The QuestFRP Player's Handbook

FIGHTER SKILLS

INTRODUCTION TO FIGHTER SKILL CLASS

[6.1.1]

The Fighter Skill Class is primarily concerned with weapons handling and attendant specializations. When a Character acquires a Weapons Discipline, the Character must choose one weapon in the list of weapons detailed for that Discipline as the primary weapon. The primary weapon receives all the bonuses detailed in the Degrees of Mastery of the Discipline. The Character may use similar weapons at a -2 CR penalty (similarity is decided by the GM). If a Character is completely unskilled with a weapon it is used at a -4 CR, -2 DR, -2 PR penalty.

[6.1.2]

Some explanation of how Fighter Disciplines Function. Both the DR bonus and the PR bonus function only in hand-to-hand (not missile) combat unless otherwise noted. All weapons have a regular number of times the Character may attack or parry with them, called Blows. All Characters may strike a Blow, and will gain further Blows as they advance in specific Disciplines. The Non-Bow Missile Weapons typically require more than one Blow to reload. As more Blows are added through Degrees of Mastery, the Character may attack and/or parry more frequently. At each DoM of the weapons Disciplines, the CR, DR, PR bonuses and the Blows a Character can strike are given. These are not additive with the previous DoM of that weapons Discipline, but represent what the Character has at that DoM. If no mention is made of a specific total, it remains unchanged from the previous DoM. The bonuses and extra Blows are taken only with the specific weapon the Character has chosen.

[6.1.3]

Two fighters - Baltar, a human, and Wally, a dwarf, are walking along a plain minding their own business when from a hilltop about 100 meters away two annoying archers decide to kill them. Both of them are wearing iron chain hauberks (12 damage absorption) and iron battle helms (12 damage absorption). The first Baltar and Wally see of these archers are the two arrows coming down on them. Since they weren't aware of the arrows neither of them have any DR. The archers have a CR of 6 with their long bows, are firing from medium range (-1 CR) with a height advantage (+1 CR). So 6 CR - 0 DR = 6, and hits are looked up on the +6 column of the melee/missile chart by the GM. Archer 1 (Dirk) rolls is attacking Baltar and rolls a 92 on d100, resulting in a head hit. He rolls 15 on 3d8, but Baltar has a 12 points of protection on his head so only 3 goes through, but it certainly gets his attention. Archer 2 (Guido) also has a 6 CR and rolls a 34 on d100 hitting Wally in the Weapon Arm for 12 damage. Since the arrow is a thrusting weapon Wally's chain is at 1/2 effectiveness (12/2 = 6) and he takes 6 damage through to his arm.

With their arrows released Dirk and Guido quickly move to reload. Both of them have 4 Blows with the Long Bow, so they can fire an arrow every 7 seconds (70 subphases). In the mean time Baltar and Wally make Assessment Rolls to see how quickly they evaluate the situation. Baltar has an Assessment Statistic of 12 and rolls a 14 on 3d6, so he takes 12 + 14 = 26 subphases before he starts reacting. Wally being both more intelligent (he has an Assessment Statistic of 5) and lucky rolls a 9 on 3d6, so he takes 5 + 9 = 14 subphases to react. So, while Baltar is still standing there with a silly look on his face Wally starts charging up the hill 1.4 seconds after the arrow hit him. He keeps a careful eye on the archers in case of future shots coming his way, going into a Broken Field Sprint. About a second later Baltar gets his kite shield off his back and onto his arm. The Equip Time for a Kite Shield (on the back) is 120 subphases, since Baltar has a Dexterity of 16 he has a Equip Time Modifier of -2, making the shield take 120-2 = 118 subphases to equip (the modifier may be useless with a shield, but it comes in handy drawing a sword). Baltar declares that it is covering his Chest, Abdomen, and Groin, as well as his Shield Arm from missile attacks. He then starts up the hill after Wally at a Sprint, with a spear in hand and his sword girthed about his waist (he would not be able to sprint safely over the rocky ground if his shield were up over his head).

Meanwhile Wally had started up towards the archers at a Trot (versus a Run or a Sprint) so that he could keep his eyes out for incoming arrows. Wally has an Agility of 12, so he may Trot at 12*(1/5) = 2.4 meters/sec. Baltar has an Agility of 16, so he may Sprint at 16*(1/2) = 8 meters/sec. So, 7 seconds after the first arrows hit Baltar has been running for 2.4 seconds, covering 19.2 meters. And Wally has been running for 5.6 seconds, covering 13.4 meters.

Dirk and Guido, seeing the mindless fighters charging towards them each loose an arrow towards their chosen target. Dirk fires at Baltar again, who is now in short range giving Dirk a CR of 7 (+1 height advantage). Dirk rolls a 41 on d100, striking Baltar in the left leg (missing his shield) on the +7 chart, for 12 on 3d8 damage. Baltar has chain as well so his effective armor is 12/6 = 6 absorption against arrows, and 6 points get through. Wally is still in the medium range of Guido's long bow and he is actively Dodging which gives him 1/5 his Agility (1/5 * 12 = 2.4 = 2) as Missile DR. Guido fires his arrow, rolling a Since Wally is in medium range he first attempts to side-step the arrow by making a 52 on d100. Since Wally is in medium range and is Dodging he may try to side-step the arrow by making a Save vs. Agility. He rolls a 8 on d20, successfully side-stepping the arrow (which falls harmlessly to the ground). If Wally had not side-stepped Guido would have been on the +4 Chart (CR of 6 - DR of 2) and would have hit Wally in the left leg.

7 seconds later Baltar has covered 75.2 of the 100 meters to the archers. Meanwhile Wally has only covered 30.2 meters at his Trot. Both Dirk and Guido decide to shoot Baltar. Dirk rolls a 34 on the +7 Chart striking Baltar in the left leg again for 11 points of damage, 11 - 6 = 5 goes through. Guido rolls a 67 on the +7 Chart striking Baltar in the Abdomen for 17 points of damage. Baltar had declared his shield was over his Abdomen. His shield absorbs 12 points of damage plus his 12 point chain (1/2 against piercing), giving him 18 points of damage absorption and stopping the arrow. After shooting their arrows Dirk and Guido each expend a Blow to drop their bows and draw their Rapiers. Both Dirk and Guido have 4 Blows with their Rapiers, so this action takes 8 subphases. They both also start moving acrobatically (Acrobatics III) which adds +1 DR. Both of them have a skill roll of 86 in acrobatics. Dirk makes his acrobatics skill roll with a 73 on d100. Guido makes his acrobatics skill roll with a 12 on d100. Each of them has a DR of 5 with the Rapier and now they each have a DR 6 during the combat.

Wally makes a reaction rolls to see how quickly he realizes the bows are no longer a threat. He rolls a 16, so he takes (16 - (0.5*8)) + 10 = 22 subphases before he can realize this and start Sprinting. As such (assuming nothing changes his mind) Wally will reach Dirk and Guido after another 22 subphases at a Trot (35.5 meters away) and the other 64.5 meters at a Sprint. Wally Sprints at 6 meters/second so he will take 107 subphases to cover that distance.

Baltar continues sprinting up the hill until he is 5 meters away from Dirk and Guido. This takes until 25 subphases (giving Dirk and Guido time to draw their Rapiers). He then launches the spear at Guido with a CR of 4. Since this is a missile weapon Guido only has his 1 DR from Acrobatics and Baltar rolls a 83 on the +3 Chart hitting Guido in the Chest for 8 (on 2d10) damage. Both Dirk and Guido are wearing a Norman Helm (10 absorption), Reinforced Buskins (6 absorption, legs), Leather Cuirass (4 absorption, torso), and a Splinted Bracer (8 absorption) on their Shield Arm with an Arm Plate (14 absorption) on their Weapon Arm. The sum DR adjustment for this armor is -0.25, which rounds to 0. As such Baltar's spear hits Guido in his least defended place for 8-4 = 4 damage through. This is declared as zeros on the Melee Round chart (e.g. the 0th subphase on the chart).

From zeros Wally will arrive at subphase 107-25 = 82.

Baltar then stops and draws his sword, which takes 8 subphases. Meanwhile Dirk and Guido make reaction rolls (16 Intelligences) to see how quickly they can react to this new information that Baltar is no longer charging. Dirk rolls a 6 on d20 and Guido a 1 on d20. So Dirk takes (6 - (0.5*16)) + 10 = 8 subphases and Guido takes (1 - (0.5*16)) + 10 = 3 subphases to react. 3 subphases later Guido takes off at a Sprint towards Baltar, trying to get to him before he can draw his sword. Guido has a 16 Agility making his sprinting speed equal to Baltar's 8 meters/sec = 16*(1/2) = 8/10 of a meter per subphase. So Guido will reach Baltar in 5 meters / 0.8 meters/sec = 6.25 = 6 subphases, which is the 6+3 = 9th subphase of the combat. Baltar takes 8 subphases to draw his weapon. Guido gains a Blow at subphase 9 since he had been holding his Blow for Baltar ever since he had taken his sword out, which was over 3 seconds ago (25+9 = 34 subphases ago). Dirk will arrive with his held Blow at subphase 6+8 = 14 (he also has an Agility of 16). Baltar doesn't have any held Blow since he used his in his spear attack and only just drew his sword.

Dirk and Guido both have a 5 CR with the Rapier and Baltar has a 3 DR with his longsword. So Guido strikes at subphase 9 on the +2 Chart with a roll of 100, hitting Baltar in the Head. Baltar decides this would be a good time to Parry and "pulls" his next Blow as a Parry. He has a PR of 3, so he is on the 3-5 = -2 Chart for parrying. He rolls a 85 resulting in a Block. But Guido goes again at subphase 12 and rolls a 99 on the +2 Chart resulting in another Head hit. Since Baltar had already pulled his Blow at subphase 12 he now must pull his Blow at subphase 19 (which only just became accessable to him) in order to Parry. He does so and rolls a 81 on the -2 Chart resulting in another Block. But Dirk was close behind and at subphase 14 Dirk strikes, also on the +2 Chart. He however rolls a 3 resulting in a broken weapon.

Wally's now only had to run 59.5 meters to reach the battle, so he will arrive at subphase 73.