Alright so here is the deal. There have been a few issues that have popped up during the sessions I have run and played and I haven't been able to find the answers for them.

First off. From what I can understand a character cannot take full advantage of a Final ability score that is 320+.(Inhuman) or 440+(Zen) without the corresponding abilities of inhumanity and zen. First off does this also apply to attack and defense abilities in combat? If a character achieves a score within inhuman to zen range without the abilities do I drop the score to 280(Impossible)? I know the core book says that without supernatural influence that all projectiles can have a max of 280 but does it apply to hand to hand as well?

Second off another question about additional attacks. The "final" attack ability used to determine possible additional attacks,(without ki abilities) that the book mentions; is it the attack score before or after the dice are rolled and they are added together? So if a character has a attack ability of 120 before he rolls do I use that number to decide how many attacks he can try for,(which would allow him 2 at 95) or do I wait until the die roll has been added to the attack and use that new number to decide how many attacks can be done,(say he rolls 102 which adds up to 222 which would allow 3 attacks at most at a 172)? Of course with kempo is it -10 but that isn't the issue.

Third when a character's life falls below 0 but not enough to kill him I know he has to try to stabilize so he doesn't die and the book mentions that if he does he gets reset to 0 and is conscious but with a -60 all action penalty. So what is the ruling if someone brings back into the positive life range by healing with medicine or ki? Does the character wake up? Do they get any penalties? If they do how long do the penalties last? Also with medicine and ki it says a % of the damage. Does that mean a % of the characters total life or of the amount of damage inflicted by the last hit they took? So if a character has 150LP and suffers a 90LP hit and I use ki healing to heal him which says 50% is it 50% of 150 which would be 75 or 50% of the 90 which would be 45?

Fourth, One of my players is a wizard and she loves to use blinding flash to cripple the enemies,(and sometimes us) and I've been a bit confused on which special combat modifier I should be using for those that fail the check. The spell says that they suffer blindness for failing the check but there are two kind of blindness. I have been using vision totally obscured or absolute blindness for those affected by the spell but since it is only a flash of light I have been wondering if I should be using vision partially obscured or partial blindness?

Lastly and this kind of ties in with the number 4. Are the Perceptive and Social secondary abilities considered physical actions? I want to know because I have a character who is blind and it says -90 Action penalty,(45 with the blind fighting module) . I know he takes a cut in general notice and search because of his lack of sight but does the -45 also affect his notice and search as well as social. I myself don't really consider social a physical action.

Also I was wondering if you guys had any general tips on how I can make combat go a bit quicker. My players seem to have fun with the story but once we are in a battle they start to become disinterested due to how long combat can take,(It doesn't help that they didn't want a tutorial into the battle system and just wanted to learn as they go so they don't really know all they could do.) I've got the general concepts down of attack and defense and almost don't even need the combat table anymore. I know the rules for criticals and battles action and have been incorporating battle situations as they pop up. So basically is there anything I can do help with it or is it now up to the players to learn as they go?

Anyway sorry for being so long winded but these are things that have occurred and I would really like to know what you guys think.

a can answer a few, i'd answer more but i'm crunched for time.

1) yes, even in melee combat when an attack or defense is over 280 you drop it to 280 for the final count. but you only drop it after applying modifiers like penalties for called shots and the like. so, for example, if you had a called shot to the calf (a -10) you would subtract 10 from their roll before applying the 280 limit, so their called shot may still max at 280 instead of being dropped to 270.

2) you use the characters final attack score to determine number of attacks, and they must call how many attacks they are taking before they roll initiative. and for each attack they decide to take all are at a cumulative -25 penalty, whether they take them or not. so, for example, if a character had 120 attack and the multiple attacks module, they would have 3 attacks, and all the attacks they made that round would be at their full attack of 120 minus 50 (25 for each for the two extra attacks) for a final total of 70. if they are put on the defensive or the enemy runs away and they lose the chance to take the extra attacks they still suffer the -50 penalty.

3) natural and supernatural healing usually does perk a person right up, additional penalty free. and as far as the percentage thing, it means the percentage of damage the character has taken up to that point since their last non-natural healing.

sorry, but that is all i have time for.

Krylancelo said:

This was answered by Brewmaster_vitty, but I would like to add something:

In my understanding of the rules, counterattacks and attacks use the same "count of attacks". So for example, if he has two attacks, he could attack two times normal, or he could attack one time and counterattack one time or he could counterattack two times.

Krylancelo said:

Also answered by brewmaster_vitty, but also I would to add two things:

First: The "medicine" skills says, that you can use this skill to stabilize someone, who has lifepoints below 0. So, in this case, it doesn't heal, but stabilize him (it is like, if the wounded person succed his PhR check, to stabilize himself). So he would go to 0 LP and get the -60 penalty.

For the %-Healing: I only remember two cases where healing is in percent: Healing with medicine. In the Corebook is written "x% of Damage". So, it means the damage taken. The second case would be spells like "healing" from the Essence-path, and there is written "30% of lost LP", which would be also the damage.

Krylancelo said:

Spells usually produce "states". Blindness is a state, described on page 213 in the corebook. There it is written, that blindness usually is "Vision totally obscured", but in the last turn of his blindness, if the blindness was produced by a flash of light, he would only suffer "Vision partially obscured".

So: If the blinded person would only be effect for one turn, it would be partially obscured, if he would be blinded for more turns, all turns, except the last, would be totally obscured and the last would be partially obscured. An really strong light-flash can make all this funny looking color-spots in your field of vision (as if you have looked some time in an flashlight), so you can see nothing, except this "colorspots". In the last turn, the sight of the character starts to "regenerate".

Krylancelo said:

I would say "No" in both cases, but notice and search have some one rules: If he uses is sight for notice and search, he would never get anything (for example, he couldn't see an writing on a wall, because: he can not see at all). If the notice or search check is only for all other senses (for example hearing), he wouldn't get a penalty. But if it is "mixed", his notice ability would be cut in half (page 046 of the corebook "... though the most commonly used are sight and hearing. If a character loses one of those two senses, it cuts his ability in half, unless circumstances dictate the use of only certain determined senses.").

Social skills aren't physical actions. Physcial means, I must make movements (for example, movement of your sword), but "talking" and "hearing" and "understanding the tone of the other person and try to sweet talk them to something" wouldn't be a physical action.

Krylancelo said:

In my group, everyone must learn the basics for himself. I have an 5 second limit for my players so: If someones turn start, he has 5 seconds to say, would he will do. If he starts to ask questions about the combat situation (how far is this enemy away, can i get to this enemy, and so on), it isn't counted to the 5 seconds, but if he starts to ask questions about rules or options, he should know, it is in his 5 second. If, after this 5 seconds, he hasn't announced his action, his character does nothing this turn. A fight should be in a fast pace, so there is not time, to make great planings etc..

And also: If it isn't a players turn, he could take the books and reread some rules (and asked me, on which page, this rules are written), so he would know them, the moment, his turn comes.

So long,

Krylancelo said:

I suggest making a spreadsheet on Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, or something like that. If you have the PC's attack, defence, and damage it can do the math instantly, including for counter attacks. I also have an area for initiative. You will have to change it every so often, and have an area for enemies stats that change from battle to battle, but it saves a lot of time adding penalties, bonuses, etc.

That helps a lot. I need to remember about the partial blindness during the last turn. I read up on the additional attacks rule and it does not say whether or not it needs to be declared before initiative rolls. It says that is necessary for additional Active actions but not additional attacks. Also in the example of ceila and the three guards she announced two attacks after the initiative was rolled because all the guards would go before her. So I think it can be announced after initiative rolls be must be before the first person acts. One thing since counterattacking was brought up. Since ceila declared two attacks to anticipate the guards attacks she would take a -25 penalty to her attack ability. Does that penalty also apply to her attack ability when she is launching a counterattack? Also if you announce two attacks could she use both attacks in her counter against the first guy if she wanted to?

Thanks for clearing up which final attack the book is talking about. It does beget a question though. For the attacker that uses 3 attacks and has a attack ability of 250 which will drop to 200 does he roll for each attack so attack one is 200 + dice roll, then attack two is 200 + dice roll, then attack 3 is 200 + dice roll,(assuming no interruptions) or does he just roll once and whatever the total is is the constant value that all 3 attacks are at?

The healing explanation makes sense and will be very handy later. Thanks for the help.

No sight check for blinds. If it is specified for hearing, smell, touch, taste, then normal value. If general using all five senses then it is halved. Physical action needs character to actual physically move. Okay cool got it.

I've made an Excel table for battle that includes places for initiative, turn order, number of defenses for additional defense modifiers, Life points, damage of weapon, all ATs, States, action penalties and special advantages and disadvantages for combat. I does not do anything automatically for me but it does put everything right there so that I can easily access and use it. Plus I'm pretty quick with numbers. I really like that idea of 5 second turns because it prevents people from just wasting time because they don't know what they want,(or weren't paying attention) and also it gives more of a realism to the battle because if it were real you wouldn't have 30 minutes to just stand there and think about it.

Anyway thanks for answering. You guys are awesome!

That helps a lot. I need to remember about the partial blindness during the last turn. I read up on the additional attacks rule and it does not say whether or not it needs to be declared before initiative rolls. It says that is necessary for additional Active actions but not additional attacks. Also in the example of ceila and the three guards she announced two attacks after the initiative was rolled because all the guards would go before her. So I think it can be announced after initiative rolls be must be before the first person acts.

My group had ruled it, that you declare the number of attacks in your turn the moment you make your first attack or counterattack. But I think, this is a house rule ;-) (But also, my group doesn't know the initiative of the enemy, they only know, if the surprised an enemy or are surprised by an enemy).

One thing since counterattacking was brought up. Since ceila declared two attacks to anticipate the guards attacks she would take a -25 penalty to her attack ability. Does that penalty also apply to her attack ability when she is launching a counterattack? Also if you announce two attacks could she use both attacks in her counter against the first guy if she wanted to?

First: The -25 count to counterattacks. For example, I can attack two times (because I have an ability of 120), I can make a counterattack with 95 (120 -25) and one normal attack with 95 (120 -25).

But: If you counterattack, you can only make one counterattack per defense. For example, if the attacker doesn't hit me, I can only make one counterattack against him, but if he attacks me a second time or an other enemy attacks me and I succed in my defense, I could make an second counterattack.

Thanks for clearing up which final attack the book is talking about. It does beget a question though. For the attacker that uses 3 attacks and has a attack ability of 250 which will drop to 200 does he roll for each attack so attack one is 200 + dice roll, then attack two is 200 + dice roll, then attack 3 is 200 + dice roll,(assuming no interruptions) or does he just roll once and whatever the total is is the constant value that all 3 attacks are at?

He would roll for every single attack, because he could make different maneuvers (two normal attacks to lower the defense and after this a "called shot" to the head, for example), attack different enemies etc.. Also, if the first attack doesn't hit, the enemy could counterattack and put the character "on defense", so he couldn't use his additional attacks.

So long,

EDIT: Had some errors with my BBCode XD

Melee combat ability scores stop at 319 if you dont have inhumanity(or equivalent) after modifiers are added, you dont drop to 280. Its different fir ranged combat because the weapon cant stand the force behind it(although there are ways to negate this with inhumanity and quality weapon)

Actually I believe all you need is the Aura Extension ability to break the 280 cap for Attack and Defense, not Inhumanity or Zen (it is actually the opposite, inhumanity will not let you defeat the limit of 280 because the weapon itself cannot handle it).

re: pg 287 "A character using
a projectile weapon can never have a Final Attack greater
than 280 or, in other words, a Difficulty of Impossible.
The penalties for special purpose attacks are applied
before calculating that limit. Thus, it may well happen that
a character’s Final Attack would be 280, while his shot was
aimed at his opponent’s head. If a character can extend his Ki
to his weapon, he is capable of overcoming that limit, however."

I cannot find where it says this for HTH combat, I generally don't see anything about limiting the results of any type of primary ability below Inhuman/Zen caps anywhere.

Specifically, pg 97 the entry for the Ki ability Inhumanity says it only applies to checks made versus the difficulty table, and opposed checks (such as attack and defense) are not made versus the difficulty table.