The Five Basic of Every Combat Round With the exception of two skilled fighters using similar weapons or styles, combat is utter chaos. It's ludicrous to believe that any set of game rules could begin to approach an accurate simulation of fights that range from barroom brawls to fantastic duels between archmages and dragons.
However, there has to be some way to resolve combat. In the Player's Option combat system, battles are divided into combat rounds, and each round is divided into five basic steps. These steps are:
- Step One: Monster Action Determination
- Step Two: PC Action Declaration
- Step Three: Initiative
- Step Four: Resolution of Actions
- Step Five: End-of-Round Resolution
Step One: Monster Action Determination[]
Before the players announce what their characters are doing this round, the DM secretly decides what actions the monsters take. Once the DM decides what the monsters will do, he should stick by it—he's on his honor not to switch actions after learning the players' decisions. After all, the monsters don't know what the PCs are going to do before they do it. If necessary, the DM can make notes about monster actions to remind himself of what they intend to do.
Generally, monsters and NPCs have the same actions available to them that the player characters do. They can charge, attack, or withdraw, just like the PCs. Monsters normally choose the most advantageous and sensible actions for the situation. Refer to Chapter Nine: Monsters, for more information.
Step Two: Player Action Declaration[]
After the DM has decided what the monsters will do, each player must announce his character's action for the combat round.
Step Three: Initiative[]
In this step, all characters in a fight determine when their declared actions actually take place. The Player's Option combat system resolves actions in a series of initiative phases, with the resolution time of different actions affected by weapon choice, creature size, and other factors. See Initiative, below, for more information on the initiative system.
Step Four: Resolution of Actions[]
The declared actions of all characters and monsters are resolved using the initiative phase system. A character can abort his planned action and do something else, but the new action takes place at the very end of the combat round.
Step Five: End-of-Round Resolution[]
After all actions have been resolved, there are several things that need to be done before the round ends. The four parts of this step are fatigue, retreats, morale, and status.
Fatigue is a measure of the character's endurance over a prolonged combat. At the end of each round, the character checks to see if the combat has lasted long enough for him to become fatigued or exhausted.
Retreats occur when a figure is forced to fall back by the press of the fight. This can have the effect of breaking up an enemy line or forcing the retreating character over a cliff, into quicksand, and so on.
The DM makes morale checks for the monsters, if appropriate. Most creatures don't care to carry a losing battle to their own deaths and will try to break off the fight if things aren't going their way.
Last but not least, characters who are suffering from spell effects, poison, or special critical hits suffer damage or fight off the effect. The exact procedure is determined by the type of condition the character is suffering from.