Battle Rules Library

## Introduction

These rules are created to handle In-Character disputes or even to have fun participating in the battle system. The battle rules involve using multiple dice in order to land a hit on your opponent with damage varying depending on how many dice are successful.

## Converting Base Stats

Each character has 6 core stats: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Charisma (CHAR). Each of these core stats correspond to something usable for just about everyone.

NOTE: These stats are ONLY for modded battles involving a Battle Master (BM). This does not translate to the roleplaying aspect. There are also no penalties for having a low stat.

### Strength (STR)

This is the primary stat used for Strength-based builds and strength-based weaponry. Strength can also determine your ability to deal damage with a strength-based weapon; as well as the being able to wield certain weapons and armor.

#### Bonuses for Strength

These bonuses include:

> Bonus damage with Strength-Based weapons
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> Bonus for Grappling
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> Bonus for Strength-Based Checks
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> Bonus for Strength-Based Saving Throws
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### Dexterity (DEX)

This is the primary stat used for Dexterity-based builds and Dexterity-based weaponry. Dexterity can also be used to determine ability to deal damage with a dexterity-based weapon; as well as the stat used for avoiding Magic Spells and even determining initiative.

#### Bonuses for Dexterity

These bonuses include:

> Bonus damage with Dexterity-Based weapons
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> Bonuses for avoiding spells
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> Bonuses for Dexterity-Based Checks
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> Bonuses for Dexterity-Based Saving Throws
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> Bonuses added on to Initiative
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### Constitution (CON)

This is the primary stat used for determining a character's HP. The higher the constitution rating, the more HP the character gains per level. Upon gaining additional CON, the user's HP will reflect the new change. This is also the primary stat used for resisting certain physical inflictions such as: Cold, Bleeding, Poison.

#### Bonuses for Constitution

These bonuses include:

> HP gain per level.
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> Bonuses for Constitution-Based Checks
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> Bonuses for Constitution-Based Saving Throws
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### Intelligence (INT)

This is the primary stat used to determine a character's MP. This is also used to determine bonus damage with a devastating spell and to increase the difficulty of non-damaging spells.

#### Bonuses for Intelligence

These bonuses include:

> Total Max MP. (Unlike HP, one does not gain bonus MP per level. The bonuses offered here are the total bonus MP one gets)
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> Bonus for Spell Damage. (Spell Damage is vastly higher than Physical damage due to it's destructive nature and the fact that magic is dependent on a resource rather than cooldown)
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> Bonus for non-damaging spell DC.
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> Bonus to Intelligence-Based Checks
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> Bonuses for Intelligence-Based Saving Throws
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### Wisdom (WIS)

This is the primary stat used for Healing Magic and Evil Magic. This also determines bonus spell-slots that one can have for their readied spells.

#### Bonuses for Wisdom

These bonuses include:

> Available Spell-Slots
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> Bonus for Healing/Cursed Damage.
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> Bonuses for Wisdom-Based Checks (including Insight and Perception)
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> Bonuses for Wisdom-Based Saving Throws
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### Charisma (CHAR)

This is the primary stat used for special types of classes to include bards and Illusionists; things that alter a person's mental state. This also determines a person's ability to ward off mental-changes from mental attacks.

#### Bonuses for Charisma

These bonuses include:

> Bonus to Mental-Based Attacks
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> Bonus to Warding off Mental-Based Attacks
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> Bonuses to Charmed/Controlled persons/pets damage
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> Bonuses for Charisma-Based Checks
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> Bonuses for Charisma-Based Saving Throws
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## Initiative

### How Initiative Works

Initiative is used at the very beginning of combat by the Battle Master (BM). The Battle Master will request everyone to send them their Dexterity Score before the first round's actions are sent. The BM will then roll initiative out of a 1d20 roll and any Dexterity Modifiers will be added to the initiative roll to determine everyone's initiative. Any player who do not send their Dexterity Modifiers within 48 hours will have their Initiative rolled without any bonuses.

**The Higher the Initiative Roll, the faster you are able to take your actions**.

This initiative will stay with you until the end of combat. Any new players joining the combat (See the rules: Entering Combat) will also be required to submit to the BM their Dexterity Modifier upon making their entrance post. They, too, will have 48 hours to submit this information or they will also be given an initiative roll without any bonuses. Newcomers will be integrated into the Initiative once they have fully entered battle.

### Changing Initiative

While you cannot permanently change your initiative, there are techniques that can either slow down yours/target's or speed up yours/target's initiative. This only lasts for that action (or it's duration) and does not persist for the remainder of battle.

If you start off with a 10 Initiative and someone inflicts a -2 Initiative on you for 3 rounds, you will have an 8 Initiative until the end of that duration.

## How a Round is Made-up

Everyone is given 3 Actions and 1 Bonus Action.

Your 3 actions will take place in initiative order starting with the highest initiative performing their first action all the way down to the bottom of the initiative list performing their first action. The list resets back to the top to perform their second action all the way to the end. The list then resets back to the top to perform their third and final action. Actions are anything with the "Action Type: Action" tagged in the ability being performed.

Bonus actions, on the other hand may happen whenever the user sees fit. These Bonus actions can be used to preempt the user's attack, to bolster it. Bonus actions may also be used as a "conditional" depending on the Bonus Action. A Thief's Uncanny Dodge ability is used as a Defensive Bonus Action. it will be entirely up to the user when to use this if certain conditions are met. ((Example: If I do not dodge an attack from the Berserker, use Uncanny Dodge)). These "conditionals" however, are ONLY used on "Action Type: Defensive Bonus Action".

## How to Hit

### Physical Attacks

Physical Attacks are a bit more reliable, in terms of dealing steady damage, than magic is. In order to land a physical attack, you must roll higher than your opponent's AC (Armor Class). Unlike other sites with a battle system, dodge isn't rolled for every attack. In this instance, for physical attacks, it is entirely up to your armor to protect you. AC will vary depending on classes, but the base AC for someone not wearing armor is 10. In order to hit someone without armor, you must roll an 11 or higher (Ties will **ALWAYS** go to the defender). Once you rolled higher than your opponent's AC, then you will roll damage.

### Magical Attacks

For the majority of Magical Attacks, the attacker must only state they are using magic. It will be up to the one defending to make an effective saving roll; and for the most part that saving roll will be Dexterity. Each spell will have their own DC, it is this DC that the Defender must either tie with or exceed. So if someone performs a spell with a DC of 15, the defender must perform a Dexterity Check of 15 or higher in order to completely avoid the spell. There are other spells which require different saving throws and they, too, will operate in the same manner.

### Secondary Status Effects

This is generally for secondary status effects by either weapons or magic with a secondary effect on top of dealing damage. These will usually have a pretty low DC and will operate, much in the same, as avoiding a magical attack.

### Critical Hits

Upon rolling a **NATURAL 20** (a roll of 20 on the die), the attacker instantly hits (regardless of AC). When a Critical Hit is scored, the BM will roll twice the amount of dice needed for a standard damage roll. So if an attack is normally 2d8+5, the BM will roll 4d8+5 instead. The dice multiplier can change depending on Class Features.

### Critical Hit Failure

Unlike rolling a **NATURAL 20**, this only occurs when someone rolls a **NATURAL 1** (a roll of 1 on the die). When a Critical Hit Failure is scored, the BM will roll the attack on the user instead of their intended target, effectively causing the attacker to hit themselves. This attack to oneself ignores their AC and any damage absorption.

### Critical Dodge

This is used only when dodging Magical attacks. Upon rolling a NATURAL 20 (a roll of 20 on the die), the user instantly attacks the spell-caster with their equipped weapon. The attack must still be rolled and the roll must exceed the magic user's AC. This is considered a 'Counter Attack' that is free.

### Critical Dodge Failure

Upon rolling a NATURAL 1 (a roll of 1 on the die) when trying to avoid a magical spell, the magic user's spell is treated as a critical hit upon the target.

## Rolling Damage

### Standard Damage Calculations

Upon a successful hit with a Physical or Magical attack, any skill that deals damage will now deal damage.

Due to all damage being variable, it will be up to the BM to roll this damage. For an attack that deals 4d6+8 damage, the BM rolls 4 six-sided die and add up what they get and then add 8 damage. For example, the BM rolls 4d6+8 and rolls: 5, 5, 2, 2. The overall damage will be 5+5+2+2+8 = 22 total damage.

Once this damage has been determined, then the BM will subtract any "Damage Absorption" the target has from the overall damage. If the target has a Damage Absorption of 3, it will be 22-3=19 damage altogether. The target takes 19 damage and subtract it from their current HP.

**NOTE**: Damage Absorption is EXTREMELY rare and usually comes with stiff penalties to have it.

### Critical Damage Calculations

Upon a successful Critical Hit (or Critical Dodge failure for spells) the damage dice are doubled. So if an attack did 4d10+5, an attack of this nature would now deal 8d10+5 damage (the bonus damage remains unchanged).

## Magic Use

### Spell Level

Unlike D&D where you get a certain amount of spell-levels that you can use, there isn't a limit to the amount of spell level improvements one can use here. Someone can upgrade a Level 1 Spell to Level 5 by adding additional MP.

To upgrade your spell level, it costs +1 MP per level that you want to cast it it. So a Level 1 Spell increased to Level 5 will cost 1 MP (Initial Cost) +4 to increase it to level 5. The cost would be just as much when upgrading a Level 2 spell to Level 5. This spell will cost 2 MP to start with and +3 to increase it to level 5.

### Max Spell Level

This will depend on whether or not you have the ability to cast a spell at a higher level or not. Some classes will grant you max spell levels for certain types of spells. A Paladin can be given a max of Level 3 Priest Spells while a Priest can be given a max of Level 7 Priest Spells. A Paladin with a Max of Level 3 Priest spells may have up to Level 3 Priest spells and cannot Increase the spell level beyond Level 3.

Max Spell Level is also determined by your classes Features. If you don't have a class feature that allows higher spell level, any spell you have from other Spell-types have a max of 1. So a Paladin with some Elemental Magic slotted may use an Elemental Spell at Level 1. This can only be done on classes that allow Spells. Classes that do not gain MP cannot use magic.

### Spell Charge

Most spells have a spell charge time. Whether this spell charge time is +1 Action or +2 Actions. If a spell has +1 Action for Spell Charge, the spell will take 2 actions where-as a spell with +2 Actions for Spell charge will take 3 actions.

All actions involved in the cast are considered "Casting Time". During "Casting Time", the user has only 2 options:

1) Continue with cast

2) Cancel Cast

While the magic user is in "Casting Time", they cannot do anything. They can, however, still avoid attacks via their AC. Spells coming towards them are a different story. Spells requiring a saving throw other that Dexterity is allowed while in "Casting Time". Spells requiring a Dexterity Saving Throw cannot be performed. Spell-casters are essentially sitting ducks against Spells requiring a Dexterity Saving Throw.

#### Casting Interrupt

Any action with a "Suppression" effect is capable of interrupting a Spell Cast. Interrupting a Spell Cast during "Casting Time" will stop the spell-caster's Spell Cast, prompting them to continue the very next action. A target may only be interrupted ONCE per spell.

#### Casting Overflow

Casting Overflow is when a person's actions exceed the number of actions in that round. This doesn't stop the Spell Caster's "Casting Time". If a spell caster starts a +2 Action Spell on their 4th action, they start the cast on their 4th action, they continue "Casting Time" for the first action of next round and finally resolve the spell on the second action of their next spell. If a spell is interrupted once in the previous round, it still can't be interrupted in the new round as it was interrupted once in the spell-cast.

### Regenerating MP

Regenerating MP is EXTREMELY rare. There are no items that regenerate MP and everything else that can potentially refill MP will be examined by the administration before being released.

### Running out of MP

Once you have reached 0 MP, you cannot cast any spells until you have performed a long rest (In the same topic) or until after you have left the topic. If you do not have enough MP to perform a certain level spell, you cannot cast that spell (and will then be forced to use a lower level spell if you wish to still use magic). There is no "Mana Burn" on this site; once you run out of MP, that's about it.

## Cooldown Skills and Limited Use Skills

Physical Skills do not require MP to use and are separated into two types: *Cooldown Skills* and *Limited Use Skills*

### Cooldown Skills

As it sounds like, these skills go on cooldown after use. These cooldowns can vary between Rounds and Actions.

Rounds: The end of a round = 1 round cooldown. If a skill has 3 rounds cooldown, one must reach 3 round-ends before being able to use it again

Actions: The end of an action = 1 Action Cooldown. If a skill has a 7 action cooldown, you must finish 7 actions before you can use this skill again. This is mainly to add fluidity between cooldowns to allow more flexibility.

One cannot use a Cooldown Skill until after it is brought out of cooldown.

### Limited Use Skills

Limited Use Skills can also extend to some Bonus Actions but is mainly used for Physical Skills. Limited Use skills can be used as often or as infrequently as the user desires. However, Limited Use Skills can only be used a certain number of times. If a Limited Use Skill states it can only be used 3 times, it has 3 uses before it cannot be used any more. Consider this (sorta) like MP but for Physical Skills (and some Bonus Actions).

However, Limited Use applies directly to that technique. If you have 3 uses of the Paladin Skill "Divine Rend" and 3 uses of the Paladin Skill "Shield Bash", each has a maximum of 3 uses. The uses aren't added to a pool but correspond to ONLY that technique.

Limited Use Skills can be refreshed upon leaving a topic or getting a Long Rest (when in a campaign).

## Rolling at Advantage and Disadvantage

This site does not utilize +/- to hit or +/- to dodge. However, this site DOES utilize rolling at Advantage and Disadvantage.

Rolling something at advantage allows you 2 chances to roll the dice. Rolling at advantage, you roll the dice twice and use the highest result.

Rolling something at disadvantages forces you to have 2 chances to roll the dice. Rolling at disadvantage, you roll the dice twice and use the lowest result. Rolling at disadvantage may also see you missing out on potential critical hits. There are several effects that grant this bonus and negative effect.

If someone has an effect that grants them advantage for a duration and then they are struck with something granting them disadvantage on the same set of rolls, the two effects nullify each other out for the duration. Naturally, if one outlasts the other, it will take effect once the other one wears off.

## Actions Shared by All

These are actions that anyone can perform and aren't limited to certain classes.

 Defend
 Use Item
 Delay

## Death and Stabilization

### Reaching 0 HP

Unless it was agreed upon when the BM is called, all fights can lead to death. Once a target reaches zero HP, they are considered 'Dying'. They are KO and may not make any actions other than trying to succeed at their Death Saving Throws.

### Death Saving Throws

After being KO, you will start making Death Saving throws. Each round, a 1d20 will be rolled by the BM. The user must roll a 10-20 to get 1 successful Death Saving Throw.

If the user doesn't succeed their Death Saving throw, they get 1 failed Death Saving Throw.

If the KO user gets attacked, they receive 1 failed Death Saving Throw.

The KO user must gain 3 Successful Death Saving Throws to stabilize.

### Stabilizing

There are several ways to Stabilize:

1) The user, themselves, successfully gets 3 successful Death Saving Throws

2) Someone else uses an action to perform a Medicine Check (Or Wisdom Check) and must roll a 15 or higher to grant the KO user 1 successful Death Saving Throw

3) Someone else uses a healing spell to give the KO user 2 successful Death Saving Throws.

Once the person is considered Stabilized, they are still considered KO but they don't have any fear of dying. However, if they are attacked again, this must be reaccomplished all over again.

### When this isn't Necessary

If all opponents are KO, the fight immediately ends. No death saving throws will be rolled and it will be up to the winner(s) whether or not they land a 'Killing Blow'. Persisting a battle just to loophole the system will result in firm punishments.

## End of Fight Choices

This only applies when there isn't a 'No-Kill' clause when the fight was initiated. At the end of the fight, the victors have 2 choices:

1: Spare: This spares their life. However, in order for someone to be spared, everyone on the winning side may agree. Someone can still Kill a spared target. This is the default result if a decision isn't made. Be sure to use [Spared] at the end of your post to let others know your intention along with who you spared.

2: Kill: The victors may choose to kill their target, landing a "killing blow" at the very end. This must be done in the first post after the fight has concluded, otherwise everyone is considered Spared. One is allowed to Kill a Spared target. Be sure to use [Killed] at the end of your post along with who you killed.

Killed targets completely lose their character. However, a character cannot be used posthumously without the player's consent. Their character's body can be used for other purposes, but they cannot be used 'as a meat suit', cannot have their character be turned into a zombie, or anything that may demean a person's character without the player's consent.