Combat System, To-Hit

Over the next few posts we are going to examine the new combat system in Lycadican version 6. Due to the new game mechanics the combat system in version 6 is much changed from version 5.

Today we are going to review the basic To-Hit system. Determining whether or not someone has hit an opponent via Melee, Missile or Magic is done through a boundless roll called the To-Hit roll. Modifiers from weapons, skills, abilities, powers and attributes (such as those from Dexterity) modify the to-hit die roll to present a final score.

A successful melee or missile hit is one where the to-hit roll matches or exceeds a targets defence rating. This also applies to magic that produces melee or missile effects. If you match your opponents defence rating exactly you land a blow but only barely.

Spells that do not have melee or missile effects are successfully targeted if the to-hit roll meets or exceeds the targets applicable resistance score, not their defence rating. The relevant resistance score can usually be deduced by the spells' function, but such spells generally list the resistances that are relevant. See the section Defence and Resistance's for details.

The final result of the To-Hit roll is used to determine three outcomes. The first is whether or not you’ve hit, which we’ve already covered. The second outcome is the degree of success. Extreme degrees of success or failure result in critical blows or mishaps. The degree of success is determined by subtracting the opponents’ defence or resistance rating from the result of the To-Hit roll. A positive result is the degree of success; a negative result is the degree of failure. A degree of failure that is greater than or equal to 10 indicates a critical mishap. Any roll resulting in a degree of success of greater than or equal to 10 represents a critical hit.

The effect of a critical hit or critical mishap is determined by the Realm Master, however, critical hits have special effects when armour is involved in combat, which we'll talk about in a future post.

The third effect of the to-hit roll is assigning extra damage. By default weapon damage ratings are scaled so that a degree of success on a to-hit roll of 0 indicates a glancing blow. Any positive degree of success value is added to the damage the target sustains in combat. This corresponds to the notion that the higher the degree of success, the more damaging the blow.

Time for an example. Our hero Ragnok is fighting a nasty creature called a Bantrie. The dog like creature lunges at Ragnok with his mouth of razor sharp teeth which could do 4 points of damage. Ragnok's defence rating is 4 due to the fact that he is wearing some rather heavy plate mail armour that slows him down and makes him easier to hit. If yours truly as the Realm Master rolls the die and scores (after any modifiers are applied) a 1,2 or 3 then the Bantrie misses. If I score a 4 my degree of success is 0 ( my to-hit score is 4, subtract Ragnok's defence rating of 4 and you get 0.) Thus I only do my 4 points of damage. If I had scored say a 10 then my degree of success is 6 (10 - 4 = 6) and I'll do 10 points of damage ( 6 + 4 = 10 ).

Simple right? Right.