Sorry it took so long to respond.... My other job had been keeping me busy today...
Hi!
As I am building characters for testing the combat system and the use of some skills, I have stumbled on a few rules. Any help would be appreciated!
Talents
Agile Defense
The character gains an extra +1 to his DEF
for every 5 ranks that he has in his best melee (armed or
unarmed) Combat Skill. This is in addition to the normal
+1 for every 5 ranks in their best melee Combat Skill
that all characters receive.
Does it mean that every character receives a +1 DEF for every 5 ranks? If so, I couldn't find that information in the Combat chapter. I may have overlooked something?
Edit: I found the info on p. 17!
Fantastic!
Do Weapon Specialty stack with Weapon focus?
If you read Weapon Specialty, you will notice that it requires that the character have the Weapon Focus talent for the weapon it applies to. Since one applies to Attack Bonus and the other applies to Base Damage, the term stacking doesn't really seem to apply to my way of thinking, but the two are complimentary Talents and do go together...
The talent Frenzy (and some other ones) mentions "preparing", but I couldn't find the definition of this term. Does it mean "pass your turn" (declare no action other than Prepare and spend 5 AP)?
For Frenzy, preparing means spending the round doing nothing but psyching yourself up to enter that altered mental state described as Frenzy. For other talent, it may mean something else. But in terms of game actions, yes, it essentially means spending the whole round getting ready to get the boost given by the talent.
Armor: does the penalty for wearing soft and rigid leather armor while untrained also apply on Dex and Spd based skills?
Read the "Pen." paragraph on page 35. Soft and Rigid Leather have no penalties if the character is trained in their use, but have a -1 penalty for those who are untrained. Also if untrained, that penalty is applied to ALL Speed and Dexterity based skills and rolls (excluding DEF and Saves).
Surprise: how do opposing skill rolls work? What is the TN?
As Fidoric mentions, Surprise is not really an opposed roll in the normal sense.
Both groups are basically making Perception Rolls, which have no impact upon the other group's Perception roll, with the results from the rolls determining who was surpised based upon the success or failure of the Perception Rolls.
Weapons' table: is there some other utility for weapons' size except for the number of AP spend in combat?
At the moment, it is as Fidoric stated, it is there for certain things. But I like having the weapon sizes because it easily allows for conversion. For example, if you decided to adjust Novus to use the MERP attack tables, having the weapon sizes handy makes it easy to determine the maximum damage that could be done by a given weapon.
I am a big believer in trying to think ahead for later expansion or tweaking if I can.
Slash: I am not sure to see the usefulness of this move. The AB is decreased by 2, but the Base Damage is increased by 2. So this gives a net total of 0. The only interesting part is that is raises the DEF by 1. Was it the intent while designing this move?
Power Strike: it looks like Slash, only a little bit more damage, but also it takes extra time.
As Fidoric points out, the extra Base Damage pays off in the Combat Boons.....
Well Aimed Shot: does the RI gained is cumulative with the number of extra AP spent, or is it a fixed 10'?
It extends the Base Range Increment by 10'. This means that all other increments are therefore adjusted accordingly.
For example, a Sling has an RI of 40, means that the ranges are 40' - 80' - 120' - etc....
Now, if that has been increased to 50, by using a Well-Aimed Shot, then the ranges are 50' - 100' - 150' - etc... (
not 50' - 80' - 120' etc)
