Modified Dragon Warriors - Combat

The Damage Roll

Every weapon type has a Damage Roll and every armour type has a given Armour Factor (see tables below for details). The attacker must roll greater than the defender's Armour Factor on the appropriate weapon's Damage Roll to penetrate the armour and wound the defender, causing Damage equal to the difference between the two values.

Characters may choose to limit the maximum amount of Damage a successful hit may inflict before making the Damage Roll. No matter what value is then rolled, an attack that succeeds in penetrating the defender's armour cannot cause more Damage than the amount specified before rolling (though it may cause less, or none at all if it fails to penetrate the armour). The lowest limit on Damage is 3 points: no matter how careful you are, there's always a chance that you'll make contact a bit harder than you intended.

Example: Johannes strikes Alcuin with a sword (2d8 Damage Roll). Johannes limits his maximum Damage to 3 HP, and then rolls 12 Damage. Alcuin is wearing chain mail (Armour Factor 8), reducing the Damage to 4. Johannes' limit on Damage comes into effect, and Alcuin loses only 3 HP. The next round, Johannes hits Alcuin a second time with his sword. A peace-loving man, Johannes continues to limit his maximum Damage to 3 HP. This time, he rolls 9 Damage. Alcuin's armour absorbs most of the force of the blow, and he loses 1 HP.

Strength modifies how much Damage a character can cause with an attack. Above average Strength increases Damage, while below average Strength reduces or even eliminates Damage. If the Damage total is equal to or less than 0 after modifiers have been applied, the attack causes 0 Damage and cannot injure even an unarmoured opponent.

Armour

There are five different types of armour that characters can wear. Each offers a different level of protection from injury, represented by the Armour Factor (AF): any Damage inflicted on the character is reduced by their AF. All armour provides 4 AF against Damage caused by hitting the ground after falling.

Weapons

Weapons vary in the amount of damage they can inflict and thus their ability to penetrate armour.

* Roll 1d8 + 1d6.

** Roll 1d10 + 1d8.

Shields

A shield increases the bearer's Defence by 1 if the bearer is capable of using it effectively in melee combat (i.e. is not attacked from behind, trapped in a net, etc). Magic shields increase the bonus to Defence; thus, a character using a +3 shield has +4 Defence. Any bonus conferred by a shield is doubled before being added to the attacker's Hit Roll for missile combat.

Playing Safe

Characters may choose to fight defensively, concentrating on protecting themselves above hitting their adversary. A character doing so may add +1 to Defence for every -3 to Attack.

Going Berserk

Characters capable of going berserk can make more powerful melee attacks at the cost of neglecting their defence. This does not come naturally to most people, and is an Ability available to Barbarians. A berserker may trade Attack for Defence at a rate determined by their Ability (Berserk, Bloodfury, Bloodrage). Berserks may use a shield, but cannot trade the Defence conferred by a shield for extra Attack. They may stop being berserk at will unless they are in a Bloodrage, when they must make an Intelligence check (Difficulty 16) or attack the nearest person.

Combat Training

Characters incur penalties if they fight in armour they are not trained to wear. All characters can fight effectively in hardened or padded leather: to fight effectively in heavier armours, characters must have Combat Training (bought up to three times for maximum effectiveness). Characters take a cumulative penalty of -2 to Attack and Defence for each type of armour they cannot use effectively, increasing from the lightest armour they cannot use to the heaviest.

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