Differences

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--- defense [2020/08/21 19:29] – [Invisibility] dungeonmaster
+++ defense [2020/10/03 15:53] (current) – dungeonmaster
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-[[start|Dice Mob Home]] > [[dice_mob_rules|Dice Mob Rules]] > [[skills|Skills]]
+[[start|Dice Mob Home]] > [[dice_mob_rules|Dice Mob Rules]]
-====== Defense ======
+====== Attacks and Defense ======
 Along with knowing the dice rules themselves, understanding attacking and defending is the most important thing to know about Dice Mob rules. It’s all about pitting certain attacks or skills against resistance to them. A wise player will want to increase the number of dice they roll and decrease the number of dice rolled by their opponent to stack dice comparisons as much to their advantage as possible.
-To improve the number of attack to defense dice ratio, a character can do a variety of things from choosing better weapons to using the element of surprise to choosing a method of attack that exploits a monster’s weakness to improving their proficiency with their go-to weapon or spell. Some of this can be done between adventures when a character levels up, some by choosing the weapons, armor, or items they are going to take with them on a particular campaign, and some can be done on the fly as they assess an encounter and make the necessary adjustments to use high ground, the element of surprise, ground cover, monster vulnerabilities, morale, magic, darkness, and other factors to turn the tide in their favor.
+To improve the number of attack to defense dice ratio, a character can do a variety of things from choosing certain types of weapons to using the element of surprise to choosing a method of attack that exploits a monster’s weakness to improving their proficiency with their go-to weapon or spell. Some of this can be done between adventures when a character levels up, some by choosing the weapons, armor, or items they are going to take with them on a particular campaign, and some can be done on the fly as they assess an encounter and make the necessary adjustments to use high ground, the element of surprise, ground cover, monster vulnerabilities, morale, magic, darkness, and other factors to turn the tide in their favor.
 No matter how many advantages and disadvantages a character or monster might have, the number of dice can never be decreased below one die or increased above whatever maximum the campaign has determined.
-We’ve talked a lot about attacks up until this point in this description, but we’ve labeled this section "Defense". Why? Because a large part of categorizing attacks is by how a character might defend against them.
+Attacks and defense are two sides of the same coin, and although we've mostly spoken of attacks up to this point, we actually spend much more time in game play actually speaking of defense. Attacks are really just methods of exploiting a defense, or lack thereof. In fact, one of the prominent parts of a character's sheet or a monster's statistics is dedicated to their defenses.
 Defense is divided into three areas: physical, mental, and personal. And these are further subdivided as shown below into the ten defenses which will be listed on a character sheet.
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 ==== Elemental Defense ====
-Elemental defense, for lack of a better term, defend against damage based on temperature, chemical, or other similar external factors that aren’t related to force at all. Often they’re related to a character or monster’s reaction to something that their body isn’t equipped to handle. Elemental attacks are subdivided into poison or disease, freezing, burning or acid, and electricity. Any elemental attacks not listed here should be categorized to the closest matching category. Undead who might be particularly vulnerable to light, for example, would be characterized under burning.
+Elemental defense--for lack of a better term--is the ability of a creature and its clothing and other defenses to defend against damage based on temperature, chemical, or other similar external factors that aren’t related to force at all. Often they’re related to a character or monster’s reaction to something that their body isn’t equipped to handle. Elemental attacks are subdivided into poison or disease, freezing, burning or acid, and electricity.
+Any elemental attacks not listed here should be categorized to the closest matching category. Undead who might be particularly vulnerable to light, for example, would be characterized under burning or acid because the effect it has on that creature's body is similar to what a normal creature might experience when encountering fire or acid.
 ===== Mental Defense =====
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 ===== Personal Defense =====
-This defense is harder to categorize, but it has to do with violations against a person’s sense of self or their personal space. Often the easiest way of thinking of what this is is by thinking of what it isn’t, a defense against physical harm or a defense against mental manipulation. Polymorphing, pickpocketing, slow, weaken, and pretty much anything that harms adversely affects an opponent without causing physical or mental damage would be protected through personal defense.
+This defense is harder to categorize, but it has to do with violations against a person’s sense of self or their personal space. Often the easiest way of thinking of what this is is by thinking of what it isn’t, a defense against physical harm or a defense against mental manipulation. Polymorphing, pickpocketing, slow, weaken, and pretty much anything that harms adversely affects an opponent without causing physical or mental damage would be covered under personal defense.
 ===== Multiple Attack Types =====
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 If an attack consists of multiple attack types, such as the flaming sword mentioned above, the fire portion of the attack would be ignored, and only the piercing or slashing of the sword would have any effect on a fire-breathing dragon.
-===== Invisibility =====
+===== Attacking Penalties =====
+Attacking penalties are rare. Usually when someone defends better, dice are added to defense. It isn't so much a penalty to the attacker as how well a defender defends themselves. With that said, there are cases where an attacker can receive penalties. These occur when the attacker cannot see the defender well... or even at all or if the character is trying to attack in a style that would require training over and above what proficiency would cover.
-Invisibility is, in a generic sense, a form of immunity, albeit temporarily. An invisible creature cannot be attacked at all unless the attacker knows the creature is in the vicinity and more or less where the creature is.
+==== Completely Hidden ====
-See [[offense#invisibility|Invisibility]] for more information regarding invisibility and partial invisibility and its effects in combat.
+When an attacker is blind or a defender is invisible, the results are essentially the same. For the rest of this section, we'll refer to the defender as being invisible, but this section applies for both conditions.
-===== Residual Effects =====
+Invisible creatures can't be attacked at all unless they are first detected. And they can't be attacked effectively unless the attacker is attacking in the proper direction, which requires either blind luck or successfully finding the person with senses other than the eyes.
-Sometimes an attack causes damage long after the initial attack landed, including being charmed for a period of time or being lit on fire.
-==== Mental Effects ====
+To detect an invisible opponent, the character must first make a perception win-loss roll against the opponent's stealth. As long as a creature is invisible and moving, this perception win-loss roll would have to be made every round to detect where the creature has moved to in order to attack them again. The GM can opt to forego the win-loss roll on the first round if there is a reasonable chance the attack would be in the correct direction, such as shooting an arrow down a narrow tunnel. And the GM can also forego the perception roll on any consecutive round if there is sufficient reason to do so.
-If the state is something **cognitive, emotional, or personal**, the effect generally lasts for the duration governed by the [[standard_effects_degrees_levels|Standard Effects of Degrees and Levels]] section. Additional saves vs the Defense are allowed every third round of the effect (on that character's turn) to try to break free (with two successes indicating a success).
-==== Fire, Acid, and Profuse Bleeding ====
+Whether or not the GM decides there should be a win-loss roll, the attacker automatically has a -4 dice penalty to all attacks. Skills (e.g. blindfighting) can modify this penalty, but otherwise all attacks are penalized with a four dice penalty.
-If the state is something that would cause **perpetual damage**, such as **profuse bleeding, acid, or fire**, the damage taken from the previous round is treated as another attack every round thereafter until all dice are successfully defended against or the state of the character is changed (e.g. they jump in the nearby pond to douse the fire or diffuse the acid). Five rounds of continuous fire or acid damage should generally also destroy whatever was in contact with the acid or fire.
-<blockquote>Example: If a character is attacked by a fire-breathing dragon who rolls an attack of 10 dice the first round against the character's Burning Defense of 5 and has 6 of the attacking dice successful, the character would take 6 damage that first round. When it came to the end of the second round, if the character is still on fire (because they chose to attack instead of putting themselves out), they would have 6 dice rolled against the same Burning Defense of 5. Let's say this time they roll well and defend 5 of the 6. The end of the third round would still require a roll 1 die of Burning Attack against their 5 Burning Defense assuming they still haven't managed to douse the fire. And that all assumes that the dragon hasn't decided to blow fire a second time and start the cycle all over again.</blockquote>
+In the case of actual invisibility, it should be noted that just because a character attacks or is attacked does not necessarily mean that they lose their invisibility. If the invisibility is from a spell, the creature might have to make a skill check to retain concentration on the spell. If the invisibility is from a magical item or cloaking device, it might last as long as it is not damaged. It should also be noted that some attacks might require the invisibility be removed in order to use the attack, such as whether or not a Klingon Bird of Prey can attack while cloaked, which should be governed by the rules of the use of that skill or item, not by any arbitrary invisibility requirement itself.
-==== Poison ====
+==== Partially Hidden ====
-If the state is **poison**, the damage taken from the previous round is similar to that of profuse bleeding, acid, or fire stated above, EXCEPT that the toxicity of the poison could double or triple the dice from the previous round for every perpetual round until all dice are successfully saved against or the creature is cured via magic or medical means.
-<blockquote>Example: If a character is attacked by a black mamba, the bite might do 4 dice of damage (to see if it can get through the armor). If the bite was successful (i.e. scored at least one point of piercing damage), it might do 6 dice of poison damage. if they saved against 4 dice, there would be 2 dice to save against in the next round. But let's say the GM decides that black mamba poison has triple potency. In round two, the black mamba's poison would have 2 dice (from the previous round) X 3, meaning that the unlucky character would have to save against 6 dice yet again for round 2. This would continue, tripling residual dice each round, until the character saves against all dice, falls unconscious, or is cured. </blockquote>
+This section regards partial invisibility or cloaking of the defender, partial blindness of the attacker, obscurity in the environment (such as clouds or smoke), or camouflaging elements of the defender.
-For a more advanced description, see the appendix entry for [[poison|Poison]].
+This is similar to the above section except that the person is not totally beyond seeing, they just aren't immediately obvious because the vision has been partially impaired or disrupted (e.g. sand in the eyes, smoke cloud, incomplete cloaking, or continually effective camouflage). As shown in the above section, they must first be detected, but after they have been detected, the penalty to the attacker would be at a -2 instead of the -4.
-==== Electrical ====
+So long as the defender remains within sight, the win-loss perception roll would not have to be rolled again until they managed to re-hide themselves, but the attacker would still have the -2 penalty until conditions improved.
-If the state is **electrical**, the damage taken from the previous round is treated as another attack every round thereafter, just as in the perpetual damage case above, EXCEPT that the electricity arcs to a nearby person and they are the one who takes damage. This continues until all dice are defended against.
-==== Freezing ====
+===== Dual Wielding =====
-If the attack is **freezing**, the character loses one die of initiative for the duration governed by the
-[[standard_effects_degrees_levels|Standard Effects of Degrees and Levels]] section or until they are warmed up. Freezing effects are cumulative, so three successful freezing attacks against the same character would result in three less dice of initiative. Once initiative dice reach zero, all further successful freezing attacks directed in that character reduce the character's actions by one (with the action lost chosen by the player whose character is losing the action, for simplicity's sake).
-==== Disease ====
+It's one thing to be able to wield a weapon. It requires an extra level of training to wield two weapons at the same time and in such a way as to be effective with both. The benefits of dual wielding are obvious--two attacks when a creature would generally only have one. But to do so effectively requires training, and without the training, the creature is less effective with both weapons. For more on dual wielding, see [[knowledge#dual_wielding|Dual Wielding Mundane Knowledge]] and [[weapon_proficiency#dual_wielding|Dual Wielding Weapon Proficiency]].
-Disease doesn't do additional damage, per se, but it definitely has residual effects. See [[disease|Disease]] for how to handle the residual effects of a disease attack.