The Combat Round

Combat in World of Roleplay uses a turn-based system. It is important to appreciate and respect that it’s turn based. Each round lasts about 1 minute long. Despite being a turn based game, combat is fluid. The hits that characters suffer; the movement that a character covers; and the spells that are cast are abstractions of the messiness of combat. When a warrior hits a giant for 12 points of damage in one of their 2 hits, it doesn’t necessarily mean only one hit lands. Perhaps they struck the giant 7 times which accumulated to 12 points of damage, even though only 1 out of 2 attacks hit. Within combat, each player only takes one turn per round. A Cycle is between 6-10 rounds, depending on the DM’s discretion. Each combat should take roughly 6 rounds, with 10 being on the extreme end. A Cycle represents a combat or at least a phase within a combat. If your combat is longer than 10 rounds, the DM should do their best to break up the combat in phases Cycles. If fighting a vampire where the combat is 20 rounds long, perhaps the first 5 rounds of talking and negotiating with the vampire is Cycle 1. Round 6-11 is the second Cycle where it’s the fight vs the vampire and their minions. Rounds 12-17 is third Cycle where its fighting just the vampire after the minions are slain. And rounds 18-20 is the fourth Cycle where the party is putting the stake in the vampire while trying to give medical treatment to party members and chasing any minions that fled. In this example, combat took 4 Cycles long, even though there was no formal demarcation of the Cycle. In general, 10 Cycles should take about an hour, but this is not a hard rule. Most people in a fantasy setting don’t have watches to tell them the time.

Initiative

The Ambush Round

When you begin combat, everyone must roll into initiative. Sometimes you enter a combat without some characters being aware that combat is about to begin. This is the ambush round. Any character that may be surprised that combat is beginning must roll a 1d10. On a 1, 2, or 3, the character is surprised and cannot act this turn. This includes taking their turn, using reactions, and using other spells and abilities. Having a dialogue between a character that is surprised and a character that is not surprised immediately ends their surprise from the ambush round. If their turn already passed, they can take a turn immediately after the character who spoke to them, else they get their turn and actions as normal.

Initiative

At the beginning of each round, the order of turns must be decided by an initiative roll. Each character must roll 1d10 and add (or subtract) a value to their roll. The order for which initiative goes is from lowest number to highest number. If two or more characters have the same initiative, they should both re-roll against each other and whoever wins this initiative goes before the other.

Optional Rule: If two or more characters roll the same initiative, resolve all their attacks, movement, abilities, spells, etc. simultaneously.

The primary method for calculating your initiative modifier is using the encumbrance system. For enemies, if they are humanoids, you may use this encumbrance table, however you should generally ignore the equipment modifier (this is the difference between being an adventurer and work-from-home combatant). For monsters, use monster iniative modifier.

Derek is wearing padded (light) armour and so his initiative would be a +1. Derek also wields longsword in his main hand and a shield in his off-hand. The longsword is a medium weapon which gives him +2 to his initiative. The shield is a large weapon which gives him +3 to his initiative. In total, Derek rolls with a +6 to his initiative.

Your Turn

Every player character gains 2 actions points plus movement on their turn, as well as a free object interaction.

NPC Action Points

NPCs operate differently than player characters. In turn-based RPGs, action economy is very important. An NPC with 5x the health, 5x the damage, and higher hit rating is usually weaker than a party of 5, because they cannot take as many actions. If you add just 2 minions to the fight, suddenly this strong NPC becomes deadly. Creating NPCs with the right amount of action points is certainly a skill. The following will be guidelines.

The standard (especially low level) NPC should have 1 action point.

Figuring out To-Hit

A character’s hit-rating or their to-hit modifier is how you figure out if an attack or spell successfully hits a target. For melee attacks, you may use your strength modifier (actual number minus 10) as well as any additional modifiers. For ranged physical attacks, use your dexterity modifier instead. For spells, if it’s a targeted attack, the character uses their intelligence modifier.

Critical Hits

Sometimes an enemy’s Armour class is impossible to hit. Even so, still roll because critical hits always hit the enemy target. There are two ways to get a critical hit. The first is to roll a natural 20, however some classes/abilities can by-bass this with a lower natural die roll. The second is to clear the enemy’s AC by 15 or more, regardless of natural number. However, a natural 1 is always a miss.

When you land a critical hit, you may re-roll the damage die(dice) and sum the total.

Spell Hits

To-Hit Spells

Some spells need to hit the enemy’s armor class. In these cases, use your primary casting modifier combined with a d20 die roll as well as any additional modifiers. If you meet or beat your enemy’s AC, your spell hits as well as all of its effects. Depending on the damage type of your spell, the opponent may get bonuses to their AC. For example, typically +1 defense to fire spells is not normally calculated for DC, but if you have a fire to-hit spell, they would get that +1 to their AC.

Save vs Spell

For all other spells, the target will have to save vs the spell. If the spell has a damage type, use that type for the save roll. The save DC is equal to the caster’s casting ability score plus any additional modifier. For example, if the a frost mage casts Frost Nova which freezes nearby enemies. Frosty the frost mage has 16 intelligence, and Frost Nova has been upgraded so that the save is +1. In this example, an enemy would have to roll a 17 or higher to save versus this spell.

If the spell is mind-affecting (such as a fear spell), then the target must roll a will power save, regardless of whether the spell caster used intelligence or willpower as their spell casting modifier. In either case, the save is equal to the spellcaster’s casting ability score +10. For example, Frosty (a frost mage) cast fear on an opponent. Frosty still has 16 intelligence and no modifiers to his fear spell. The opponent must roll a 26 or higher willpower save to pass the check.

If the spell doesn’t have a damage type and it’s not a mind-affecting spell, the target should save vs arcane.

Movement in Combat

Every race has a listed base movement speed. That number represents how much space can be covered within 1 action point. This is your character's base movement speed. A characters base movement speed may vary based on other factors such as spells, abilities, and class features. However, a character's movement changes on the equipment they are carrying. To determine a character's movement, take the character's base movement, subtract their initiative modifier, then multiply this number by 10 to get the movement speed in feet. For example, Dave the human fighter has a 20 base movement speed from his race. He's carrying light armor (+1), a medium weapon (+2), a shield (+3), and a small bag (+2), which gives him a total of +8 to his initiative. This means his actual movement speed would be 12 (20-8). Therefore, Dave would be able to cover 120 feet per action point, or 360 feet per round

Optional Rule: The length of a round may be changed to a half minute. If this is the case, the changed formula would be: take the character's base movement, subtract their initiative modifier, then multiply this number by 5.