Tactical Movement and Options
From D20advanced
 Option: Tactical Movement and Options
This section represents a swathe of combat options which you may want to take advantage of in your game. They are intended to make combat more tactical, encouraging players to plan their movements and actions strategically. However, this sort of combat is not for everyone. Each of the following sections will have Option Boxes to discuss the implications of using these options or culling them from your game. The modularity of d20 Advanced will allow you to remove these options from your game without and major or far-reaching mechanical complications, but understanding what each option represents and what a game will look like with or without that option is important to deciding what is best for your particular game. |
Sometimes a character in melee lets her guard down. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to gain an advantage. This may come in the form of a free Attack of Opportunity or in the form of gaining Combat Advantage, or possibly both! This section presents tactical options for your game, if your are looking to make combat more tactically engaging and in-depth.
Contents |
Battle Maps
For many groups, combat is the center of the game, and it deserves the lion's share of the attention, with use of miniatures or tokens to represent characters and enemies on a battlemap of some sort, where players will be able to move their characters precisely across the battlefield and take control of strategic positions to win the day. Roleplaying games in general are derived from the older hobby of tabletop wargames, where players would maneuver whole squads of soldiers and warriors across tabletop battlefields, resolving attacks with dice and tables, to win the day (indeed, this hobby still has a healthy following).
Battlemaps are an option which you can use to take advantage of to grant combat and tactical movement that increased focus which it may deserve in your games. There are many different types of battlemaps, and depending on your game and your preferences, you might choose different types of battlemaps.
Threatened Area
You threaten all spaces into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Generally, that means everything in all spaces adjacent to your space (including diagonally). Threatened spaces are treated as difficult terrain, only allowing you to move at half-speed through them (as you are hampered keeping your defenses up to protect yourself from your opponent).
Note that a flat-footed combatant does not threaten any spaces.
If an opponent tries to move through your threatened spaces at full-speed, or attempts other risky actions, you may be able to take advantage of this.
Reach Attacks
If your attack has an Extended Reach, you threaten any spaces that you can normally attack with the attack's reach.
Ranged Attacks
If the range for an attack you have is Ranged or Perception, it does not count towards your threatened area. Only a weapon or FX with a range of Touch counts towards your threatened area.
Square Grid
A square grid uses a scale of 1 inch squares arranged in a grid, like a chess or checker board. At the typical scale, each 1" square is equal to 5 feet, and most medium-sized characters threaten all squares adjacent to then (eight squares in total). In the above example, Syphon's threatened area is depicted in blue. He can threaten the two rightmost cyborgs, but the leftmost one is too far away to threaten. He'll need to move if he wants to attack that cyborg.
Movement on a Square Grid
Movement through a square is the equivalent of moving 5 feet. Moving on a diagonal costs 10 feet. Squares which count as difficult terrain cost 10 feet to move through (20 feet for a diagonal).
Attacking on a Square Grid
Most characters threaten (and can make touch-range attacks into) squares immediately adjacent to the character (including immediately adjacent diagonal squares). Characters whose reach is greater than 5 feet can make touch-range attacks into a wider area.
Calculating Ranges on a Square Grid
On a square grid, you can determine if a target is within range for a Ranged attack by using the same method to calculate movement.
Area Effects on a Square Grid
Area effects affect creatures in all the five-foot squares which fall completely in the radius of the attack.
Uses of a Square Grid
Battlemaps using square grids are extremely useful for indoor encounters with straight walls, where walls can easily line up along the edges of squares. However, in open or irregular areas, other grids which allow for more accurate calculation of movement might be a better choice.
Hex Grid
A hex grid uses a scale of 1"-diameter hexagons arranged in a grid, as shown above. At the typical scale, each 1" hex is equal to 5 feet, and most medium-sized characters threaten all hexes adjacent to then (six hexes in total). In the above example, Syphon's threatened area is depicted in blue. He can threaten the two rightmost cyborgs, but the leftmost one is too far away to threaten. He'll need to move if he wants to attack that cyborg.
Movement on a Hex Grid
Movement through a hex is the equivalent of moving 5 feet. There is no penalty for moving in diagonal lines, as the distance on a hexagon doesn't change radically from straight to diagonal lines. Hexes which count as difficult terrain cost 10 feet to move through.
Attacking on a Hex Grid
Most characters threaten (and can make touch-range attacks into) hexes immediately adjacent to the character. Characters whose reach is greater than 5 feet can make touch-range attacks into a wider area.
Calculating Ranges on a Hex Grid
On a hex grid, you can determine if a target is within range for a Ranged attack by using the same method to calculate movement.
Area Effects on a Hex Grid
Area effects affect creatures in all the hexes which fall completely in the radius of the attack.
Uses of a Hex Grid
Hexes make it difficult to draw straight lines on, which can make it troublesome to create indoor maps with straight walls. For outdoor areas, or for games with little exploration of maxes or the like, hexes are likely the better choice for a battlemap.
Gridless
A gridlesss battlemap relies on rulers or range-finders, where 1" is equivalent to 5 feet at the typical scale. Most medium-sized characters threaten an area 1" around them. In the above example, Syphon's threatened area is depicted in blue. He can threaten the two rightmost cyborgs, but the leftmost one is too far away to threaten. He'll need to move if he wants to attack that cyborg.
Movement on a Gridless Battlemap
Moving 1" is the equivalent of moving 5 feet. Use a measuring tape, ruler, or range-finder to measure how far your character can move. Difficult terrain costs double the normal movement distance to move through it.
Attacking on a Gridless Battlemap
Most characters threaten (and can make touch-range attacks into) the 1" area immediately adjacent to the character. Characters whose reach is greater than 5 feet can make touch-range attacks into a wider area.
Calculating Ranges on a Gridless Battlemap
On a gridless battlemap, you can determine if a target is within range for a Ranged attack by using the same method to calculate movement.
Area Effects on a Gridless Battlemap
Area effects affect creatures who fall at least half within the radius of the attack.
Uses for Gridless Battlemaps
Gridless battlemaps have the advantage of never being restricted in drawing any kind of terrain onto the map, and for movement being absolutely clear and straight-forward (measure and then move). On the downside, it's often difficult to determine threatened areas quickly and easily during combat, making attacks of opportunity very hard to resolve, and can make it more difficult to determine movement-based combat advantage.
Flight on a Battlemap
While it might be difficult to resolve conceptually, a useful visual aid for denoting flight for a character would be to place a spare die next to that character's miniature or token and turning it to note how many spaces "above the board" he or she is. So on a square grid map, a character who is flying fifty feet above the ground would be 10 squares overhead, with a "10" showing on the die next to the character's miniature.
Miniatures & Tokens
To represent a character on a battlemap, you have numerous options. At the most basic, you need a token to represent the characters present, and can make do with something as simple as names taped to pennies. Some suggestions are limited below:
- Candy/Snacks: With something as common as candy or snacks, you can represent characters on a battlemap. Pretzels (particularly the mini pretzels) are particularly good for this, as you can always bite off a piece of a pretzel to quickly distinguish different shapes for different characters. The difficulty of using candy/snacks is that players will almost invariably eat their pieces. And other people's pieces. And the monster.
- Cut-Outs: Often available very cheaply, paper or card-stock cut-outs are another easy solution. You can usually purchase large packs of them with lots of options (making it easier for you to find one that will fit your character). Cut-outs also are made to stand upright, giving you many of the advantages of minis, though they aren't as durable as metal miniatures.
- Miniatures: Whether metal or plastic, miniatures are the classic solution for representing characters on a battlemap. While there are countless options out there (both metal and plastic, pre-painted and not), it can be hard to find a mini that fits your character perfectly (especially for the GM who constantly needs to introduce new NPCs and monsters). But because miniatures stand up and are designed to fit on the battlemap, they provide a durable and very easy means of quickly identifying characters in the fight.
- Poker Chips: Simple and widely available in large quantities, poker chips are easy to use and are usually a good size for most battlemaps. By doing something as easy as taping a name to a poker chip (or a coin, or a glass bead), you can create a quick and relatively durable way to represent characters. It's also easy on the GM, who can use the different colors of even blank chips or beads to represent enemies easily.
- Printed Tokens: For the more artistic-minded gamers, you can create your own tokens by shrinking down character portraits and printing them out. To add durability to your tokens, you can usually paste them pretty easily to poker chips, like described above. Printed tokens are slightly harder to use than simple poker chips, but they make it easier to tell at a glance who is where, and it helps you personalize your game even more.
- Toys: Last but not least, you always have the option of using old plastic favorites from childhood. Most full-sized dolls and action-figures are too big to use on a battlemap, but can be used in a pinch to show relative positions. However, the figures that come with plastic building bricks usually come with a wide variety of possibly accessories and are almost a perfect size, making them an excellent and easy-to-obtain solution for your game.
| Option: Using or Removing Battlemaps
Battlemaps are presented as an option to allow for greater tactical precision in gameplay, as there is no question as to where characters are positioned during a fight. Movement and area of effect are very clear. And there's also something to be said for the tactile and visual sensation of holding your character's miniature. However, d20 Advanced does not require battlemaps for gameplay, and indeed, battlemaps might not work well for all genres of play. Gameplay still functions well if the battlefield is abstracted and left to the imaginations of the GM and players. If you decide to forgo battlemaps, it's important to be very clear in your descriptions of the battlefield, making sure that the players are aware of everything going on around them. A battlemap can take care of these concerns for you, with no worry about the ambiguity of whether or not someone is close enough to attack. In addition, there are two types of movement which battlemaps in general do not handle well: extremely high speeds (such as in superhero games, where speedsters are common and able to run faster than cars) and three-dimensional movement (such as when creatures with flight are common enough that fights often take to the sky). Extreme speed is difficult because it largely makes the battlemap itself inconsequential for the fast character, as that character can easily weave past any threatened areas and move around with impunity. Three-dimensional movement is also difficult to represent on a battlemap, but can be accounted for (as shown above). If these issues are unlikely in your game, and if you wish to make combat an important part of your game, battlemaps are a good choice. Battlemaps are also very important if you wish to make use of attacks of opportunity, since precise movement tracking is needed to understand threatened spaces. If you wish to resolve combat more quickly or are content to leave a battlefield to your imagination, battlemaps might not be necessary for your game. Combat advantage can still function well without a battlemap, though it may be easier to simply not track threatened spaces for gaining combat advantage and only allow it through maneuvers or through positional advantage. |
Combat Advantage
Combat Advantage is a catch-all term for holding an advantage over your foe in some way, whether because he left himself open to your attacks or because you took the initiative to seize the high ground or out-flank your enemy. The bigger your combat advantage, the more difficult it is for your enemy to defend himself successfully against your attacks.
While you hold combat advantage over a foe, you might be able to make use of certain feats and FX which requires combat advantage.
Combat Advantage Condition
If you succeed in a maneuver to Gain Combat Advantage by a wide margin, or if you are able to gain combat advantage from numerous sources at once (such as having high ground while your enemy moves through your threatened area at full-speed), your foe might be more vulnerable than usual.
| COMBAT ADVANTAGE | Condition | |
| Succeed | Off-Balance | -2 Defense against your attacks, Susceptible to Your Surprise Attacks |
| Succeed by 5 | Vulnerable | Lose Defense Bonus against your attacks, Susceptible to Your Surprise Attacks |
| Succeed by 10 | Flat-Footed | Lose Defense Bonus against all attacks, Susceptible to everyone's Surprise Attacks |
| Recovery | Automatic | 1 round |
Off-Balance
If you succeed on an opposed maneuver check, or if you gain combat advantage against a foe once, your foe is off-balance, taking a -2 penalty to Defense against your attacks. In addition, you may use Surprise Attacks against a foe you have combat advantage against which you couldn't otherwise use.
Vulnerable
If you succeed by 5 or more on an opposed maneuver check, or if you gain combat advantage against a foe who you already hold combat advantage over from another source, your opponent is vulnerable, denying him his Defense bonus against attacks you make.
Flat-Footed
If you succeed by 10 or more on a maneuver check, your opponent is flat-footed, denying him his Defense bonus against all attacks made against him, even from combatants other than yourself. A character can only be treated as flat-footed if another combatant succeeds by 10 or more on a maneuver check.
Recovery
Recovery From a Maneuver Check
If you are rendered off-balance or worse by an opposed maneuver check, you automatically recover after one round.
If your opponent takes a -5 penalty to his maneuver check, he or she maintains combat advantage over you until you succeed at an opposed maneuver check.
Recovery From Positional Advantage
If your opponent has combat advantage from a positional advantage, such as flanking you or holding the high ground, he automatically loses combat advantage over you if you move out of his threatened area, or if he loses the high ground or the flank (such as by moving away or by climbing onto high ground yourself).
Recovery From Movement or From a Risky Action
If your opponent has combat advantage over you due to your moving through a threatened area at full-speed, or taking another risky action, that combat advantage lasts only until the start of your next turn.
Gaining Combat Advantage
You can gain combat advantage over your foe in one of the following ways:
Gain Combat Advantage Maneuver
If you succeed at the Gain Combat Advantage maneuver, you will have combat advantage over your foe.
Positional Advantage
If you manage to take a position on the battlefield which is advantageous over your foe, you can gain combat advantage so long as you can maintain that position. While there could be countless types of terrain or positions relative to your enemy which could be considered advantageous, the most common ones are listed below.
Concealment
If your foe cannot see you because you have total concealment or total cover, you are treated as having combat advantage over that foe.
Flanking
If you and another ally both threaten a common enemy, and you are on opposite sides of that enemy, you both gain combat advantage over that foe.
High-Ground
If you are on higher ground than your enemy (usually at least 3 feet, such as a few steps up a staircase, or atop a table), then you have combat advantage over all foes within your threatened area who are on lower ground.
Moving Through Threatened Area
Threatened squares are treated as difficult terrain, only allowing you to move at half-speed through them (as you are hampered keeping your defenses up to protect yourself from your opponent).
You can, however, choose to move at your normal speed through threatened areas. If you choose to move at full-speed through a threatened area, you grant your foe combat advantage over you until the start of your next turn. In most cases, you can move into one threatened square or hex before provoking an attack. If you are fast, you might be able to pass an enemy safely. If you move through multiple creatures' threatened areas, your movement might grant multiple opponents combat advantage.
Risky Action
FX with a range of touch (even if it has an Extended Reach) and combat maneuvers made with a range of touch count as melee attacks and do not grant combat advantage to the target. All other actions made within a threatened area grant that opponent combat advantage until the start of your next turn.
Reaction Attacks
As an additional option when using combat advantage and Hero Dice, a character who gains combat advantage over an enemy during that enemy's turn may spend one Hero Die to take an immediate action against that enemy (with the bonuses for combat advantage), as if you had readied an action against that enemy's action, but without actually needing to declare it. Resolve the reaction attack before your enemy's action is resolved (so if your foe tried to run past you to attack one of your allies and granted you combat advantage, you may spend a Hero Die to take an immediate attack against your enemy before he leaves your threatened area, which might stop him from ever reaching your ally).
| Option: Removing Combat Advantage
In the middle-ground of tactical complexity between basic d20 Advanced combat and attacks of opportunity, combat advantage provides a simple way to describe who has the upper-hand in battle, and how you can gain that edge through smart play (or lose it by making poor choices). Combat advantage is meant to provide a quick, easy-to-remember way to measure just how much of an edge you have over an opponent and unify the myriad of combat statuses into a single, simple, but robust system. However, the system may still put too much focus on tactical concerns for some groups or types of games. To that end, there are ways to trim down the complexity of combat advantage into something more palatable.
Removing these two triggers might seem necessary if a group chooses to play without a battlemap of some kind, but it isn't necessarily true. Granting combat advantage over an enemy who charges past characters is meant to discourage the tactic of running past the tougher characters up front (the "tanks") to attack the more vulnerable characters in the back. You can keep this trigger without a battlemap if you choose, but it will require additional GM judgment calls. The "Risky Actions" trigger is actually much easier to keep. If someone tries something other than a melee attack while engaged with you in melee, they grant you combat advantage. Simple. You don't need a battlemap to know when someone is in melee with you. Removing these options works best when presented with a game where character types present make these triggers unreasonable. For example, in many anime/manga-themed games, using "magic" in melee combat is a very normal and very expected part of the game. In superheroes games, speedersters and flying characters make threatened areas almost irrelevant. If you choose to remove these two triggers, understand that you will make it easier for characters to "run past" defenders with impunity (and you should encourage characters who are setting against a charge to ready their attack actions). You should also understand that this will allow characters to do things like root around in their backpacks for a turn without fear of reprisal for losing focus on the battle. The other Combat Advantage triggers will still work absolutely fine without these two triggers.
If you simply do not wish to deal with the complexity of combat advantage, and wish instead to rule that smart tactics, taking the high ground, or striking a foe who takes a risky action can be abstracted to the result of the attack roll itself, this is perfectly fine. You might also simply grant characters a bonus to attacks which you feel are especially effective or interesting (such as with a +2 to hit). Be sure to extend this ruling to conditions like Concealment, which logically should be more difficult for a foe to defend against. Also be sure to remove the Requires Combat Advantage FX flaw and the Sneak Attack feat, both of which depend on combat advantage for resolution. |
Attacks of Opportunity
Attacks of opportunity are meant to resolve combat tactics in a more tactile and immediate way: poor decisions on the part of a character can grant nearby enemies additional immediate attacks. This option, though simpler on paper, is slightly more complex in actual play, as it allows characters to take more actions than otherwise possible. It is also slightly more realistic, in that it allows a character to immediately take advantage of an opening.
Provoking Attacks of Opportunity
Two kinds of actions can provoke attacks of opportunity: moving more than half speed in a threatened area or taking an action other than a melee attack in a threatened area. Any other action or excess movement requires you to drop your guard, thus provoking an attack of opportunity.
Attack
FX with a range of touch (even if it has an Extended Reach) and combat maneuvers made with a range of touch count as melee attacks. All other actions provoke attacks of opportunity.
Moving
Threatened squares are treated as difficult terrain, only allowing you to move at half-speed through them (as you are hampered keeping your defenses up to protect yourself from your opponent).
You can, however, choose to move at your normal speed through threatened squares. If you choose to move at full-speed through a threatened square, you provoke an attack of opportunity. In most cases, you can move into one threatened square before provoking an attack. If you are fast, you might be able to pass an enemy safely. If you move through multiple creatures’ threatened areas, your movement might provoke an attack from one opponent but not the other.
Making Attacks of Opportunity
An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can make only one per round. You don’t have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to. When you attack, you use the standard attack action described above (but you don’t actually use up one action for the round; the attack of opportunity is treated as a reaction).
You cannot use special attack maneuver, such as trips or disarms, as these require more time and focus than you normally have when making an attack of opportunity.
An attack of opportunity “interrupts” the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve it, then continue with the next character’s turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character’s turn). For example, a character may attempt to use a ranged FX, thereby provoking an attack of opportunity. If your attack stuns or knocks him unconscious, he would not be able to finish his action and activate the power.
Additional Attacks of Opportunity
Some feats grant you bonus attacks of opportunity each round. These abilities generally do not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you, you could make two separate ones (since each one represents a different opening). Each square a creature moves beyond one-half of its speed in your threatened area represents an additional opportunity against that opponent. All these attacks are at your full normal melee attack bonus.
| Option: Removing Attacks of Opportunity
Attacks of opportunity are presented as an option for groups who enjoy the tactical options available in combat, and a more realistic approach where a character can’t simply run through a line of enemies. However, in certain games, this additional consideration for realism or for the sake of tactical combat isn’t desired. Attacks of opportunity can be completely excised for such games. If you wish to remove attacks of opportunity from the game, you should also remove the Opportunity feats as a player option from Chapter IV: Feats. Combat advantage, especially when using the Reaction Attacks option, can fill the tactical role of attacks of opportunity quite nicely, without the additional complexity and while covering a wider range of conditions than attacks of opportunity do. |
| ||
| Chapter VII: Combat | Combat Sequence | Combat Statistics | Actions | Action Descriptions | Damage | Tactical Movement and Options | Maneuvers | |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter VIII: Environments | Zones | Terrain Effects | Climate Effects | Conditions | |
| Chapter IX: Dramatic Interactions | Dramatic Interaction | Interaction Types | Reputation | Mental Strain | Taint | Examples of Taint | |
|
||
