3e Combat

This page discusses the combat rules of Drunken Dwarves 3e.

Combat structure
Every battle starts by rolling initiative. That means every combatant makes an intelligence check (d20 + int), the outcomes of which determine the turn order, with the highest roll getting their turn first. If two combatants have the same outcome, the one with the highest int gets their turn first.

A battle consists of multiple rounds, each of which represents about ten seconds. Each round, every combatant gets a turn, during which they can move around, use an action and use a minor action.

Movement
In combat, characters are assumed to be constantly moving around, circling their enemies and darting back and forth to make attacks. However, they do not necessarily leave their general area. Only actively leaving your position to go somewhere else is, in mechanical terms, called "moving".

Every turn, you can move a distance up to your speed stat in metres. Rather than measuring the exact distance you cover, the GM usually arbitrates roughly how much time it takes to reach your target. Movement does not need to be self-contained. You could, for example, move 5 metres towards an enemy, attack them, then move another 5 metres towards another target.

It is often important to know whether creatures are in melee range of each other. Generally speaking, two creatures are in melee range if they are no more than two metres away from each other.

Actions
An action can be spent to do almost anything physically possible. Below is a list of common actions you can take.

Attack You can spend an action to make one attack or attack-like action, though some circumstances (such as dual wielding) might allow more.

Cast a spell If you are a Sorcerer, Battlemage, or have the Innate magic perk, you can spend an action to cast a spell. See 3e Magic.

Defend You can spend an action to actively defend yourself, causing all attacks against you to take disadv until the start of your next turn.

Sprint You can spend an action to double your speed for one turn.

Disengage You can spend an action to make sure that you can withdraw safely from an engagement. Until the end of your turn, you do not provoke reactive attacks (see below) from leaving an opponent's melee range.

Hide If you are concealed (see "Visibility") or have cover to hide behind, you can spend an action to hide from your opponents. You make a stealth check (d20 + dex). The result of this check becomes your "Detection DC" until the start of your next turn. You then compare your Detection DC to the Alertness (10 + int) of the creatures you are hiding from. Any creature whose Alertness you surpass becomes unaware of your location. As long as you remain in stealth, you repeat this process at the start of each of your turns.

After the first successful stealth check, you can move out of concealment, but must begin and end your turn concealed, else your stealth automatically ends. Stealth automatically ends after making an attack. See "Visibility" below for the benefits of stealth.

Search You can spend an action to actively search for hidden objects or creatures. You make an int check, exposing all hidden entities within reasonable range that you equal or exceed the DC of. For hidden objects, the DC is determined by the DM. For creatures using stealth, the DC is their Detection DC.

Ready an action You can spend an action to ready an action. You specify a condition and an action. If, between your current turn and the start of your next, the condition is fulfilled, you execute the action. Example: “If an enemy approaches me, I make a melee attack against them.” This allows you to act outside of your turn. If the condition does not occur, the action is wasted. If the condition occurs multiple times, you only get to act on it once.

Minor actions
Simple actions that take little effort are minor actions. This includes switching weapons, grabbing an item off the ground or handing an item to someone. You can always substitute an action for a minor action.

Attacks
When you make an attack, you roll a d20 and add your dexterity. If the result equals or exceeds the target’s defence (see 3e Stats), your attack succeeds and you deal damage according to your weapon type and strength score (see 3e Equipment). The damage you deal is subtracted from the target's HP.

Melee attacks can only be made against targets within melee range, as described above.

Ranged attacks can be made at a distance, but suffer from certain penalties. They have two values: short range and max range. Short range is the distance at which it can attack normally. Attacking targets beyond short range causes disadv on the attack roll. Attacking beyond max range is impossible. Range numbers are given on the 3e Equipment page.

Additionally, you take disadv on ranged attacks if you are within melee range of an enemy, whether they are the target of the attack or not.

Attack-like actions
Sometimes you want to try something against an enemy that is not simply a weapon attack. This can be many things, from trying to disarm them, to putting a bucket on their head so they cannot see. Actions you take against an enemy that are not attacks but take a similar level of effort are called attack-like actions. These are mechanically considered 'attacks', so that, unless mentioned otherwise, any rules or effects that modify attacks also apply to attack-like actions.

Attack-like actions are resolved similar to attacks, but they usually oppose the target's poise (see 3e Stats) instead of their defence, and the stat that you add to your roll varies. Below are some common attack-like actions, with the first line stating what to roll for them. If a player wants to attempt something not listed here, the GM arbitrates how to resolve it.

Disarm D20 + dex. On success, the target drops an item they are holding. The item falls on the ground near the target's feet. Anyone nearby can pick the item back up as a minor action. If you have any free hands, you can pick up the object as part of the disarm action. The defender has +5 poise against disarm attempts if the item is held in two hands.

Grapple D20 + str. On success, both you and the target are grappled (see Conditions below). While grappling, the following actions can be taken by both participants on their own turns. This list is, of course, not exhaustive.

Escape: D20 + str or agi. On success, the grapple ends. You can intentionally let your opponent succeed if you want the grapple to end too.

Push: As the action of the same name below, except both you and the target move the chosen distance. This is the only way to move while grappled.

Attack: You are assumed to only have one hand free while grappling; the other is busy holding or resisting the grapple. Thus, you cannot make use of dual-wielding and cannot attack with a weapon two-handed. Attacking otherwise functions as normal.

Push D20 + str. On success, the target is pushed up to 5 metres in a direction of your choice. If you surpass their poise by 10 or more, they are pushed up to 10 metres instead.

Trip D20 + str or dex. On success, the target is knocked prone (see Conditions below). Creatures with more than two legs have +5 poise against trip attempts.

Reactive attacks
In combat, dropping your guard can give your opponents an opportunity to attack you outside of their turn. If you leave an opponent's melee range, you provoke a reactive attack from that opponent, which means that they can make a single free melee attack against you. This does not apply if your movement is forced (such as by being pushed). At the DM's discretion, certain other actions that require dropping your guard may also provoke reactive attacks.

Any condition that causes you to take disadv on melee attacks, including being unarmed, renders you unable to make reactive attacks. You can only make one reactive attack per turn. As usual, if you are dual-wielding, you can make two attacks at a -2 penalty as a single reactive attack. Instead of attacking normally, you can also choose to make a single attack-like action as a reactive attack. Spells that function as melee attacks and do not cost mana can also be used for reactive attacks.

Critical hits and misses
When making an attack roll, if the die lands on a 1, the attack is an automatic miss. This is called a critical miss. If the die lands on a 20, it is an automatic hit, and you deal double damage. This is called a critical hit.

Visibility
When it comes to visibility, this system deals with two important conditions: concealed and hidden. Both these conditions are subjective, so a creature could be concealed to one opponent but fully visible to another.

A concealed creature is difficult to perceive, but its location is still known. For the sake of simplicity, the system assumes that the location of a concealed creature is always apparent, e.g. by their outline in the dark or their footsteps if magically invisible. Total invisibility thus does not exist. Attacks made by concealed creatures have adv, and attacks against them have disadv.

A hidden creature’s presence or location is unknown to others. This can only be achieved through a successful stealth check. Hidden creatures have double adv on attacks, but they stop being hidden immediately after making an attack.

Damage types
All damage dealt has a type. The possible damage types are physical, fire, frost, lightning, poison, holy and unholy. Any damage without a stated element is physical. Certain creatures are vulnerable, resistant or immune to certain elements. Vulnerable creatures take 1.5x damage, resistant ones half and immune ones none at all. This multiplier is applied after applying DR (see 3e Stats).

Conditions
There are various conditions you can be in that will make fighting effectively more difficult. A few common ones are listed below.

Blinded A blinded creature cannot see properly. They treat all other creatures as concealed, but are still aware of their general surroundings.

Grappled A grappled creature is being physically restrained. They take disadv on attacks and physical checks, and attacks against them have adv. Since these penalties usually apply to both participants, they take no penalty on attacks against each other. They cannot move without dragging the other participant along.

Prone A prone creature is lying on the ground. They take disadv on attacks and physical checks, and attacks against them have adv. While prone, every metre you move costs two metres of movement. Getting up from prone costs half of your movement (so 5 metres worth if your speed is 10).