The avoidance value

In combat - AT and PA

The offender starts off the fight with an attack. That is, he thrusts or stabs his weapon into the direction of the defender. The success depends on a test he has to undertake, i.e. she rolls a D20 and the result has to be equal to her AT-value or less. Now there are two chances for a defender, if the offender succeeds (if he does not, they swap around and the defender becomes offender and the other way round): she may raise her shield or weapon against the offender's weapon, this is called parade (PA) or she may avoid (AV) the strike by making way. The parade or the avoidance roll is the same as the AT-roll, only she has to roll equal or less than PA or AV to succeed.  

If the attack is successive, but the parade or avoidance is not, than the overall attack succeeds, i.e. the defender is hit and you have to calculate the damage done. This is the task of the following passage. Now, only to remind you again, after the strike is over, the right to attack swaps, i.e. the defender will be offender and the other way around, no matter, if there was a hit or not. And this procedure repeats itself after each strike.  
 
 

Hit points (HP) and damage

Whenever the attacker hits, she has to determine what her weapon can arrange as damage. Most of the times this is a roll of a D6 with a number added according to her weapon. For example, the effect of a sword (HP: 1D+4) will be 5 to 10 hit points. From this amount of hit points you still have to subtract the defender's armour resulting not in the hit points any more, but in the damage points. The damage points are now subtracted from the life energy of the defender, before the battle rages on.  

Elgor (AT: 13, PA:11) carries out a heavy strike by his sword (HP:1D+4), (i.e. the player of Elgor rolls a 3 on a D20) against Beorn (AT:12, PA:12), who can just parade (i.e. 12 on a D20). As a counter manoeuvre, Beorn, however, manages to break his enemy's defence (Beorn rolls 9, Elgor 14). Beorn carries a battle club (HP:1D+4) and its effect will be 1D+4 hit points. Since he throws 6 on the D6, this will 6+4=10 hit points. Elgor wears leather armour (armour points 3, see next page), so he looses 10-3=3 damage points of his life energy and his new life energy will now be 7 points lower, which is quite a lot.

 

Armour (RP) and handicap

However, armour restricts your agility, so armour does not only give you armour points but also a handicap. This level of handicap must be taken into account for some talent tests, but also in combat. You have to subtract half the handicap from your AT and the other half of the PA-value. If you got an odd number for handicap, the higher value has to be subtracted from PA.  

Now, we know, Elgor has a leather armour, which yields 3 armour points, it also yields a handicap of 3, so his values of AT/PA:13/11 drop to AT/PA:12/9.

So, when equipping your hero, think about a suitable balance between armour and handicap for your type of character. The handicap level, however, may be even higher than just your armour depending on what you buy and how much ? Each part of armour has its own weight and handicap, other items only give you a weight, that has to be taken into account for the handicap (remember ? Look it up here !). A list of armoury is available on the following page. 

  

If you do not find what you were looking fro in our list, than think about your own piece of armour. In that case the level of handicap will always be equal to the armour points and the price may be determined according to the list. Just think about the relative value to our proposals. So, e.g. you may find an armless chain armour with a weight of 240 ounces. Such an unusual wish may well cost 18 Ducats in Arkania.