Page Created 28th November 1999
Last Updated 14th December 1999
It was written while taking every step of fantasy battles into consideration. Quite frankly it is bloody awesome. This may not be appreciated at first, but when after years of battling, new phrases and new ways of dealing with monsters present themselves, a true perspective of the depth of work that has gone into it will be gained.
During combat, characters will start the combat what they have been assigned to do. Thus the mages with spells on their automatic cast list will start by attempting to cast the first spell. The same is true of priests and their miracles. All characters not casting spells or miracles will attempt to either engage in missile or melee combat. Re-targeting is quite complicated, but the general idea is that the character will attempt to aid friends, attack the largest threat or the nearest opponent, changing down from spells through missile to melee where appropriate. All these aspects are automatic and dealth with in a logical progression, even though this may not be clear from the final report. You are assured that it has been thoroughly though through in the design.
Even fighters if using missile weapons can benefit from wearing the lighter armour. As long as they flee at the first strike, the damage inflicted by a lightly armoured footmen can be quite surprising. Do the party opt for skirmish tactics or direct assault? Rake them and flee a few times, then come back with swords drawn, or suffer the arrows in an attempt to hack them to pieces? Maybe have some lightly armoured archers covering the heavily armoured swordsmen.
The constriction conferred by the wearing of armour also increases spell casting times. This increase is per spell and not level of spell, so there is little difference in the time to cast the more powerful spells but the fast spells can be badly effected. There is being safe and there is being useless.
As it is only the base armour that affects the character's speed, superior armour is only considered as encumbering as its type. This means that a +5 suit if chain mail is in fact superior to a +3 suit of plate mail even though they have the same defensive rating. The chain mail being lighter allows the character to move more freely and faster than wearing the plate mail. It may even be decided to wear a suit of +4 chain mail to cut down on the time wasted due to the wearing of the bulkier +3 plate mail.
When designing 2nd Age, the aim was to create something more than a set of statistics for the monsters. We really want you to read and enjoy the gory details of the battle. Some monsters have weaknesses that can be exploited if they are known. For instance some may be more susceptible to melee attacks due to thick armour, while archers may well pick off the flying creatures. Slow death magic may not be appropriate to fast lethal monsters that will tear a party to pieces long before the mage has finished the first 'ooh-ee-um'.
A final comment on monsters has to be on the numbers and types that can be found. No longer merely a sozen orcs that can be butchered in a blink of the eye, oh no. Sone entire tribes of monsters will be found, making the fight so much more fun. There are goblins by the bucket load with a named goblin king such as Blogg leading them. These little buggers will swarm over your party sometimes outnumbering even the largest paries. There may be as many as two or three goblins for every character, each biting and thumping, slashing and bashing. At the other end of the scale, there are dragon-whelps and fire-dragons. Even the whelps should not be treated lightly as one can easily tear a dwarf's head from his body in a single bite.
Just in case this was not complicated enough, we have also considered each armour against each weapon as well. Certain weapons such as daggers are very effective against chain mail, while the tethered spikes of a flail will easily whip over a small shield as though it was not there. Maces are designed to hammer great dents into plate mail rather than breach it. Swords and other bladed weapons hack through padded armours such as cloth, while blunt ones such as clubs are cushioned.
There have been additions to the types of weapon and armour bonuses available, we have not increased the limit on the maximum bonus that can be purchased through the alliances. This is still firmly fixed at +3. If you want anything better, then you will have to find them. The best place to start is in the lairs of those newly improved monsters. Alternatively, you can wait until another party has found one and rob it!
Gold by the hoard can not be found with the more powerful monster, as much as 10,000gp, but it must be remembered that this is probably the accumulated wealth of a vast number of other adventurers that attempted the get rich quick scheme. The hoard of magic items and gold may well be lure enough to venture into the furthest recesses of the wilderness, but remember this, the greater the gain, the more likely a character is to die in a sick agonising death. In some cases the death may well be oblivion and not all treasure hoards are guaranteed to have magic items.
When a spell caster is wounded, the spell will be lost and the character will give up all further attempts at spells and move onto either melee or missile combat depending on the nature of the wound or weapons available. This will also be the case if the spell caster has exhausted their list of automatic spells or components. Taking these changes in casting time in consideration with the party order mentioned earlier, it might be good idea to have the mage casting the death spells at the very bottom of the list. This will hopefully ensure that he is left alone long enough to cast the death spell.
The greatest amount of pleasure came whil writing the killing blows. Comments such as 'Bod went down like a two bit whore. The vicious blow smashed his head, exploding it in a spray of brain, blood and bone.' are unforgettable and virtually unprintable.
The addition of new phrases is an ongoing task, so feel free to send in suggestions. It must be stressed through that due to the nature of the formation of the sentances, it is unlikely that the suggestion will remain true to its original form, but will probably be blended with many other phrases. This allows sentences to become unique.
Another aspect to the battle report is the inclusion of names. While we fully appreciate that characters do not wear name badges, we felt that it would that little extra depth if you knew you had just sent the head of Sneezy the Dwarf bouncing twenty feet. So much better than 'the first dwarven fighter was killed.' etc. Even monsters have been given either a name or a description. Thus you may well disembowel the fat smelly orc or pierce the heart of Smugg the Dragon.