Combat Example
This is a full battle taken from the party Goldbrickers. At the time of this combat they were ten turns old. They comprise of only six characters. Once they get some Gold together, they will recruit a Mage. At this point in their development, they will not go too far from town and will carefully evaluate any monster group before they consider fighting it. They are set up to fight small groups of monsters with light armour. They rely on speed and dealing damage before the monsters can effectively retaliate. The Fighters have weapon proficiencies in the forties so they often miss.
Thorin the Valiant - a Dwarven Fighter dressed in chain mail and wielding a warhammer. Thorin is the hard case of the party. He is generally the last to enter battle, but is okay once he is in combat, once his skill increases he will be deadly. As a Dwarf he is very adept at wielding the warhammer and with his chain mail will take big monsters without too much fear.
Horagnir the Slow - a Human Warrior dressed in leather armour and wielding a short sword. Horagnir, trundles into battle usually just before Thorin. He uses a short sword that is not as damaging as Thorin's warhammer, but is much swifter. Combined with his light armour, he is more effective against Orcs and other weaker monsters. If he was going to take on bigger monsters, he would likely swap the short sword for a long sword.
Gand Gutripper - a Halfblood Fighter with no armour and only a shield and helmet for protection. He is fast, swiftly out-pacing both Thorin and Horagnir. He uses a dagger in combat. Daggers are the favoured weapons of Halfbloods, becoming a blur in the hands of skilled users, Gand's skill though is not that high yet.
Kallen the Swift - an Elf Fighter. Like Gand, he has no armour and only a helmet for protection. He wields a long bow with some skill. He swiftly reaches longbow range and then launches many arrows at the enemy before they reach the party. Should he be forced to enter mêlée, he uses a short sword to make the most of his lack of encumbrance.
Ung the Pious - a Human Priest. His role is to ensure that all characters are healed before any fighting begins in earnest. After this he will cast terror if necessary, but failing that, he will then enter combat with a spear. The spear is good for this character as it has a reasonable range and delivers a fair amount of damage. He prefers mêlée to missile as, after casting his miracles, it is likely that the enemy will be upon him, thus he does not want to waste valuable time changing weapons. The only trouble is Ung is not very skilled at using any weaponry yet.
Scrounger - a Halfblood Thief with no armour and a sling. The Thief is a complete coward and stays at the back of the party where it is unlikely that he will be targeted. This allows him to hurl stones swiftly for the entirety of most combats while the Fighters take the damage. Slings are the favoured weapons of Halfbloods and in their hands, stones fall like hail amongst the enemy, even if they do not do that much damage
When we got nearer to them, we examined them with a keen eye. There were three Barbarians. They did not appear to be injured.
Kallen the Swift(1) the Elf espied the skinny Young Barbarian. He quickly set off on light feet in pursuit. Holding his long bow, Kallen the Swift(2) fired the black feathered arrow, winging the skinny Young Barbarian deeply in the guts.
Ung the Pious(3) tried to cast miracle Healing, but nobody needed healing. Ung the Pious(4) didn't cast Terror as the enemy looked too weak. Scrounger(5) let the stone fly, striking the gangling Young Barbarian, forcing a scream of agony.
Kallen the Swift(6) rashly loosed an arrow, the arrow skittered past the skinny Young Barbarian. Kallen the Swift fired, the shaft whistled past the skinny Young Barbarian's body. Scrounger's sling released its stone, it striking the gangling Young Barbarian in the throat(7). The gangling Young Barbarian retreated.
Rashly Kallen the Swift fired a black feathered arrow, the arrow skittered past the skinny Young Barbarian's scarred body. Gand Gutripper(8) wasted the gangling Young Barbarian. He staggered backwards, then fell dying, clutching the mighty gash in his throat. A quick thrust and enemy blood was shed.
A cheer of victory went up as the first of the enemy was slain.
Kallen the Swift fired, just missing the skinny Young barbarian's scarred body. Scrounger clumsily winged a stone, within a finger's breadth of the skinny Young Barbarian's body. Kallen the Swift executed the skinny Young Barbarian. He died, punctured through both of his lungs. Blood welled from the mouth of the corpse. 'Death to all,' was chanted as a second one was killed.
Looking for trouble, Gand Gutripper(9) the Fighter watched the bald Barbarian. He advanced towards the enemy.
Curses were bellowed as the fight began in earnest(10). Scrounger let the stone fly, striking the bald Barbarian. He was hit in the arm. Raising his long sword, the bald Barbarian(11) swung, striking Ung the Pious, slicing through flesh. Scrounger let the stone fly, striking the bald Barbarian in the arm. Thorin the Valiant(12) impetuously bashed, passing harmlessly past the bald Barbarian.
More warily now the heroes sought openings(10). Horagnir the Slow massacred the bald Barbarian by slicing his head down the centre like a ripe watermelon. The enemy was dead. We got 107 Gold from the lair of the dead Barbarians. We earned 40 experience points.
Thorin the Valiant: 2 melee hits
Horagnir the Slow: 1 melee hit (1 critical) killing 1
Gand Gutripper: 3 melee hits killing 1
Kallen the Swift: 4 ranged hits killing 1
Ung the Pious: Cast Healing (NN) 1 melee hit
Scrounger: 4 ranged hits (1 critical)
1. Kallen sets off towards the enemy. While it only mentions Kallen, the comment applies to the entire party.
2. Kallen has reached longbow range and has fired his first arrow.
3. Ung has finished preparing his first miracle, healing, but at this time nobody needs healing. As there is no way of telling if anybody will need healing at the start of the prayer, healing miracles will always be attempted if set to always cast.
4. After a spell has been completed, the next one in the list is checked to see if it will be cast. Spells will be checked in order until one is suitable for casting, or no spells are found, in which case the character will proceed to either missile or mêlée combat.
5. Scrounger has reached sling range and has fired his first stone. Slings have a shorter range than bows. Looking through the combat it can be seen that even though Kallen is a Fighter, Scrounger is using a sling which is slightly faster although much less damaging.
6. Not all misses are reported, but enough are to give an indication of the events as they unfurl. It can be seen that considerable time goes by during which the Archers hammer into the enemy.
7. The description of the wound indicates how close the target is to death. In this instance it is clear that the gangling Young Barbarian is very close to being killed.
8. Finally Gand arrives, he is lightly armoured and uses a knife. This makes him swift to enter combat, but also the use of a dagger means that he will fight fast.
9. Having killed the Barbarian Gand then sets out to attack another opponent.
10. These comments show roughly equivalent time frames since the start of the mêlée combat. Using these, a rough guide to the speed of characters can be built up over time.
11. The Barbarians have finally made it to combat range and start attacking. Ung is the unfortunate target. The more characters present, the greater the chance that a character towards the front of the group will be targeted.
12. Thorin and finally Horagnir arrive. These characters have heavier armour than Gand. This slows them down a little. When they arrive however, they quickly deal with whatever is present. In battles against more opponents, their ability to attack faster becomes vital.
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