Combat

Huntsman and Huntresses come in conflict with Grimm by the very nature of their profession. Being combat ready is not just the norm, but it is expected. It is a rare to see pacifists seek this line of work.

In the RoC System, all obstacles Characters must overcome are set values, including enemy defenses, attacks and damages. As with every skill check in the game, Enemy attack and defense thresholds come in increments of 5.

With RoC, Characters will “outgrow” most adversaries. As numbers are rolled higher against enemies, it becomes easier to dispatch them. Against defenses this is demonstrated with passively dealing more damage at higher rolls as well as imparting detrimental status effects to enemies. Against attacks, players avoid weaker entities with ease and will have more opportunities to destroy them.

Turn Phases
Combat is held in a series of phases. Characters conduct their turn during the phase corresponding to their PER score. Characters with higher PER scores act before character’s with low PER scores. Characters with the same PER occupy the same phase, and can act individually or simultaneously. Acting individually is functionally identical to normal turn order, only the participants may chose to swap places at any time. Acting simultaneously requires weaving actions between two or more characters until their respective action budgets have been filled. Characters may also hold their turn until they see fit to act in a different turn phase. If a Character holds their turn for the full round until their phase again, their held action is lost and their new turn begins. Enemies always act between phases, but characters holding their action may interrupt an enemy “between” the Phases. Enemies can hold their turn as well, but this is mostly limited to intelligent entities.

Action Budget
Players are not given a hard number of actions in a turn. Instead they have an “Action Budget”. The Action Budget is used all at once by players describing their actions for a turn. The limit on the number of actions is generally 3. This number can fluctuate based on the complexity of the tasks, level of RoC, or any number of situational modifiers, but 3 is usually appropriate.

Players who declare “I hit it with my axe” for their turn, only perform a single action, the remainder are lost, meanwhile, players who declare, “I run along the branches, dive on top of the Beowolf and stab him in the back,” has almost entirely filled their action budget, losing any remainder. GMs decide when a player has exceeded their action budget for the turn, cutting the string of skill checks short.

Some checks require less effort than others, and some do not count against the action budget. Other actions consume more than one action in the budget, such as attacks, or careful movement. Talking and general communication do not usually count against the action budget.

Once the Player has finished describing their actions, the GM dictates what skills to roll, and what level difficulty the rolls will be. Players do not get to change their minds once the actions have been rolled unless the GM presents them the option. Failing Skill checks mid action changes the nature of the turn spent, but the general momentum of the turn is maintained.

Presented are three scenarios, one where every skill check is a success, and one where some fail, and one where all fail.

Example 1
Player: “I run along the branches, dive on top of the Beowolf and stab him in the back.” GM: “Roll Balance, AGI+PER 20 to for the branches and Acrobatics, STR+AGI 15 for the leap.” Player Rolls Player: "22 Balance, 17 Acrobatics." GM: “You run at full speed through the trees and land squarely on the Beowolf’s back, Roll advantage STR attack for taking it by surprise”

Example 2
Player: “I run along the branches, dive on top of the Beowolf and stab him in the back.” GM: “Roll Balance, AGI+PER 20 to for the branches and Acrobatics, STR+AGI 15 for the leap.” Player Rolls Player: "17 Balance, 22 Acrobatics" GM: “Your foot slips as you move towards the Beowolf, falling slightly out of the tree. You scramble back to get your balance. The Beowolf is now aware of you, losing any advantage your sneak attack would provide. Would you still like to attack, or stay in your tree?”

Example 3
Player: “I run along the branches, dive on top of the Beowolf and stab him in the back.” GM: “Roll Balance, AGI+PER 20 to for the branches and Acrobatics, STR+AGI 15 for the leap.” Player Rolls Player: "17 Balance, 13 Acrobatics" GM: “Your foot slips as you move towards the Beowolf, falling entirely out of the tree. You fall on your back and scramble to your feet. The Beowolf is now aware of you, and your turn ends.”

Combat Maneuvers
Various actions that are combat specific

Attacks and Semblances
Characters may perform 1 attack or Semblance use per action, but not more than 2 such actions per turn. An “attack” is any action where the only intended result is direct damage to an entity. Semblances and Attacks pull from the same pool of two actions per turn.

Movement
Movement is 15ft per action, but if the Character spends their whole budget running, the character can move 50ft.

Reload
Reloading Capacity is 1 action. When reloading a Character may declare 1 form of dust they possess.

Unarmed Attacks
Unarmed attacks are STR+END rolls that deal half damage, unless otherwise specified by the Martial Arts weapon modification.

Capacity Movement
By consuming one capacity, a Character can immediately move 5 ft in any direction, including upward. This effect can be added to any or all action including attacks. Adding the effect to an attack results in moving away from the target.

Suppressing Fire
Consume a point of capacity to suppress an enemy in cover. Designate a specific enemy or piece of cover, and automatically roll attack against them if they move into a targetable position.

Non-Lethal Attacks
Enemies can be knocked unconscious by bringing their Health to 0 exactly with lethal attacks. Non-Lethal attacks can be used to bring the targets Health to 0 without overkill, losing any remainder. To perform a Non-Lethal attack, a character may take disadvantage on the attack and cut all damage in half, and any bonus damage for beating defenses is lost, unless otherwise specified by the Martial Arts or Blunted weapon modifications.

Additional Weapon Attacks
Additional Weapon allows Characters who spend any part of their turn making any normal attack to make an additional attack using a single relevant attribute. Additional Melee attacks only roll STR, and additional Ranged attacks only roll AGI.

Charge Attacks
Charge Attacks allows Characters who spend their entire turn on a single devastating strike, up to 5 points of their remaining Capacity is consumed and added directly to the damage roll.

Execute
Consume full action budget to Instantly kill a helpless target.

Grapple
Characters roll a STR+PER Grapple check against an adjacent opponent. Human sized opponents are held in place, while massive opponents are held onto, with higher levels of RoC being able to treat enemies as smaller than they actually are. Characters with Hooked weapons may roll their main attack attributes instead of STR+PER, and any reach the weapon has also applies.

Aura Healing
Characters may spend a point of Aura and a full action budget to increase an allies Health by 1 through touch. This awakens unconscious Characters, and also removes any status effects. This effect cannot be used to increase Aura, and Characters cannot use this on themselves. Characters may attempt to perform this feat over distances, using a WIL+PER Aura check equal to the number of feet away their target is. Characters can also perform this feat rapidly, and must roll WIL+PER 20 for it to only consume 2 actins of the turn, and WIL+PER 25 for it to consume 1, and WIL+PER 30 to consume no time at all. The two modifiers of distance and time are added together if used at the same time.

Throwing a Weapon
Roll STR+AGI to attack a target at range. This attack is considered a melee attack, so STR is added to damage. Weapon is dropped at target’s feet. The target’s defenses increase by 5 for every 10 feet away they are from the character. Characters with the Reach modification double this range increment.

Targeted Strikes
Declare a specific body part of the intended target. the creatures defenses are increased by the selected amount. Missing this threshold results in a miss, even if the strike would hit the target’s standard defense. Successfully hitting this threshold results in a status effect on target depending on selected body part. Base damage and damage from RoC are applied, but passive bonus damage from bypassing defense is not.

Status Effects
Status effects are anything that hinders the target in some way beyond damage. Most Status effects are applied by targeting an enemies weak points, or through the use of Dust.

When Characters are affected by Status effects, the effect lasts a number of turns equal to the amount of damage received from the hazard or attack that caused the status effect. Any status effects applied without a direct damaging effect last 1 turn.

Blinded
As Crippled, but lasts 1 turn.

Cleaved
Decrease defenses by 5.

Confused
Cannot use a single, active special ability for 1 turn.

Crippled
Decrease Attacks by 5/1

Frozen
Cannot make any movement for 1 turn. Can still attack.

Helpless
Cannot make any actions at all, subject to Execution. Unconscious characters are Helpless.

Ignited
As Cleaved, but lasts 1 turn.

Stunned
As Helpless, but lasts 1 turn.

Staggered
Lose 1 action next turn.