Editing Opend20: Combat (section)

==Initiative==


All players declare intended actions at the start of each combat round.  Each round is broken down into ten ticks, representing ten seconds passing in the game world.  During combat, the GM calls each tick out from ten to one, and then the process begins again.  It is the player's responsibility to determine how many ticks will pass before they can act.  Variations on this system can be found in the RuneQuest and Hero systems, for those interested in exploring further.

On each tick, players can move one hex (two if charging).  This movement does not count when determining which tick a player may act/attack on, but running or dodging (moving two hexes per tick) will delay the character for as many rounds as they continue the additional movement.

Use the following variables to determine how long it takes a character to complete their action:

*  Size  -  small -1(disadvantage), medium 0, large +1, huge +2...

*  Reflex  -  +1 for each synergy point in reflex

*  Weapon Modifier  -  see Weapons, below.  The maximum weapon bonus is +4.  

*  As noted above, for every 5 combat points invested in a round, characters get +1 initiative.


The maximum score is +8 (which a huge character with specialised reflexes and a fast weapon could have at 1st level, but they would be spending 40+ points to pull it off).  With a score of 8, you would be able to attack on the 8th tick, and if you wanted to you could attack at each 2 tick interval, for a total of five attacks per round!  However, you would have to split your combat score up amoung those attacks, so it would not always be practical.

''Rungkor'' is large, and he has +1 reflex synergy.  His bastard sword gives him a +2 to initiative at prime range, for a total of +4.  This means that ''Rungkor'' can act on the 4th tick, so he only gets one attack this round.  However, because the party is fighting kobolds,  ''Rungkor's'' Player would like to be able to invest her Combat Score in order to be able to increase initiative, but since his Base Combat Score is only three, she can't do that yet.  If ''Runkor'' had an initiative rank of +5, then he would have been able to act on the 5th and 10th ticks, spliting up his total Combat Score as she saw fit.