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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hong" data-source="post: 2831321" data-attributes="member: 537">I think IH combat _can_ be more complicated and tactical than D&D, but it doesn't have to be. You can still do much the same things as you were doing before and get away with it, saving the more complex options for later. Here are the main complications compared to D&D combat:- Various classes have token pools. Tokens are like power points/action points that you spend to activate special abilities. They're fairly easy to keep track of; if you can handle tracking hit points or psionics, tokens should be no different. I'd say they're also far easier to handle than the spell lists that D&D spellcasters have to juggle. If anything, a problem with IH is that (with notable exceptions) token abilities often _aren't_ that big a deal, so that what could be a point of difference between IH and D&D gets lost.- You have things like challenges and stunts. Challenges are ways to trade off a penalty in one area (eg -6 to attacks) for a bonus in another area (eg +3 AC) -- fighting defensively in D&D is an example of a challenge. You only really need to use 2 challenges: defense (-4 atk/+2 AC) and damage (-4 atk/+2 dmg, or -6 atk/+6 dmg; like a poor man's Power Attack). Everything else is secondary.- Stunts are a freeform way of using a skill roll to gain a bonus in combat. You don't have to use them; in fact much the time the bonus gained is small, so you're not losing much. They're best saved for the really big fights when people are desperate for every edge they can get. Or if you just want to show off. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />- Zones are like codified ways to get the terrain involved in a fight. For example, a shaky rope bridge that requires Balance checks to get across, and makes fighting tricky, would be a zone. The main purpose of zones, AFAICT, is to emphasise the role of terrain and similar factors in making for interesting combats. They're nothing you couldn't have in D&D, but since they weren't emphasised much, a lot of D&D combats end up as white-map fights: the only terrain considerations are where the rooms join up, and how big a fireball you can fit into a space.</blockquote>

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