Basic combat questions

[Rich H]

That's as may be, Rich...

But the object of battle is to win, not stalemate your opponent. You can't ever win a fight unless the sharp part of your pokey object goes into the other guy.

Well, you're making some assumptions here that (a) all battles have the same objectives, (b) the PC fighting defensively isn't holding out (or receiving) the aid of their comrades and so doesn't have to fight to kill/incapacitate and (c) that stalemate isn't ever an objective. I prefer combat with a bit more tactical nuance and interesting narratives than just the black and white 'winning' that you're describing.

[Rich H]

A couple other questions: Will enemies engage an unconscious hero? Let's say a hero was knocked unconscious by reaching 0 endurance. If there are only two other heroes battling more than 2 enemies, will one enemy from the overflow coup de grace the unconscious hero or is that not allowed because enemies only engage heroes in close combat stances? I assume the unconscious hero will be killed in this circumstance.

I'd go with the circumstances and apply some common sense rather than a robotic pre-determined action no matter what... Remember, it takes a full turn/attack for an enemy to administer a Coup de Grace, so even Orcs are going to quickly assess the situation and make a decision as to whether it is better to kill a downed opponent or overrun the rest of the fellowship members. Also, the enemy that has incapacitated (not killed) a PC could well assume they are dead and that they don't need to be skewered and so the enemy may simply not bother doing so. Therefore, go with what seems appropriate for the situation at hand considering these points and any other that you think are pertinent - even out of game reasons like "Bob's invested an awful lot into this character and I don't think it's narratively worth killing him at this point. Him being hurt and near death is enough on this occasion" are perfectly reasonable; after all you're GMing a role-playing game *not* playing a video game; once a character is dead, that's it.

Combat looks brutal. I just ran a mock battle with Lifstan, Caranthir, and my own new character against 6 forest goblins. The company managed to kill two goblins and drive one off by taking advantage of its Craven ability using Intimidate while 2 of the 3 heroes were knocked unconscious. That's basically a TPK.

I don't know the stats off-hand for all those PCs/NPCs but combat can be dangerous - it's certainly why I vary the types of combat the PCs are exposed to and why they are also not regular occurrences in my campaign.

[Corvo]

That's as may be, Rich...

But the object of battle is to win, not stalemate your opponent. You can't ever win a fight unless the sharp part of your pokey object goes into the other guy.
(...)

Put it in another point of view.
Once I got a Barding melee expert paired with a Woodman healer (low endurance, low combat skill).
They found themselves outnumbered (as usual) in battle. The healer stood in defensive stance all the fight so to draw away some opponent from the warrior, to give him the time to dispatch his foes without being pummeled by the horde.
Had the healer gone forward stance, she probably would be knocked out in a few rounds, then the enemy would pile on the Warrior. Same if there is a proficient archer in the fellowship: just holding out is enough to let him do his work.

Put in other words, going forward is useful only if you dish out more damage than you are taking every round: otherwise, you are doing the enemy's work

[SirKicley]

So helpful, Stormcrow, thank you. I forgot about the max of 3 enemies/hero rule, and that perfectly explains the use of the Rearward stance. I totally missed the fact that you perform engagements at the beginning of each round. Cheers!

One more facet that you may or may not have been inquiring about and not been sufficiently explained....

It sounds to me like you were asking what happens if player A kills one of his baddies and wants to remove himself from having to fight another baddie and instead wants to go help his follow companion against his baddie.

Use the Athletics to make a withdrawal if you wish to change engagements.


Furthermore, if you elected to fight baddie Z, and your companion kills baddie Z on his forward turn, when it gets to your turn, you are not (as RAW) allowed to simply attack baddie X. You effectively lost your turn.

I have seen some house rules that allow in these instances for the player to redirect his attack to another with an added +2 on the TN to hit them, or force a Battle Roll first to redirect an attack.

Robert

[gentlemansavage]

Thank you for the additional clarification, Sir Kicley - also very helpful!