Hand-to-Hand Combat Terms

(Version 1.02 - Last Modified: 08/12/2007)

• Introduction
• Hand-to-Hand Combat Terms
• Armor Rating
• Attacks Per Melee
• Attribute Check
• Blind
• Combat Actions
• Combat Bonuses
• Combat Range
• Critical Strike
• Hit Points
• Initiative
• Knockdown
• Natural Roll
• Mega-Damage Capacity
• Melee Round
• Non-Combat Melee Action
• Prone
• Paralyzed
• Sneak Attack
• Structural Damage Capacity

Introduction

Hand-to-Hand combat in the Palladium Books system is both very good and very unorganized. It offers amazing room for improvement and enhancement, but it has no formal structure and many of the best combat maneuvers, especially those from Ninjas & Superspies, can be confusing to use in actual combat. This document presents a series of important terms for hand-to-hand combat. Most of these should be familiar to players and none have really changed much from their original form in the Palladium Books system, but there are some changes.

Combat Term Descriptions

1. Armor Rating:
   There are two types of Armor Rating used in the game. The first type is for living creatures and is mostly referred to as Natural Armor Rating, while the second type is for body armor, medieval armor, and clothing. Also, some vehicles may possess an armor rating that is used in a similar manner as natural armor rating, and in this case, it is just called Armor Rating. For natural armor rating, a creature is provided an A.R. value, such as 12, and for any damage to be inflicted upon this creature, the strike roll, including bonuses, must be equal to or greater then the armor rating value or the attack does no damage. In the case of body armor, the armor rating is used to represent how much of a person's body is covered by the armor. For example, a half suit of body armor has an armor rating of 12, while a full suit of plate armor has an armor rating of 18. If a strike roll against a person wearing armor, including all bonuses to strike, is less than the value of the armor rating of the armor, then the armor is damaged, otherwise the attack will hit the person wearing the armor.
   
   
2. Attacks Per Melee: (also known as Melee Attacks)
   Attacks per Melee represent the number of times that a person can perform an attack or an attack-equivalent action in a melee round. The number of attacks per melee that a person can perform is generally dictated by their level of experience and their combat training and the base number of attacks for their race. Humans and most humanoid races begin with two attacks per melee without any combat training. Attacks per melee are used for almost everything involving combat, from attacking to casting spells. Some actions and attacks require multiple melee attacks to complete, such as a Power Punch which requires two melee attacks. In these cases, the attack occurs during the combatant's first action, but during each of the character's next few turns, when they would normally get to perform a melee attack, they lose that attack. This is usually because the character has to recover from using a complicated or powerful action. During this recovery period, the character can perform defensive and defection actions normally, except those that require a melee attack to be used, such as Dodge.
   
   
3. Attribute Check:
   An attribute check is needed when a character is attempting an action that uses one of the attributes, such as trying to force open a door or escape from a joint lock. When performing an attribute check, you roll 1D20 and add your attribute to that roll. For an attribute check against another creature, such as escaping from a Joint Lock, the opponent must also roll an attribute check and the highest result wins, with the defender winning ties. When performing a strength check, creatures with Extraordinary Strength adds an additional +5 to their die roll, creatures with Robotic strength adds +10 to their die roll, and creatures with Supernatural Strength add +15 to their die roll.
   
   
4. Blind:
   A person is blinded if they are in a situation where they cannot see. This could be caused by a burst of light or by being shrouded in darkness without the ability to see in the dark. There are only two levels of darkness that apply: the first is total darkness, where the character can see absolutely nothing and the second is near darkness, where there is enough light to vaguely see shapes that are very close to the character, but nothing else is discernable. In total darkness, the character loses all normal combat bonuses and suffers a penalty of -10 to all combat rolls; all skills that use vision are impossible to perform. In near darkness, the character loses all normal combat bonuses and suffers a penalty of -3 to all combat rolls unless the target is in Grappling Range; all skills that use vision suffer a -50% penalty. Attacks per melee and initiative are unchanged, but the character will be lashing out wildly and mostly guessing where his opponents are.
   
   
5. Combat Actions:
   There are four main types of combat actions. The first is the offensive action, which is generally used as an attack or in place of an attack. The second is the defensive action, which only can be used against a single incoming attack when applicable, both Parry and Dodge are defense actions. The third is the deflection action, which attempts to deflect or reduce incoming damage if it is not avoided; Roll with punch / impact / fall falls into this category. The forth is the movement action, which allows a character to move or perform a movement action. A character can only perform a single offensive action per melee attack, although some require more the one melee attack to finish. A character can perform only a single defensive action against each offensive action, although certain offensive actions can only be defended against by certain defensive actions. If an offensive action hits a character, such as if a defensive action failed to work, a single deflection action, such as Break Fall, can be used. Please see Hand-to-Hand Combat Actions for a complete list of combat actions.
   
   
6. Combat Bonuses:
   Combat bonuses are any bonuses that apply to rolls made during combat, specifically to Combat Actions, such as strike, parry, and dodge. Combat bonuses can be acquired through a variety of sources, such as high physical attributes, hand-to-hand combat skills, and racial bonuses. Some bonuses may not be applicable at all times and it is important to keep track of such bonuses separately. For example, +3 to strike from a high P.P. attribute does not apply to using a hand gun, while the skill W.P. Pistol provides no bonuses when using a sword to strike an opponent.
   
   
7. Combat Range (Long Melee Range, Melee Range, Grappling Range):
   When it comes to hand-to-hand combat, a short distance can make a world of difference. In melee combat, there are three distances: Long Melee Range, Melee Range, and Grappling Range. These distances are very important as certain abilities can only be used at certain distances. Fighting styles can also change which distance that a person would like to engage at. For example, a wrestler possesses a number of grappling attacks so would like to engage at Grappling Range, a boxer enjoys further reach so would like to engage at Melee Range, and anyone equipped with a long pole arm, like a pike, would find it almost impossible to function at distances closer then Long Melee Range. Please note that worrying over combat ranges can slow combat down, so if they are not for your campaign please ignore them and anything to do with them. Since there can be creatures of different size fighting each other, there can also be creatures have a different ranges then a normal Human. For example, a giant could be at Melee Range with a Human, but that Human would be at Long Melee Range with the giant. Generally, range for most Humanoids is determined by their height and length is used for creatures that are substantially longer then they are tall. Regardless of Spd attribute, it always requires one melee action to move from Long Melee Range to Melee Range and one melee action to move from Melee Range to Grappling Range.
   • Long Melee Range: At this distance, a combatant is roughly twice their height or length away from their opponent and cannot hit their opponent except with long range weapons, long weapons, and melee attacks that require a lot of room to perform, such as a Leap Attack. If using a grid combat system, a Human-sized opponent would be 2 squares away from their opponent.
   • Melee Range: This is the standard distance for combatants, roughly equal to the height or length of the combatant. At this range, most attack can be used, but there are attacks that cannot be performed because they require the combatants to be closer or further away from each other. If using a grid combat system, a Human-sized opponent would be 1 square away from their opponent.
   • Grappling Range: This is the closest range possible between two combatants that are not actually grappling each other. At this range, most attacks are still possible, but none of the kick attacks, except for the Snap Kick attack, are possible. If using a grid combat system, a Human-sized opponent would be in the same square as their opponent.
   
   
8. Critical Strike:
   All attacks are subject to critical strikes, unless otherwise stated. A critical strike occurs when an attack roll, usually a strike roll, but not always, is a natural, unmodified 20. When a critical strike occurs, the die rolls for the attack are doubled and any damage bonus is doubled. For example, if a punch normally inflicts 1D4+3 points of damage, then it will inflict 2D4+6 points of damage on a critical strike. Some types of additional damage are not doubled, but this will be stated in their description.
   
   
9. Hit Points:
   Hit Points represent the physical body of a living creature, while S.D.C. represents their personal toughness. In normal combat, once all S.D.C. of a creature has been depleted, all future damage is applied to Hit Points. Once a character's Hit Points has been reduced to zero, they enter into a coma-like state, but only die when their hit points is reduced to a number lower then their P.E. attribute. A character can only remain conscious if they have at least one hit point, unless they have special abilities that change this. There are also optional rules that can be used to determine what happens to a character as their Hit Points are depleted, such as damage to limbs, and these are listed in the main books for most Palladium Books settings. Hit points are generally based on a person's P.E. attribute, such as normal Humans, which possess a number of hit points equal to their P.E. attribute +1D6 per level of experience.
   
   
10. Initiative:
    One of the most important combat terms is initiative, which shows the order in which characters attack in a given melee round. Each participant in a combat rolls a twenty-sided die, apply all bonuses to initiative, and the order of the rolls are recorded from highest to lowest. Ties are resolved in favor the participant with the highest in the following items, in order: highest initiative bonus, highest P.P. attribute, and highest position in the previous melee round. If there is still a tie, which could only occur during the first round of combat, keep the roll, but have both players roll twenty-sided dies, with no bonuses, until one roll is higher then the other. Once the order of combat is determined, each player can use one melee attack in order of their initiative, with those rolling higher going first. This continues until all melee attacks for all participants in combat have been used. However, this means that if one participant had 6 melee attacks and another had only 2, the combatant with six attacks will use their last four or five melee attacks in a row. Alternatively, a GM could choose to use the Revised Initiative Combat System to determine the order in which the melee round will progress. Initiative is rolled at the beginning of combat and is used for the entire combat.
    
    
11. Knockdown:
    Anytime that a person is knocked off their feet, such as from being thrown or by being hit by a car, that person loses initiative, which means their initiative becomes one lower then the current, lowest initiative value, and they lose their next melee attack. This is true even if the person does not attempt to stand up after they were knocked down, which requires an additional melee action to perform.
    
    
12. Natural Roll:
    A Natural Roll is used for some special abilities, such as Critical Strikes, and requires that a specific roll on a twenty-sided die be within a certain range without bonuses. For example, a character that requires a natural roll of 19 or 20 in order to perform a critical strike and even through that character may have a bonus to strike of +10, the character cannot roll a 9 and perform a critical strike; the character can only roll a 19 or 20 on a twenty-sided die.
    
    
13. Mega-Damage Capacity: (M.D.C.)
    A close relative of S.D.C. and Hit Points, M.D.C. is used for powerful supernatural creatures, some creatures in a magic-rich environment, and some high-tech equipment. Each point of M.D.C. is equivalent to 100 points of S.D.C., so a single point of mega-damage (or M.D.) will cause 100 points of damage against a creature with only S.D.C. and Hit Points. However, weapons that do not inflict mega-damage cannot hurt an M.D.C. creature, unless otherwise stated.
    
    
14. Melee Round:
    A Melee Round is a span of 15 seconds and is the basis for all combat in the Palladium Books system. A minute consists of four melee rounds.
    
    
15. Non-Combat Melee Action:
    A melee action is similar to a melee attack, but it applies to things that are not directly related to combat. For example, using a skill or moving requires melee actions and not melee attacks. Performing a melee action requires spending a melee attack unless a character has both melee attacks and melee actions, in which case performing a melee action does not require the use of an attack per melee unless the character has no remaining melee actions for that round. Each time a combatant uses a melee attack, he loses two of his non-combat melee actions for that melee round. The use of this term is not favored because it can lead to confusing situations about what counts as a melee attack and what counts as a melee action and the use of the term in published materials is not always consistent.
    
    
16. Prone:
    A combatant is considered to be prone if they are laying on the floor, such as after a fall or after having been knocked down. Melee attackers gain a bonus of +1 to strike the prone target, but attackers using ranged weapons suffer a penalty of -2 to strike the prone target. A prone combatant also suffers a penalty of -1 to strike with melee and ranged weapons, unless the ranged weapon is helped by bracing it, such as a gun. In the case of a weapon that is helped by bracing, the prone combatant gains a bonus of +1 to strike. It takes a melee attack for a prone character to stand up, but they suffer a penalty of -2 to all defensive actions until their next melee attack as they drop their guard to stand up.
    
    
17. Paralyzed:
    While a combatant is paralyzed, he cannot move or speak, which means he cannot perform any offensive, defensive, deflection, or move actions. However, the combatant is still conscious so he can still activate and use abilities that do not require motion, such as most psionic powers.
    
    
18. Sneak Attack:
    A sneak attack is performed when the attacker or attackers attacks the defender or defenders without the defenders knowing that the attack is about to take place. At this point, the attacker or attackers gain a single melee attack each before initiative is rolled. During this attack, the defender can only use a defensive or deflection combat action that does not require the use of a melee attack to perform. In addition, the defenders lose all combat bonuses during this surprise attack. During the first round following the sneak attack, roll initiative as normal, but place all attackers above all defenders for determining the order of combat.
    
    
19. Structural Damage Capacity: (S.D.C.)
    This term represents two things, it is the amount of normal punishment that a living creature can withstand before it begins to lose hit points and it represents the amount of damage that an object can withstand before being destroyed. Objects do not normally possess hit points, instead they have S.D.C. (or M.D.C. in some settings), and when their S.D.C. is reduced to zero, the object is destroyed. For living creatures, S.D.C. is used to show how much punishment that a person can take before they begin to suffer any serious damage. Bruises and cuts and scrapes would all be considered S.D.C. damage, while deep cuts and broken bones would be considered hit point damage. Normal Humans do not possess any S.D.C. because they are not physically tough enough.