New Rules, Section 3 - Combat

Weapon Mastery

All characters have the opportunity to get better at using various types of weapons. As characters acquire weapon proficiencies they may devote proficiencies to weapons that they are not proficient in, this making the character proficient in that weapon. Alternatively a character can devote weapon proficiencies to weapons that they are already proficient in, thus becoming more skilled in that weapon and gaining various benefits when using that weapon.

When a character is created they are unskilled in all weapons. Character may use their weapon proficiencies in any way they want, spreading them around to become proficient in many weapons or devoting them all to one weapon to become skilled in one weapon. As characters gain levels and acquire more weapon proficiencies they can apply these slots to new weapons or weapons that they are already proficient or skilled in.

Refer to the Table below to determine how many weapon proficiencies are required for the different levels of weapon mastery.

*WP Slots Required For Weapon Mastery*
*WP Slots Required*	*Level of Mastery*
0	Unskilled
1	Proficient
3	Skilled
5	Expert
8	Master
11	Grand Master

Weapons Allowed

Different character classes are allowed different levels of weapon specialization in different types and groups of weapons. Refer to the table below to determine what weapons and what level of weapon mastery your character is allowed for those weapons. Remember that any character can pick up and use any weapon at an unskilled level.

*Weapon Requirenments for Weapon mastery*
*Class*	*Level of Mastery*
*Class*	*Proficient*	*Skilled*	*Expert*	*Master*	*Great Master*
Paladin	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon
Fighter	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon
Thief	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon
Priest / Cleric	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee Weapon	Any Melee Weapon	Staff	+++
Wizard	Staff, Dagger, Club, Small Missile Weapons and Longsword (elves only)	Staff, Dagger, Club, Small Missile Weapons and Longsword (elves only)	Dagger or Staff	+++	+++
Fighter / Thief	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon
Fighter / Priest	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Melee Weapon	Any Melee Weapon
Fighter / Wizard	Any Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Staff, Dagger, Club, Small Missile Weapons and Longsword (elves only)	Staff, Dagger and Longsword (elves only)	+++
Thief / Priest	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee Weapon	Any Melee Weapon	+++
Thief / Wizard	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Staff, Dagger, Club and Small Missile Weapons	Staff and Dagger	+++	+++
Wizard / Priest	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Staff, Dagger and Club	Staff	+++	+++
Fighter / Thief / Priest	Any Weapon	Any Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	+++
Fighter / Thief / Wizard	Any Weapon	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Staff, Dagger, Club, Small Missile Weapons and Longsword (elves only)	Dagger and Longsword (elves only)	+++
Thief / Priest / Wizard	Any Melee and Missile Weapon	Staff, Dagger, Club and Small Missile Weapons	Staff	+++	+++

Benefits Of Weapon Mastery

The following tables detail the advantages of weapon mastery.

*Bonuses For Higher Weapon Mastery*
*Level of Mastery*	*To Hit Modifier*	*Damage Modifier*	*Bonus Attacks*
Unskilled	-2	0	0
Proficient	0	0	0
Skilled	+1	+2	1 per 2 Rounds
Expert	+3	+3	0
Master	+4	+4	1 per 2 Rounds
Grand Master	+5	+5	0

For characters who go beyond the level of skilled mastery there are additional benefits.

*Additional Bonuses For High Weapon Mastery*
*Expert*	*Master*	*Grand Master*
Parry +1 AC Called shots +1 to hit	Parry +2 AC Called shots +2 to hit	Parry +4 AC Called shots +4 to hit

Rules For Parrying

By parrying a character forgoes all of his attacks during a round and concentrates solely on defending himself from all forms of harm. The benefit of this tactic is to improve the characters AC. The table below details how much AC advantage is gained. The Fighters

AC Bonus is only given to single classed Fighters.

*AC Bonuses For Weapons And Level*
*Defenders Situation*	*Fighters AC Bonus*	*Other classes AC Bonus*
Weaponless	0	-1
Small weapons	+1	0
Medium to large weapons	+2	+1
Multiple weapons	+3	+2
High level bonus	+1 per 3 levels	+1 per 5 levels

Specific AC adjustments may be subject to change based upon special situations and DM interpretation, being unfamiliar with the weapons in the combat could drastically modify the results.
Combat Tactics

Single classed fighters are also entitled to the benefits of combat tactics. Combat tactics are a way for a fighter to control the way he fights according to a given encounter.

*Combat Tactics*
*Tactic*	*To Hit Adjustment*	*AC Adjustment*
Full Attack	+2	-4
Half Attack	+1	-2
Attack/Defense	0	0
Half Defence	-2	+1
Full Defence	-4	+2

Unarmed Combat

Fighters are naturally proficient at bare handed combat, in contrast to other characters who must use a non weapon proficiency slot to become proficient in unarmed combat. Note that those characters that are not proficient in unarmed combat face the non proficient penalties to their attack rolls.

The table below summarizes the unarmed combat rules. The Proficient category relates to non fighter characters after using one NWP slot on unarmed combat. The Proficient Fighter and Specialized Fighter categories relate to fighters using one and two NWP slots respectively on unarmed combat.

*Unarmed Combat*
*Characters skill level*	*# Attacks / Round*	*Damage*
Not Proficient	1	1d2
Proficient	2	1d2
Proficient Fighter	3	1d3
Specialized Fighter	4	1d3

There is no weapon mastery allowed for unarmed combat. Only 25% of unarmed combat damage is real the rest wears off 1 turn after the combat. After a successful attack, roll on the following table for its result.

*Unarmed Combat Results*
*Die Roll*	*Attack Result*	*% KO*
20	King Hit	20
19	Haymaker	15
18	Wild swing	10
17	Kidney punch	6
16	Uppercut	6
15	Combination	5
14	Backhander	4
13	Glancing blow	3
12	Jab	2
11	Body blow	2
10	Gouge	1
9	Leg kick	1
8	Rabbit punch	2
7	Karate chop	4
6	Torso kick	6
5	Knee hammer	7
4	Elbow smash	8
3	Hook	8
2	Wild kick	15
1	Head kick	25

Called Shots

To make a called shot, a player must announce his intention before any initial dice are rolled. Upon doing so he suffers a +1 penalty to his initiative (representing the time spent carefully planning and aiming his attack). In addition to this all of the characters other attacks during that round are forfeited.

When the character does get the chance to attack, his attack roll is penalized as per the Attack Modifiers for Called Shots table below.

*Called Shot Hit Modifier*
*Target of Called Shot*	*To Hit Modifier*
Weapon	-4
Disarm	-5
Limb	-4
Head	-8
Neck	-10
Vital Organ	-8
Specific Target (eye, finger, potion vial, etc.)	-12
Moving Target (missile fire)	-5
Long Range	-5
Medium Range	-2
Manoeuvring into position	-2
Defender stunned or prone	+4

The effects of a successful called shot can be anything from no visible effect to instant death for the victim. The exact outcome is to be determined on a situation by the DM. Common outcomes are listed below.

*Common Outcomes Of Called Shots*
*Type of Called Shots*	*Common Outcome*
Blow to the head	Unconsciousness or system shock
Blow to limb	Weapon dropped or stun effect
Vitals hit	System shock or double/triple damage
Neck struck	Head removed
Object hit	Save Vs. crushing blow or be destroyed
Unmentionables struck	Stun effect

Characters who are stunned may do nothing but defend themselves during combat, they may not parry, attack, cast spells or commence movement more than stumbling around. Characters who are prone are similarly unable to attack or move however prone characters are still able to talk, cast verbal spells and attempt to break free from their bonds or struggle against assailants.
Attacking With Two Weapons And Ambidexterity

For a character to use a second weapon in his off hand he must meet the following criteria:

The second weapon must be of a smaller size than his primary weapon (except in the case of daggers.
Both weapons must be single handed weapons.
Neither weapon may be larger than medium size.

The effects of attacking with two weapons are as follows:

The character gains one attack each round with his secondary weapon in addition to his normal number of attacks with his primary weapon.
All To Hit rolls with the primary weapon are made with a -2 penalty.
All To Hit rolls with the secondary weapon are made with a -4 penalty.

Characters can reduce the penalties by either becoming Specialized in two weapon fighting style or by being ambidextrous.

The following table shows the to hit penalties characters get based on what skills they have. Single classed fighters have a separate column to all other characters. Remember that these penalties are in addition to any penalties the character may get for being unskilled in either of the weapons he is using.

*Two Weapon Use To Hit Penelties*
*Characters Skills*	*Primary To Hit penalty*	*Fighters primary To Hit penalty*	*Secondary To Hit penalty*	*Fighters secondary To Hit penalty*
No skill	-2	-2	-4	-4
Ambidextrous	-1	-1	-3	-2
Two weapon style specialization	-1	0	-2	-1
Ambidextrous and two weapon style specialization	0	+1	0	0

Two Weapon Style Specialization

A fighter may spend a weapon proficiency slot in the two weapon fighting style to help him reduce the To Hit penalties for this style of fighting. A non fighter character must spend 2 weapon proficiency slots to learn two weapon fighting style. Any class with two weapon fighting style are allowed to have a bastard sword or smaller weapon and any small weapon.

Ambidexterity

Characters who are ambidextrous are better able to fight with two weapons than characters that are not ambidextrous. There are two kinds of ambidexterity, natural and learned. A character only has a 5% chance of being naturally ambidextrous and is subject to DM approval. A character can learn to become ambidextrous by spending a NWP slot on it.

Pin them down (Copyright by J. Bremer)
It’s not allways the best solution to chop people down, sometimes you need to pin them to the ground and prevent them from doing further damage, but the rules presented in Players Handbook, although useful, don’t take into consideration the characters/creatures relative strength (muscle), only the actual size in terms of differences in height.

It would be much more relevant to let the actual strength of the parties involved take part in the decision of who pins who down. Below is a set of rules that tries to do just that.

The defender can attack anyone trying to overbear if his initiative is better than that of the attacker. If multiple attackers, then the initiative for the slowest attacker is used for the attacking group.

In order for the attacker to overbear and pin the defender he must make an attack-roll (using the best THAC0 if multiple attackers) against the defender’s normal armour class (AC 10 for most PCs), only counting magical and Dexterity adjustments (you are as easy to knock over when wearing platemail as when wearing leatherarmour) modified by +1 for each additional attacker.

If the attack is successful, the attacker(s) must make an opposed Strength (muscle) check against the defender to see if he/they can drag him down or not. Use the Strength (muscle) of the largest attacker and apply the modifiers described below:

1.	Each difference in strength (muscle) that the attacker has more than the defender he gets a +1 bonus to his attack-roll.
2.	Each difference in strength (muscle) that the attacker has less than the defender he gets a -1 penalty to his attack-roll.
3.	Each difference in size that the attacker is larger than the defender he gets a +1 bonus to his attack-roll.
4.	Each difference in size that the attacker is smaller than the defender he gets a -1 penalty to his attack-roll.
5.	If multiple attackers are all attempting to pin down a single defender then each attacker beyond the first adds a +1 bonus to the attackers attack-roll. Allways use the to-hit number of the weakest attacker (cooperation always depends upon the weakest link.)

An opposed check is made by rolling a d20 against the score indicated. The one who gets the highest number without going over the limit has won the check.

For example, a group of one fighter and two thieves decides to use their numbers agains a single fighter and overbear him. The single fighter has a strength of 17 and the group has the following strength-scores: fighter (16), 1st. thief (14), 2nd. thief (11).

Since the 2nd. thief is the weakes of the three they use his strength score as base for the opposing strength check. This results in the following modifiers to the check:

-6	for the difference in strength between the defender and that of the weakest attacker.
+2	for the additional attackers

Which means that in order to pin the defending fighter to the ground and keep him there, the group must make an opposing check with a score of 7 against the score of 17. This they need to do each round following the first if they want to continue their hold.

Looking back, it has come to my attention that something similar is to be found within the pages of the "Players Option: Combat & Tactics" book, but since not all players and DM’s has access to this book, and considering the sheer amount of text within it, I still find this optional rule relevant.
All material found in the item above is copyright 1990-1999 Johnny Bremer. No part of this items may be published by others regardless of media without the written approval of the author. Permission is granted for personal use only. Damn Good Hits (Copyright by J. Bremer)
Here is a quick’n’easy critical hit system. Its meant to be useful, not realistic, just like the Hit-Points are non-realistic. This is just an option, not a replacement.

Everything is based upon the difference in what AC the character should have hit and the actual AC that he did hit. A Critical hit is only made if the character is able to hit below the opponents AC.

There are 5 different areas that can be hit. Each of these areas has a percentage of hit-points that are found using the characters original hit-points and the following table:

Area	Hit-Points
Legs	20%
Arms	30%
Abdomen	40%
Torso	50%
Head	40%

The character will, if damaged, loose hit-points in both the original hit-points and the hit-point of the area in question. If the character reaches zero in his original hit-point he will either die or pass out depending upon the use of the optional "hovering on deaths door" rule or not. If the character reaches zero hit-point in an area the area is concidered non-functioning.

Each area will receive one hit-point back each day as the original hit-point does. If an area has been rendered non-functional it cannot be used before it has reached at least half its normal amount of hit-point.

When hit by a critical hit, the following table will determine in which area the hit has struck:

AC-DIF	Area hit
1	Legs
2	Arms
3	Abdomen
4	Torso
5+	Head

The amount of damage in an area will determine what effects the damage will have on the character. The following area tables will give a guide as to what might happen. The effects are comulative. Where more than one appendage is applicable choose randomly.

Legs table:

Damage	Effect
25%	2/3 movement, one foot injured.
50%	1/2 movement, limbs on one leg.
75%	1/4 movement, one leg non-functional.
100%	Both legs are non-functional.

Arms table:

Damage	Effect
25%	-1 penalty to-hit.
50%	Hand injured, non-functional.
75%	One arm is non-functional.
100%	Both arms are non-functional.

Abdomen table:

Damage	Effect
25%	-1 penalty to-hit.
50%	Extra 1 damage each third round.
75%	Character faints due to loss of blood, 1d6 rounds.
100%	Gutter ripped open, massive loss of blood, character is dead.

Torso table:

Damage	Effect
25%	-1 penalty to-hit.
50%	-1 penalty to-hit, extra 1 damage each other round.
75%	Character faints due to loss of blood, 1d6 rounds.
100%	Heart struck, character is dead.

Head table:

Damage	Effect
25%	Dizzy and confused, -2 penalty to-hit.
50%	Foggy, black-outs each 1d4 round, -2 penalty to-hit.
75%	Character is unconcious for 1d6 rounds loss of memory, -2 penalty to-hit.
100%	Head crushed/split, character is dead.

It should not be too difficult to keep up with these effects, but if it becomes to difficult or complicated, then simply overlook the parts that seems to bother you or your players. It isn’t supposed to make the game more cumbersome, but more fun and interesting. Enjoy and good luck playtesting it.
All material found in the item above is copyright 1990-1999 Johnny Bremer. No part of this items may be published by others regardless of media without the written approval of the author. Permission is granted for personal use only.

Back to Section 2, Magic.