Combat: Difference between revisions

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So, each round takes six seconds, and there are ten rounds per minute.
So, each round takes six seconds, and there are ten rounds per minute.
===Surprise!===
To begin many combats, the game master will ask the players to roll a perception check. This is to check for surprise. Surprise happens when you do not realize a fight is about to start until the blades and claws start swinging.
Being surprised sucks, but it is not an instant death sentence, thankfully.  Epic Path characters are heroes, every one, and can almost always endure getting a sucker punch to the face every now and then.
It still sucks, though.
The perception check each player character rolls is to see if they notice the bad guys are starting a fight before it actually starts.  If you make the perception roll, then you have a split second to grab a sword and get ready to fight.  If not, you get suckered.  The Difficulty Class (DC) of this perception check is highly variable depending upon circumstances.  In most cases, the DC is the result of a Stealth skill roll made by the bad guys, if they are laying in ambush.  Depending on how well this ambush is prepared, there may be a circumstance bonus or penalty to the roll, as assigned by the Game Master.  In other cases, the DC may be the result of a Bluff skill check, if the bad guys are 'sweet talking' their way to get close to the player characters and attack them.  In still other cases, it will be an arbitrary number assigned by the game master, or set in a pre-written adventure he (or she!) is running for the players.
If you fail the surprise check, then in most cases, your entire side is surprised. This means that all members of the player characters have failed the check. 
====The Surprise Round====
If one side or the other is surprised, then before the proper beginning of the first round of combat, the side that was not surprised gets a special round 0, called the Surprise Round. 
In the Surprise round, each non-surprised creature gets to take one standard action.  Note that this is NOT a full round!  Often this standard action will be used to charge into combat, or move to an advantageous position, or use some especially nasty area of effect ability on the hapless losers of the surprise roll.  Note that there are many, many complications and modifiers to all this, and such things are what Game Masters are paid so well to resolve.
In all cases, the Game Master's rulings hold sway, as they do in all other cases in the game.  GM's are encouraged to be fair.
To make being Surprised even worse, all Surprised people are considered to be 'caught off guard', which in the game mechanics is represented by being Flat Footed.  See the next section for more info!


===Being Flat Footed===
===Being Flat Footed===

Revision as of 16:57, 6 May 2017

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