I'm messing with the dice and cards and keep scratching my head on basic combat.

Let me see if I have this right so far:

1. attacker generates his dice for a basic ranged attack (say Agil 4 with a stance of R1) gives him 3 characteristic dice and 1 reckless die (say no experties or fortune dice involved).

2. gm assigns challenge dice and misfortune dice (and here's where it breaks down)...

2a. target has a Defense of 1 and an opposing Agility of 4. The base difficulty for a ranged attack is 1 challenge die. ok, got that. BUT the attacker's and defender's stats are equal (the chart for opposed checks says to add 2 challenge dice). We'll leave misfortune dice alone.

3. Is the pool: 3 char, 1 reckless, 3 challenge OR 3 char, 1 reckless, 1 challenge OR something else? The example in the book doesn't cover the characteristic difference when it builds the dice pool.

Basic combat moves are treated a 1d checks, not opposed checks, unless it states otherwise.

If it says 'vs target defense' then that means active defenses can add misfortune dice to the roll, and as a combat attack roll has a difficulty of 1 - this is how melee strike works.

If it says it is an opposed check, then you add purple dice according to the opposed stat table, and no more purples than that

If the check is Unopposed then the pool is 3 Blues, 1 Red, 1 Purple, etc.

If the check is Opposed and you're opposing Ag vs Ag then it is 3 Blues, 1 red, 2 Purple, etc.

I believe the 'add two challenge dice' of the Opposed check just means add 2 dice to the pool, not add 2 dice to the notional 1 die you would have if it weren't opposed.

monkeylite said:

Yep I believe it's explained like that in the core book.

I guess where it confuses me is that they put the opposed check modifiers on the same page they use to discuss how to build the attack pool, but don't specify if the attack is an opposed or unopposed check. I'd assume it was opposed since it's a stat opposed to another stat, but it's unclear.

I'll have to admit I haven't read through all the abilities yet, so maybe there are attack abilities that specify opposed...?

Ah, I think I found it. In the FAQ under Rules Questions:

Actions: Default Challenge Level

"Unless indicated otherwise, the default challenge level for melee attack and ranged attack actions is easy. Unless indicated otherwise, the default difficulty of other actions, such as casting a spell, or invoking a blessing, is simple.

An action that is listed as "vs. Target Defense" is not an opposed check - it is based on the easy default difficulty, similar to how melee attack and ranged attack actions are resolved. In addition to this default difficulty, the dice pool may be modified by the target's defense rating, as well as by the action's difficulty modifier."

I guess that sums it up. The melee attack and ranged attack actions are unopposed/easy, likewise anything that goes against target defense.

You may decide times to times to make opposed check in combat as stated in Rulebook p.58.

That's what I do against major enemies (those with a name, not ordinary foes), so as the dice pool reflect their abilities (boss are harder ). Compare active characteristic and opposed one to get the number of challenge dices, and add one misfortune dice per relevant skill and/or specialization trained.

Another GM's call of mine is to add one misfortune dice per range increment while shooting. It counterbalance the fact range damage are equal to melee damage without any risk to be screwd.

ER, what if a character is using a combat Action card (I think that the example that we used last night was Pinning Shot or something like that), which is a ranged attack but the difficulty in the upper left hand corner is . But the action is vs. the target's defence.

Does that mean that the attacker using this action adds both a AND a standard [P] to their attack roll?

What if a special action has a difficulty of [P] and it is ALSO vs. target defence? Does that mean that the attacker uses [PP] in his attack roll?

Whoa.

Necrozius said:

Yep. Always add standard difficulty (ie 1 Challenge) + the Action difficulty (on the card) + Target's Defence + Anything else you can think of.