Combat mechanics

Line of Sight

Ranged attacks require line of sight, which is tested as described for Cover below. Cover objects normally do not block line of sight, but other enemies and solid walls do.

Attack Strength

Also called "Attack Roll" in some places. For basic attacks, simply pick one of Melee Accuracy or Range Accuracy.

Defense Strength

Also called "Defense Roll" in some places. The target's Block, Effective Dodge, and Cover are added together to give Defense Strength.

Block

Block is straightforward. Just add Block to Defense Strength.

Dodge

The defender's Dodge is modified by the attacker's weapon Wield. Heavy weapons (low wield) are easier to dodge; light weapons (high wield) are harder.

Multiply by the following to get effective Dodge:

Wield	Weight	Modifier
1	Ultraheavy	135%
2	Heavy	115%
3	Balanced	100%
4	Light	85%
5	Ultralight	65%

Cover

A defender must be standing adjacent to cover to get benefit from it. Diagonal adjacency counts.

Partial cover is worth up to +30 Defense Strength; Good cover is worth up to +60. It is reduced if the attacker is firing from an angle, and they can "lean" to further improve their shot.

Specifically, the attacker consider five possible firing positions: the center of their current tile and positions offset by 0.7 to the north, south, east and west.

• For each of these positions that are not obstructed, check five lines to the target (or to each of the target's tiles, if it is large): from the firing position to the midpoint of the tile and to just inside the midpoint of each edge—technically, to offsets (0,0), (-0.49,0), (0.49,0), (0,-0.49), and (0,0.49).
  • For each of these lines that is obstructed by any part of the cover tile, add 20% of the maximum cover value to that shot option.

The attacker then picks their best shot at the most exposed (lowest cover) part of the target.

This means a defender very rarely can get full cover value from a single-tile cover object. (They would have to be diagonally adjacent to it with an attacker on the far diagonal.)

Resolution

Subtract Defense Strength from Attack Strength to get hit strength. If the result is -75 or below, the attack cannot hit. Above that, the hit chance increases by +1% per point of hit strength until it reaches 85% at hit strength +10. Then it increases by +0.5% per point of hit strength until hit chance reaches 100% at hit strength +40.

Technically, interpolate hit chance on this table:

Hit Strength	Hit Chance
-75	0%
0	75%
10	85%
40	100%

Misses

If the attack fails, the system will randomly determine whether the target Dodged, Blocked, or Took Cover. Cover is the first line of defense; if the hit strength is less than the cover value, the shot hit and does damage to the cover. Otherwise, Dodge or Block is selected, weighted by the target's defense ratings. (Sometimes this matters for triggering Abilities like Riposte.)

Damage

Physical / Magical

Bonus damage, Potency

Injuries are healed in the Overland phase.

Armor / Warding

Shred

Pierce

Attacks from grayplane ignore armor entirely.