Combat Maneuvers

These are your choices for defense or attack.

Evasion

Evading is an action, which can be initiated only on a character's Action phase. From that point on, until that character's first action on the next turn, he receives a negative modifier to be hit equal to one-tenth of his/her current Power score, rounded down. During the duration, this can be applied against all attacks of which the character is aware (the standard Perception rolls apply).

Of course, this assumes the character is continuously conscious and mobile. -B.

Parry

As mentioned in the Fighting Skill description, if you are holding a melee weapon and are being attacked by someone using melee, you may opt to Parry instead of your regular Defense. No roll on your part is required. The attacker's chances are modified by your Skill - 10, as detailed in Opposed Skills. Note that doing this essentially substitutes your melee skill for your AGL in the defense equation (Defense = Skill - 10 + Level) and Parrying negates any benefits of Heightened Defense or Evasion (above), since you're not dodging, as such. Most melee Fighting skills are Common (see the list in Fighting); if the defender is weilding a weapon which requires an Uncommon skill he/she does not have, there is an extra -10 penalty. A successful Parry may damage the defender's weapon, the attacker's, or both (GM determination). You may announce you're defending this way anytime before the attacker rolls, with no action, movement, or PR cost.

Hit the Dirt

You may throw yourself prone at any time, though it costs 2 points of Power if done outside your action phase. See the section on Facing and its effects for more details.

Normal Attack

Nothing special. Normal roll to hit, normal damage. Normal, normal, normal.

Special Attack

A Special Attack on any target requires two successful rolls to hit in order to succeed. If either roll fails, the Special Attack fails. Special attacks may be called for in various situations or may be performed whenever by a character to achieve a special result. Usually, this entails striking the target in a particular spot on his body (or on something he/she is holding or wearing. -B.), thereby achieving better or special results. Note that although two rolls to hit are made, there is no additional cost of any kind. If a special attack is to be made, it must be declared by the attacker before rolling to hit.

It is also important to mention here that the use of any super power will normally have only the effects covered in its description, and no others. Thus, a Flame attack does damage to its target, but doesn't necessarily set him ablaze. To avoid the sometimes cruel side-effects of various powers, Special rolls to hit will be required to achieve them as well (a special attack of this kind would have its normal effects as well). In all cases, unnecessary cruelty by the players or against them should be strictly avoided.

Clearly written in the days of goody-twoshoes four-color comics. Nowadays, of course, almost anything goes... -B.

Described below are the effects of successful hits against some common body-area targets: (These are guidelines only. The GM will rule on a case-by-case basis. -B.)

• Head: A successful hit here multiplies the victim's chances of being knocked unconscious by four.
• Eye(s): A hit on the victim's eyes yields a 2% chance per Hit Point of damage inflicted of blinding the opponent, though the situation may bodify this basic percentage chance. The blindness may be permanent or temporary; GM's option, but permanent blindness should be rare.
• Throat: A successful hit here yields a 2% chance per Hit Point of damage inflicted of rendering the victim temporarily mute. In addition, a neck hold may be used to choke the victim. Normally, a character can go without breathing for a number of Turns equal to his Endurance; after half that time, he/she will pass out.
• Arm: Hitting the opponent's arm yields a 2% chance per Hit Point of damage inflicted that the arm will be disabled (sprained/broken). The victime will furthermore require a saving throw vs. Agility to avoid dropping anything held in that arm or hand.
• Hand: Hitting the target's hand may disable that hand (2% per Hit Point of damage inflicted); how disabled the hand becomes is up to the GM. Even if the hand isn't disabled, the victim must make a saving throw on percentage dice vs. Agility to avoid dropping whatever the hand is holding.
• Leg: If the victim's leg is hit, there's a 2% chance per Hit Point of damage inflicted that the leg will be disabled. A character with one leg disabled limps along at A inches per turn and saves vs. Agility time time he moves to avoid falling down). A character with both legs disabled crawls at one-tenth his normal rate.
  In my campaigns, one disabled leg divides Move Rate by 5; both disabled, by ten. The old way could lead to Speedster-Man (Agility 12, Move rate 600") being able to crawl five times faster by he could run on one leg. -B.
• Item or Device: A successful hit on any item in the possession of the target inflicts structural damage on the item. The victim may Roll with the Punch in order to partially protect valuable items.

Carrier Attack

Some attacks have more than one effect; the primary attack is said to be the "carrier" of the secondary "payload" attack. Only one roll to hit is made, but the carrier attack automatically fails if the target's Protection reduces the effect of the primary attack to 0. If the primary attack succeeds, the target's Protection still applies against the carrier attack. Example: Taserman's fists inflict a Paralysis effect when they hit. The fist/HTH attack is resolved, and if a hit is scored that does at least 1 point of damage after target's [Kinetic] Protection is applied, the Paralysis effect "damage" is applied to the target's [Entropy Protection] defenses.

Damage Field

A damage field is layer of energy (or something -B.) around the character's body, which acts as both a Carrier Attack on the character's regular HTH attack and a form of protection. If hit by a ranged attack that involves a physical projectile, roll the damage for your Damage Field and subtract it from the damage inflicted by the attack. If the ranged attack's damage is reduced to zero or less, its projectile is destroyed* before it ever touches you. If hit by a melee weapon attack, your Damage Field's damage roll is applied against the weapon. If the melee weapon is destroyed, you take no damage. If hit by an unarmed attack, roll your Damage Field's damage roll and apply it to it to your attacker before you take any damage. Your attacker may apply their defenses against that damage. If your attacker gets knocked out by your Damage Field, their melee attack is aborted and you take no damage.

*If the incoming damage is reduced to zero, the attack has been repelled. However, rather than being destroyed outright, the projectile simply takes the damage (which may destroy it, but may not). This prevents Flame Guy from "destroying" the Mighty Artifact Spear Heimljor. -B.

Multiple Attack

It is possible to attack more than one target in a single phase, so long as the attacker can see them all and doesn't move between attacks. Roll to hit on each target. Every roll to hit in a multiple attack suffers a -4 penalty to its chances of hitting for each attack after the first; thus, each attack in a double attack is made at a penalty of -4, each attack in a quadruple attack suffers a penalty of -12, etc. However, missing one attack out of a multiple no longer causes the entire set to miss. Resolve all the attacks as a single action, but spend Power for every shot if the attack used has a Power cost. There is an additional Power cost of 2 per extra attack, whether it hits or not. The attacker must declare beforehand how many attacks he/she is going to make, on which targets, and what attack is being used.

Extremely accurate or powerful characters utilizing multiple attacks can get out of hand...the GM is free to limit the number of attacks to keep things under control. E.g., A character could make one blast attack from each hand, or use two fists, or a martial arts character could punch/kick a maximum of four times total, and so on. Generally, at least two attacks can be made at once with any attack mode.

Grab

This maneuver requires a normal roll to hit, but inflicts no damage. Instead, the attacker grabs hold of their target and may hang on until their grip is broken (see below). A normal grab allows a character to hold on to their target's "middle". To grab a specific body part (throat, hand, etc.) requires a special roll to hit.

Squeeze

This maneuver can only be performed by characters who are already holding on to a target. At the cost of an Action, the character can squeeze their victim for full normal HTH damage, without requiring a roll to hit.

Grab-and-Squeeze

This maneuver requires a special roll to hit. The attacker grabs hold of their target (as above), inflicts their normal HTH damage, and may hang on until their grip is broken (see below).

Break Grip

These maneuvers may used by the victim of a grab, to break their opponent's grip. There are three options.

1. Attack whoever has grabbed you until they agree to let go, or are knocked back, or lose consciousness. Unless you have been grabbed from behind, or had your weapon arm grabbed, you can hit your attacker automatically without rolling to hit, at the cost of an Action. (In my campaigns, you must still roll to hit, but anything but a "20" will work. -B.)
2. Fling them off. See the "Shrug" maneuver, below.
3. Wrestle them off. This takes an Action, and allows you to roll your HTH damage (plus applicable modifiers) vs. your opponent's HTH damage plus modifiers. If you roll higher than they do, their grip is broken. No damage is inflicted by this maneuver.

Shrug

This maneuver can be used to throw off one or more melee opponents, even if they have you grabbed. It takes an Action, and no roll to hit is required. You must have:

1. Enough Carrying Capacity to lift all of your melee opponents at once, and
2. Higher Carrying Capacity than any one of your melee opponents.

No damage is inflicted. Divide your Carrying Capacity by the number of melee opponents, and calculate how far you can throw each of them with your divided Carrying Capacity. Each of them is Knocked Back as far as you can throw them.

Throw

If you have another character in your grip, you may throw them at a cost of movement only. If the opponent has grabbed you back, you must break their grip in order to throw them.

Leave Melee

A participant in melee combat (i.e., a fight between two characters where at least one of them attempted a melee attack against the other as his last Action) may only move away if:

1. He is able to move in a direction which his opponent cannot follow (for example, Flight allows a character to escape a melee opponent who cannot fly in most cases), or is able to move without being detected by their opponent (for example, Invisible characters can move away from melee opponents who cannot see invisible things). If the opponent has you in their grip, however, they can just hang on and be carried along with you.
2. If the two combatants agree to part company, then they may both leave.
3. If one of them is knocked back more than 1", then the melee is temporarily broken.
4. If one of the combatants changes Facing, so that the other is not in their front Facing, then that opponent is free to leave melee.

[Back to Combat]		[On to Weapons]