Heroes of Steel Combat Guide

The combat guide details the different statistics and dice rolls that are used in the tactic's RPG.

Attack or Defense Roll

When attempting to hit an opponent, the attacker rolls a number of dice depending on his combination of skills, abilities, buffs, equipment, and talent used. The defender does the same.

To actually hit, an attacker's total of successful "hit" dice rolls has to be higher than the defenders successful "defense" dice rolls. Each die rolls against a specific number depending on the type of die to determine whether it is successful. The aggressor win ties in this contest.

A Strong die must roll 6 or more on a D10. A Standard die must roll an 8 or more on a D10. What determines whether a die is Strong or Standard depends on what contributed it to the the attackers or defenders dice pool.

Strong Dice for Attacker
- Accuracy from Empowered Attacks (Savage Sweep) or Attack Spells (Firebolt)
- Accuracy from their weapon

Standard Dice for Attacker
- Attribute
- Skill
- All accuracy bonuses from gear/buffs (note that +Accuracy bonuses affect both Ranged & Melee accuracy, where +Melee Accuracy bonuses, for example, only affect melee)

Strong Dice for Defender
- (Melee) Parry from Weapon & Shield
- (Melee) Any Parry bonuses from gear/buffs
- (Ranged/Magic) Evasion from Armor
- (Ranged/Magic) Any Dodge bonuses from gear /buffs

Standard Dice for Defender
- (Melee) Dodge including any Dodge bonuses from gear / buffs
- (Melee) Skill with primary melee weapon
- (Ranged/Magic) Dodge (unmodified combat stat)
- (Ranged) Dexterity
- (Magic) Knowledge

An example. An attacker with 5 strength, using a 3 accuracy strength-based weapon that he has 4 skill with attacks someone. The defender has a 5 parry weapon, that they have 3 skill with along with 5 dodge.

The attacker rolls 9 standard dice, and 3 strong dice.
The defender rolls 8 standard dice, and 5 strong dice.

The attacker's dice rolls come up as 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 for the standard. The strong come up as 6, 8 and 9. The total amount of successful rolls are therefore 3 from the standard, and 3 from the strong.

The defender's dice rolls come up as 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 8, 9, 10 for the standard. The strong come up as 1, 2, 2, 6, and 7. The total amount of successful rolls are therefore 3 from the standard, and 2 from the strong.

Totaling the pools, comes up with 6 successes for the attacker and only 5 for the defender. Therefore in this instance, the attacker successfully hits the defender. Note that if the defender had scored 6 successes, the attacker win ties.

Damage Roll

If a target is hit, damage and soak is then worked out. Damage is calculated from the weapon and/or attack talent used, before adding in bonuses from buffs/talents/gear. There are seven types of damage - Physical, Fire, Lightning, Ice, Earth, Holy, and Death. Each type of damage is rolled individually and then reduced by the appropriate soak per the defender's stats.

A weapon/attack talent's damage is easiest explained using an example. A sword that does 10-21 damage would cause 9+D12 damage. The weapon has a base damage of 9 and a damage die of 12. The damage dice (having sides of 1 to 12) is rolled and added to the weapon's base damage, meaning the minimum damage it could cause is is 10, while it could do a maximum of 21 damage. It is important to note, in regards to Attack Spell Talents (For example, Karjtan's Firebolt) that the base damage is always Physical, and it is only the damage die of the Talent that caused magical damage (such as Fire Damage).

For example, Karjtan has a Firebolt at rank 6. Whenever he hits his opponent, he will cause 50 Physical Damage before soak and an additional D50 Fire Damage.

Strength-Based Weapons

Weapons that rely on Strength gain additional bonuses to Damage. When using a Strength-based weapon, when your damage dice is rolled the minimum roll is dictated by your Strength attribute. For 1-H Strength-based weapons (1-H Swords, Hammers, Spears) the minimum roll is 100% of your Strength. For 2-H weapons (Swords, Hammers, Spears) the minimum roll is 150% of your Strength. The bonuses for Strength-based weapons are not applied you are dual wielding, regardless of what weapon is in your primary hand.

As an example, you are wielding a 1-H Spear that does 20-40 Damage. This weapon actually does 19+D21 Damage. You have 10 Strength. When the D21 is rolled, if it rolls less than a 10, the roll is modified to be a 10. If it rolls a 15, the roll stays a 15.

Bonuses to Damage

Additional damage can be caused by different buffs, Empowered Attacks, and gear. Damage buffs of any sort do NOT increase the base damage of an attack, instead they are summed and added to the damage die of the attack. This increases the dice size, so a D11 damage die that gains +8 Dmg becomes a D19.

Following on from the equation supplied in the Damage section, adding a Bonus of the same type can therefore be expressed as X+(Y-X+C)D where C is the total value of all the Bonuses to Damage of the same damage type.

An example, as the Attacker has managed to hit with his sword it comes time to roll for damage. He is using a Baronblade that does 35-71 damage, has Berserk Rage 4 active on him for an extra +11 Damage, along with Burning Blades 7 for +22 Fire Damage.

The damage from the Baronblade is worked out as 36+D35, but with the +11 Damage from Berserk Rage becomes 36+D46. Due to Burning Blades causing Fire Damage, the attacker also gains a separate D22 Fire damage. The different damage pools may not seem relevant yet, but will be when looking at soak.

In our example, the final result before soak from the attack ended up being 35+32 from the Baronblade for 68 physical damage, which includes the bonus from Berserk Rage. Burning Blades rolls its D22 for Fire damage and causes 20 Fire Damage.

Soak

If an attacker successfully hits, the defender is then given a chance to reduce the actual damage caused. Each type of damage that the attack causes is given an individual soak roll.

If the attack is physical in nature, it is reduced by both Armor and Toughness.

If the attack is Magical or Elemental in nature, it is reduced by both Resistance and the specific Magical or Elemental Resistance (Fire, Lightning, Ice, Earth, Holy, Death).

For each soak stat, the amount of damage "soaked" is equal to (Stat/2) + D(Stat/2). Fractions in this case, are rounded up to a whole number.

To follow the example from earlier, with the Attacker managing to cause 68 Physical damage and 20 Fire damage. The Defender has 20 Armor, 10 Toughness, 5 Resistance, and +4 Fire Resistance. The Physical damage is first reduced by (20/2)+D(20/2) for the Armor. It is then reduced by (10/2)+D(10/2) for the Toughness. In this example, the results of the two die end up being 5 for Armor and 2 for Toughness meaning a total of 15+7=22 Physical damage is stopped leaving 48 to get through.

The Fire damage is then reduced by (5/2)+D(5/2) from Resistance. The target also has +4 Fire Res, so an additional (4/2)+D(4/2) is soaked. In this case, the numbers round up meaning (3+D3)+(2+D2) damage is soaked, with the die coming up 1 and 2. Therefore, a total of 8 Fire damage is stopped leaving 12 to get through.
In the end, the Attacker causes a total of 50 Physical damage and 12 Fire damage for a total of 62 HP loss.

Weak vs. Magic
If a target is "Weak vs (Magical Damage)" this effectively indicates that they have negative magical resistance against this element or form of magic (Fire, Ice, Holy, etc). Being Weak vs (Magical Damage) is a natural occurring effect on many enemies who have an elemental or magical vulnerability, and can be caused by curses like Fyona's Holy Strickening. When a creature is Weak vs. (Magical Damage), any damage of that type is doubled in value, up to the amount by which the enemy has negative resistance.

As an example, a Skeletal Warrior is "Weak vs Holy". In this case, the weakness is a total of -22 Holy Resistance. If the Skeletal Warrior is dealt 10 Holy Dmg, that damage will be doubled to 20 and then soaked by the creature's Resistance. If the creature was dealt 22 Holy Dmg, it would double to 44 Holy Dmg and then be soaked by the creature's Resistance. If the creature was dealt 30 Holy Damage, only 22 points would be doubled, for a total of 52 Holy Dmg before the creature's resistance soaks.

Extra Notes

Area of Effect Curses & Attacks
Area of Attack spells are targeted on a single enemy (the "initial target") and may hit nearby targets as well. The Area of Effect is displayed in a Talent's list, shown as a "cross", a "9 box", a "flower" or a "lance" as seen in Vincent and Selen's AoE attacks. These patterns are overlaid on the tile map with the center being the initial target. Any additional enemy who is in the overlay will be targeted by the attack, spell or curse.

All AoE Curses and Attacks must be targeted on a real enemy, the floor is not a valid target.

In the case of an AoE Curse, all targets are automatically hit. The maximum number of targets is set by your hero's skill that backs the Talent. For exmaple, Kjartan's Choking Ash is backed by Conjuring. While the Talent may provide a "9 box" AOE, if he only has 4 Conjuring, he maxes at hitting 4 targets regardless of how many enemies are in the overlay. The initial target is always hit.

In the case of an AoE Attack or AoE Attack Spell, the first requirement is to hit the initial target. Per the rules above, an Attack and Defense rolls are made for the attack against the initial target. If this initial attack misses, then the entire AoE Attack or Attack Spell is canceled and ends at this point. However, if the initial target is hit, the overlay is put over the tile map and additional targets are selected. For any selected target, an additional Attack and Defense rolls are made (new rolls, not using the original roll). Damage is rolled for each individual target that is hit by the AoE attack.


Dual Wielding
Some characters can wield two blades at a time (Vraes, Selen, Kincaid). When you equip two blades the following combat rules are used:

• The AP cost of attacking is the sum of the two weapons. For example, Dual Wielding a 1 AP and a 2 AP blade = 3 AP cost to attack.
  
• The damage of the attack is the sum of the two weapons. Foe example, Dual Wielding a 10-30 damage blade and a 20-30 damage blade results in a 30-60 damage roll if the attack hits.
  
• Only one attack roll is made for the dual attack. The weapon accuracy which is used as the strong dice for the attack is taken from the higher of the two blades. The attribute that is used (Strength or Dexterity) for the attack is the attribute used by the weapon in the primary equipment slot. Therefore, either the entire attack hits or the entire attack misses.
  
• When defending, the weapon parry - which is used for strong melee defense - is taken from the higher of the two blades.
  
• If an attack is made with only enough AP to use the primary weapon, then this attack is resolved as if the character was wielding only the primary weapon. In this case, all Dual Wielding rules are ignored, but the attacko only costs the AP of the primary weapon.

Over-Cursing Dice and Dice Pools
All dice pools are individual and unlinked. Cursing a pool, such as Parry, until it has a negative number of dice always results in zero successes, but has no effect on other dice pools. Therefore, it is possible to "over Curse" an enemy, where you are expending spirit points on Cursing and gaining no benefit - for example, if you stacked -Dodge curses on a Ratkin until it had -5 Dodge, you'd see as much benefit as you would if you'd left it at 0 Dodge.

In summary, a Dice and a Dice Pool can never roll negative. If you have a -5 Dice Pool, you get 0 successes. If you have a -10 sided die, you get 0.

Over-Cursing Armor and Resistance
Armor and Resistance, can be over-Cursed and driven below 0 as an effective tactic. If Armor and Resistance are cursed below 0, then corresponding types of Damage will cause more than their possible Base + Dice Damage. However, the both negative Armor and negative Resistance values are fed into the standard soaking equation, which takes half the value of the Armor / Resistance and allocates it as a dice, and half the value of the Armor / Resistance and applies it as a base reduction to the Damage. In the case of negative Armor / Resistance, this creates a negative dice (where -4 Armor becomes a -2 die) which rolls 0 and a negative base reduction (where -4 Armor becomes -2 reduction) which causes more Damage.

Therefore, a final Curse of -4 Armor, if you rolled 12 Damage, your target would take 14 in total (-2 + -2D which rolls 0). The game simplifies this math by displaying -2 Armor in this case, which basically means +2 Damage.

[Trese Brothers]

Yes @Lord_Amber_1985 - you can go OP on strength and stop getting bonuses. So, high STR characters are better suited for weapons like Hammers that have wider open damage ranges that you can "close" by having high STR. Spears, with their narrower range of damage, do not benefit as much from high STR in some case (all depending on the exact numbers and your STR value, etc).

[Lord_Amber_1985]

Is it possible to have "too much strength" for a weapon? I.E. if you had a strength weapon that did 11-19 damage (10+d9), and had 10 strength, would it do 20 damage or 19? Does the max damage serve as a cap?

[Trese Brothers]

Yes

[Iron_Fist]

does added damage from equipment add to spells?

[Dr. Spendlove]

I think your comments on Strong and Standard dice are off. It should be 7 or higher and 9 or higher. That is, unless HoS is different than both TBF and ST:F.

[Trese Brothers]

@celo - ranged accuracy is for ranged attacks. Melee accuracy is for melee attacks. If the item or weapon says +10 Accuracy, then it does BOTH.

Dodge is best against ranged attacks but has some value against melee.
Parry is only for melee.

[Celo]

I am not really getting it. So please just tell me- I have a bow-based character, qhat kind of ring should it wear preferably + accuracy 10 or + range accuracy 5 ? The same for the tank - should I go + 5 dodge or + 10 defense?

[Trese Brothers]

@horth - thank you for the suggestion, used it to improve the guide.

[Horth]

To be clearer, I would rewrite one part of this:

Original:

An example. An attacker with 3 strength, using a 3 accuracy strength-based weapon that he has 3 skill with attacks someone. The defender has a 5 parry weapon, that they have 3 skill with along with 5 dodge.

The attacker rolls 6 standard dice, and 3 strong dice.
The defender rolls 8 standard dice, and 5 strong dice.

New Version - easier to see there the numbers come from when they are not the same:

An example. An attacker with 5 strength, using a 3 accuracy strength-based weapon that he has 4 skill with attacks someone. The defender has a 5 parry weapon, that they have 3 skill with along with 5 dodge.

The attacker rolls 9 standard dice, and 3 strong dice.
The defender rolls 8 standard dice, and 5 strong dice.

- clearly show that the Attack 9 Std is from Str + Skill, while the 3 Strong if from Wpn Accuracy.

[Trese Brothers]

@shadowcatx - glad it helped! I hope you'll leave a review :D