Re: Legends Combat From: griffith@xcf.Berkeley.EDU (Jim "The Big Dweeb" Griffith) Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1993 21:30:52 +0000 Some corrections need to be made to the combat terms. First off, PC, DF, and AF can be increased by any type of item. I've seen weapons which give DF bonuses, armor which give AF bonuses, miscellaneous items which give both. The only condition is that it must be an item which is equipped. The one exception to this is that certain items allow "bonding" to them, which can give PC bonuses regardless of where the item is. Anyways, here are some useful notes. CF = Racial CF + (PC * 5) X + CF from familiars (familiars typically give CF X bonuses, not PC bonuses) + CF from mount DF = Racial DF + (PC * .3) X + bonuses from equipped items X + fortification bonus (when appropriate) AF = CF * (1 + .05 * (all STR and DEX points above racial norm) X + skill bonuses X + supernatural status bonus X + bonuses from equipped items X + racial mounted bonus if mounted + racial terrain modifier + weapon terrain modifier + fortification bonus - mounted penalty for fighting mounted against fortifications or in confined terrain (pretty big, when it applies) + many other miscellaneous modifiers, like winternight conditions, battle or duel spells, or Vol knows what else) Any bonus with an X next to it is reported to you in your character summary. Any others are only figured into things during combat. There are a couple of important notes about the above. First off, the mount CF bonus can be big. It is not clear whether or not a mount's CF is taken into account when a character is ego attacked. If so, then one easy defense against ego attacks or wraths of god is to ride a wardrake - +80CF. Large values make the difference. It is almost always worthwhile to be riding a wardrake. It is occasionally fatal to be riding a warpony. Second, Blesses and Curses do not affect all of the bonuses above. A Bless or Curse modifies a character's effective PC, Tactics, and Influence values ONLY. They do *not* affect racial CF or CF benefits from familiars, bonuses from items, AF bonuses from statuses, etc. So if you have a giant with a nature deva familiar on a wardrake, doing a 90% curse (can curse down to 10% of normal at most) isn't going to touch 117 of his CF (32 + 5 + 80). In RTI5, I cursed the Hell out of a giant on a wardrake, in order to destroy his +40 tactics advantage. I took his tactics down to 6 (giving me a +18 tactics advantage, heeheehee), but he still had a CF of 130 or so because a significant portion of his CF was not PC-based. Likewise, doing a 100% bless will *not* double a character's CF - it will always increase it by a little less than 100%. Third, there are many modifiers to AF that are not reported on a turn sheet. For instance, a character who is mounted gains a *huge* bonus, because 1) he receives a racial mounted bonus (high for nomads, low for centaurs), 2) his mount provides him with a charge bonus (so every human nomad on a warhorse gains +75% charge and +25 for all other rounds), and 3) his mount increases his CF. For instance, a level 1 human nomad soldier with a broadsword has a CF of 15, AF of 25. The same soldier on a warhorse has a CF of 30, AF of 58 (charge AF of 73). So you're better than doubling his fighting value by adding a warhorse (not including the penalty for fighting mounted against fortifications or in confined terrain, which can more than eliminate your benefit). If you have a nomad legion and you're attacking another legion, STICK YOUR SOLDIERS ON MOUNTS. Also, a dwarf wielding a dwarven axe in barren mountains gains a *huge* bonus, because he gets a racial terrain bonus for being a dwarf fighting in barren mountains and he receives a weapon terrain bonus for wielding a dwarven axe in barren mountains (the same holds for elves with elven bows in forest terrain). This is more significant for soldiers than for characters, especially at low training levels with low numbers of soldiers. The benefits for such items aren't widely known, but can be determined in some cases (I wonder if a dwarf can cast runeknowledge on the item ID for "dwarf"?). Next, there is INV/DAM, which applies to both characters and soldiers. For every point of INV above an attacker's DAM value, the defender gets +50% DF. So a character with 20 DF and INV 2 against a DAM 0 attacker has an effective DF of 40 (+100%). Finally, there is the tactics multiplier. If your force's commander has a higher tactics than the opposing force's, then you get +5% AF and DF for every point of tactics. As near as I can tell, this is a "final multiplier", applied at the very end of the calculation. So you can increase *everything* with this - AF that comes (indirectly) from racial CF or mounts, DF from items, you name it. There are lots of bonuses. I think I've covered all of the bonuses that you're likely to encounter in a standard combat, but you should never expect to be able to calculate the exact value for characters or soldiers. I can generally get within 5% of the correct value for a soldier, but that's about it. As a final note, it is largely pointless to worry about character AF or DF. If you're planning an attack against a lair or ruin party and you find yourself figuring out numbers to this extent, then you probably shouldn't be attacking that particular party or ruin. Also, it is pointless to do such a calculation against an opposing character or soldier slot. There is always going to be something you missed. Throw a scout against it, and divide the resulting AF and CF numbers by the opposing force's tactics advantage. It is far more meaningful to do this kind of calculation in the case of your own soldiers. Jim -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Griffith /--OO--\ | Two great powers are on our side: the power of ...!ucbvax!scam!griffith | Love and the power of Arithmetic. These two are BEWARE BATS WITHOUT NOSES! | stronger than anything else in the world. Referenced By Up