Editing 4SRD:Basics

[[4SRD:Main Page|4SRD]] > Basics

This material is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.<br>

=COMBAT I (BASICS)=
(N.B. Specific rule changes which apply to the 4SRD project are marked with an asterisk.*)<br><br>
HOW COMBAT WORKS
Combat is cyclical; everybody acts in turn in a regular cycle of rounds. Combat follows this sequence:<br>
1. Each combatant starts out flat-footed. Once a combatant acts, he or she is no longer flat-footed.<br>
2. Determine which characters are aware of their opponents at the start of the battle. If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds of combat begin. The combatants who are aware of the 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 one action (either a standard action or a move action) during the surprise round. Combatants who were unaware do not get to act in the surprise round. If no one or everyone starts the battle aware, there is no surprise round.<br>
3. Combatants who have not yet rolled initiative do so. All combatants are now ready to begin their first regular round of combat.<br>
4. Combatants act in initiative order (highest to lowest).<br>
5. When everyone has had a turn, the combatant with the highest initiative acts again, and steps 4 and 5 repeat until combat ends.<br>

=COMBAT STATISTICS=
This section summarizes the statistics that determine success in combat, and then details how to use them.<br>
<br>
==ATTACK ROLL==
An attack roll represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. When you make an attack roll, you roll a d20 and add your attack bonus. (Other modifiers may also apply to this roll.) If your result equals or beats the target’s Armor Class, you hit and deal damage.
Automatic Misses and Hits: A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on an attack roll is always a miss. A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a hit. 
*If the attack would hit normally with a 20 plus the applicable modifiers then it is a critical hit.
<br>
==ATTACK BONUS==
Your attack bonus with a basic melee attack or a basic ranged attack with a heavy thrown weapon is:*<br>
½ level rounded down + Strength modifier (+range penalty for thrown*<br>
With a basic ranged attack with a ranged weapon or with a light thrown weapon, your attack bonus is:*<br>
½ level rounded down + Dexterity modifier + range penalty*<br>
Specific Spells, Prayers and Manoeuvres give details as to which Ability Bonus is to calculate the Attack Bonus.*
<br>

==DAMAGE==
When your attack succeeds, you deal damage. The type of weapon used determines the amount of damage you deal. Effects that modify weapon damage apply to unarmed strikes and the natural physical attack forms of creatures.
Damage reduces a target’s current hit points.<br>
Minimum Damage: If penalties reduce the damage result to less than 1, a hit still deals 1 point of damage.<br>
Strength Bonus: When you hit with a melee or thrown weapon add your Strength modifier to the damage result.*<br>
Multiplying Damage: Sometimes you multiply the damage on the dice by some factor, such as for specific powers. Roll the dice multiple times and total the results. Add the bonuses to the rolled damage afterward. You do not add bonuses from Abilities, Feats, Enhancements or other sources multiple times.*<br>

==ARMOR CLASS==
Your Armor Class (AC) represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you. It’s the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit you. <br>
Your AC is equal to the following: 10 + armor bonus + shield bonus (+ Dexterity or Intelligence modifier in Light Armour*<br>

Sometimes you can’t use your Dexterity or Intelligence bonus (if you have one). If you can’t react to a blow, you can’t use your Dexterity bonus to AC. (If you don’t have a Dexterity or Intelligence bonus, nothing happens.*<br>

Other Modifiers: Many other factors modify your AC.<br>
Enhancement Bonuses: Enhancement effects make your armor better.<br>
Feat Bonus: Certain feats improve your AC.*<br>
Power Bonus: Certain feats, powers or items provide “power bonuses” to improve your AC.*<br>
Item Bonus: Certain feats, powers or items provide “item bonuses” to improve your AC.*<br>
Bonuses of the same type cannot stack with each other. For example, you may receive benefit from a feat bonus and an item bonus at the same time, but not from two feat bonuses.*<br>

==*OTHER DEFENSES==
Attackers can also target your Fortitude, Reflex or Will defenses instead of your Armour Class:*<br>
Your Fortitude defense is equal to the following: 10 + Strength or Constitution modifier* <br>
Your Reflex defense is equal to the following: 10 + Dexterity or Intelligence modifier* <br>
Your Will defense is equal to the following: 10 + Wisdom or Charisma modifier* <br>

Other Modifiers: Many other factors modify your non-armour class defenses.*<br>
Enhancement Bonuses: Enhancement on an item which occupies the Neck item slot makes your defenses better.*<br>
Feat Bonus: Certain feats improve your defenses.*<br>
Power Bonus: Certain feats, powers or items provide “power bonuses” to improve your defenses.*<br>
Item Bonus: Certain feats, powers or items provide “item bonuses” to improve your defenses.*
<br>

==HIT POINTS==
When your hit points are half your total, you are bloodied. When your hit points are at 0, you are unconscious. When your hits are below 0, you are dying. When your hit point total is as far below 0 as your bloodied value, or you fail three saving throws against death, you are dead.*<br>

==SPEED==
Your speed tells you how far you can move in a round and still do something, such as attack or cast a spell. Your speed depends mostly on your race and what armour you are wearing.<br>
Dwarves, gnomes, and halflings have a speed of 25 feet (5 squares), or 20 feet (4 squares) when wearing heavy armour (except for dwarves, who move 25 feet in any armour).*<br>
Elves have a speed of 35 feet (7 squares), or 30 feet (6 squares) in heavy armour.*<br>
All other races have a speed of 30 feet (6 squares), or 25 feet (5 squares) in heavy armour.*<br>
If you use two move actions in a round (sometimes called a “double move” action), you can move up to double your speed.<br> 
If you run all out, you can move your speed plus 10 additional feet (2 squares). Running incurs combat advantage against you, and you take a -5 penalty to attack until the start of your next turn.*
<br>
==SAVING THROWS==
When you are subject to a condition which reads “save ends,” you get a saving throw to end that effect. A successful saving throw is a 10 or higher on a d20.*<br>
You make your saving throw at the end of your turn.*<br>
Sometimes you make a saving throw immediately, such as to avoid being pushed into a pit. If you are forced over an edge or into dangerous terrain such as a fire, you can make a saving throw and fall prone at the edge instead.*
<br>
==INITIATIVE==
'''Initiative Checks:''' At the start of a battle, each combatant makes an initiative check. An initiative check is a Dexterity check. Each character applies his or her Dexterity modifier to the roll. Characters act in order, counting down from highest result to lowest. In every round that follows, the characters act in the same order (unless a character takes an action that results in his or her initiative changing; see Special Initiative Actions).
If two or more combatants have the same initiative check result, the combatants who are tied act in order of total initiative modifier (highest first). If there is still a tie, the tied characters should roll again to determine which one of them goes before the other.
<br>
==SURPRISE==
When a combat starts, if you are not aware of your opponents and they are aware of you, you are surprised.<br>

Determining Awareness<br>
Sometimes all the combatants on a side are aware of their opponents, sometimes none are, and sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few combatants on each side are aware and the other combatants on each side are unaware.<br>
Determining awareness may call for Perception checks or other checks.<br>
The Surprise Round: If no one or everyone is surprised, no surprise round occurs.<br>
If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. Any combatants aware of the 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 action during the surprise round. You can also take free actions during the surprise round. You cannot spend an action point.* <br>
Surprised Combatants: Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle do not get any actions in the surprise round, not even free actions. Unaware combatants grant combat advantage.*<br>

==ATTACKS OF OPPORTUNITY==
Sometimes a combatant in a melee lets her guard down. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free. These free attacks are called attacks of opportunity.

'''Threatened Squares:''' You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Generally, that means everything in all squares adjacent to your space (including diagonally). An enemy that takes certain actions while in a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity from you. If you’re unarmed, you don’t normally threaten any squares and thus can’t make attacks of opportunity.
'''Reach Weapons:''' Most creatures of Medium or smaller size have a reach of only 5 feet. This means that they can make melee attacks only against creatures up to 5 feet (1 square) away. However, Small and Medium creatures wielding reach weapons threaten more squares than a typical creature. In addition, most creatures larger than Medium have a natural reach of 10 feet or more.

'''Provoking an Attack of Opportunity:''' Two kinds of actions can provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square and performing an action within a threatened square.

'''Moving:''' Moving out of a threatened square usually provokes an attack of opportunity from the threatening opponent. There are two common methods of avoiding such an attack: the 5-foot-step and the withdraw action (see below).

'''Performing a Distracting Act:''' Some actions, when performed in a threatened square, provoke attacks of opportunity as you divert your attention from the battle. Table: Actions in Combat notes many of the actions that provoke attacks of opportunity.
Remember that even actions that normally provoke attacks of opportunity may have exceptions to this rule.

'''Making an Attack of Opportunity:''' An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per round. You don’t have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to.
An experienced character gets additional regular melee attacks (by using the full attack action), but at a lower attack bonus. You make your attack of opportunity, however, at your normal attack bonus—even if you’ve already attacked in the round.
An attack of opportunity “interrupts” the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue with the next character’s turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character’s turn).

'''Combat Reflexes and Additional Attacks of Opportunity:''' If you have the Combat Reflexes feat you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. This feat does not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you, you could make two separate attacks of opportunity (since each one represents a different opportunity). Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn’t count as more than one opportunity for that opponent. All these attacks are at your full normal attack bonus.

[[Category:4SRD]]