Combat

## Basics

Combat refers to two or more characters fighting each other. This might be combat with swords, laser guns, magic spells, etc.

## Initiative

When combat begins an Initiative order is set which determines who goes when. To determine the Initiative order all characters involved in the Combat must roll a Perception roll. The highest Perception roll will go first on the Initiative order, followed by the next highest, then the next highest, and so on. In the case of a tie the character with the highest rank in Perception will go first. If a tie still persists Player Characters go before NPCs. If still persisting the Players decide amongst themselves who will go first and the GM decides who among the NPCs will go first. Order decided in this way will follow this order in the following rounds.

## Attacking

When it is time for you to attack something you roll the proper Skill corresponding to your weapon, tech, or spell of choice. Along with all other rolls, attack rolls use exploding dice. As a result, there are no Critical Successes or Failures in Horizons. Then make sure to add the ranks of your corresponding Skill into the roll. Once you've added up the dice its time to find out if you hit. Tell the GM the total of your total attack roll and they will announce whether you hit based on the opponents Defense roll, or it's DC. The GM will also tell you by how much you succeeded. If you did hit then look at your Weapon, Power, or Spells Damage. In most cases you then add 1/2 of how much you succeeded by to the damage, rounded down.

*Jolin has a dagger that does 3 damage, and wants to hit a goblin in front of him. Jolin rolls his Daggers skill and gets a '3' '6' and a '4'. Jolin then adds up the dice for a total of 13 and then rerolls the 6 due to exploding dice. Jolin then rolls a '5' and is done rolling with a total of 18. Then Jolin adds in the ranks in his Daggers skill which is 2 for a grand total of 20. The GM tells Jolin that he has succeeded by 10 and as a result Jolin will get 5 bonus damage (10 divided by 2 equals 5). Jolin then adds the result to his dagger's damage which is 3. Jolin then announces he did 8 damage!*

## Defending

When being attacked you should first chose which Defense Skill you would like to defend with and then roll it. Add up your dice and then add your defense skill rank, and any ranks of defense to your roll. Once it's added up tell the GM and they will announce whether you were hit based on whether the opponents Attack roll, or it's DC, was higher than your defense roll. If you were hit, subtract the damage from the hit from your equipped armor. If you took 5 melee damage and you have 3 Armor then 5-3=2, thus you take 2 damage to your hit points.

* **Resistances:** When you have a resistance to a certain damage type you add your resistance to your armor bonus when being dealt that specific damage type.
* **Immunities:** When you have an immunity to a certain damage type you take no damage from that specific damage type.
* **Weakness:** If you have a weakness to a certain damage type you must double the damage that you are receiving after subtracting it from your armor.

## Unconsciousness

If your health reaches 0 you fall unconscious. Your health can never drop any lower than 0, regardless of how much damage you take. By default, while unconscious you may not take any actions.

## Death

In Horizions characters each have three steps towards death. When unconscious, any time that you take any damage you must make a Resilience Skill Check (DC 5+Damage Received). If you succeed nothing happens. If you fail, you move one step closer to death. When your character is on the last step towards death and fails another Resilience check then your character dies. Recieving healing of any amount will successfully move you one step away from death. If you are healed while on the first step of death you gain the healing to your hitpoints and are no longer unconcious.

Damage -> -> -> ->

<- <- <- <- Healing

*Horizons Navigation*

* Horizons: Core Rulebook