your turn – within reason.)
Movement
You don’t have to move, but if you choose to, you can move a distance up to your speed. You can move before or after you take an action, or you can move first, take an action, and then move again, as long as the total distance moved doesn’t exceed your speed. Your move can include jumping onto or off of things, jumping over things, climbing walls or ropes, swinging on ropes or chandeliers, or moving in any way that your character is capable of such as swimming or flying for example. You can move between action and bonus action as long as you haven't used all of your move distance based on your speed.Bonus Actions
A Bonus Action is your character’s chance to interact with the environment or ready themselves for an action. It is your character’s chance to immediately affect the situation at hand. You can interact with one object as your bonus action. You can manipulate the object in an uncomplicated way. Some examples of Bonus Actions include:- Draw or sheath a weapon
- Draw Two One-Handed Weapons [You can normally draw only 1 weapon for free on your turn. Dual Wielder lets you draw 2.]
- Transfer an item from one hand to the other
- Load a bow
- Retrieve or put away a stored item*
- Pick up an item
- Move an object
- Open a chest
- Open a door
- Perception check
Actions
During your turn in a combat round, you have one action that can be used in the following ways. You don’t have to take an action during your turn, but if you choose to, you can attempt to do anything that could be accomplished in 6 seconds or less. The most common action taken in combat is the attack action. See below for a list of actions that can be performed in combat.Attack
You can make one melee, magic, or ranged attack. The Double Up feat will allow you use your Bonus Action as an Attack. If you want to attack with a weapon in each hand, you need the Dual Wielding feat.Dash
Rather than performing any other action, you spend the entire round moving. This allows you to move twice as far this round. It is effectively a double move action. [You use your dash action to move your speed then use your move to go that distance again.]Disengage
If you start the round within 5 feet of an opponent that can see you, you can use this action to move away from them without provoking an opportunity attack. [The disengage action does not include a move. You use the disengage action to avoid an opportunity attack while you use your move to travel up to your speed.]Dodge
This is a total defense action. You spend the round trying to avoid being hit. Until the start of your next turn, any attack roll made against you has disadvantage if you can see the attacker, and you make Dexterity saving throws with advantage.Help
You can use your action to help an ally attack an opponent within 5 feet of you. You don’t make an attack yourself, but when your friend attacks, their first attack roll is made with advantage. Or you can help them with any other task. If you are in position to do so, and your assistance could reasonably be seen to be of help, they will gain advantage on their ability check to accomplish the task.Hide
The act of hiding requires an action to attempt. You must make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to see if you successfully hide from your opponents. Advantage can be gained if there is cover or a large object between you and the thing you are trying to hide from.Ready
Rather than taking and action during your turn, you wait for some specific event and then take your action as a reaction. You can still move up to the distance indicated by your move rate, but you can take no other action this round. You must specify two things – 1) What the triggering event will be. This can be anything you think might happen that you can observe. If the event occurs before the start of your turn on the next round you can perform your readied action at that time. Some examples could be: If the sniper sticks his head up, If more Orcs come around the corner, If the rope brakes, If the water level rises, If the evil magic user starts to cast a spell, If the guard spots the thief, If the prisoner attempts to escape. 2) What action you will take. This can be any of the combat actions. Note that this action will be a reaction and you can only have one reaction per round. This means that if you take another reaction, you lose your readied action. Conversely, if you use your readied action you can have no other reactions this round.- If the triggering event occurs, you can choose to not take your readied action.
- If you choose Dash as a readied action, you can move up to your move rate.
Search
You can use your action to attempt to find something. The DM might require you to make a Perception check or an Investigation check.Use an Object
An object may require an action for you to use it, or you may need to use this action to interact with more than one object in a round. This can also apply to the use of Runes.Improvised Action
There are many more things that a combatant could do during a round than can be accounted for in the above actions. When you want to attempt something that is not covered by any of the above actions, you can use an improvised action. Examples of an improvised action: “I want to pull the rug out from under that guy.” “I want to talk them into surrendering.” “I want to break that glass the bad guy is holding.” “I want to slide down the stairs on my ass while I throw daggers at the enemy.” “I want to intimidate them into running away.” “I want to grab that piece of folded paper that is sticking out of his vest pocket.” “I want to slide under the table and stab that guy in his ankle with my knife.” “I want to holster my bow and walk up to that guy and smoke his nose.” “I want to disarm my opponent.” (This could be a called shot to the hand, shattering an opponent’s weapon, or using the flat of a blade to smack a weapon from an enemy’s hand.) “I want to trip that guy.” (This could be any attempt to knock an enemy off its feet. Whether it’s hooking an enemy’s leg, stabbing a kneecap, knocking an opponent off-balance, hurling an enemy away, sweeping an enemy’s legs, or some other maneuver, this improvised action would allow the warrior to knock an enemy prone.) The following rules apply to improvised actions: 1. You must explain the improvised action to the DM. The DM may rule that what you want to do will require more than one round, or that it is simply impossible (you can’t fire an arrow into the sky and hit the moon). He may ask you to be more specific regarding the action you want to take and how the action will achieve the results you want. 2. The improvised action can also include all or part of your move. Successfully jumping on – or diving into a creature will give you advantage on the attack roll. A failed attempt results in your move stopping at the point there the attack takes place and may grant your opponent an advantage on his next attack against you. 3. To perform the improvised action the DM will normally have you make an ability check. The DM will assign an appropriate difficulty class and will explain possible consequences if the attempted action fails. For example, if you attempt to jump off of the balcony onto the monster in the center of the room and miss you may end up prone. Most improvised actions can be resolved as simple contests. Player: “I want to try to [describes some form of physical contest other than an attack roll].” DM: “Okay, make a Strength (Athletics) check.” DM compares result to opponent’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, perhaps giving someone advantage or disadvantage.Death and Recovery
When a player drops to 0 HP they enter a state of "deadish" that has all the restrictions of the unconcious condition. The character cannot regain health while deadish. If the player wants to "wake up" immediately, they must make Recovery roll with a DC of 10. Each player has a number of Recovery rolls available to them, equal to their Constitution Modifier, minimum of 1. The player must roll a d20 and apply their Tortoise Recovery Modifier to that roll. If the Recovery roll is 10 or higher, then the character "wakes up" with 1 HP. The player can then use any remaining Recovery rolls to recover more HP. They can also chose to save the Recovery rolls for a later time. The number of Recovery rolls refreshes once per session. The character can chose to use as many or as few Recovery rolls as they like to "wake up" after dropping to 0 HP.The first time a character falls to 0 HP, the DC to Recover is 10. Each following time a character falls to 0 HP, the DC increases by 1. If it is the third time a character falls to 0 HP, the DC is now 13.
If the character fails to Recover, then after 24 hours they will wake up with 1 HP. If a player botches (nat 1) on any of their Recovery rolls, they will wake up only after 3 days.
For example, Captain Leone has a constitution modifier of 5 and has a Tortoise Recovery modifier of 5. She has 5 chances to roll above a 13 using her Recovery modifier. If she rolls above a 13 on her second roll, she still has three rolls she can use to recover health now. Or, she can save those to come back from 0 HP if it happens again later.
All player characters have this ability. Some boss creatures or characters may have this ability as well. Most creatures in Rhunec do not.
Rhunec Menu
Quick Table for Combat Modifiers
Other Combat Feats
Combat Feats Quick Table
Type | Negates -5 to Base Attack | Adds +3 to Attack | Mastery Add +5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spell | Appropriate Knowledge to Unlock School | Spell Caster | Spell Master |
| Bare Hand | Dragon Arts | Martial Artist | Mundane Master |
| Blade | Weapon Proficiency | Blade Wielder | Mundane Master |
| Blunt | Weapon Proficiency | Bone Crusher | Mundane Master |
| Range | Weapon Proficiency | Dead Eye | Mundane Master |
| Special | Weapon Proficiency | Specialist | Mundane Master |
| Pole Arms | Weapon Proficiency | Long Reach | Mundane Master |
- Dual Wield: allows to dual wield light weapons and draw them at the same time
- Spell Master: allows for the use of Expert and Master Level spells
- Assassin: allows for increased damage from sneak attacks
- Double Up: allows for the Bonus Action to be used as an Action
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