Combat - Breakdown
As you would expect in a fantasy environment, combat can be frequent and deadly. You can order your party to attack other players' parties as well as computer-controlled monsters and characters. By the same token, however, monsters may well attack your party without provocation or warning.
While combat is dangerous, your characters will generally look out for themselves. This self-preservation prevents your characters from staying until the bitter end when victory is nowhere in sight. In addition, your party may even avoid a fight altogether if it offers nothing but death. Often weaker, common monsters venture near settlements such as towns and cities. These can provide an excellent way of learning more about combat, not to mention being a lucrative source of Gold and treasure. Obviously buying weapons and armour will greatly enhance your characters' survival rate although it is best to avoid heavy, encumbering armour for those that are not in too much danger or those that wish to make the most out of their natural speed.
At the start of the combat, the characters using missile weapons will split away from the party in order to get a clear shot of the enemy. Those casting spells and miracles will start to mix ingredients and chant prayers. Those electing to fight in mêlée will set off towards the enemy, targeting an individual from amongst the enemy ranks. The fight will quickly become a skirmish as missile-users sprint to new positions in order to get their shot. Due to the nature of spell casting and the use of miracles, the Priests or Mages have to remain in the same location when casting and are therefore limited to what they can see or the area effect of the spell or miracle they are attempting to cast.
As all this is happening, the enemy is bearing down on the party. Some may actually avoid the front characters and reach those towards the back of the party; although the odds are that those at the front of the party will try to head them off. Sadly, in the chaos of the fight and due to the terrain as well as other factors, combat is rarely clean.
If a character is set to use spells or miracles, then they will utilise these first. If no spells or miracles are going to be cast, missile weapons that are set to priority will be used next - otherwise the character will use their mêlée weapons, and will locate an opponent. When a character is attempting to cast a spell or miracle and a missile weapon strikes them they will stop casting and either attempt to shoot back, or, if they are set to mêlée priority, will try to engage an opponent in mêlée. If a character is hit in mêlée whilst attempting to use a missile weapon, they will then change to mêlée. Once a character is in mêlée they will not attempt to cast any spells or miracles or use missile weapons - thus a character with mêlée set to priority will only fight in mêlée.
Terrain affects weapon speeds. For example, jungles and swamps have dense foliage that gets in the way of big weapons, making them harder to wield effectively. This is accounted for by a decrease in speed. Dungeons tend to be ill-lit, uneven and cramped at the best of times. Short, thrusting weapons such as spears are most effective in these environments while the use of bows should be avoided. Crossbows are the least hampered missile weapon, although due to the lack of space to find a decent vantage point, even these are slower, as the character has to wait for an opening.
Characters in mêlée that are attacked can attempt to hit back even if they have a shorter reaching weapon, for example a short sword versus a great sword, however there is a negative modifier to hit. During the ensuing fight the character that is not at their weapon's optimal reach will close in and then lose the negative modifier to hit. There is no modifier to a character that has reached their weapons optimal reach.
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