CombatPlus

PowerCombat Plus

Certain aspects of Exalted combat have always bothered me; most of them have to do with how initiative works. This project aims to come up with an alternate system which addresses these issues. _Ikselam

Ideally, the system should:

• Be relatively simple. Flat bonuses or penalties; no comparison operations.
• Apply weapon-based modifiers only to weapon-based actions. This is the main problem I currently have with initiative; Speed gives a bonus to something which occurs before your action is even announced.
• Make multiple actions, taken with different weapons, easy to understand.
• Not require major reshuffling of existing weapon or Charm stats.

Initiative and Movement

All characters act on base initiative: their Dexterity + Wits, plus the roll of one die. Weapon "Speed" will not affect initiative. Magical bonuses (e.g., from Charms, or jade weaponry) may apply. In all other respects, initiative functions as explained in PowerCombat.

Mobility penalties apply to a character's Dexterity score for purposes of determining how far he may move in a turn. This penalty cannot reduce a character's base movement distance below 12 yards per turn.

Range

The distance between two opponents breaks down into four broad categories.

• Corps-a-Corps. The two characters are literally pressed up against one another. This range typically only occurs in grapples.
• Close Range. The characters are within arms' reach of one another, close enough that it is difficult for them to effectively attack each other with any but the smallest weapons. Ranged weapons cannot be used at Close range, except as clumsy melee weapons.
• Standard Range. The characters are within a few steps of one another. They can fight with weapons without penalty, and don't need to spend movement to close distance. This is point-blank range for projectile weapons.
• Long range. The characters are far enough apart that they cannot reach each other without using up part of their movement for the turn. This is the preferred range for projectile weapons.

Closing and Breaking Distance

Most hand-to-hand combat is assumed to take place at Standard Range. If a character wishes to engage her opponent at Close Range, and her opponent does not, she needs to close distance. This is a Dexterity + Dodge action, following the normal rules for splitting, and affected by armor's mobility penalty. If the roll succeeds, the character may approach to Close Range. The opponent can dodge or parry as if it were an attack, but if he chooses to parry, he will suffer a penalty equal to his weapon's Reach (see below).

Breaking distance works much the same way as closing distance. However, it is also possible to break distance without any roll at all, simply by outrunning the other character. If one character moves at least one yard (via regular movement, knockback, a hopping defense, &c), and the other cannot or will not follow, the two characters are no longer at Close Range.

It is not possible to break distance without moving; if a character is in a situation where he cannot perform a full dodge, anyone who attacks him can choose the distance without a roll.

Fly-by attacks always occur at Standard Range. It is impossible to close distance with a flying character unless one is also capable of flight.

If multiple enemies are engaging the same character, attempts to close distance with him receive a 1-die bonus for every attacker beyond the first. This bonus cannot exceed three dice.

Reach

Weapons no longer have a Speed statistic. Instead, they have a Reach statistic. Reach is ranked on a scale of zero to four.

• Reach 0 - Knives, cesti, khatars, punches, grabs, kicks delivered with the knee.
• Reach 1 - Short swords, small clubs, kicks with full extension.
• Reach 2 - Most swords, maces, battle axes. Short and wavecleaver daiklaves.
• Reach 3 - Most two-handed weapons, fighting chains, staves and short polearms. Most daiklaves and similar weapons.
• Reach 4 - Very long and unwieldy polearms. Just about any artifact weapon with the word "grand" in its name.

If a character and his opponent are at Standard Range, he receives attack and parry bonuses equal to the Reach of his weapon.

If a character and her opponent are at Close Range, she suffers attack and parry penalties equal to the Reach of her weapon.

At the Storyteller's discretion, large weapons may suffer penalties in confined spaces.

Projectile weapons don't generally have Reach. They are unusable (except as clumsy melee weapons) if the opponent is at Close Range. At any greater range, they may be used as normal.

Multiple Weapons

If a character is wielding more than one weapon, he may take no more total attacks or parries than the highest Rate of all his weapons. Furthermore, he cannot make more attacks or parries with any given weapon than that weapon's individual Rate.

Comments

You might be interested in checking out Szilard/HouseRules to see my alternative (and very simple) methods of reworking the initiative and speed/reach issues. - Szilard

A method I'm considering: remove Speed modifiers from initiative. rename the Speed bonus to a Reach bonus. If, and only if, you a: move to attack a target, b: that target hasn't acted yet, c: that target has a higher Reach than you, immediately add their reach difference to their initiative. If they now beat you, they can immediately take their dice action, including splitting, to attack you or allocate defences. They may not, until their own initiative, attack anyone else or move.

This does mean that if sword-guy on 11 and spear-guy-1 on 10 both charge spear-guy-2 on 9, then spear-guy-2 will be able to split his pool to defend on initiative 11.5, and use those defences against spear-guy-1, but I can handle that. -- Xyphoid

Well, I've put up a preliminary system for distance. I am having doubts about the nature of the roll. If it's reflexive, I need to put in a bunch of weird limiters to prevent lots and lots of distance rolls each turn. If it's a dice action, it adds complexity due to action-splitting. I am concerned about the system's overall level of complexity, and whether it overwhelmingly favors a certain combat tactic. Thoughts:

• High Dex, light-armored characters will be favored. They will generally have high Dex + Dodge pools, and will also be able to move farther than less nimble opponents.
• Hopping defenses will become spectacularly useful for heavily-armored or low-Dex characters.
• Characters who wear heavy armor, or have low Dex scores, will want to be capable of infighting. Either they should use a low-Reach weapon, or use a very big weapon, but also invest in an unarmed skill like Brawl or MA.
• Wielding two weapons now has an all-new benefit: a high-Reach weapon paired with a low-Reach weapon will increase one's preparedness.
• Nimble characters might actually be better off with high-Reach weapons, since they can move around pretty freely, and won't have to worry about people closing on them as much as clumsy tanks.
• The way in which closing distance is defended against will have some side-effects. I am not totally sure what they might be, or if they're wholly undesirable.
• Should shields provide defense bonuses at Close Range?
• Should any Charms be retooled to fit this system? (I am thinking specifically of Lunar Charms, like the tentacle ones.)

_Ikselam

Among the class of Charms to be reexamined should be the various Essence-weaponry techniques, which, I believe, should provide whatever Reach the user desires. Also, I wanted to post a page on what we talked about this evening. It's here at AbstractRange. - willows

Dodge Charms in general will become much more useful under this proposed system, I think, especially if they allow you to change distance without using an action (and I see no real reason they shouldn't). The way distance interacts with actual movement troubles me, though. And I am not thrilled that what I initially thought was a simple, elegant idea now has this whole extra dice-rolling system hanging off it. _Ikselam

I like it quite a bit. I do not think that the dodge charms we have should allow specific movement enough to close range, however, though perhaps hopping defenses would. Iskelam is right, that this is a lot of dice rolling. I think it may be worth it for strategy and accuracy, especially in duels or other dramatic battles, but the issue always comes down to huge fights. - Morpheus

Is there any further work you had planned for this or think that needs to be done? - willows curiously

Well, hopefully I'll find a way to simplify it. I'm not thinking about it really hard at the moment, though. _Ikselam