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Hi all,
In reference to the recent thinking about changing the combat system in (v4), I thought I'd explain the combat system in Sil. I am very happy with it, and think that it simultaneously adds interest and adds elegance compared with the V system.
Each attack you make has two stages:
1. Roll to see whether you hit your target.
2. If you hit, then roll to see how much damage you do.
Weapons and Armour
Weapons and armour have a few numbers displayed next to their names which explain how they relate to these two phases of an attack. Take an axe for example:
Battle axe (-3,3d4)
This battle axe provides a penalty of –3 to accuracy, and if it hits it does 3d4 points of damage. Armour is quite similar:
Leather armour [-1,1d4]
This suit of leather armour has a penalty of –1 to evasion, making you slightly easier to strike than if you were unarmoured. However, it also offers some protection, absorbing 1d4 points of damage each time you are struck. These are very simple examples and sometimes it can be more complex. For example:
Greatsword (-2,3d5) [+1]
Mail corslet (-1) [-3,2d4]
This greatsword offers a +1 bonus to evasion, making you slightly harder to strike. This represents your ability to parry with it. On the other hand, the mail corslet is sufficiently cumbersome that it gives a penalty to accuracy as well as a penalty to evasion. You can work out which numbers apply to offense and which apply to defence as follows:
Offense comes first and is in round brackets.
Defence comes second and is in square brackets.
Attacking
To determine whether an attack hits, the attacker makes an attack roll and the defender makes a evasion roll. If the attack roll is greater, then the attack hits.
Attack roll: Attacker’s melee score + 1d20
Evasion roll: Defender’s evasion score + 1d20
The melee and evasion scores are the associated skills combined with a number of modifiers. Firstly, as noted above, the skills are affected by your weapons and armour. They can also be affected by other things, such as being stunned (which gives –2 to all your skills including both melee and evasion), being overwhelmed, and various special abilities. The penalty for being overwhelmed only affects evasion. The size of the penalty depends upon how many monsters are surrounding you, and on where they are relative to the monster who is currently attacking. You get a –2 penalty for each monster that is in one of the three sides furthest away from the attacking monster, and a –1 penalty for any other adjacent monsters. This is a severe penalty, and even weak monsters can become deadly when they surround you. As there is only one of you, monsters will never suffer this penalty.
Finally, the melee score is halved if the attacker cannot see the defender and the evasion score is likewise halved if the defender cannot see the attacker. Opponents that are unwary count as not being able to see you for these purposes. If you are unfortunate enough to be fighting from within a pit or a web, both your evasion and melee scores are halved (again). If someone is completely unable to move (i.e. an enemy is asleep or the player is entranced) then their evasion score is set to –5 irrespective of any other relevant modifiers.
Doing Damage
To determine how much damage is dealt when an attack hits, the attacker makes a damage roll and the defender makes a protection roll. If the damage roll is smaller or equal, the attack does no damage. If it is greater, it does one point of damage for each point of difference between the rolls.
In simple cases, the damage roll is just the damage of the weapon, and the protection roll is the sum of the protection rolls for every piece of armour being worn. However, there are often modifiers on the weapon damage. Some of these affect the number of dice that are rolled, while others affect how many sides these dice have.
For each point of strength the attacker has, a side is added to the dice. For example, if you have strength 3 and are wielding the axe mentioned earlier, you would do 3d7 damage instead of the basic 3d4. This strength bonus is limited by the weight of the weapon. For one-handed weapons it is limited to 1 point of bonus damage for each 1 lb of weapon weight. For two-handed weapons, it is limited to 1 point of bonus for each 1.5 lb of weapon weight. For example, no matter what strength you have, you couldn’t get more than 3 bonus sides with a 3 lb longsword, or more than 4 bonus sides with a 7 lb greatsword (since greatswords are two-handed). High strength characters will want to use heavier weapons (to take advantage of their strength) and weapons with many dice (to take advantage of the extra sides). Note that negative strength subtracts sides of damage up to the same strength limit based on weapon weight.
Some weapons are ‘hand-and-a-half’ weapons, which can be used one-handed or two-handed. If you are not wearing a shield, you are presumed to be wielding these weapons two-handed and are given a bonus 2 damage sides. To continue the example above, let’s suppose that the battle axe is being used with two hands, giving it a total damage of 3d9.
Extra damage dice are added in two ways. Some weapons are especially deadly against certain enemies. In such cases, they do an extra die of damage. For example, if the axe above is an axe of orc-slaying and is being used against an orc, it will do 4d9 damage instead of 3d9. Elemental brands (such as fire brand or frost brand) are similar, doing an extra die of damage against enemies that do not resist the element and 2 extra dice against enemies that are explicitly vulnerable to it (such as fire damage against a frost demon).
It is also possible to get extra dice via critical hits. These are awarded when the attack roll exceeds the evasion roll by a particularly large amount. This amount is determined by the weight of the weapon, with lighter weapons more likely to produce critical hits, due to their easier handling.
To get a critical hit, you need to beat the evasion roll by a certain amount. This amount is 7 points plus one point per pound of weight of your weapon. You are granted a bonus damage die for every multiple of this amount by which you exceed the required score. For example, if wielding a 3 lb longsword, you would need to beat the evasion score by 10 points to get the first bonus die, by 20 points for the second die, 30 points for the third, and so on. This sounds very difficult, but characters who concentrate on accuracy can get very large critical hits, particularly on sleeping or unwary monsters. Of course, monsters can also get critical hits upon you if you are too poor at evasion. You don’t need to memorize this formula; just bear in mind that high accuracy and light weapons can sometimes do a lot of extra damage.
In summary, the weapon damage can gain extra sides from strength or from two-handed wielding, and extra dice from ‘slays’ and critical hits.
Archery
Archery is very similar to melee, but with a few differences. Firstly, the attack roll uses the archery skill instead of the melee skill. To this is added the attack bonus of the arrow being fired, and a range penalty of –1 for every 5 squares the target is from the archer. In addition, the defender’s evasion score is halved against archery (this can stack with the halvings mentioned above). This makes evasion considerably less useful against archery than against melee.
Damage is calculated almost identically to melee, incorporating strength, ‘slays’ and critical hits. The strength bonus of bows is again limited to 1 point per 1 lb of weapon weight.
The range of a bow is equal to 1.5 times the number of sides of damage you do with it. Thus, if you are doing 1d10 with your Longbow, its range will be 15 square.
Finally, it is very dangerous to use your bow when there are enemies in melee range. Firing your bow in such a circumstance will let your guard down, allowing all adjacent enemies to make a free attack on you.
Thrown weapons
Throwing is like melee, but with a few differences. Firstly, many items are not designed to be thrown and they thus give a penalty of –5 to the attack roll when thrown. The items that are designed to be thrown include daggers, throwing axes, spears and tridents. All throwing attacks also suffer a range penalty of –1 for every 5 squares.
Damage is like melee, except that the limit on the strength bonus is 1 point per 0.5 lbs of weapon weight. The number of damage sides is also halved if the object was not designed for throwing. Thus, even if you can hit with a thrown longsword, it will do a lot less damage than in melee.
The range is calculated from the weight of the object and your carrying capacity (which in turn depends on your strength).
Range: carrying capacity / (5 × (weight + 2))
For example, if you can carry 100 lb and are throwing a spear weighing 4 lb, then your range is 100 / (5 × (4 + 2)) = 3.333 = 3 squares. While the range is tricky to calculate, all throwing weapons display it when examined (the ‘x’ command).
In reference to the recent thinking about changing the combat system in (v4), I thought I'd explain the combat system in Sil. I am very happy with it, and think that it simultaneously adds interest and adds elegance compared with the V system.
Each attack you make has two stages:
1. Roll to see whether you hit your target.
2. If you hit, then roll to see how much damage you do.
Weapons and Armour
Weapons and armour have a few numbers displayed next to their names which explain how they relate to these two phases of an attack. Take an axe for example:
Battle axe (-3,3d4)
This battle axe provides a penalty of –3 to accuracy, and if it hits it does 3d4 points of damage. Armour is quite similar:
Leather armour [-1,1d4]
This suit of leather armour has a penalty of –1 to evasion, making you slightly easier to strike than if you were unarmoured. However, it also offers some protection, absorbing 1d4 points of damage each time you are struck. These are very simple examples and sometimes it can be more complex. For example:
Greatsword (-2,3d5) [+1]
Mail corslet (-1) [-3,2d4]
This greatsword offers a +1 bonus to evasion, making you slightly harder to strike. This represents your ability to parry with it. On the other hand, the mail corslet is sufficiently cumbersome that it gives a penalty to accuracy as well as a penalty to evasion. You can work out which numbers apply to offense and which apply to defence as follows:
Offense comes first and is in round brackets.
Defence comes second and is in square brackets.
Attacking
To determine whether an attack hits, the attacker makes an attack roll and the defender makes a evasion roll. If the attack roll is greater, then the attack hits.
Attack roll: Attacker’s melee score + 1d20
Evasion roll: Defender’s evasion score + 1d20
The melee and evasion scores are the associated skills combined with a number of modifiers. Firstly, as noted above, the skills are affected by your weapons and armour. They can also be affected by other things, such as being stunned (which gives –2 to all your skills including both melee and evasion), being overwhelmed, and various special abilities. The penalty for being overwhelmed only affects evasion. The size of the penalty depends upon how many monsters are surrounding you, and on where they are relative to the monster who is currently attacking. You get a –2 penalty for each monster that is in one of the three sides furthest away from the attacking monster, and a –1 penalty for any other adjacent monsters. This is a severe penalty, and even weak monsters can become deadly when they surround you. As there is only one of you, monsters will never suffer this penalty.
Finally, the melee score is halved if the attacker cannot see the defender and the evasion score is likewise halved if the defender cannot see the attacker. Opponents that are unwary count as not being able to see you for these purposes. If you are unfortunate enough to be fighting from within a pit or a web, both your evasion and melee scores are halved (again). If someone is completely unable to move (i.e. an enemy is asleep or the player is entranced) then their evasion score is set to –5 irrespective of any other relevant modifiers.
Doing Damage
To determine how much damage is dealt when an attack hits, the attacker makes a damage roll and the defender makes a protection roll. If the damage roll is smaller or equal, the attack does no damage. If it is greater, it does one point of damage for each point of difference between the rolls.
In simple cases, the damage roll is just the damage of the weapon, and the protection roll is the sum of the protection rolls for every piece of armour being worn. However, there are often modifiers on the weapon damage. Some of these affect the number of dice that are rolled, while others affect how many sides these dice have.
For each point of strength the attacker has, a side is added to the dice. For example, if you have strength 3 and are wielding the axe mentioned earlier, you would do 3d7 damage instead of the basic 3d4. This strength bonus is limited by the weight of the weapon. For one-handed weapons it is limited to 1 point of bonus damage for each 1 lb of weapon weight. For two-handed weapons, it is limited to 1 point of bonus for each 1.5 lb of weapon weight. For example, no matter what strength you have, you couldn’t get more than 3 bonus sides with a 3 lb longsword, or more than 4 bonus sides with a 7 lb greatsword (since greatswords are two-handed). High strength characters will want to use heavier weapons (to take advantage of their strength) and weapons with many dice (to take advantage of the extra sides). Note that negative strength subtracts sides of damage up to the same strength limit based on weapon weight.
Some weapons are ‘hand-and-a-half’ weapons, which can be used one-handed or two-handed. If you are not wearing a shield, you are presumed to be wielding these weapons two-handed and are given a bonus 2 damage sides. To continue the example above, let’s suppose that the battle axe is being used with two hands, giving it a total damage of 3d9.
Extra damage dice are added in two ways. Some weapons are especially deadly against certain enemies. In such cases, they do an extra die of damage. For example, if the axe above is an axe of orc-slaying and is being used against an orc, it will do 4d9 damage instead of 3d9. Elemental brands (such as fire brand or frost brand) are similar, doing an extra die of damage against enemies that do not resist the element and 2 extra dice against enemies that are explicitly vulnerable to it (such as fire damage against a frost demon).
It is also possible to get extra dice via critical hits. These are awarded when the attack roll exceeds the evasion roll by a particularly large amount. This amount is determined by the weight of the weapon, with lighter weapons more likely to produce critical hits, due to their easier handling.
To get a critical hit, you need to beat the evasion roll by a certain amount. This amount is 7 points plus one point per pound of weight of your weapon. You are granted a bonus damage die for every multiple of this amount by which you exceed the required score. For example, if wielding a 3 lb longsword, you would need to beat the evasion score by 10 points to get the first bonus die, by 20 points for the second die, 30 points for the third, and so on. This sounds very difficult, but characters who concentrate on accuracy can get very large critical hits, particularly on sleeping or unwary monsters. Of course, monsters can also get critical hits upon you if you are too poor at evasion. You don’t need to memorize this formula; just bear in mind that high accuracy and light weapons can sometimes do a lot of extra damage.
In summary, the weapon damage can gain extra sides from strength or from two-handed wielding, and extra dice from ‘slays’ and critical hits.
Archery
Archery is very similar to melee, but with a few differences. Firstly, the attack roll uses the archery skill instead of the melee skill. To this is added the attack bonus of the arrow being fired, and a range penalty of –1 for every 5 squares the target is from the archer. In addition, the defender’s evasion score is halved against archery (this can stack with the halvings mentioned above). This makes evasion considerably less useful against archery than against melee.
Damage is calculated almost identically to melee, incorporating strength, ‘slays’ and critical hits. The strength bonus of bows is again limited to 1 point per 1 lb of weapon weight.
The range of a bow is equal to 1.5 times the number of sides of damage you do with it. Thus, if you are doing 1d10 with your Longbow, its range will be 15 square.
Finally, it is very dangerous to use your bow when there are enemies in melee range. Firing your bow in such a circumstance will let your guard down, allowing all adjacent enemies to make a free attack on you.
Thrown weapons
Throwing is like melee, but with a few differences. Firstly, many items are not designed to be thrown and they thus give a penalty of –5 to the attack roll when thrown. The items that are designed to be thrown include daggers, throwing axes, spears and tridents. All throwing attacks also suffer a range penalty of –1 for every 5 squares.
Damage is like melee, except that the limit on the strength bonus is 1 point per 0.5 lbs of weapon weight. The number of damage sides is also halved if the object was not designed for throwing. Thus, even if you can hit with a thrown longsword, it will do a lot less damage than in melee.
The range is calculated from the weight of the object and your carrying capacity (which in turn depends on your strength).
Range: carrying capacity / (5 × (weight + 2))
For example, if you can carry 100 lb and are throwing a spear weighing 4 lb, then your range is 100 / (5 × (4 + 2)) = 3.333 = 3 squares. While the range is tricky to calculate, all throwing weapons display it when examined (the ‘x’ command).
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