Combat

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General

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Dodge

Moving so that you are no longer going to be hit. Location must change as a result of dodging. Every step taken to dodge reduces the dodge pool by one, and one step is about a metre. If the nearest point of safety is 3 metres away, then dodge is reduced by 3, then compared against the attack, e.g. fireball.

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Body void

Turning or twisting your body to avoid or reduce the damage of a blow. The combatant does not change their physical location as a result of body voiding. There is no penalty to subsequent body voids, however overspending is expensive: 6 points of overspending increases body void by 1.If the body void is to attempt to 'ride with the blow' and reduce the damage, then in this case the body void pool is entirely exhausted. Damage reduced is by 1/3rd body void total. 1/3rd. Basic brawling - Punching, kicking, blocking, headbutting, bar-stool, broken bottle, biting, etc.

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Postures

These are obvious to an opponent, although they may be feinted if one has sufficient skill. Feinting is a special skill. They are not skills and cannot be increased by spending points on them.

Defensive posture

shifts the combatant's weight so that it is easier for them to dodge, body void or parry by 3, while reducing everything else by 3.

Aggressive posture

shifts the combatant's weight so that it is easier for them to attack and inflict damage by 3, while reducing everything else by 3.

Charge

moving in a controlled but expeditious way towards your enemy to hit them. Increases damage and weapon skill by three, provided the weapon is rated for charge. You cannot feint a charge under normal circumstances. Also Fear (1):- AoE (cone), Touch.

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Combat terms

The term for a weapon is used interchangeably for the skill to use that weapon. Thus, mace may refer to your actual implement of thumping, or it may indicate the level of skill, so an effort must be made to make it clear which is being referred to. For this reason, it may be a good idea to name the weapon leaving the weapon type to refer to the skill.

In any case, in the normal course of combat, a combatant uses his skill value to attempt to connect with their opponent. This is modified by either dodging, body voiding or parrying. In Immortals, the assumption is that you will be hit if something tries to hit you. For this purpose, the defensive form is compared to the attack skill to determine if a hit occurs.

There is an order of precedence with respect to the defensive forms. You can body void as often as you like so long as the pool exists (but note the effects of 'riding the blow' to the pool). You can parry an attack if it hasn't been body voided. You can dodge an attack if it hasn't been body voided or parried.

Every time you take an action, you spend a point of that pool. For example, you have sword (9)and parry (6) with that sword. You parry a blow with your sword to the tune of 6, and then want to return the blow. Because you have used your sword skill to parry, you attack with a skill of (8), now. This will refresh before your next declaration.

If you have a shield but no skill associated with it, then its parry value is the same as the weapon you are wielding. So, if you have sword (9), and a prepared shield, then you have parry (9). However, every time you parry with the shield, this subtracts a point from the pool of your primary weapon, as if you had parried with the sword. If, on the other hand, you have raised the shield skill separately, then the pool that is reduced is the shield pool, not the weapon pool.

The size of the shield makes a big difference to how protective it can be. A buckler can really only be applied to a one attacker in any given exchange or flurry of blows. A knight's or round shield can be applied against 2 such attackers. A kite shield can be used against 3 and a tower shield, 4.

The shield skill applies to all shields unless the shield is particularly weird.

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Initiative

Who acts first is determined by number of initiations and modified by the choice of actions that a player chooses to take. A player can choose to take as many actions as they like, but the effectiveness of each action is reduced, and the pace at which these actions unfold is slowed the more there are. If a choice of actions is definite, short and well-defined, then it will incur fewer penalties.

These actions reduce initiative from least to greatest:

Pulling a trigger/casting a magazine spell.
Thrusting a weapon.
Swinging a weapon.
Casting a simple spell.
Moving three steps or so.
A charge.