Combat

## Basics

### Initiative

Before combat begins, each combatant must make a Dexterity check (d20 + DEX modifier) to determine turn order. Whoever has the highest total on their check goes first, and combatants are put in turn order based on descending values.

### Actions

Combat in *Knights of the Old Republic* is fast compared to *Dungeons & Dragons,* as every turn only consists of one action. For the sake of gameplay, each combatant has 30 feet of movement to move anywhere they want. In addition, combatants may also choose to spend and action to double their movement to 60 feet by using an action.

Aside from sprinting/disengaging, every class has 3-4 different actions they can perform:

**Attacking** is the primary action, and the main way most classes will deal damage. Each class has a base Attack skill that will roll a d20 + Total Attack Bonus against a target's defense. Along with this Attack skill, each class is granted two Active Feats they can use. Keep in mind that each Active Feat can be used by any class, and they each have their own bonuses and penalties.

**Grenades** come in all sorts of flavours, from the basic Frag Grenade to the hot Plasma Grenade. Grenades are useful when dealing with multiple enemies, as they deal AoE damage to nearby opponents in a 5 foot radius. Some grenades also have bonuses and penalties against certain enemy types of droids, so pay attention to what grenades would be the most effective against your opponents.

**Stims** allow temporary bonuses that can last up to 10 turns, such as increases to Strength, Dexterity, as well as saves. Medpacs act in the same way as stims, but are used for instant healing. How much healing a medpac does is based on the strength of the medpac, Wisdom + x(10 +Treat Injury), where x = medpac strength.

**Force Powers** are the last action a combatant can do, and only applies to classes that have access to the Force. Some Force Powers grant buffs like Force Valour, while others can take a more active role such as Force Push.

### Incapacitation

Once a party member reaches 0 Hit Points, they become incapacitated, and are unable to complete any action. While incapacitated, the player must roll death saves to determine whether they live or die after being downed. In order to succeed to death throw, a standard d20 must be > 10. If a player reaches three successions, they will immediately stabilise with 1 Hit Point. If a player reaches three failures, the character is rendered dead, and cannot be revived. There are two ways party members can help stabilise a downed party member; by either using a medpac on the downed character, or by using the Revitalise Force Power.

### Loot

After winning an encounter, there is a chance to find weapons, credits, and other trinkets that may help in your adventures. Aside from predetermined loot of boss drops, the Game Master will make a d20 roll to see if any loot was gained from the encounter. Most of the time, there will be credits. But perhaps one encounter will drop something valuable.

## Advanced Mechanics

### Critical Threat & Critical Hit

Perhaps one of the more confusing mechanics of *Knights of the Old Republic* is that of Critical Threat. While not the same thing as a Critical Hit, Critical Threat is important in ensuring a Critical Hit. Every character without any bonuses or feats will have a Critical Threat of 20-20 2x. What this means is that rolling a 20 will enter the Threat threshold. If a roll lands within the Threat threshold, the player must make another roll that is higher than the target's defense (d20 + attack bonus > Def). Upon succeeding, the Threat roll, the hit will become a crit, multiplying any damage granted by the hit along with any other damage bonuses. In the case of 20-20 2x, that damage would just be doubled.

How the Threat threshold can be increased is through either weapon modifiers such as Keen, the type of weapon, as well as using the Critical Strike/Sniper Shot Active Feat. Here is a basic table of how the Threat threshold can be increased, although here's how to calculate it without the table.

 Critical Strike
 Improved
 Master

On a standard character, the Critical Threat is 20-20, which means that it requires a roll of 20 to enter the Threat Threshold. As it requires 1/20 rolls to reach Critical Threat, we can determine the Threat Threshold as 5% as there is a 5% chance of reaching that Threshold. There are three ways the Threshold can expand; through the weapons' natural Threat range, by having the Keen modifier, and if a level of Critical Strike/Sniper Shot in used. Weapons will have their own Threshold, which means that they will have a percentage by which Keen and the Active Feats can multiply. With Keen, the Threshold is doubled (20-20 becomes 19-20 due to 5% becoming 10%). Critical Strike/Sniper Shot can multiply it further by 2x, 3x, and even 4x. Because weapon thresholds, Keen, and the Active Feats stack independently, the multiplier can reach a max of 10x (or 50%). In any case, the table above has all of the Thresholds that can be attained so that the math wouldn't be too necessary.

### Dual-Weapon Penalty

Using two weapons or a double-bladed weapon in a fight will cause major attack penalties, but this can be alleviated by the use of the Two-Weapon Fighting Feat, as well as using a Balanced weapon.

 None
 Two-Weapon Fighting
 Improved
 Master

Players who prioritise multiple hits per round over doing one massive hit will likely utilise Two-Weapon Fighting alongside Flurry or Rapid Shot, as they can reach a number of 4 total hits they can do in a round. By having lower penalties with using two weapons, the more consistent you are at getting hits.

### Defense

Characters can only be hit by attacks with weapons when an attack roll is equal to or greater than defense. All characters starting out will have a base defense of 10. This can be improved through the usage of armour, as well as any class and Feat bonuses.

#### Armour

There are three levels of armour: light, medium, and heavy. While light armour may not be as strong as heavy or medium armour in terms of the defense they add, they make up in what's known as a Dexterity Bonus, where the Dex modifier is added to the defense alongside the armour value. The sum of armour and Dexterity bonus will always add up to 9, which means that a character will have a maximum defense of 19 (10 Base Defense + Armour + Dex Bonus) without any other class bonuses. There are armours that don't have Dexterity Bonus restrictions such as Jedi and Sith Robes, which can increase defense immensely in the right builds.

#### Class

There are some classes that grant defense bonuses on top of armour, such as the scoundrel, force classes, as well as droids. The bonuses are listed here in this table:

 +2
 +4
 +6

#### Debilitation

A character will suffer defense penalties when under the effects of debilitation. Debilitation is an umbrella term for combat conditions that render a combatant unable to fight for a number of turns. When a character becomes debilitated, they will receive a -4 defense penalty. In addition, any character lower than level 5 when debilitated will receive a death blow, an automatic hit resulting in instant death, by any melee attack. Dexterity will not be added to defense or reflex saves while debilitated. Debilitated droids will receive a -2 to all saves. Here are the following ways a character can be debilitated:

Sniper Shots
Stun, Disable and Destroy Droid
Force Push, Whirlwind and Wave
Fear, Horror and Insanity
Wound, Choke and Kill
Flash mines
On Hit: Horror, Stun and Paralyze