Draft:Monster attacks

Omega 0.90.4

Monster attacks include melee sequences, ranged attacks and nearby special powers. One monster action can contain several attacks, and an attack can cause both HP loss and a separate harmful effect. The damage figure on a monster's information card is therefore not a promise of how much HP you will lose each time it acts.

Action intervals

In ordinary local play, monsters act on a tick schedule. A smaller positive action interval means more frequent actions; each scheduled action can execute an entire melee sequence. It is not necessarily one attack, or one action per command you enter.

The normal action rules below apply to an awake monster. Wandering takes a separate branch that skips ordinary melee and ranged attacks for that action, but still allows the later nearby-power check. Distances in this table are measured at the beginning of the action; individual powers can check distance again after movement.

Route	Ordinary conditions	What can follow
Melee sequence	Hostile, not wandering, one square away	Several attacks according to the sequence, then a possible nearby power
Ranged attempt	Hostile, not wandering, farther than two squares but strictly inside its sense range; a 50% check, line of sight, and no player invisibility	A mobile creature can also move on a further 50% check; a nearby power is checked separately
Nearby power	Alive, awake, and strictly closer than the larger of five squares or the monster's level; a 50% check	Its own requirements and effects, which may include another attack, spell or movement

These conditions provide an opportunity to use the assigned ability. A creature with no effective ability in that slot does not acquire an attack merely by passing the checks. Sanctuary prevents the ordinary melee effects, ranged action and nearby special action.

Melee sequences

A sequence specifies attacks and defenses at High, Center or Low. The monster executes each normal attack and lunge in the sequence; defensive actions are not additional swings. A lunge adds the monster's level to its hit score and damage rating. A successful damage roll normally runs from zero to one less than the resulting rating, before protection and any additional effects.

Part of the sequence	Effect
Normal attack	Uses the monster's hit and damage ratings against the chosen location
Lunge	Adds monster level to hit and damage rating
Defensive action	Protects its chosen location against your melee; does not execute a monster counterattack
Fixed, random or adaptive location	May stay at one height, choose among all three, or try to exploit your saved sequence

For an adaptive attack, the monster uses a least-defended location if monster level + random 0–29 > player level + random 0–19; otherwise it chooses randomly. In a tie, Low is preferred, then Center, then High. Adaptive monster defenses use the same comparison but, unusually in this version, select a location you attack least, not most. Some creatures instead have fixed or wholly random locations.

Each of your matching blocks or ripostes adds 10 to defense against the incoming location. Having no block or riposte anywhere instead imposes a 10-point penalty. A matching player riposte can trigger a separate counterattack after the monster misses; that is different from the monster's defensive actions. See Defense and protection for the hit calculation and Melee attacks for selecting your sequence.

Ranged attacks

Ordinary monster missiles and fire bolts use the same bolt system. A bolt reaching your square checks deflection, not your melee defense or matching blocks. A bolt intercepted by another monster instead makes a hit check against that monster's defense. Carrying a bow is not what determines these attacks: the creature's assigned ranged ability does.

Attack shape	Protection and limits
Physical missile or elemental bolt	Deflection stops a bolt that reaches you; applicable damage immunity or absorption handles damage afterward
Fireball, ball lightning or snowball	Affects the impact square and its eight neighbors; no ordinary hit roll or deflection check protects an affected player
Sonic blast or blinding gaze	Uses its own damage or status checks; it is not an arrow merely because it is a ranged ability

Balls can catch other creatures in the area, including their caster. A spellcaster may choose a bolt or ball according to distance and its own elemental immunity. Your shooting and throwing rules describe player projectiles and should not be used as a monster hit formula.

Nearby powers

The ordinary nearby-power check does not require hostility, visibility of the player, or line of sight. Individual powers add their own conditions. Thus invisibility can prevent the ordinary ranged attempt without suppressing every special ability, and making a creature peaceful does not necessarily stop it from stealing or using another non-hostile power.

Shared spellcasting requires hostility and line of sight. Other powers can require adjacency, low HP, a particular environment or a particular player status. The special slot can even invoke a melee attack sequence, with its own adjacency check. A creature's individual page explains these extra requirements; the 50% ordinary check is not the final success probability of every listed ability.

Damage and follow-up effects

Grappling and life-draining touch have separate follow-up rules. For other disabling effects and their protection, see Fear and Blindness.

See Damage and immunity for the shared damage-type and protection rules, and Poison, Disease and Sleep for the corresponding lasting effects and remedies.

An attack's delivery, damage type and secondary effect are separate questions. Physical immunity or displacement can prevent the physical part of a landed attack without cancelling the subsequent poison, disease, sleep, grapple or life-drain processing. Those effects use their own conditions and protections.

Melee form	Important distinction
Dragon	A successful melee attack makes separate physical and fire damage rolls
Poison, disease or sleep	After physical damage, a random 0–9 roll must be below monster level before attempting the secondary effect
Grapple	After physical damage, adds one immobilization count; physical damage prevention alone does not remove this step
Spirit attack	Physical damage is followed by a life-drain attempt; its protection differs from the direct level-drain spell
Cold melee	Despite its cold message, this version passes electricity damage to the damage routine; cold ranged attacks really use cold damage

These are shared melee forms, not a complete list of every special power. Their actual users, damage ratings and exceptions remain on individual pages.

An empty or ineffective sequence differs from an unimplemented attack effect. Death and the Master have assigned melee forms without implemented effects in this version. A held weapon also does not automatically grant the monster the weapon's player-use powers: normal monster melee uses its own damage routine.

Strategy

Against a fixed-location attacker, matching that location with a defense can be more useful than simply adding another attack. Against adaptive attackers, concentrating every defense at one height leaves other heights available. Check both the sequence and the action interval: a fast creature with several attacks can punish a plan based only on its damage rating.

Distance is useful against melee, but the ordinary ranged route opens beyond two squares and nearby abilities have their own reach. Deflection helps against bolts; it does not protect you from a ball's area or from directly applied spells. Likewise, elemental or physical immunity should be matched to the actual damage and secondary effects, rather than used as a reason to remain beside an unfamiliar opponent.