Combat To-Hit Mechanics

In this post we are going to examine part of the new combat system in Lycadican version 7. Due to the new game mechanics the combat system in version 7 is much changed from version 5 and is slightly different than what was published in the early days of version 6.

Today we are going to review the basic To-Hit mechanic. In general, combat actions are considered Feats, not Checks. Determining whether or not someone has hit an opponent via Melee, Missile or Magic is done through a boundless roll. Modifiers from weapons, skills, abilities, powers and attributes (such as those from Dexterity) modify the d10 die roll to present the final score which must match or exceed an opponents defense rating. This also applies to magic that produces melee or missile effects. If you match your opponents defense rating exactly you land a blow but only barely. An exact match where the To Hit score = Opponents DR is actually a glancing blow.

Spells that do not have melee or missile effects are successfully targeted if the to-hit roll meets or exceeds opponents applicable resistance score, not their defense rating. The relevant resistance score can usually be deduced by the spells' function, but such spells generally list the resistances that are relevant.

The final To-Hit score 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. The degree of success modifies the weapon damage and extreme degrees of success or failure result in critical blows or mishaps. The degree of success is determined by subtracting the opponents’ defense or resistance rating from the result of the To-Hit score. A positive result is also referred to as the degree of success; a negative result is referred to as 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 score is assigning extra damage. By default weapon damage values have been reduced so that a degree of success on a to-hit roll of 0 indicates a glancing blow and the weapon damage assigned is reflective of that. Any positive degree of success 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 the Realm Master rolls the die (on behalf of the Bantrie) and scores (after any modifiers are applied) a 1,2 or 3 then the Bantrie misses. If his score is a 4 the degree of success is 0 (the to-hit score is 4, subtract Ragnok's defence rating of 4 and you get 0.) Thus the Bantrie only does 4 points of damage. If the score had been a 10 then the degree of success would be 6 (10 - 4 = 6) and the Bantrie would do 10 points of damage ( 6 + 4 = 10 )