Draft:Melee attacks

Omega 0.90.4

Melee attacks combine your weapon, attributes and saved combat sequence. A weapon with a larger damage rating need not be the best choice: attacks can miss, defenses depend on location, and spending another maneuver on offense can leave you exposed. This page covers ordinary physical melee and equipment choices; special weapons can change what happens after a hit.

Choosing actions

Press F to enter a sequence. a selects the normal attack of the weapon currently held; b selects a block, parry or unarmed dodge. Each costs one maneuver. Follow each action with h, c or l for High, Center or Low, then save the sequence with Return.

An ordinary level-0 character has two maneuvers. The allowance increases by one every seven levels; Arena membership adds one. Haste doubles the allowance, slow halves it, and the result is limited to one through eight. An extra allowance does not fill in extra attacks for you: revise the sequence yourself.

Action	Cost	What changes
Thrust, the normal attack of a thrusting weapon	1	Adds twice your Dexterity modifier to hit.
Cut or strike, the normal attack of other ordinary melee weapons	1	Adds twice your Strength modifier to the damage rating for that attack.
Lunge (l)	2	Adds Dexterity plus character level to hit, and character level to damage. Available with melee weapons of all three types.
Block / parry / dodge (b)	1	Defends a chosen location. It does not require equipping a shield.
Riposte (r)	2	Available when selecting tactics with a thrusting weapon. Defends a location and attempts a counterattack when an attack at that location misses. The counterattack makes its own hit check; it is not a guaranteed hit or a scheduled ordinary thrust.

Here, an attribute's modifier is (attribute - 10) / 2, rounded toward zero. Thrusts still get the ordinary Strength contribution to damage; they give up the additional Strength contribution of a cut or strike.

A matching defense adds 10 to defense against that location; multiple matching defenses add together. With no block or riposte anywhere in the sequence, defense instead takes a 10-point penalty. Thus spending both early maneuvers on a lunge or two attacks can be considerably more dangerous than using one attack and one defense. A block at Center does not provide the matching-location bonus against High or Low attacks. Monsters have location-dependent defenses too.

The default shortcut and saved styles

The ! shortcut is broken in 0.90.4. It displays an alternating attack-and-defense sequence, then cuts the saved sequence short on leaving the menu. With two maneuvers, the resulting sequence is just one attack. With three, it is one attack followed by an incomplete defense. Build it explicitly instead: F a c b c Return gives an attack and defense at Center; F a c b c a c Return uses three maneuvers.

Weapon changes do not replace the saved actions. For example, a new character starts with a cut and a Center block. Wielding a dagger leaves the cut intact, including its extra Strength damage. Selecting a afresh while holding that dagger changes it to a thrust. Likewise, switching from a thrusting weapon to a short sword can leave it thrusting until you edit the sequence. This persistence permits attacks outside a weapon's normal style; it also explains why a new weapon sometimes behaves differently from its description.

Reading hit and damage

With no other effects, your hit score is level + Dexterity modifier + 1 + weapon hit bonus + enchantment, before the action's bonus. A hit check rolls 0 through 19: 0 always hits, 19 always misses, and another roll hits only if it is less than attack score minus the opponent's effective defense. Extra hit is valuable between these limits; it does not turn a score of +12 into a 12% chance to hit, or guarantee a hit at very high scores.

Your ordinary damage rating is Strength modifier + 3 + weapon damage rating + enchantment. Add the maneuver's damage bonus, then roll from zero to one less than the result. Critical hits and the moon's effect on your character modify that roll; the target's applicable damage handling follows. A weapon's listed rating is neither a fixed amount of damage nor a minimum of one.

For example, at level 0, on foot, without enchantment or other effects:

Attributes	Dagger: normal thrust	Short sword: normal cut
Strength 16, Dexterity 10	Hit 13; raw damage 0-11	Hit 12; raw damage 0-19
Strength 10, Dexterity 16	Hit 22; raw damage 0-8	Hit 15; raw damage 0-10

These ranges are before critical hits, lunar effects and the target's defenses. They compare the normal styles, not every possible saved sequence. The Strength-16 dagger using the starting cut instead rolls 0-17, with the same hit score of 13.

Being mounted adds 10 hit and 10 damage rating, independently of your weapon. An Order recruit's blessed +1 spear receives only +1 hit and damage from enchantment; its blessing strength is not another +9 combat bonus. Losing the mount removes the mounted contribution even though you still have the same spear.

Throwing ordinary melee weapons

Use f to throw an item. An ordinary dagger, short sword, club, spear, epee or mace follows an unusual rule: the throw uses your current hit score and your current damage rating plus twice your Strength modifier. It does not separately add the projectile's weapon rating or enchantment. Thrust's extra Dexterity bonus does not apply to this hit check.

Consequently, a spare dagger thrown while a short sword remains wielded uses the short-sword wielder's scores. Replacing that spare dagger with a +7 dagger or a heavier plain spear does not independently improve its ordinary throwing damage. Throwing the ordinary weapon you are currently wielding uses the combat scores from before its removal. This rule is specific to ordinary weapons; ammunition and special weapons can use different damage effects.

After a hit or miss, one thrown weapon is removed from inventory and dropped at the landing square. A wall or intervening creature can stop it before the selected destination. On ordinary ground it can be picked up again; the void and abyss do not retain dropped items. Unlike arrows and bolts, these six weapons do not undergo the one-in-four destruction check on a successful throw. This does not protect them from other means of loss. A cursed weapon already in use cannot be thrown to get it unstuck.

Hands and shields

A weapon must be in Weapon hand and in use to contribute its hit and damage ratings. Two-handed weapons, such as the great-axe and quarterstaff, occupy both Weapon hand and Ready hand. If the other hand is occupied, the weapon may be carried without becoming usable.

The Shield slot is separate. In 0.90.4, a two-handed weapon and a shield can be used together, and the shield still contributes defense. The cost of a second hand is losing Ready hand for another carried object, not an automatic loss of shield defense. Weight still counts toward your total burden.

Changing weapons and curses

An ordinary cursed weapon can be carried without getting stuck. The restriction begins when it is in use: normal inventory swapping then refuses to remove it. Identifying it does not remove its curse. Julie's ordinary stock and the three opening guild weapons avoid the random curse risk of dungeon finds.

For a light curse (strength -1), the blessing spell or a noncursed scroll of blessing can make the weapon removable and improve its enchantment. Do not generalize this to every curse: deeper curses can resist a weak blessing, and a sufficiently strong blessing can destroy a deeply cursed object. A cursed blessing scroll has the opposite effect. The Order's ordinary return service cures poison and disease but leaves a cursed weapon cursed.

See Your first weapon for a practical opening route and weapon comparisons.