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Combat Mechanics
Anytime a sword is swung, an arrow is shot or a spell is cast a series of rolls are made to determine whether the action is succesful and whether damage is caused. Most rolls involve the Dominions Random Number or DRN. To fully understand Combat Mechanics start by reading up on how the DRN is calculated.
All offensive abilities in the game basically functions in the same way:
First a roll is made to see whether the attack hits.
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Rolling to Hit
Melee Attacks
For melee attacks the attacker makes an attack roll at the same time as the defender makes a defense roll. These are compared. If the attack roll (with modifiers) is greater than the defense roll, it hits. If not, it misses.
Ranged Combat & Spellcasting
Ranged combat and spellcasting are different from melee combat in that they do not use defense values. Instead, a precision roll is used to determine which square a missile or spell hits.
Shields can
prevent ranged weapons from striking true.
Every point of
precision above 10 counts for double.
Spells with 100 precision (Soul Slay) always hit the target square.
Spells (e.g. Eagle Eyes), blesses and items (e.g. Eye of Aiming) can buff precision.
Various effects can debuff (
Darkness) or halve
precision (
Storm).
Some effects can protect units against ranged weapons (Arrow Fend). Others will destroy missiles during flight (Storm)
Some spells and effects require a
magic resistance check before having any effect.
Special attacks
Units with
trample can crush other units beneath their feet.
Rolling to Damage
Once a hit is scored, another roll is made to determine how much damage is done.
Physical damage
For basic physical attacks this involves the attacker's
damage roll minus the defender's protection roll.
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Some weapons give a
charge bonus, striking especially hard on first contact.
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Special Damage
Some types of damage have special attributes.
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Shock damage can stun a target making it unable to perform actions.
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If a unit suffers from
profuse bleeding it quickly dies unless the bleeding stops.
Some units can
drain the life of their opponents, replenishing their own hit points and reinvigorating them. Other units cause
fatigue damage putting their opponents to sleep.
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Preventing damage
High
Protection can protect against many types of damage.
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Combat Mechanics |
Rolling to hit | Melee attacks | Attack Roll, Fatigue, Multiple Attacks, Attack Penalties, Repel, Trample, Area of Effect |
Ranged attacks & Spellcasting | Precision, Air Shield, Ranged Attack Penalties, Area of Effect, Storm |
Damage | Physical | Blunt, Slashing, Piercing, Untyped |
Elemental | Fire, Shock, Cold, Poison, Acid, Salt |
Damage Tags | Armor Piercing, Armor Negating, Magic, Fatigue Damage, Life Drain, Paralysis, Soul Slaying, Ignores Shield, Charge Bonus |
Damage Prevention | Protection, Defense Roll, Physical Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Magic Resistance, Shields, Protective Force, Defensive Spells and Effects |