Fighting is a way of life, and death, in GemStone III. Since you will be spending a lot of time in battle, there are many factors to keep in mind.
Your adventures in Elanthia will require you to battle many beasts and evil non-playing characters. Combat is a way of life for those who step foot into the world of adventures. But combat is deadly, and your character does not have very good odds when young.
To begin or engage in combat, you use the ATTACK command (you may also use KILL). A weapon must be held in the right hand to be used in combat. If the weapon requires two hands, you must leave your left hand empty (and it is then assumed to be holding the sword when in combat as well). Some examples:
>ATTACK ORC
>KILL SECOND GOBLIN
A Round is the time it takes to execute a single combat maneuver or action. Once you attack or act, it is followed by a Round Time, an interval of a number of seconds (usually between 5 to 10) during which you can perform no other activity until the round time caused by the first activity has been completed. For most normal activities in GemStone III, while in round times you can speak but do little else.
Note that wearing armor for which you are not sufficiently trained can increase your roundtime. Similarly, your roundtimes increase if you are encumbered. Very large weapons will generally take longer to swing, as well.
In combat, there are many factors that effect the power and severity of a strike or attack. You also have several ways of defending yourself.
Your character, as well as the creatures you are fighting, has an Attack Strength in combat when using a weapon or aimed spell. This AS includes bonuses for stats, superior weapons, skill rank in the particular weapon type or aimed spell skill, and various magic spells or effects.
The defensive strength is the total amount subtracted from a combat roll due to the defender's advantages, including bonuses for Reflexes, shield, superior armor, and any magical item or protection.
Your AS and DS are also affected by adverse conditions. For instance, if you are prone (usually caused by being knocked down) you will find a -50 applied to both AS and DS. Injuries can cause penalties to AS and DS. Certain lighting conditions and spells can also affect this.
Each form of attack, whether a weapon or an aimed spell, varies in its effectiveness against various forms of armor. This takes the form of two modifiers to the attack, the Attack vs Defense (AvD) and Damage Factor (DF).
The AvD affects your chances to hit the target. It is a bonus or a penalty. For example, a dagger would have a large penalty to hit against plate armor, as it is difficult to penetrate. A lightning bolt would have a much easier time.
The Damage Factor (DF) affects the amount of damage you do to your target if your attack hits. Each form of attack has a different DF against each group of armor. DF does not affect your chances to hit in the first place. You will not see the DF in the combat equations, as it is not displayed. In general, larger weapons have relatively higher DF's, especially against heavier armor.
There are several steps to an attack with a weapon or aimed spell. The first is to determine whether the attack hits the target. To hit, your attack strength is compared to the target's defense strength, then modified by the attack vs defense factor. Finally, a 100-sided die (d100) is added. If the result exceeds 100, you hit. The formula looks like this: AS - DS + AvD + 1d100 = result.
Next, the system calculates how many health points of damage you did to the target. This is determined by both the result, which you see, and the damage factor, which is not displayed.
Once you have hit, the system determines just what part of your foe's body you hit. This is generally determined randomly, and some body parts, such as the arms, are far more likely to be hit than are others, such as an eye.
Critical hit resolution is next. If you do sufficient health point damage, you achieve a critical result. The more health point damage your strike does, the more severe will be the resulting crit. The critical results are also modified by the location of the hit and the style of weapon. For example, a light strike to the left hand with a scimitar might only produce a slash, which may or may not bleed. A very heavy strike to the head with a morningstar may end the fight instantly.
Note that the ambush skill has two additional effects. First, it will allow you to aim your strikes to a limited degree. Of course, aiming for the neck is far more difficult than targeting a leg. Secondly, your skill in ambush will affect the crit resolution. When calculating a critical hit, both the initial attack result and the ambush skill are used. Therefore, a skilled ambusher will generally produce more vicious wounds.
You may adjust how much of your combat skill is devoted to attack and how much is used to defend you. You do this by converting some portion of your Attack Strength to Defense Strength. The mechanism to do so is the Stance command.
There are five possible stances you may adopt in combat. They range from Offensive, or all-out attack, to Defensive, which devotes all of your attack skill to defense. To see all of the stances, type STANCE HELP while in the game.
To adopt a defensive stance, you must generally have a weapon in your hand, as you cannot parry incoming attacks barehanded. The exception to this is the Brawling skill, which will allow you to defend yourself with an empty right hand. Note that some attacks may never be parried. An arrow or a wizard's lightning bolt are examples of this.
Finally, your stance affects how well you perform certain maneuvers. The more defensive your stance is, the more difficult these maneuvers can be. Even the simple act of standing up from a prone position while encumbered can be difficult if you are also concentrating on self-defense, as indicated by your current stance.
Outcome of single attacks can be resolved in several ways, according to combat rolls modified by the Attack Strength (AS) and defensive strength (DS) of the attacker and target, critical strike rolls and skill rank factors involved. The mundane or magical properties of armor and weapons also come into play.
If a blow lands, it can result in the target being stunned, injured by health points or critical strikes to body areas, or damage to shields and weapons.
A particularly poor attack will result in a fumble. It will put the attacker at a disadvantage, since it does no damage yet still requires the attacker to wait one round before attacking again.
A miss is just the complete lack of hitting the target, without any bad effect on the attacker. You must still wait the indicated round time before attempting to strike again.
Contact of arms and armor is the result of some misses and critical strikes. Clashes can result in weapons striking each other instead of the targets, weapons striking shields and inflicting damage on the shield rather than the wearer, and weapon breakage. Armor can also be damaged in this manner. Some items are far more durable than others, either because of their nature or the materials of which they are constructed. For example, a greatsword will generally be sturdier than a stiletto. A greatsword crafted of mithril will be stronger still.
Health damage is caused by most attacks. It represents general pain and shock. Each character and creature can withstand a certain amount of health damage before dying.
A critical strike is damage to a creature or target that occurs other than or in conjunction with health damage. Critical blows may be struck to different parts of the body, or cause nervous system or internal organ damage that can result in shock, loss of a limb or death. Generally, the more health point damage a strike does, the more severe the critical wound will be. A battle axe will, other things being equal, do far more gruesome crits than a short sword.
Critical strikes may stun in addition to inflicting damage. A stunned target cannot move or change its defensive options for the given number of rounds. An attack against a stunned target will also give an extra attack bonus.
Critical-strike induced bleeding is felt in the form of additional health hits. This represents gradual weakness brought about by the bleeding. For example, if the critical strike results in the loss of a limb, not only would you be without the use of it, but you would bleed due to the loss.
Bleeding will not stop on its own, and if your character will bleed to death if not healed. However the first aid skill can stop the loss of health points due to bleeding if it is successfully applied.
The most severe critical strikes can result in instantaneous death even if you have not incurred a fatal amount of health hits. Some critical blows can kill in a single hit by doing away with necessary body parts.
Some attack spells are not aimed. These spells, also known as warding spells, use a very different system for attack resolution. Essentially, they compare the caster's skill in magic to the target's ability to resist.
When using a warding spell, several factors determine the force of the attack. These are: caster level, caster stats, and the number of spells he knows in the circle that includes the spell. This final factor is further affected by the type of circle. For example, a sorcerer who knows 20 spells in the sorcerer circle will gain a greater benefit from this than would a bard who knows 20 spells in the bard circle. In general, the pure circle base lists grant greater benefits.
When attempting to resist a warding spell, several factors determine the strength of your defenses. These are: target level, target stats, target race, and any magical defenses active on the target.
It is more difficult to cast a warding spell at an armored target, as the armor's bulk interferes with the spell. In general, the heavier the target's armor, the more difficult it is to cast a warding spell at him.
To determine whether a warding spell hits a target, the system compares the Caster Strength with the Target Defense, modifies the result by the Circle vs Armor penalty, and then adds a 100-sided die. If the result exceeds 100, the spell hits. The formula looks like this: CS - TD + CvA + 1d100 = result.
Some spells vary in result by the degree of failure. For example, an Elemental Strike spell will do more damage if the target fails badly, and a Binding spell will hold the target longer.
Continue on to Magic.
Go back to Economics of GemStone III.
Return to The GemStone III User Documentation Index
If you have problems, comments, questions, or complaints about the GemStone III pages you can send mail to Nora Melton (ntm@tamcon.com) aka Wanton Destruction.
Last modified 29 April 1996.