Parade

To parry an attack, the defender has two different possibilities.  
  • She may try to parry with her weapon. This value is modificated by the value indicated in the weapon list. 
  • She may also block with a shield. In this case the shield modifies the comparison value again, so this is also dependent on the attributes of the shield. 
 
Don't panic, an example follows (see below).
The defender has to decide her way of parrying before throwing the dice for the first time. If she succeeds in throwing half or less the PA-value, it is called a "brilliant parade", which might have some special effects, as you will see.  
 
 

Shields

Shields are generally employed for blocking or parrying enemies, they do not count as an additional armour. A fighter using a shield may not employ a two-handed weapon at the same time. 

 

Parade by shield

This comprises the case when the hero attacks by his standard weapon but defends with the shield. Shields are some sort of mixture between armour and weapon, that is why they cause a handicap as well as they give comparison values (CV, remember ? look it up here ! The handicap is subtracted from AT and PA as every handicap of armour. The CV is added to the CV of the weapon to result in the final CV, e.g. a hero owning a sword (CV:7/7) and an ordinary shield (CV:-1/+1) would end up with CV:6/8. Generally, AT will be reduced by a shield and PA will increase as to be expected.  

Shields are the only "weapons" that allow a parade to long-range weapons. In this case you use your PA-value as wearing your standard-weapon at the same time.  
Rondradan wears leather armour and carries a sword, Algrid carries a war hatchet. After calculating all modifiers (handicap and CV of sword and hatchet), Rondradan fights with the values AT:11 and PA:9. He decides, he uses the shield he carries, too. Its CV is -1/+1. So his values will now be AT/PA:10/10, which is probably the better choice against an axe professional from Thorwal. 

Shields

Type of shield CV BF Handicap Weight Price
Ordinary shield -1/+1 3 1 140 25
Strong shield -1/+1 0 1 160 35
Novadi shield -1/+2 5 2 80 20
Thorwal shield -2/+2 3 2 160 30
Knight shield -3/+3 2 3 200 45
 

Option: The "brilliant attack"

If the attacking hero rolls 1 on a D20, he did a "brilliant" job. In this case, the defender may only defend by a "brilliant parade". She cannot avoid the strike.  

If the parade fails, the defender does not get damage points according to a D6. Instead of rolling one (or more) D6, the attacker rolls a D20 for the hit points (so a sword as well as a barbarian battle-axe will give 1D20+4 hit points). Additionally, the armour of the defender does not count, i.e. hit points are the same as damage points in this case.  

If you throw a 1 when you already announced AT+, you will, of course, still get your additive. The rule of 1 does not apply for animals or monsters, but it does apply for all humanoid creatures.  

Most of the times a hero will hit her counterpart so heavy that the enemy has to stand a "Self-control"-test.  
 

Option: High STRENGTH attacks (HP>ST)

There are heroes who have risen in STRENGTH during her formation and experience that much, that the weapon they carry may be forced into their enemy in a more focussed and convincing way. So, we give a value relating to STRENGTH for each weapon. This value will tell you, how much a weapon is receptible for things like that. A sword (ST-14), for example, will give one hit point more in every fight for each STRENGTH point above 14.  
Torven (ST:17), a well-experienced hero, well known in his hometown Enqui, still carries a sword around him. Whenever somebody gets into a real fight with him, he will use his sword in a very focussed way, so that even a sword (ST-14, HP:1D+4) gets dangerous for his enemies with the modified 1D+7 hit points (17-14=3, so 1D+4+3=1D+7). 
 

Next page

 Previous page
Index