barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Okay, FINALLY, here's the Combat section. It's actually pretty small. A quick rundown of most of the changes or notable decisions I've made:
A pilot does not need to use a steer a vessel action during the surprise round.
Attacks of opportunity work normally. Threat ranges that are less than the current grid size are treated as zero. This means that characters aboard a vessel will be able to make melee attacks of opportunity against vessels in their own square.
Flanking likewise works normally. Both of these depend on threatening an area, which is dependent on melee weapons, so for example a fighter plane cannot gain an attack of opportunity against another vessel, nor can two fighter planes gain flanking bonuses against a third.
I made the penalties for flying one-handed as severe as two-weapon fighting penalties. Splitting your attention between flying and doing something else ought to be HARD. Of course if all you want to do is fly normally and drink your coffee, you can do that normally since neither action involves any skill checks. It's only when you're trying tricky stuff that this matters. The Two-Weapon Fighting feat applies, as does Ambidexterity.
Defined three types of weapons: personal, vessel and guided. Guided are really a special case of vessel but they're so different I thought it was easiest to make them a case all their own.
Made vessel hit points act exactly like creature hit points: disabled at 0, failing at -1 to -9, and destroyed at -10. Invented a Repair skill to be used for stopping a failing vessel from degenerating further (analogous to the Heal check for a dying character).
Walked through the Special Attacks section:
No subdual damage, use attack an object to destroy features on vessels, use bull rush for ramming attacks, can't disarm, cleaned up grapple rules and grenade-like weapons, disallowed overruns and trips and noted that an undead pilot who gets turned and fly its vessel away rather than abandon the controls.
Here ya go:
Chapter 3 Vessel Combat
Of course, not everything up in the sky is as peaceful as it looks from the ground. And adventurers being the argumentative sorts that they are, there can be no doubt that sooner or later, and most likely sooner, they will end up striving mightily either to defeat some terrible foe, or escape a cruel trick fate had in store.
At its core, vessel combat is just like character combat. Some of the differences have already been noted above: the concept of facing, the fact that vehicles cannot run or take a double move, altitude and so on. This chapter will describe other differences between vessel combat and character combat. Anything not detailed here operates exactly as described in core rulebook I.
Vessel Combat Basics:
Vessels have hit points and armour classes just like characters and monsters. The basics of vessel combat are the same as for character combat: roll Initiative, make an attack roll, if successful roll damage. Movement was covered in Chapter Two; those rules apply to combat as well as to any other situation.
The Combat sequence on page 118 of the core rulebook I is unchanged for Cosmonomicon vessel combat. That is, all combatants are flat-footed until they act. Those characters unsurprised roll intiative and take a surprise round, and then all other characters roll initiative and the combat begins in earnest, running down through the initiative count until everyone has had a turn for the round. Repeat for each round. Recall that a pilot must take at least one steer a vessel action (a move-equivalent action) each round or lose control of his vessel. This does not include the surprise round -- should the pilot be able to act in that round, he does not need to take a steer a vessel action (though of course he may if he desires).
Attacks of Opportunity: Vessels and the characters upon them can make attacks of opportunity as normal against opposing vessels who pass within their threat ranges. A threat range that is less than the current grid scale is considered zero for purposes of determining attacks of opportunity from one vessel to another.
Vessels that are at different altitudes do not provoke attacks of opportunity from each other.
Flanking: Facing has no effect on flanking rules. If a vessel is threatened by two opponents on opposite side, the vessel is considered flanked and standard penalties and bonuses apply. Note that only melee weapons can threaten a square, and thus only melee weapons are affected by the flanking penalties and bonuses.
Hands: Unless specifically noted in a vessel description, using the Steer a Vessel action to pilot a vessel requires two hands. In addition, if at any point in a round the pilot does not have at least one hand on the controls, the vessel immediately becomes out of control and the pilot must a steer a vessel action in order to regain control of the vessel.
Piloting one-handed is exactly like fighting with two weapons. All penalties apply depending on which hand is used for piloting and which is used for whatever the pilot wishes. The off-hand suffers a -10 and the primary hand suffers a -6 to all checks. That is, if the pilot wishes to fly with her off-hand and use a personal weapon with her primary hand, her Piloting skill checks will suffer a -10 and her attack will suffer a -6, modified by any relevant feats she might have. Feats such as Two-Weapon Fighting and Ambidexterity apply to all such penalties.
A pilot who wishes to use one hand for something besides attack still suffers the same penalties, applied to Skill checks or Ability checks as appropriate. Again, feats such as Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting apply.
Weapons:
There are three kinds of weapons in Cosmonomicon rules: personal, vessel and guided. Personal weapons are those entirely under the physical command of a character, such as their sword, their bow, their natural weaponry and so on. Vessel weapons are those mounted upon a vessel and operated by a passenger. Guided weapons are those which can be directed to a target and strike unerringly.
Personal Weapons: A character making an attack with a personal weapon, ranged or melee, rolls her attack roll normally. Note, however, that if the character makes a melee attack against a target that is not moving in parallel to her vessel, she applies the Charge bonus to her attack roll and suffers the Charge penalty to her AC against any similar opponents. A vessel that is a creature (see Chapter Two: Creatures Vs. Vessels) makes attacks as though using personal weapons.
Vessel Weapons: Weapons attached to or otherwise considered a part of a vessel are termed vessel weapons. These may include seige engines mounted on a skyship's deck, laser turrets or good old-fashioned cannons. They may also include melee weapons, claws or blades affixed to the vessel that can be manipulated to attack nearby vessels. Vessel weapons benefit from neither the character's Strength or Dexterity modifiers for the purposes of attack or damage rolls. Instead, each weapon has an Accuracy Modifier that is applied to every attack roll made with that weapon.
Vessel Ranged Attack Roll
d20 + Base Attack Bonus + Vessel Size Modifier + Accuracy Modifier + Range Penalty
Vessel Melee Attack Roll
d20 + Base Attack Bonus + Vessel Size Modifier + Accuracy Modifier
Operating a vessel weapon is a standard action. In order to operate a vessel weapon, the passenger must have access to the weapon's controls. These may be at the weapon itself or some remote location. If vessel controls are built in to the piloting controls, the pilot may make an attack as a standard action.
Vessel weapons vary in the Accuracy Modifiers they provide, the damage they do and the time they take to reload. See specific weapon descriptions for details. All vessel weapons require two hands to operate.
Guided Weapons: A guided weapon is really a special form of vessel weapon, but is described separately due to the special circumstances of its use. When using a guided weapon, the operator makes a ranged touch attack roll against the target (using the Vessel Weapon Ranged Attack Roll described above), ignoring any armour bonus, shield bonus or natural armour bonus. If that attack roll is successful the target must make a Reflex Save against the guided weapon's Save DC or suffer full damage from the weapon. A successful Reflex Save may reduce the damage by half or eliminate it completely, depending on the weapon. Refer to the specific weapon description for details.
Damage and Destruction:
A vessel remains functional as long as it has at least one hit point remaining.
Disabled (0 hit points): When a vessel is reduced to 0 hit points, it is disabled. Any power supply it may posses ceases to function and it must rely on its existing Glide Speed and Manuverability ratings, if it possesses them. If it does not posses a Glide Speed or Manuverability rating, it immediately begins to spiral (see Vessel Conditions, Chapter Two).
Failing (-1 to -9 hit points): A vessel reduced to less than 0 hit points is failing. It immediately loses all power as described above. At the end of each round (starting with the round in which the vessel dropped below 0 hit points) the vessel loses 1 hit point. If a vessel's hit points fall to -10, it is destroyed. This loss of hit points may be stopped by a successful Repair check (DC 15), but the vessel remains disabled.
Destroyed (-10 hit points or lower): When a vessel's hit points drop to -10 or lower, it is immediately destroyed and begins to spiral. The pilot cannot use the Regain Control stunt in order to stop the spiral as the vessel is too damaged to respond to her efforts.
Special Damage Effects: Some vessels or vessel components may cause certain effects at some percentage of hit point loss. Certain power systems, for example may explode and deal damage to the vessel and everyone on it at 50% of total hit points. These effects are detailed in Chapter Five: Vessel Construction.
A vessel's resistances to specific forms of damage, be it energy, magic, damage type or sneak attacks and criticals, are listed with the vessel descriptions.
Special Attacks:
The following changes to standard character combat apply:
Subdual Damage: Vessels always ignore subdual damage. Only normal damage has any effect on a vessel.
Attack an Object: It is possible to direct attacks specifically against a weapon or other feature on a vessel. A vessel feature uses the vessel's armour class, including all modifiers except for size. The feature uses its own size modifier.
Damage taken by a feature is not applied to the total damage take by the vessel. Unless the feature has a hit point rating, the DM may have to calculate the feature's hit points and hardness using the provided material descriptions on page 136 of core rulebook I.
Bull Rush: It is not possible for vessels to bull rush each other, but any pilot may attempt a ramming attack whenever entering a square occupied by other vessels at her altitude. She chooses a single vessel in that square and makes a Piloting skill check against that vessel's AC. If that check is successful, the vessels collide and damage is applied to both vessels as per normal collision damage (see Collisions and Crashing, Chapter Two).
A ramming attack made in conjuction with a successful Dive Attack (see Stunts, Chapter Two) inflicts triple damage on both vessels.
If after a ramming attack the attacking vessel is still capable of movement, it may continue and make further ramming attacks. Only one ramming attack may be made per square entered, however, no matter how many vessels may be currently in that square.
Disarm: It is not possible for vessels to be disarmed, but see "Attack an Object", above.
Grappling: Vessels may grapple if they possess weapons capable of delivering grapple attacks. A creature's natural weapons can be used for grapple attacks, but only vessel weapons described as such can be used for grapple attacks. A vessel weapon uses its Vessel Weapon Attack Roll for grapple checks. The vessel being grappled uses its pilot's Piloting skill check modified by the vessel's Strength modifier.
Vessel weapons may allow for one vessel to grapple another without becoming grappled itself. Yeah it's weird, but think of a tractor beam. In any event, all grappled vessels are unable to move until they manage to escape the grapple.
Grenade-like Weapons: Grenade-like weapons as covered in the core rulebook I are unlikely to deviate further from the target than a single 30-foot square. For these weapons (flasks of acid and alchemists' fire) the attacker makes a melee touch attack. If successful, the target and only the target is struck. If unsuccessful, the attack misses and the weapon plunges harmlessly past. There is no danger of splash damage from these attacks.
Overrun: It is not possible for vessels to overrun each other.
Trip: Trip attacks are ineffective against vessels.
Turning and Rebuking: An undead pilot that is turned will direct its vehicle away from the turning cleric rather than abandon the controls of its vessel.
A pilot does not need to use a steer a vessel action during the surprise round.
Attacks of opportunity work normally. Threat ranges that are less than the current grid size are treated as zero. This means that characters aboard a vessel will be able to make melee attacks of opportunity against vessels in their own square.
Flanking likewise works normally. Both of these depend on threatening an area, which is dependent on melee weapons, so for example a fighter plane cannot gain an attack of opportunity against another vessel, nor can two fighter planes gain flanking bonuses against a third.
I made the penalties for flying one-handed as severe as two-weapon fighting penalties. Splitting your attention between flying and doing something else ought to be HARD. Of course if all you want to do is fly normally and drink your coffee, you can do that normally since neither action involves any skill checks. It's only when you're trying tricky stuff that this matters. The Two-Weapon Fighting feat applies, as does Ambidexterity.
Defined three types of weapons: personal, vessel and guided. Guided are really a special case of vessel but they're so different I thought it was easiest to make them a case all their own.
Made vessel hit points act exactly like creature hit points: disabled at 0, failing at -1 to -9, and destroyed at -10. Invented a Repair skill to be used for stopping a failing vessel from degenerating further (analogous to the Heal check for a dying character).
Walked through the Special Attacks section:
No subdual damage, use attack an object to destroy features on vessels, use bull rush for ramming attacks, can't disarm, cleaned up grapple rules and grenade-like weapons, disallowed overruns and trips and noted that an undead pilot who gets turned and fly its vessel away rather than abandon the controls.
Here ya go:
Chapter 3 Vessel Combat
Of course, not everything up in the sky is as peaceful as it looks from the ground. And adventurers being the argumentative sorts that they are, there can be no doubt that sooner or later, and most likely sooner, they will end up striving mightily either to defeat some terrible foe, or escape a cruel trick fate had in store.
At its core, vessel combat is just like character combat. Some of the differences have already been noted above: the concept of facing, the fact that vehicles cannot run or take a double move, altitude and so on. This chapter will describe other differences between vessel combat and character combat. Anything not detailed here operates exactly as described in core rulebook I.
Vessel Combat Basics:
Vessels have hit points and armour classes just like characters and monsters. The basics of vessel combat are the same as for character combat: roll Initiative, make an attack roll, if successful roll damage. Movement was covered in Chapter Two; those rules apply to combat as well as to any other situation.
The Combat sequence on page 118 of the core rulebook I is unchanged for Cosmonomicon vessel combat. That is, all combatants are flat-footed until they act. Those characters unsurprised roll intiative and take a surprise round, and then all other characters roll initiative and the combat begins in earnest, running down through the initiative count until everyone has had a turn for the round. Repeat for each round. Recall that a pilot must take at least one steer a vessel action (a move-equivalent action) each round or lose control of his vessel. This does not include the surprise round -- should the pilot be able to act in that round, he does not need to take a steer a vessel action (though of course he may if he desires).
Attacks of Opportunity: Vessels and the characters upon them can make attacks of opportunity as normal against opposing vessels who pass within their threat ranges. A threat range that is less than the current grid scale is considered zero for purposes of determining attacks of opportunity from one vessel to another.
Vessels that are at different altitudes do not provoke attacks of opportunity from each other.
Flanking: Facing has no effect on flanking rules. If a vessel is threatened by two opponents on opposite side, the vessel is considered flanked and standard penalties and bonuses apply. Note that only melee weapons can threaten a square, and thus only melee weapons are affected by the flanking penalties and bonuses.
Hands: Unless specifically noted in a vessel description, using the Steer a Vessel action to pilot a vessel requires two hands. In addition, if at any point in a round the pilot does not have at least one hand on the controls, the vessel immediately becomes out of control and the pilot must a steer a vessel action in order to regain control of the vessel.
Piloting one-handed is exactly like fighting with two weapons. All penalties apply depending on which hand is used for piloting and which is used for whatever the pilot wishes. The off-hand suffers a -10 and the primary hand suffers a -6 to all checks. That is, if the pilot wishes to fly with her off-hand and use a personal weapon with her primary hand, her Piloting skill checks will suffer a -10 and her attack will suffer a -6, modified by any relevant feats she might have. Feats such as Two-Weapon Fighting and Ambidexterity apply to all such penalties.
A pilot who wishes to use one hand for something besides attack still suffers the same penalties, applied to Skill checks or Ability checks as appropriate. Again, feats such as Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting apply.
Weapons:
There are three kinds of weapons in Cosmonomicon rules: personal, vessel and guided. Personal weapons are those entirely under the physical command of a character, such as their sword, their bow, their natural weaponry and so on. Vessel weapons are those mounted upon a vessel and operated by a passenger. Guided weapons are those which can be directed to a target and strike unerringly.
Personal Weapons: A character making an attack with a personal weapon, ranged or melee, rolls her attack roll normally. Note, however, that if the character makes a melee attack against a target that is not moving in parallel to her vessel, she applies the Charge bonus to her attack roll and suffers the Charge penalty to her AC against any similar opponents. A vessel that is a creature (see Chapter Two: Creatures Vs. Vessels) makes attacks as though using personal weapons.
Vessel Weapons: Weapons attached to or otherwise considered a part of a vessel are termed vessel weapons. These may include seige engines mounted on a skyship's deck, laser turrets or good old-fashioned cannons. They may also include melee weapons, claws or blades affixed to the vessel that can be manipulated to attack nearby vessels. Vessel weapons benefit from neither the character's Strength or Dexterity modifiers for the purposes of attack or damage rolls. Instead, each weapon has an Accuracy Modifier that is applied to every attack roll made with that weapon.
Vessel Ranged Attack Roll
d20 + Base Attack Bonus + Vessel Size Modifier + Accuracy Modifier + Range Penalty
Vessel Melee Attack Roll
d20 + Base Attack Bonus + Vessel Size Modifier + Accuracy Modifier
Operating a vessel weapon is a standard action. In order to operate a vessel weapon, the passenger must have access to the weapon's controls. These may be at the weapon itself or some remote location. If vessel controls are built in to the piloting controls, the pilot may make an attack as a standard action.
Vessel weapons vary in the Accuracy Modifiers they provide, the damage they do and the time they take to reload. See specific weapon descriptions for details. All vessel weapons require two hands to operate.
Guided Weapons: A guided weapon is really a special form of vessel weapon, but is described separately due to the special circumstances of its use. When using a guided weapon, the operator makes a ranged touch attack roll against the target (using the Vessel Weapon Ranged Attack Roll described above), ignoring any armour bonus, shield bonus or natural armour bonus. If that attack roll is successful the target must make a Reflex Save against the guided weapon's Save DC or suffer full damage from the weapon. A successful Reflex Save may reduce the damage by half or eliminate it completely, depending on the weapon. Refer to the specific weapon description for details.
Damage and Destruction:
A vessel remains functional as long as it has at least one hit point remaining.
Disabled (0 hit points): When a vessel is reduced to 0 hit points, it is disabled. Any power supply it may posses ceases to function and it must rely on its existing Glide Speed and Manuverability ratings, if it possesses them. If it does not posses a Glide Speed or Manuverability rating, it immediately begins to spiral (see Vessel Conditions, Chapter Two).
Failing (-1 to -9 hit points): A vessel reduced to less than 0 hit points is failing. It immediately loses all power as described above. At the end of each round (starting with the round in which the vessel dropped below 0 hit points) the vessel loses 1 hit point. If a vessel's hit points fall to -10, it is destroyed. This loss of hit points may be stopped by a successful Repair check (DC 15), but the vessel remains disabled.
Destroyed (-10 hit points or lower): When a vessel's hit points drop to -10 or lower, it is immediately destroyed and begins to spiral. The pilot cannot use the Regain Control stunt in order to stop the spiral as the vessel is too damaged to respond to her efforts.
Special Damage Effects: Some vessels or vessel components may cause certain effects at some percentage of hit point loss. Certain power systems, for example may explode and deal damage to the vessel and everyone on it at 50% of total hit points. These effects are detailed in Chapter Five: Vessel Construction.
A vessel's resistances to specific forms of damage, be it energy, magic, damage type or sneak attacks and criticals, are listed with the vessel descriptions.
Special Attacks:
The following changes to standard character combat apply:
Subdual Damage: Vessels always ignore subdual damage. Only normal damage has any effect on a vessel.
Attack an Object: It is possible to direct attacks specifically against a weapon or other feature on a vessel. A vessel feature uses the vessel's armour class, including all modifiers except for size. The feature uses its own size modifier.
Damage taken by a feature is not applied to the total damage take by the vessel. Unless the feature has a hit point rating, the DM may have to calculate the feature's hit points and hardness using the provided material descriptions on page 136 of core rulebook I.
Bull Rush: It is not possible for vessels to bull rush each other, but any pilot may attempt a ramming attack whenever entering a square occupied by other vessels at her altitude. She chooses a single vessel in that square and makes a Piloting skill check against that vessel's AC. If that check is successful, the vessels collide and damage is applied to both vessels as per normal collision damage (see Collisions and Crashing, Chapter Two).
A ramming attack made in conjuction with a successful Dive Attack (see Stunts, Chapter Two) inflicts triple damage on both vessels.
If after a ramming attack the attacking vessel is still capable of movement, it may continue and make further ramming attacks. Only one ramming attack may be made per square entered, however, no matter how many vessels may be currently in that square.
Disarm: It is not possible for vessels to be disarmed, but see "Attack an Object", above.
Grappling: Vessels may grapple if they possess weapons capable of delivering grapple attacks. A creature's natural weapons can be used for grapple attacks, but only vessel weapons described as such can be used for grapple attacks. A vessel weapon uses its Vessel Weapon Attack Roll for grapple checks. The vessel being grappled uses its pilot's Piloting skill check modified by the vessel's Strength modifier.
Vessel weapons may allow for one vessel to grapple another without becoming grappled itself. Yeah it's weird, but think of a tractor beam. In any event, all grappled vessels are unable to move until they manage to escape the grapple.
Grenade-like Weapons: Grenade-like weapons as covered in the core rulebook I are unlikely to deviate further from the target than a single 30-foot square. For these weapons (flasks of acid and alchemists' fire) the attacker makes a melee touch attack. If successful, the target and only the target is struck. If unsuccessful, the attack misses and the weapon plunges harmlessly past. There is no danger of splash damage from these attacks.
Overrun: It is not possible for vessels to overrun each other.
Trip: Trip attacks are ineffective against vessels.
Turning and Rebuking: An undead pilot that is turned will direct its vehicle away from the turning cleric rather than abandon the controls of its vessel.
