Combat Resolution for Phantom's Bane

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Combat Basics

Combat will occur often. Here's how combat actions are resolved.

Combat progresses in divisions of time called combat turns. A combat turn can represent any specific length of time that you want it to; use your imagination. All actions are considered simultaneous in a given combat turn; there is no concept of one combatant having 'initiative' over another.

Each combat turn, each combatant chooses one of four options: Press, Attack, Defend, or Run Away. If either combatant chooses the Run Away option, that option is resolved first (as explained later). A successful Run Away action terminates the combat without either combatant taking damage that combat turn. An unsuccessful Run Away option means that the combat continues, and the combatant that chose the Run Away option must now exercise the Attack option instead.

The Press, Attack, and Defend options are resolved simultaneously. Damage is dealt to wounded combatants accordingly, as explained below. If both combatants are still alive, each combatant is checked to see if the combatant has weakened from having participated in strenuous activity for too long (see Weakening, below).

Combat Turn Sequence Summary

Each combatant secretly chooses a combat option, one of Press, Attack, Defend, or Run Away.
Run Away options are resolved.
If still in combat, Press, Attack, and Defend options are resolved simultaneously.
Damage taken by either side is deducted from the respective Health scores of the combatants. If any weapons or armor were damaged, deduct the damage from the bonuses of the damaged items.
If either side's Health has dropped to 0, the combat terminates.
If the combat has not yet terminated, apply the effects of weakening for any combatant that has participated in combat for too long.
If either side's Health has dropped to 0, the combat terminates. Otherwise, begin the next combat turn.

Running Away

Note that in some situations, your character will not be able to Run Away, even though the Run Away option will still present itself. Selecting the Run Away option in these situations will always fail. As it is not always obvious when these situations occur, you will need to exercise good judgement in deciding when it seems feasible to try to run away.

When running away is possible, how to resolve the Run Away option is explained below.

If both combatants choose the Run Away option, or if one combatant chooses the Run Away option and the other combatant chooses the Defend option, then the Run Away option automatically succeeds, and combat terminates immediately.

If one side of the combat chooses the Run Away option, and the other side chooses either Press or Attack, the combatant that chose the Run Away option makes a Disengagement roll on two dice. The sum of these two dice is added to the combatant's current Defense and Skill attributes to produce a Disengagement Total.

The other combatant makes an Engagement roll on two dice. The sum of these two dice is added to the combatant's current Offense and Skill attributes to produce an Engagement Total.

If the Disengagement Total is higher than the Engagement Total, the Run Away action is successful, and the combat terminates immediately. Otherwise, the Run Away action fails, and combat continues. If the Run Away action fails, the combatant that chose the Run Away action must now exercise the Attack option.

We'll look at an example of exercising the Run Away option later.

Attack Resolution

The basic combat action is Attack. If you choose the Attack action and the foe chooses the Attack action, the outcome of the combat turn is resolved as follows.

Four dice are rolled (two for each side of the combat). These are the Offense and Defense dice for your character and for the opposition. The dice displayed are, from left to right, your character's Offense die, your character's Defense die, the opposition's Offense die, and the opposition's Defense die.

Each side of the combat determines its Offense and Defense Totals. A combatant's Offense Total is the sum of the combatant's Offense die, Offense attribute, and any weapon bonus the combatant has for any weapon wielded. If the weapon bonus of a wielded weapon exceeds the combatant's Offense attribute, the weapon bonus is capped by the value of the Offense attribute. The Defense Total is the sum of the combatant's Defense die, Defense attribute, and any armor bonus the combatant has for any armor worn. If the armor bonus of worn armor exceeds the combatant's Defense attribute, the armor bonus is capped by the value of the Defense attribute.

Once the Offense and Defense Totals of each side have been calculated, you determine damage dealt by comparing the Offense Total of one combatant against the Defense Total of the other combatant. If the Offense Total of one combatant is strictly higher than the Defense Total of the other combatant, then damage is dealt to the latter. The damage dealt is equal to the difference between the Offense Total and Defense Total.

Certain dice rolls indicate that a penetration or a counter has occurred.

A penetration occurs when one combatant's Offense die rolls a 6, and the other combatant's Defense die rolls a 1. In this case, the combatant that rolled a 6 on Offense is said to have penetrated the defenses of the other combatant. Any combatant whose defenses are penetrated in this manner takes a half-die of damage in addition to and regardless of any other damage taken that combat turn. (A half-die uniformly generates a number from 1 to 3, inclusive. One method of doing this is to roll a die, divide the result by 2, and round up. Of course, in a computer program, you can just randomly generate a value from 1 to 3.)

A counter attack occurs when one combatant's Defense die rolls a 6, and the other combatant's Offense die rolls a 1. In this case, the combatant that rolled a 6 on the Defense die is said to have counter attacked the other combatant. Any combatant who is counter attacked deals normal damage that combat turn, but takes a half-die of damage in addition to and regardless of any other damage taken that combat turn.

Besides causing additional damage to a combatant, a penetration also may effect the armor of the combatant whose defenses were penetrated. If the armor bonus of a combatant whose defenses were penetrated is greater than 0, the armor bonus is decreased by the amount of extra damage dealt by the penetration, to a minimum armor bonus of 0. If worn armor (as opposed to natural armor, such as Matted Fur) has its armor bonus decreased to 0, the armor is destroyed.

Likewise, a counter attack may effect the weapon of the combatant that was counter attacked. If the weapon bonus of a combatant that was counter attacked is greater than 0, the weapon bonus is decreased by the amount of extra damage dealt by the counter attack, to a minimum weapon bonus of 0. If a carried weapon (as opposed to a natural weapon, such as Fists or Claws) has its weapon bonus decreased to 0, the weapon is destroyed.

Basic Attack Example

For an example, suppose we have Jharek up against a Wild Monster:

Attribute	Jharek	Wild Monster
Offense	4	8
Defense	5	7
Health	7	2
Skill	5	2
Weapon	+3 (Hand Axe)	+1 (Claws)
Armor	+5 (Leather Armor)	+1 (Matted Fur)

Let's go through a sample combat turn for these two. Assume that each combatant chooses the Attack action this combat turn.

Combat Turn #1: The 4 combat dice roll 1, 3, 5, 6. This means that Jharek's Offense die is 1, his Defense die is 3, the Wild Monster's Offense die is 5, and the Wild Monster's Defense die is 6. This gives Jharek an Offense Total of 1 (Offense die) + 4 (Offense attribute) + 3 (weapon bonus) = 8. Similarly, Jharek's Defense Total is 3 (Defense die) + 5 (Defense attribute) + 5 (armor bonus) = 13. The Wild Monster's Offense Total = 5 (Offense die) + 8 (Offense attribute) + 1 (weapon bonus) = 14, and it's Defense Total is 6 (Defense die) + 7 (Defense attribute) + 1 (armor bonus) = 14.

Comparing Jharek's Offense Total of 8 to the Wild Monster's Defense Total of 14, we see that Jharek has failed to damage the Wild Monster. The Wild Monster takes no damage this combat turn.

Comparing the Wild Monster's Offense Total of 14 to Jharek's Defense Total of 13, we see that the monster's Offense Total exceeds Jharek's Defense Total. Thus, the monster has wounded Jharek. The amount of damage dealt to Jharek is the monster's Offense Total of 14 minus Jharek's Defense Total of 13, which means that Jharek took 1 point of damage. This 1 point is subtracted from Jharek's Health, leaving him with a Health score of 6.

The astute reader will also notice that Wild Monster counter attacked Jherak. Wild Monster's Defense die is a 6, while Jherak's Offense die is a 1. Thus, Jherak takes another half-die of damage from the counter attack! In this case, the result of the half-die is 1 (it's rolled behind-the-scenes in the game); lucky for Jherak, as it could have been as high as 3. This extra point of counter attack damage takes Jherak's Health down to 5.

Moreover, Jherak's Hand Axe takes damage from the counter attack. Since the counter attack did 1 point of damage, the weapon bonus of the Hand Axe is decreased by 1, and drops from a bonus of +3 to +2.

We haven't discussed weakening yet, but neither Jharek nor the Wild Monster is effected by that just yet. This concludes combat turn #1.

Press and Defend

Two other combat options, Press and Defend, allow you, for the current combat turn, to gain a bonus to one attribute at the price of also acquiring a penalty to another attribute. The bad guys will be using these options against you, and it will behoove you to understand them well enough to know when to use them against your foes.

Choose the Press option when you want to have a better chance to cause damage, at the cost of lowering your own defenses. Choose the Defend option when you want to have a better chance to avoid taking damage, at the cost of lowering your offensive power.

Exercising the Press option in a given combat turn gives the combatant a Press bonus to Offense and a Press penalty to Defense for that one combat turn. The Press bonus to Offense is equal to one-half of the combatant's current Offense attribute, rounded down. The Press penalty to Defense is equal to one-half of the combatant's current Defense attribute, rounded down.

Exercising the Defend option in a given combat turn gives the combatant a Defend bonus to Defense and a Defend penalty to Offense for that one combat turn. The Defend bonus to Defense is equal to one-half of the combatant's current Defense attribute, rounded down. The Defend penalty to Offense is equal to one-half of the combatant's current Offense attribute, rounded down.

Note that in all cases, the bonuses and penalties are based on current values of attributes, not maximum values of the attributes. This will be important if a creature weakens from prolonged strenuous activity.

If a combatant exercises the Press option and gets a penetration against the other combatant, the penetration causes two half-dice of damage, rather than one half-die. It decreases armor bonus by the sum of the two half-dice. Likewise, if a combatant exercises the Defend option and gets a counter attack against the other combatant, the counter attack causes two half-dice of damage instead of one, and decreases weapon bonus by the sum of the two half-dice.

In all other regards, the Press and Defend options are resolved similarly to the Attack option.

When trying to decide which combat option to exercise, keep in mind that the foe is also able to choose any of these options. If both combatants press, both combatants may end up dead, as both will have increased offensive power and lowered defensive power, and actions are simultaneous.

The computer chooses which combat option a foe exercises based on a number of factors, including the foe's attribute values and the attribute values of your character, but it does not take into consideration which option you choose that combat turn. It makes a choice of combat option based on the same information that you have at that time. It also takes into consideration the nature of the foe; some foes are more likely to try to run away than others, for instance. Living foes operating under their own free will are more likely to try to run away if it appears that they might be defeated.

Press and Defend Example

We'll continue with the example of Jharek and the Wild Monster. Here again for your convenience are the stat blocks for our two combatants, modified to account for the 2 points of damage Jharek has already taken. (To denote that Jharek's Health score is 5, but at it's maximum potential it would be 7, I've used a slash to separate the two values, and show them both. This slash notation is used within the game as well.) The weapon bonus of the Hand Axe is also down to 2 from 3.

Attribute	Jharek	Wild Monster
Offense	4	8
Defense	5	7
Health	5/7	2
Skill	5	2
Weapon	+2 (Hand Axe)	+1 (Claws)
Armor	+5 (Leather Armor)	+1 (Matted Fur)

Combat Turn #2: This combat turn, Jharek decides to Defend, hoping to avoid any more damage until the monster begins to weaken, which won't be long with a Health of 2. If the monster weakens enough, it may be possible to hit the monster even while Jherak is defending.

On the other hand, the monster has decided to Press. Let's see how these choices pan out.

Since Jharek has chosen the Defend option, he has a defensive bonus and an offensive penalty this combat turn. His Offense takes a penalty of half of his Offense, rounded down. Thus, his Offense penalty is 4 / 2 = 2. His Defense gains a bonus of half of his Defense, rounded down. Thus, his Defense bonus is 5 / 2 = 2.5, which rounds down to 2.

Since the monster chose the Press option, it has an offensive bonus and a defensive penalty this combat turn. Its Offense gains a bonus of half of its Offense, rounded down. Thus, its Offense bonus is 8 / 2 = 4. Its Defense takes a penalty of half of its Defense rating, rounded down. Thus, its Defense penalty is 7 / 2 = 3.5, which rounds down to 3.

We thus have Offense/Defense attributes, bonuses, and penalties for Jharek and the monster as follows:

Attribute	Jharek	Wild Monster
Offense	4	8
Offense bonus/penalty	-2	+4
Defense	5	7
Defense bonus/penalty	+2	-3

The combat dice are rolled, resulting in rolls of 2, 6, 5, 3. Jharek's Offense die is 2, and his Defense die is 6. The monster's Offense die is 5, and its Defense die is 3.

Thus, Jharek's Offense Total is 2 (Offense die) + 4 (Offense attribute) -2 (Offense penalty due to the Defend action) + 2 (weapon bonus) = 6. His Defense Total is 6 (Defense die) + 5 (Defense attribute) + 2 (Defense bonus due to Defend action) + 5 (armor bonus) = 18. The monster's Offense Total is 5 (Offense die) + 8 (Offense attribute) + 4 (Offense bonus due to Press action) + 1 (weapon bonus) = 18. The monster's Defense Total is 3 (Defense die) + 7 (Defense attribute) - 3 (Defense penalty due to Press action) + 1 (armor bonus) = 8.

Comparing Jharek's Offense Total of 6 to the monster's Defense Total of 8, we see that Jharek failed to damage the monster this combat turn. Comparing the monster's Offense Total of 18 to Jharek's Defense Total of 18, we see that Jharek also takes no damage this combat turn. (The Offense Total of one combatant must exceed the Defense Total of the other combatant for the attack to deal damage.)

There are no penetrations or counter attacks this combat turn. Jharek did roll a 6 on his Defense die, but the monster did not roll a 1 on its Offense die, so the 6 does not give Jharek a counter attack against the monster.

The Health of each combatant at this time remains unaltered from the previous combat turn. Jharek has 5 Health, and the monster still has 2 Health. This is combat turn #2. We've not discussed weakening yet, but take my word for it that neither combatant is effected by weakening just yet. Nevertheless, it is time that we discussed when and how weakening affects combatants.

Weakening

When a combatant has been involved in a combat for a number of combat turns (including the current combat turn) that exceed the combatant's current Health score, the combatant loses combat ability. This is referred to as weakening. Weakening is checked for at the end of the combat turn, after all other damage has been dealt. Thus, if a combatant's Health is sufficiently lowered during a given combat turn, it may cause the combatant to be weakened at the end of that combat turn, even if the combatant's Health score at the beginning of the combat turn was high enough to avoid weakening.

If a combatant is affected by weakening, one of three things happen to the combatant. These effects apply to the combatant's current attributes. If the combatant has a positive Defense attribute, the Defense attribute drops by 1. If the combatant's Defense attribute is 0, but his Offense attribute is positive, his Offense attribute drops by 1. If the combatant's Defense and Offense are both 0, his Health drops by 1. Thus, it is possible to die from a weakening effect, if the combat does not end in some other fashion first.

Weakening Example

Let's return to the example of Jharek and the monster. It's now combat turn #3. For your convenience, the stat blocks of our hero and his foe are shown below (they're the same as they were at the beginning of combat turn #2):

Attribute	Jharek	Wild Monster
Offense	4	8
Defense	5	7
Health	5/7	2
Skill	5	2
Weapon	+2 (Hand Axe)	+1 (Claws)
Armor	+5 (Leather Armor)	+1 (Matted Fur)

This time, Jharek decides to continue defending, sticking to his plan of waiting for the monster to weaken. The monster, realizing its own limitations, decides to go all out again and press, hoping to deal significant damage to Jharek before it begins to weaken.

Thus, the attribute bonuses and penalties are the same as the previous combat turn. We'll show them again here for your convenience:

Attribute	Jharek	Wild Monster
Offense	4	8
Offense bonus/penalty	-2	+4
Defense	5	7
Defense bonus/penalty	+2	-3

The combat dice are rolled, and the results of the rolls are 3, 3, 5, 2. Jharek's Offense die is 3, and his Defense die is 3. The monster's Offense die is 5 and his Defense die is 2.

Thus, Jharek's Offense Total is 3 (Offense die) + 4 (Offense attribute) -2 (Offense penalty due to the Defend action) + 2 (weapon bonus) = 7. His Defense Total is 3 (Defense die) + 5 (Defense attribute) + 2 (Defense bonus due to Defend action) + 5 (armor bonus) = 15. The monster's Offense Total is 5 (Offense die) + 8 (Offense attribute) + 4 (Offense bonus due to Press action) + 1 (weapon bonus) = 18. The monster's Defense Total is 2 (Defense die) + 7 (Defense attribute) - 3 (Defense penalty due to Press action) + 1 (armor bonus) = 7.

Comparing Jharek's Offense Total of 7 to the Monster's Defense Total of 7, we see that Jharek deals no damage to the monster. So sad.

Comparing the monster's Offense Total of 18 to Jharek's Defense Total of 15, we see that the monster deals 3 points of damage to Jharek. This drops Jharek's Health down from 5 to 2.

No penetrations or counter attacks occur this combat turn. So we move on to checking for weakening effects.

This is combat turn #3. Both Jharek's Health and the monster's Health are down to 2. Since 2 is less than the number of combat turns that have passed (including the current combat turn), both combatants are affected by weakening this combat turn. (Note that the monster did not suffer from weakening in the previous combat turn because its Health of 2 at the time was not less than the number of combat turns—2—that had passed at that time.)

Since both combatants have non-zero Defense attributes, they each lose one point of Defense. This loss is permanent until restored through healing (which can be obtained in-game at the Temple in Mhazal, hint, hint). Realistically, it should be recoverable with rest, but in the current game, it doesn't work that way.

So Jharek's plan to wear down the monster's Defense is working; the monster's Defense is down to 6 from 7. But Jharek's Defense is also now down, from 5 to 4. This has serious consequences. Jharek's armor bonus is +5. His Defense attribute is only 4, and thus caps his use of the armor bonus at 4. As you can see, weakening can be a double whammy against you.

The monster's Defense of 6 is still higher than its armor bonus of +1, so the monster retains its full armor bonus.

Things are not looking quite so good for Jharek. Maybe it's time to start thinking about running away. So let's look at how that works out.

Run Away Example

Combat turn #4 it is, and Jharek has decided to Run Away. The monster is pressing again, having tasted blood twice now.

For your convenience, here are the current stat blocks for the two combatants:

Attribute	Jharek	Wild Monster
Offense	4	8
Defense	4/5	6/7
Health	2/7	2
Skill	5	2
Weapon	+2 (Hand Axe)	+1 (Claws)
Armor	+4/5 (Leather Armor)	+1 (Matted Fur)

Since the monster is not also running away or defending, Jharek does not automatically escape. This calls for Disengagement and Engagement rolls. Refer to the 'Running Away' section near the top of this page if you need to refresh your memory about these rolls.

The dice are rolled; two dice per combatant. In Phantom's Bane, the dice for resolving the Run Away option are rolled behind-the-scenes. You don't get to see the dice roll for the Run Away option, because, well, if the Run Away option fails, the program goes right into rolling the dice to determine the outcome of combat options, which you do always get to see, and you wouldn't have the opportunity to see the dice results for the Run Away option anyway.

In our example, Jharek's Disengagement roll produces 2 and 6 on the two dice, for a total of 8. Adding his current Defense and Skill scores to this gives a Disengagement Total of 8 (the dice roll) + 4 (his current Defense score) + 5 (his current Skill score) = 17. Note that armor bonus is not included in the Disengagement Total.

The monster's Engagement dice roll produces 3 and 4, for a total of 7. Adding its current Offense and Skill scores to this gives an Engagement Total of 7 (the dice roll) + 8 (its current Offense score) + 2 (its current Skill score) = 17.

Jharek's Disengagement Total of 17 does not exceed the monster's Engagement Total of 17, and so Jharek does not escape. He is now forced to exercise the Attack option, and must fight to stay alive.

The combat dice are rolled; the results are 4, 1, 6, 2. Jharek's Offense die is 4, and his Defense die is 1 (uh-oh). The monster's Offense die is 6 (major uh-oh!), and its Defense die is 2. Jharek has bought the farm, obviously. But let's still go through the numbers.

Jharek's Offense Total is 4 (Offense die) + 4 (Offense attribute) + 2 (weapon bonus) = 10. He gets no bonus or penalty for Press or Defend; he's forced to exercise the Attack option since he failed to Run Away. His Defense Total is 1 (Defense die) + 4 (Defense attribute) + 4 (his capped armor bonus) = 9.

The monster's Offense Total is 6 (Offense die) + 8 (Offense attribute) + 4 (Press bonus) + 1 (weapon bonus) = 19. The monster's Defense Total is 2 (Defense die) + 6 (current Defense attribute) - 3 (Press penalty, which is half of the monster's current Defense attribute of 6) + 1 (armor bonus) = 6.

Comparing Jharek's Offense Total of 10 to the monster's Defense Total of 6, we see that Jharek has dealt 4 points of damage to the monster! This is enough to defeat the monster! Huzzah!

But it's not over. All combat actions are simultaneous, so we still have to calculate the monster's damage to Jherak. It's not going to be pretty.

Comparing the monster's Offense Total of 19 to Jharek's Defense Total of 9 indicates that Jharek has taken 10 points of damage from the monster's pressing attack. So he's way beyond the point of being defeated. He's more like shredded. And that's not all.

The monster's Offense die was a 6, while Jharek's Defense die was a 1. The monster penetrated Jharek's Leather Armor. And since the monster performed a Press action on the same combat turn that it delivered a penetration, it gets two half-dice of penetration damage, not just one half-die. The two half-dice are rolled, and come up 1 and 3, for a total of 4 extra points. So Jharek takes a total of 10 + 4 = 14 points of damage this combat turn. He only had 2 Health going into this combat turn, so he's mincemeat.

Not that it matters to Jharek at this point, but his armor also takes the 4 points of penetration damage. Since the armor has an armor bonus of 5 (you use the armor's actual bonus, not the bonus at which it might be capped due to its wearer's low Defense attribute), it's protection rating drops down to 1. If the penetration had dealt one more point of damage, the armor would have been destroyed.