Melee Combat

Initiate Battle: All players roll Join Battle. The person with the highest number of successes goes on tick 0. Everyone else goes on Tick (winner's successes - their successes), with the caveat that no active participant can go slower than tick 6 no matter what they rolled.

1. Declare Attack: Note the speed of the attack action.
2. Declare Defense: Dodge DV vs Parry DV, hard cover, etc.
3. Attack roll vs Defense: Roll attack dice. Subtract defender's DV from attack successes. Attacker must have DV+1 successes in order to succeed. If the attacker's pool is half (or less) than the defender's DV, the attack automatically fails (and does not need to be rolled).
4. Calculate Raw Damage: (STR + Weapon Damage + extra successes from attack) + Epic STR. Epic DEX auto-successes from attack DO roll over.
5. Apply Hardness: If the Raw Damage pool does not exceed the defender's Hardness rating, the attack fails automatically and no damage is rolled.
6. Roll Damage, Apply Soak: Roll Raw Damage pool. Subtract defender's Soak from Raw Damage Successes.
7. Additional Effects of the Attack: Poisoning, Knockback, etc.
8. Defense drop: Determine DV penalty for attacking (usually -1). This DV penalty remains in effect until the attacker's next action.
9. Move to next Tick: The attacker now moves (speed) ticks ahead on the battle wheel to wait for his next action.

• +1 Difficulty on Attack
• Remove 2 damage dice
• You deal bashing instead

• Roll once for both attacks
• Roll at -4

This method eliminates any die rolls, adds usefulness to Bashing attacks, and still makes physical combat dynamic in the original spirit of the rules.

[RawDam] = Raw damage code; the numeric part of the attack's damage, without to-hit rollover getting added in. Epic Str autosuccesses do not factor into this. [TarStr] = Target's Strength dice + Epic Strength dots [TarSta] = Target's Stamina dice + Epic Stamina dots [TarDex] = Target's Dexterity dice + Epic Dexterity dots [KB] = Knockback in yards

Is the weapon damage Bashing or Lethal/Aggravated? Bashing damage results in [KB] = [RawDam] - [TarStr]. Lethal/Aggravated damage results in [KB] = [RawDam] - [TarStr] - [TarSta]. If [KB] > [TarDex], target also becomes prone.

It doesn't matter how physically durable you are, you're still going to go flying when you're bodyslammed hard enough. If you're strong you can at least brace yourself better to minimize it. If you do end up stumbling/sailing backwards, as long as it's not terribly far back you can stay on your feet; the more agile you are the easier it is to recover.

Human with all 2's takes a Light Unarmed punch from another human with all 2's. Regardless of how many successes the attacker lands on the to-hit roll, there is no (game-significant) knockback nor knockdown.

Human with all 2's takes a Heavy Unarmed punch from another human with all 5's. That huge wallop (8B) results in 6 yards of knockback, and the defender is sucking floor across the room.

Human with all 2's takes a mundane Flail swing from a Scion with 5 Str + 2 EStr. The bonecrushing blow (11B) results in 9 yards of knockback, and the defender is definitely laid out.

Scion with 2 Str + 2 EStr, 5 Dex + 2 EDex takes a Flail swing from a Scion with 5 Str + 2 EStr. The bonecrushing blow (11B) results in 7 yards of knockback, but the defender just barely manages to tumble to his feet when he lands.

Scion with 2 Str + 2 EStr, 5 Dex + 2 EDex, 2 Sta + 2 ESta takes a Labrys slash from a Scion with 5 Str + 2 EStr. The cleaving (13L) results in 9 yards of knockback, and the defender is still prone despite his supernatural agility.

As per the book, except the difficulty on the (Dex + Athletics) or (Stamina + Fortitude) check is 1/2 the raw damage if bashing and 1/4 if lethal (round down).

Bashing weapons cause knockback more easily. Lethal weapons may too, but not as well. It may require a roll.