Combat Statistics
From D20advanced
Several traits determine how well you do in combat: primarily your attack bonus, defense bonus, damage bonus, and saving throws. This section summarizes these traits and how to use them.
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Attack
An attack roll represents the attempt to strike a target with an attack. When you make an attack roll, roll d20 and add your attack bonus. If your result equals or exceeds the target’s Defense, you hit and may deal damage. Various modifiers affect the attack roll, such as a –1 modifier if you are dazzled or a +1 modifier if you are on higher ground than your target. More modifiers are discussed in this chapter.
Automatic Hits and Misses
A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on the attack roll is always a miss. A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a hit, regardless of the opponent’s Defense. A natural 20 is also a threat—a possible critical hit.
Attack Bonus
Your attack bonus for an attack is:
| Base attack bonus + size modifier + miscellaneous modifiers – range penalty |
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Size Modifier
The smaller you are, the bigger other opponents are relative to you. A human is a big target to an ant, just as an elephant is a big target to a human. Since the same size modifier applies to Defense, two opponents of the same size strike each other normally, regardless of size.
| TABLE 7.1: SIZE MODIFIERS TO ATTACK BONUS AND DEFENSE | |
| Size | Modifier |
| Awesome | –12 |
| Colossal | –8 |
| Gargantuan | –4 |
| Huge | –2 |
| Large | –1 |
| Medium | 0 |
| Small | +1 |
| Tiny | +2 |
| Diminutive | +4 |
| Fine | +8 |
| Miniscule | +12 |
Miscellaneous Modifiers
The circumstances of your attack may involve a modifier to your attack bonus. Attacking while prone, for example, imposes a –4 penalty on melee attack rolls. See the Combat Modifiers Table for a listing of miscellaneous modifiers.
Range Penalty
The range penalty with a ranged attack depends on the attack you’re using and the distance to the target. All ranged attacks have a range increment. This is typically (FX rank × 10 feet). Any attack at a distance up to one range increment carries no penalty for range, so ranged Damage 5 (range increment 50 feet) can strike at enemies up to 50 feet away with no penalty. However, each full range increment causes a cumulative –2 penalty to the attack roll. For example, a character firing the same attack at a target 120 feet away suffers a –4 attack penalty (because 120 feet is at least two range increments, but less than three increments).
Defense
Your Defense represents how hard it is for opponents to hit you, the Difficulty Class of an opponent’s attack roll. Your Defense is:
| 10 + defense bonus + size modifier + miscellaneous modifiers |
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Defense Bonus
Your defense bonus represents your passive ability to avoid attacks. Your Defense bonus represents your ability to actively avoid attacks. If you can’t react to an attack, you can’t use your defense bonus. For example, you lose your defense bonus if you’re bound up in a snare, or when you’re caught flat-footed at the beginning of combat.
Size Modifiers
The bigger a target, the easier it is to hit. The smaller it is, the harder it is to hit. Since this same modifier applies to attack rolls, opponents of the same size have no modifier to hit each other. So an ant (or an ant-sized person) rolls normally to hit another ant.
Miscellaneous Modifiers
The circumstances may also apply miscellaneous modifiers to your dodge bonus or Defense. See the Combat Modifiers Table for details.
Damage
When you hit with an attack, you may deal damage. Each attack has a damage bonus. For melee attacks, the damage bonus is your Strength bonus, plus any modifiers for powers like Strike. For ranged attacks the damage bonus is usually based on the attack’s power rank.
| Melee Damage Bonus = Strength modifier + weapon damage FX Damage Bonus = FX rank |
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Strength Modifier
Your Strength measures how hard you can hit, so your Strength modifier applies when you attack unarmed or with a melee or thrown weapon.
Weapon Damage
Weapons have a damage modifier, showing how much damage they inflict. Ranged weapons have a fixed damage bonus. Melee and thrown weapons add the wielder’s Strength modifier to their damage.
FX Rank
Your FX’s rank measures how much damage it inflicts, so it serves as the FX’s damage bonus. Individual FX descriptions provide more information on how much damage a particular FX inflicts.
Critical Hits
When you make an attack roll and get a natural 20 (the d20 actually shows 20), you hit regardless of your target’s Defense, and you score a threat. The hit might be a critical hit (sometimes called a “crit”). To find out whether it’s a critical hit, determine if the attack roll total would have normally hit your opponent’s Defense. If so, then it is a critical hit. If not, the attack still hits, but as a normal attack, not a critical.
A critical hit increases the attack’s damage bonus by 5. A critical hit against a minion allows no saving throw; the minion is automatically knocked out or killed.
Increased Threat Range
Characters with the Improved Critical feat can score a threat on a natural result less than 20, although they still automatically hit only on a natural 20. Any attack roll that doesn’t result in a hit is not a threat.
Resistances
When you’re subjected to a potentially harmful effect, the attack must beat the DC established by your defense or resistance.
Resistance Types
The resistances are:
- Defense: Your ability to avoid attacks and harm. The DC to overcome your Defense is 10 + your ranks in Defense.
- Fortitude: Your ability to resist attacks against your vitality and health such as poison and disease. The DC to overcome your Fortitude is 10 + your ranks in Fortitude + your Constitution score.
- Toughness: Your ability to resist physical punishment and direct damage. The DC to overcome your Toughness is 10 + your ranks in Toughness.
- Will: Your resistance to mental influence and domination as well as certain FX. The DC to overcome your Will is 10 + your ranks in Will + your Charisma score.
The following skills also have some function as resistances:
- Perception: Your ability to spot danger or hidden threats. The DC to overcome your Perception is 10 + your ranks in Perception + your Wisdom score.
- Reflex: Your ability to react quickly to danger or in response to another event. The DC to overcome your Reflex is 10 + your ranks in Reflex + your Dexterity score.
Initiative
Every round, each combatant gets to do something. The combatants’ initiative checks determine the order in which they act, from highest to lowest.
Initiative Checks
At the start of a battle, each combatant makes an initiative check. The GM rolls for the villains while the players each roll for their heroes. Your initiative in combat is determined by your Reflex score, including modifiers like the Improved Initiative feat. The GM finds out in what order characters act, counting down from highest total to lowest. Each character acts in turn for all rounds of the combat unless a character takes an action to change initiative. Usually, the GM writes the names of the characters down in initiative order so he can move quickly from one character to the next each round. If two combatants have the same initiative check result, they act in order of highest Dexterity first. If there is still a tie, roll a die, with the highest roll going first.
Flat-Footed
At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically, before your first turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed. You can’t use your dodge bonus while flat-footed. The Uncanny Dodge feat allows you to retain your dodge bonus to Defense while flat-footed.
Surprise Attacks
An attack may come from an unexpected quarter, especially when dealing with powerful opponents. An attack that catches the target off-guard in some way is called a surprise attack.
To make a surprise attack, you must catch your target unawares. You can make a surprise attack in the following situations:
- When you gain Combat Advantage over your enemy.
- When you surprise a target at the beginning of combat.
- When you do something unexpected (in the GM’s judgment).
The target of a surprise attack loses any Defense bonus against the attack (except for ranks shored up with the Uncanny Dodge feat) and suffers an additional –2 Defense penalty.
Opponent Intiative
Typically, the GM makes a single initiative check for opponents. That way, each player gets a turn each round and the GM also gets one turn. At the GM’s option, however, he can make separate initiative checks for different groups of opponents or even for individual foes. For instance, the GM may make one initiative check for an evil overlord and another check for all of the villain’s minions.
Joining a Fight
If characters enter a fight after it’s begun, they roll initiative and act whenever their turn comes up in the existing order.
Surprise
When a combat starts, if you are not aware of your enemies but they are aware of you, you’re surprised. If you know about your opponents but they don’t know about you, you surprise them.
Determining Awareness
Sometimes all combatants on a side are aware of their enemies; sometimes none are; sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few combatants on either side are aware and other combatants are unaware.
The GM determines who is aware of whom at the start of a battle. The GM may call for Perception checks, or other checks to see how aware the characters are of their opponents. Some examples:
- The characters enter a seedy bar and immediately spot members of a notorious gang. The gang members notice the characters at the same time. Both sides are aware; neither is surprised. The characters and the gang-members make initiative checks, and the battle begins.
- The characters are tracking a mysterious shape-shifting monster, which has fled down a dark alley. They follow, unaware the alien has assumed the form of an old crate, hidden among several others. When the monster springs out to attack, the characters are surprised and do not get to act in the surprise round.
- The characters infiltrate a criminal mastermind’s headquarters wearing the uniforms of his soldiers. When they reveal themselves and attack to prevent the mastermind from triggering his doomsday device, they surprise their opponents. The characters act during the surprise round, but the villains do not.
The Surprise Round
If some, but not all, of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. The combatants aware of their opponents can act in the surprise round, so they roll for initiative. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take a standard or move action, not both. If no one or everyone is surprised, a surprise round doesn’t occur.
Unaware Combatants
Combatants unaware at the start of battle do not get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet. Because of this, they lose any dodge bonus to Defense.
Minions
Minions are minor characters subject to special rules in combat, and generally easier to defeat than normal characters. The following rules apply to minions:
- Minions cannot score critical hits against non-minions.
- Non-minions can take 10 on attack rolls against minions (attackers normally cannot take 10 on attack rolls).
- If a minion fails a Toughness saving throw, the minion is dropped. Attackers can choose a lesser effect, if desired.
- The Impossible Toughness Save rule (see at right) does not apply to minions.
- Certain traits (like Takedown Attack) are more effective against minions.
Mobs
Mobs are groups of minor characters like minions who act as a single unit. A mob is treated as a single heroic character. The number of creatures in a mob determines its overall capabilities relative to the base creature. Compare the number of creatures in the mob to the progression value on the Time and Value Progression Table to determine the Mob Modifier.
Mobs gain the following features:
- Mobs add their Mob Modifier to their Attacks, Might, and Toughness.
- Mobs treat all their attacks as having 1 rank in the Autofire extra.
- Depending on the descriptors of the creatures making up the mobs, they are not affected by especially subtle, single-target FX, such as Mind Control or Inflict (Condition). At the GM's option, targeting important individuals within a mob (such as officers in a military unit) can affect the whole mob, but the mob gains a bonus on resistances to the FX ranging from +2 to +5.
- Area attacks which target a mob have a +2 bonus to their effect modifiers.
Damage conditions affect a mob normally, though the descriptions might change. An injured mob might see some of its members fall, and a dazed mob might be disrupted and unable to coordinate its attacks as well. A staggered mob might see many of its numbers fall, teetering on the edge of total chaos, and an unconscious mob might dissolve as its members are either debilitated or fleeing for their lives. Descriptor-wise, single-target attacks against a mob are usually resolved as a series of attacks of the same type, such as a fierce unarmed onslaught that tears through the mob, sending dozens of creatures flying, or a barrage of gunfire. These types of attacks gain no special bonuses or penalties, and are assumed to be just as effective as usual.
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| Chapter VII: Combat | Combat Sequence | Combat Statistics | Actions | Action Descriptions | Damage | Tactical Movement and Options | Maneuvers | |
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| Chapter VIII: Environments | Zones | Terrain Effects | Climate Effects | Conditions | |
| Chapter IX: Dramatic Interactions | Dramatic Interaction | Interaction Types | Reputation | Mental Strain | Taint | Examples of Taint | |
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