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When an encounter (with another living thing; not an object) takes place, the following sequence of events will occur:

01. All sides will check for surprise, as needed
02. The distance between the two (or more) parties will be determined (DM)
03. The reactions of the other party or parties will be determined (DM)
04. The intended actions of the opponents will be determined (DM)
05. Characters declare their intended actions
06. Initiative is rolled
07. Resolve declared actions
08. Repeat steps 02 through 07, as needed.

Surprise
This game will borrow from the rules on surprise from 2E ruleset (2E PHB, pages 147-148).

Depending upon the situation, a surprise check may be requested for:
1. The entire party
2. A specific group of players
3. Each player individually

Surprise will be determined by rolling 1d10 with a result of 1, 2, or 3 indicating that the party/group/individual is potentially surprised. These results may be subject to modifiers and the DM will report the results of the surprise roll(s) after all modifiers have been applied.

Surprising Party
The surprising group receives one round of attacks with melee, missile, or magical items. There is not enough time during a surprise 'round' to prepare and cast spells.

Surprised Party
Characters or monsters that are surprised are caught off guard and thus lose all armor class reaction bonuses for high Dexterity during that instant of surprise.


Notes:
1. Surprise can also be used to avoid an encounter. Unsurprised characters can attempt to flee from a surprised group before the other group reacts.
2. If both groups manage to surprise each other, the effects of surprise are cancelled.


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Initiative
This game will borrow from the rules on initiative from 2E ruleset (2E PHB, pages 124-126).

There will be two methods of determining initiative in this game:
1. Group (with Individual modifiers)
2. Individual (with Individual modifiers)

The DM will indicate at the beginning of each round which method is to be used (so, yes, the determination method may change from round-to-round).

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In either method, actions will be resolved with the lowest modified initiative result acting first (tie results occur simultaneously)!

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Group Initiative
A single d10 initiative die rolled for each group involved in the combat to establish a 'baseline' for that group. Each individual within that group will apply their own individual modifiers to determine the order in which their individual actions will take place.

Individual Initiative
Each individual involved involved in the conflict will generate their own d10 initiative roll. Just as in the 'Group Initiative' method above, each individual will apply their individual modifiers to their own initiative roll to determine the order in which their actions will take place.

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Initiative Modifiers
While there are other modifiers that will be in play, the two primary modifiers that players need to be aware of are the following:
1. Attacking With Weapon = Weapon Speed
2. Casting a Spell = Casting Time

If attempting any situation not listed above, the DM will advise the player what their initiative modifier will be for that action.

Attack Rolls
This game will be using the Calculated THAC0 table from 2E in combat situations. The progression is smoother and more realistic than the Attach Charts presented in the 1E DMG, pages 74-75. In fact, if the following 'Special Note Regarding Fighters' Progression' rules from the 1E DMG are applied, the Attack Charts (1E) and THAC0 progression charts (2E) are nearly identical.

1E DMG, page 74 wrote:Special Note Regarding Fighters' Progression: This table is designed to allow fighters to advance by 5% per level of experience attained, rather than 10% every 2 levels, if you believe that such will be helpful in your particular campaign. If you opt for a per level advancement in combat ability, simply use the table but give a +1 "to hit" bonus to fighters who attain the second level of experience shown in each group of 2 levels, i.e. 1-2, 3-4, etc. You may, of course, elect not to allow per level combat advancement.

In any system, if the final, modified die roll on 1d20 is equal to or greater than the number needed to hit the target, the attack succeeds. If the roll is lower than that needed, the attack fails.

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Damage Rolls
There will be known combat modifiers (e.g. Strength bonuses, weapon bonuses, etc...), but there may also be unknown modifiers applied by the DM before determining whether or not a posted attack roll actually hits. For this reason, always post the results of a damage roll any time you make an attack roll (unless you roll a natural '1' which will always miss).

Note: These attack and damage rolls may be combined, see: 'Die-roll macro syntax and rules' For example: ---

Weapon Damage
The 'Damage vs. Opponent' (1E PHB, page 37) differences based upon the size of the opponent has been eliminated. The damge listed for each weapon, found in the '08. Equipment' thread, will be the same damage amount against all creatures regardless of their size.

The following guidelines should be noted when it comes to handling multiple attacks in a given round:

* If the 'multiple' attacks are due to different attack forms (e.g. claws and bite, or fighting with two weapons), the attacks occur at the same time in the appropriate modified initiative order.

* When the 'multiple' attacks are coming from the same weapon (e.g. skill with a weapon, or character level), the first attack will occur in the appropriate modified initiative order and the second attack will take place after all other actions have taken place in that round. If more than one combatant has multiple attacks in a given round, the second (and subsequent) attacks will also be resolved in the modified initiative order.

Example: A Fighter with two attacks per round is battling a monster with a single attack per round. The first attack by the Fighter will take place according to the rolled and modified initiative order; if the Fighter won initiative, they would attack first, then the monster, then the Fighter again. If the Fighter lost initiative, the monster would attack first, then the Fighter would get both of their attacks.

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This subject was previously discussed in the 'Attack Sequencing vs. Round Count' thread; highlighted by Alethan's illustration of a potential solution, here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=612#p12464, but also quoted below:

Alethan wrote:Get rid of the concept of "every other round is the additional attack". You don't get 3 attacks every 2 rounds no matter what weapon you have in your hands at the time.

Instead, the first round you attack with a weapon is the lower number of your attack rate. If you continue attacking with that weapon in the consecutive round, then you get your bonus attack. Explain the additional attack by saying the momentum of the initial round helps you to make the additional attack.

So Tim and Steve enter combat with a pair of orcs. Both have a 3/2 attack rate with their long swords.
Round one: They both attack one time. Tim lands a lucky blow and drops his orc. But he sees seven more orcs charging at them from 180 yards away. They'll be here in two rounds.
Round two: Steve continues his attack and gets two attacks this round. Tim stops to dig into his pack for a potion of giant strength.
Round three: Steve has some pretty bad luck and is still fighting his orc. He gets one attack this round. Tim finally finds his potion and drinks it. The drums beat on. They are coming...
Round four: Steve gets two attacks this round again. He finally connects with his second hit and drops the orc. he looks up to see seven more surrounding them. Tim gets to attack, as well, but since this attack isn't a consecutive round after his first one, he starts over with one attack.
Round five: Steve gets one attack and Tim gets two attacks.

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They key thing to take from these discussions is, at least in this game, logic will dictate if, how and/or when multuple attacks will take place.

These rules have also been included as part of the published rules for the Fighter and Ranger classes (the only two classes able to take advantage of it), but will be reposted here as well:

Weapon Specialization

1E UA, page 18 wrote:Only members of the fighter class and the ranger sub-class can make use of weapon specialization.

This rule will be enforced. The Cavalier, Paladin and Barbarian classes are not eligible to specialize.

1E UA, page 18 wrote:If weapon specialization is to be practiced by the fighter or ranger, that decision must be made when the character is initially created.

The above is true, with the following exceptions:
1. A character does not begin the game specialized in a weapon (with one exception, see step 7).
2. The players must indicate their intent to specialize.
3. The character will fill all its initial weapon proficiencies as normal (with one exception, see step 6).
4. If a character wishes to specialize, that player must indicate which of their selected starting weapons will be their intended weapon.
5. The specialization will take place once the character qualifies for a new weapon (4th level), and the process of specialization will absorb that new weapon proficiency (e.g. no new weapon will actually be added).
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6. If the intended weapons is of the ranged variety, it will still cost three total slots in order to achieve this. In this situation, a character must leave one of their initial slots left open. This vacated slot and the newly gained proficiency slot gained once reaching 4th level will both be used in order to become specialized in the intended ranged weapon.
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7. A single-class Fighter (not Ranger) of any race can begin specialized in the weapon of their choosing; using two or three (for a ranged weapon) of their initial weapon proficiency slots on their intended weapon.

1E UA, page 18 wrote:Double specialization is taken instead of a proficiency “slot” whenever the character qualifies for a new weapon, and can only be taken in the weapon type that the character is already specialized in.

Double specialization is available and will be played by the book. A specialized character must elect to become double specialized once they gain a new weapon proficiency slot (7th level).
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Specializing in more than a single weapon is not possible.

Attacking with two weapons will be allowed subject to the following conditions and rules:
1. No shield can be used.
2. The primary weapon can be any single-handed weapon the character is proficient with.
3. The secondary weapon must be both smaller in size and weigh less than the character's primary weapon.
4. A dagger can always be used as a secondary weapon, even if the primary weapon is also a dagger.
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5. Attacks made with the primary weapon suffer a -2 penalty to hit
6. Attacks made with the secondary weapon will suffer a -4 penalty to hit.
7. The character's Reaction Adjustment for a high Dexterity score modifies this penalty, but can never raise a penalty above zero (0).
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The following distinction is also important to note:

2E PHB, page 127 wrote:The use of two weapons enables the character to make one additional attack each combat round, with the second weapon. The character gains only one additional attack each round, regardless of the number of attacks he may normally be allowed. Thus, a warrior able to attack 3/2 (once in the first round and twice in the second) can attack 5/2 (twice in the first round and three times in the second).

Range Modifiers ---
Missile Weapon Ranges ---

Firing into Melee
The 2E rules regarding ranged attacks will be used in this game.

2E PHB, page 132 wrote:When missiles are fired into a melee, the DM counts the number of figures in the immediate area of the intended target. Each Medium (M) figure counts as 1. Small (S) figures count as 1/2, Large (L) as 2, Huge (H) as 4, and Gargantuan (G) as 6. The total value is compared to the value of each character or creature in the target melee. Using this ratio, the DM rolls a die to determine who (or what) will be the target of the shot.

Unlike the ranged rules presented in OSRIC, I agree that there should be adjustments based upon the size of the creatures involved in the melee being fired into. A halfling character with a sling, firing into a melee consisting of four other halfling characters battling a giant, is most likely going to hit the giant.

Note that critical hits and misses apply to both player characters and monsters alike.

Natural 20
On a roll of a natural 20, the attack will do maximum damage for the weapon (not including any strength bonuses) and enable the character a second attack roll. If this second attack roll results in a hit, the already maximum damage will be multiplied by 1.5 (maximum damage + 0.5 maximum damage) with any strength bonus being applied after-the-fact. If this additional roll is a second natural 20, the already maximum damaged is doubled (maximum damage * 2), again with any strength bonus being applied after-the-fact.

Unmodified Experience Point Bonuses
Natural 20 = 20xp (first application: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=1197&p=31890#p31880)
Double 20 = 400xp (first application: viewtopic.php?p=34271#p34322)

Natural 1
Original Rule:
On a roll of a natural 1, some unfortunate event happens to the character who rolled it which will result in the loss of the next round's attack a more dramatic automatic miss (the DM will decide the exact event when a monster fumbles; the player can elaborate on what happens when their character fumbles). As with a natural 20, a second attack roll is required when a natural 1 is rolled. If this second attack roll is also a miss, there is a 50% chance of the weapon breaking (01-50 = break, 51-00 = safe). For each magical bonus the weapon may possess, this percentage of breaking is reduced by 10%. If this second attack roll is also a natural 1, the chance of the of the weapon breaking is 100% (although, magical weapons are still entitled to the cumulative 10% breakage reduction per magical plus).

Update: 10/17/2013
On a roll of a natural 1, a second attack roll must be made. If this second attack roll is also a 1 or lower (with any negative adjustments), the weapon being used must make a successful saving throw (base save = 10 for all weapons) or become damaged. Any pluses a magical weapon might have are applied as bonuses towards this saving throw.

* A successful saving throw results in simply a dramatic miss.
* A failed saving throw, the weapon becomes damaged (see below).


Damaged Weapons
When a weapon becomes damaged, it suffers the following penalties:
-1 on all future attack rolls
-1 on all future damage rolls
+1 on all future critical miss saving throws (e.g. base save = 11)

Weapon damage can be a cumulative penalty, so future unsuccessful saving throws will stack the 1-point penalty:
* Failed critical miss save #2: -2 attack, -2 damage, +2 save (base save = 12)
* Failed critical miss save #3: -3 attack, -3 damage, +3 save (base save = 13)
* Etc...

Eventually, a weapon can be rendered virtually useless, though no weapon will ever do less than 1 point of damage on a successful hit.

Characters can use the 'Age' table (2E PHB, page 33) to randomly determine their starting age. The 'maximum' age for a character will be rolled and secretly recorded by the DM.

As there are no ability score adjustments for 'young' age, and it is impossible for a starting character to begin as 'middle aged,' there are no initial age-related ability score adjustments.

The cost to pay for training upon level advancement will be calculated as follows:

[Current Level] * [Class Cost] * [1d4] For example, a 1st-level Fighter earns enough experience points to reach 2nd-level. Their training costs would be as follows:

[Current Level] (1) * [Class Cost] (1,000) * [1d4] = (1) * (1,000) * (1d4)

When that same Fighter has earned enough experience points to qualify for 3rd-level, their training costs would now be:

[Current Level] (2) * [Class Cost] (1,000) * [1d4] = (2) * (1,000) * (1d4)


Notes:
1. Multi-class characters will need to train for each class they advance in.
2. While members of the Paladin class will still be required to adhere to the following restrictions, "keeping only sufficient treasures to support themselves" is definitely extended to include their projected costs to train.

1E PHB, page 24 wrote: 2. They will never retain wealth, keeping only sufficient treasures to support themselves in a modest manner, pay henchmen, men-at-arms, and servitors, and to construct or maintain a small castle. (Your DM will give details of this as necessary.) Excess is given away, as is the tithe (see 3. below).
3. An immediate tithe (10%) of all income - be it treasure, wages, or whatever - must be given to whatever charitable religious institution (not a clerical player character) of lawful good alignment the paladin selects.

Purple Worm: Player's Handbook
- Chapter 6: Money and Equipment
-- Equipment Descriptions
--- Getting Into and Out of Armor

Getting Into and Out of Armor
There are times when it is important to know how quickly a character can get into or out of his armor. Accidents and unforeseen events happen all the time. The party is attacked at night. Those sleeping around the campfire may want to don their armor before rushing into battle. A character slips and falls into the river where his heavy armor pulls him down like a stone. He greatly desires to get it off before he drowns. Just how long does it take him?

The time required to don armor depends on its make. Those armors that are a single piece--leather tunics, robes, chain mail--take one round (two for metal items) to don with slight assistance. Without aid, the time is doubled. Armor that is made of separate pieces require 1d6 + 4 rounds, again with assistance. Without help, the time required is tripled. In all cases, the times given assume that the proper undergarments and padding are also worn.

Sometimes characters need to get into armor in a hurry and thus, they dress hastily. This assumes that some buckles aren't fastened, seatings adjusted, etc. Single suits can be hastily donned in one round at the cost of 1 worse AC (though never worse than 8). Thus, a fighter could hastily pull on his brigandine jack (AC 6) and charge into a fray with an AC of 7. Hastily donning piece armor (plate mail for example) improves the character's AC by 1 (from a base of 10) for every round spent dressing. A fighter could choose to spend three rounds fitting on parts of his plate mail, giving him an AC of 7, before going into battle.

Removing armor is a much quicker matter. Most can be shed in a single round. Piece armor (particularly full plate) requires 1d4 + 1 rounds. However, if the character is willing to cut straps and bend pins, such armors can be removed in half the time (roll 1d4 + 1, divide by 2, then round fractions up).

Lots of questions always arise on these topics, so I'm placing all this info here in one topic, to maybe help people understand how all these things can work in the game. This is mostly based on how the rules function in the Rules Cyclopedia, with lots of added fluff to explain why they work that way.




Spellcasting 101

In order to harness the magical forces of the cosmos, a magic-user must learn to imprint the magical power of a spell into his mind. This is usually referred to as "memorization," but it is actually more than simply remembering words and hand gestures to repeat later on, although that is part of what must be memorized. The more important part of memorizing a spell is actually imprinting and storing the required magical energy in your mind. This is accomplished through study of one's spellbook.

So, before a magic-user can learn to actually cast a spell, he must learn to write a spell in his spellbook, in a form that is specifically in tune with his own magical energies. Each person's magical energies, astrological signs, and mental workings are unique. No spellcaster can memorize a spell that is written by someone else, because it won't be tuned for his own magical energy. In order for a magic-user to memorize any spell, that spell must be scribed with the appropriate glyphs and symbols in the specific order to be compatible with that mage's astrological signs, star charts, numerological constants, and personal energies. This process is necessarily a bit time-consuming, because the mage must consult his stars and astrological charts, plus do a bit of experimentation with rare materials to observe the reactions to his personal energies in order to find the proper glyphs to inscribe into his spellbook.

Yes, this process is indeed a bit complex, but it is the first thing all magic-users must learn in their quest to master magic, since, as mentioned, no mage can memorize spells using another mage's spellbook. In fact, because each spell is written to be specific to a certain mage, any other mage viewing that written spell will find it to be completely incomprehensible, though use of a Read Magic spell will allow comprehension of what the written spell actually does, though this still does not allow another mage to imprint the incompatible spell formulas into his own mind.

Each mage must write his own version of a spell into a spellbook in order to enable him to cast it.

So what exactly is a spellbook then? Contrary a common misconception, spellbooks are not actually magical in themselves -- they are not magicaly enchanted items. You may think of them as "instruction manuals" that each mage must study in order to memorize a spell, made from standard non-magical (but generally high-quality) parchment and ink, like any other book. Each spell in a spellbook will generally take up a single page, because the magic-user must be able to see the entirety of the spell formulas when he is imprinting it into his mind. This is why spellbooks tend to be on the large size -- large books with large-enough pages to fully hold a single spell formula entirely and legibly.

A magic-user must stare at the magical symbols, runes, and glyphs on a page to force the magical energies they represent directly into his mind, along with noting the proper hand gestures and mystical words needed to release that energy from his mind. The magic-user must have a well-rested mind in order to receive a spell, and it requires somewhat intense concentration upon the formula written on the page, though slight interruptions in concentration will not ruin the process or memorization. To those readers not yet versed in this process, you might liken it to staring at a picture for an extended period of time until you can see that image even after you look away from the page and close your eyes... except that the properly-ordered glyphs and runes being imprinted into the mind of a spellcaster will actually semi-permanently imprint the power they contain into his mind, ready to be released at a later point. Not until the spell is fully imprinted in the mage's mind will the spell be ready to cast, and this takes some time -- around an hour. A spell simply cannot be prepared any faster than that, as it takes time to be firmly imprinted into the mage's mind and fully form the energies needed to cast it. As a magic-user becomes more capable of memorizing more numerous and more powerful spells, he will find, through experience, that he can still imprint even his maximum number of spells into his mind within an hour of study.

Let us digress a moment and touch upon how it is that a neophyte magic-user inscribes a spell formula into his spellbook. In order to develop a spell specifically in tune with his own magical energies, a magic-user can attempt to build the formula completely from scratch. Obviously this will require a lot of time, research, and costs (for rare components and reagents) in order to work out the unknown formula. For a simple spell, this process will require around a week to complete, and the mage can expect to spend around 1000 gold coins for the rare components expended in the process. Further, an untalented student might fail in his attempt, and have to start over in his research, though it would not take as long or cost as much in his second attempt, since we learn even through failure. The benefit of building your own spell from scratch is that you can not only build the formula for a common spell you have not yet mastered, but you can also create just about anything (within your power) that you can imagine, such as a brand new spell, never before seen.

However, if you are attempting to master a commonly known spell, you are better off obtaining a copy of that spell from another mage's spellbook. If you have a copy of another mage's complete spell to start your work from, this will save you time and costs when reworking the formula for your own use, since you don't have to begin completely from scratch. To transcribe a simple spell in this manner, you might expect to pay only 400 gold coins and spend a mere 4 days to work out the correct formula for yourself (though as a note, the process can be speeded up by spending more money on special components; conversely, the process can be accomplished more frugally if one takes more time and care with the use of their components -- for example, a magic-user might choose to spend 700 gold coins for extra components, intending to burn though the materials rapidly in order to complete his research in only 1 day, or he may be very careful with his components and calculations, taking a full 7 days in the process but only having to expend 100 gold coins on components). Additionally, your chance of success is improved by building upon the works of others. Though as previously noted, this will require the use of a Read Magic spell in order to comprehend the other mage's formula -- for this reason, Read Magic is almost invariably the first spell every magic-user learns (with the added benefit that mis-casting Read Magic by inexperienced students generally doesn't result in any major destruction or death).

Of course, once a magic-user has developed the formula he needs to cast a spell, he can easily make copies of that formula for himself in a backup spellbook, requiring only that care be taken to make the copy exact, with no typographical errors. Aside from some quality ink, parchment, and quills, it will generally only require about 2 hours of work to copy a single spell correctly.


So now, students, you understand the basics of spellcasting. It requires a specific magical formula worked out by a mage and written into his spellbook + the mind of that specific mage capable of absorbing that specific formula + an hour to imprint the magic power upon the mind + the releasing of that power through the proper gestures and words.

Of course, as is common knowledge, once the power is released by casting the spell, the imprinted power in your mind is obviously released in the process, so you won't be able to cast that spell again until you memorizes it once more to re-imprint that spell into your mind.

Understanding this process should also make it clear why a magic-user cannot cast spells directly from his spellbook -- it takes an hour for the magical "charge" to build up in the mind and be ready to use. Obviously, this can be inconvenient when a mage needs to cast a certain spell quickly, but he has not previously imprinted that spell into his mind.

For this reason and others, we come to the topic of magical spell scrolls.

What is a spell scroll? Basically speaking, it is a magically-enchanted vessel for spell energy, with included instructions for releasing that energy and thus allowing a magic-user to "cast the spell..." in a manner of speaking. This "casting" is not as involved as actually casting a spell from the mind, since activating a spell scroll only involves focusing on any targets or specific effects needed to control the magic, while reading the magical activation words from the parchment -- usually the same words as required for the original writer of the scroll to cast that same spell, since it is actually a stored version of his own spell. Since the magical words, glyphs, and runes on a spell scroll are written by another magic-user (in his own magical idiom), this will again require use of a Read Magic spell in order for another mage to properly comprehend them, but once so comprehended, a mage may use the spell scroll at any time in the future without further use of Read Magic.

Obviously, it is not a simple procedure to store spell energy within a scroll. Only upon reaching higher levels of ability will you be able to master the enchantment process. For now, it is sufficient to say that even the most simple of spells would require an expenditure of around 500 gold coins (for rare inks, parchment, and spell components, because when enchanting a scroll, mundane ink and parchment will simply not be able to store the spell energy), and a period of about a week in order to allow the scroll to fully absorb the enchantment. And even then, the process may fail (dependent on the skill of the mage), resulting in nothing but a worthless piece of paper.

However, one major benefit of spell scrolls (aside from having a portable, pre-charged spell ready to cast at any time), is that a magic-user can easily reverse-engineer any spell contained in a scroll, as long as he has appropriate skill to be able to cast the spell from his own mind.

Indeed, since the fully-developed magical energies -- the completed spell -- is stored within a scroll, a magic-user, rather than releasing the spell from the scroll to generate the usual spell instantly, can instead release the energy slowly into his own mind so that he can fully comprehend it, and, aided by the scroll creator's own magical phrasing, the mage will be able to easily know which glyphs, runes, and mystical symbols (and in what order) are needed for him to be able to imprint the spell into his own mind.

Since the spell energy is released into the magic-user's mind for analysis (it will not be in a proper form for him to store in his mind), this will drain the magical charge from the scroll just as if it had been cast. But during this process the mage can easily transcribe the spell formula into his own spellbook in the appropriate format for him to later memorize. This process is fairly quick, requiring only that the same care be taken as when making a direct copy of a spellbook page -- so generally around 2 hours should be needed.



I believe we have covered all the basic information you need in order to get started. Please make sure your tuition is paid in full. You may begin research right away on the Read Magic spell. The library and laboratory will be at your disposal.

Once you have mastered Read Magic, you will then be able to use it to study other spell transcriptions made by previous students to add to your spellbooks. If you show aptitude, you may be awarded some scrolls in order to speed up your acquisition of spell knowledge.


What's that, Potter? ... NO, you do not get a magic wand.... You couldn't even use it yet -- not until you master controlling magical forces in your mind through spellcasting. What? NO! Wands are NOT required for casting spells! How stupid would that be? All someone would have to do is take away your wand and you'd be completely helpless.... Plus, how would you even enchant a wand if you don't already have one, and you couldn't cast spells without one? Such nonsense. Just go learn how to do your spell research, and then no matter what happens, you will always be able to rebuild a spellbook from scratch so that you can cast spells.


Any further questions?