Combat Basics
When in combat you use turns that are 12 seconds long. Each turn is divided into 12 one second segments. The segments that you can act on are called phases. Your speed (SPD) determines which segments you can act on. By far the most common speeds are 2, 3 and 4. Here are the segments for these speeds.
| SPD | Phases on these Segments |
|---|---|
| 2 | 6, 12 |
| 3 | 4, 8, 12 |
| 4 | 3, 6, 9, 12 |
If two or more characters act on the same phase, the one with the highest DEX acts first, then the one with the second highest DEX, etc.
All combat starts on segment 12 so all characters will get to act at the beginning of combat.
Fighting uses endurance and nearly always gets you stun damage which you must recover from. At the end of each turn, after segment 12 is complete, you get a free recovery. You recover the amount of endurance and stun that is in your REC stat. If you need more recovery you can use one of your phases for recovery, but it is a full phase action so you can’t do anything else on that phase.
ACTING ON YOUR PHASE
Normally, you will act on your phase in DEX order. You can do more than one action on your phase depending on the kind of action it is.
Full Phase Action - This action takes your entire phase. You can do no other actions on this phase after doing a full phase action. Examples: Moving more than half your RUN, taking a recovery.
Half Phase Action - As expected, this takes half your phase so you can do 2 of these per phase. Once you have done the second, your phase is over and you can do no other actions. Examples: Moving half your run or less, getting your weapon ready if it is not.
Attack Action - This is a special case of a Half Phase Action. It is only a half phase but it ends your phase so once you do this action, even if you haven’t done another half phase action, your phase is over and you can do no other actions.
Zero Phase Action - You can do as many of these actions as you want in your phase, as long as you do them before the end of the phase. That is, before a full phase action, the second half phase action, or an attack action. Commonly used zero phase actions are allocating skill levels and activating powers.
ACTING OUTSIDE OF YOUR PHASE
Actions That Take No Time - These can be done at any time, even on segments where you don’t have an action. Examples are talking and presence attacks.
Aborting - Some actions can be done on a segment before the one your next phase is on. The common example of this is aborting to dodge. This is a very useful action that allows you to abort the action that would take place on your next phase and dodge immediately. This way you can improve your defense before someone attacks you on a segment where you normally couldn’t act. It can also be used on a segment where you can act but the creature attacking you has higher DEX and would attack first. Obviously, once you have aborted, you can take no action on your next phase; you already took it.
Holding an Action - You can choose to wait and not act when you normally would and delay your action. You can delay it until a lower DEX or later segment, or you can specify a trigger that will start your action, for example, when the bad guy raises his head. But you must act before your next phase (the next segment where you can act) or you lose the action.