Combat¶
Phoenix Sagas resolves a fight one committed action at a time. Training and equipment shape the odds, Fortune supplies uncertainty, and the margin of a successful strike determines whether it merely grazes or becomes a serious wound.
KILL <creature> make a normal attack
AMBUSH <creature> spring an attack from hiding
STANCE <name> choose how much you commit to attack or protection
RECOVERY show when you can act again
TECHNIQUE list the maneuvers your training has opened
Player-versus-player attacks occur only inside a consensual duel.
The resolution check¶
Score = Fortune + Attack − Guard + Matchup
A physical strike lands when Score is greater than 90. A score of 90 misses.
Attack is the force and precision behind the strike. Guard combines movement, shield work, parrying, armor, and situational protection. Matchup is the weapon's fit against the armor it meets: a mace retains authority against plate, a dagger wants soft targets, and fired missiles cannot be parried.
Fortune begins as a roll from 1 to 100. Results from 98–100 surge upward with another roll; results from 1–3 surge downward. Surges can chain. This produces rare reversals without making the ordinary exchange wildly unpredictable.
The full combat readout names every term:
[ Attack 61 - Guard 38 + Matchup 10 + Fortune 47 = Score +80 ... MISS ]
Use SET COMBATMATH BRIEF to keep only the resolved score. SET COMBATMATH FULL
restores the complete line.
Attack and Guard¶
A player's Attack comes from the trained weapon discipline, the appropriate statistic, Martial Tactics, the weapon's virtue, stance, posture, and temporary effects. Melee and hurled weapons use Might; bows and crossbows use Finesse.
Guard has three active parts:
- Evade uses Evasion and Grace, then accounts for armor, shield size, and carried load.
- Block requires a shield in hand and uses Shield Training plus the shield's size and quality.
- Parry requires a weapon in hand and enough training to control it. Fired arrows and bolts bypass parry entirely.
Level contributes a modest defensive floor, but training remains the larger lever. A hidden attacker halves all three active defenses for that opening. A stunned defender cannot evade or parry and receives only part of their block.
Statistics use Phoenix's own banded bonus curve, centered on 50. Values near the center move gently, the middle range accelerates, and exceptional values earn a steeper tail. The raw statistic is never inserted directly into combat.
The five stances¶
Stance is a five-step commitment wheel. READY is the default.
| Stance | Attack factor | Guard factor | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
ASSAULT |
1.05 | 0.72 | Maximum pressure, little protection |
PRESS |
0.93 | 0.88 | Aggressive but recoverable |
READY |
0.82 | 1.00 | Balanced field posture |
BRACE |
0.68 | 1.11 | Yield ground and meet the blow |
SHELTER |
0.52 | 1.28 | Survival first |
Deeper protective stances also strengthen a trained weapon's parry. Changing stance is combat movement: it does not create new recovery of its own, but it cannot be done while recovery is already active. Choose the commitment you intend to hold through the exchange, then change it once you are free to act again.
Posture and visibility¶
Standing is the fighting posture. Kneeling, sitting, and lying prone improve natural rest but impose progressively worse Attack penalties; every non-standing posture also loses 50 Guard, and prone characters cannot parry.
Darkness, fog, heavy snow, and other authored conditions can make a defender harder to locate. These modifiers apply to creatures and players alike. A badly hurt attacker also loses Attack at the 75%, 50%, and 25% health marks. Pressing an injured foe is useful; trying to fight through your own collapse is not.
Margin, grazes, and wounds¶
Margin is Score − 90.
- Margin 1–10 is a graze. It deals only its margin in damage and cannot cause a critical.
- At margin 11+, weapon damage, Might where appropriate, armor reduction, and critical location all matter.
- Larger margins make deeper critical grades more likely.
Criticals use six grades, not a ten-step ladder. Baseline grade begins at margin 14 and rises once per 18 additional margin. A small Fortune adjustment, the location, armor padding, and special attack bonuses may move it one or more grades.
| Grade | Typical consequence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Extra localized damage |
| 2 | A wound that may bleed |
| 3–4 | Serious bleeding and possible stun |
| 5 | Devastating trauma |
| 6 | Maximum trauma; a vital hit can be fatal |
The weighted location table favors torso and limbs; eyes and neck are rare. A successful aimed ambush can choose a location instead of rolling one. Armor reduces incoming grade as well as ordinary damage, which is why heavy protection remains valuable even when it slows footwork.
See Wounds & Health for bleeding, scars, remedies, and Empath care.
Recovery¶
An action announces a recovery deadline immediately, whether it succeeds or fails. Ordinary armed attacks begin around five seconds, fists around three, thrown weapons around four, and crossbows around seven because the spanning work is folded into the shot.
Training below roughly twice your level can lengthen an armed attack by up to 50%.
Armor, encumbrance, quick-strike effects, and particular abilities can change the final
time. RECOVERY shows what remains; the browser client displays the same deadline as a
draining bar.
Techniques¶
TECHNIQUE lists stamina-fueled maneuvers opened by Martial Tactics ranks. The common
ladder includes Feint, Trip, Hamstring, Dirtkick, Tackle, Shield Bash, Headbutt, Haymaker,
Bull Rush, Subdue, Sweep, Surge, War Cry, Berserk, and Coup de Grace.
The weapon-removal technique is STRIP <foe>. Trap work is deliberately separate:
use SURVEY <box> and then DEFUSE <box>.
Technique contests use training, physical readiness, stance, posture, and Fortune. A stunned or prone opponent is easier to control; a deep failure can turn the attempt back on its user. Exhausting Stamina causes overexertion, so a maneuver is a commitment rather than a free extra button.