An Example of Martial Arts Combat

Anada, the elf fighter from previous examples in this chapter, is finally rescued from the clutches of his bugbear captors. His next adventure takes him to a distant land he has never visited before. Anada returns to his campsite one morning to discover a motley trio of humans helping themselves to his rations. He shouts and charges, waving his sword high. To Anada’s surprise, the unarmed brigands stand their ground.

Anada wins initiative and attacks first; he rolls a 15 and easily hits his unarmored opponent (though there is no critical hit). The brigands are proficient in type B martial arts. They are hungry and decide to kick and punch. The kicks provoke attacks of opportunity from Anada, but the punches do not because a single character can make only one attack of opportunity against a given opponent in one combat round. All of Anada’s attacks hit. The brigand wounded earlier by Anada drops to the ground, reduced to less than 0 hit points. Anada rolls an 18 against the second brigand, more than enough for a critical hit. Anada inflicts 2d8+1 points of damage and decides to foil the brigand’s attack rather than rolling for a slashing critical. Anada merely wounds the third brigand, who can complete his attack. The brigands are 2nd-level fighters (THAC0 19). The brigand rolls a 17, good enough to hit Anada’s Armor Class of 4. (Anada still has his 15 Dexterity and chain mail +1, and he has picked up a shield, which improves his Armor Class to 2. However, he suffers a +2 Armor Class penalty for charging.) The kick inflicts 4 points of damage, 3 temporary and 1 normal. To see if there is a knockdown, Anada and the brigand must make an opposed Strength check. The brigand’s Strength is 14 and he gets a +1 for attacking with a large object (his foot is treated as one because he is using style B). Anada’s Strength of 17 is unmodified. Anada wins the opposed roll and is not knocked down. Now the two brigands make their punching attacks, and both miss.

The next round, the wounded brigand retreats, leaving his comrade to face Anada alone. The brigand decides to block and Anada declares an attack. Anada wins initiative, but the brigand still can block because the block was declared before the initiative roll. The brigand announces that he’s blocking the sword with his arm. There is an opposed roll; the brigand makes an attack vs. Armor Class 4, with a –4 penalty for an unarmed block vs. a weapon. Anada makes an attack roll vs. the brigand’s Armor Class of 10. The brigand rolls a 19 and Anada rolls a 20. The brigand succeeds in spite of the penalty. Anada has succeeded, too, but the attack is blocked because the brigand succeeded with a lower roll (just Anada’s luck). Because the brigand is entitled to two attacks (a kick and a punch), he could attack with a kick now (because he’s already used his punch to block Anada’s sword). The brigand decides he doesn’t want to suffer another attack of opportunity and doesn’t attack.

Anada is entitled to two attacks as well (because he is an 8th-level fighter), and he swings his sword on the next action phase. The brigand decides to allocate his second attack as another block. The DM considers the situation for a moment, since he’s not sure it’s possible to block a sword with a kick. The DM decides to allow the block because the brigand is trained in a martial art. There is another opposed roll, which the brigand loses. The damage is enough to put the brigand under 0 hit points. The brigand who retreated earlier flees, and Anada has won the confrontation.

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