Many people are intimidated at worst, confused at best with how AD&D combat works assuming the OSRIC end of how rulings go. There are a ton of interpretations out there based on some confusing or contradictory passages in the DMG for 1e. OSRIC does a decent job at codifying some of those interpretations. I've done some combat examples to help people learn on my discord. If these seem to be helpful to people, I can post more.
AD&D/OSRIC Combat Example
The party:
Level 1 Magic-User: 3 HP, AC: 10, Dagger: 1d4/1d3, Sleep spell)
Level 1 Fighter: 11 HP, AC 4, Long Sword: 1d8/1d12)
Level 1 Ranger: 13 HP, AC: 6, Spear: 1d6/1d8)
The enemies:
5 Goblins - Two with Slings (HP: 4 each, AC:6, Sling stones: 1d4/1d4) , Three with Short swords (HP 5 each, AC: 6, Short sword 1d6/1d8)
Party rolls a 4 and Goblins roll a 3.
Nobody is surprised
Note that the party would have had to roll a 1 because of the ranger. Without the ranger, a 1 or a 2 would have been a surprise.
Declare actions
At this point both groups are aware of each other. The goblins will only see one party member at first and go on the offensive. One with a shortsword will charge, the remaining two sword-goblins will engage in melee, the two with slings will move behind the other two sword-goblins and attack.
The party declares that the ranger will set to receive charge, the fighter will hold action in front of the wizard. The wizard declares that he will be ready to throw a dagger.
Initiative is rolled: The party rolls a 4 for the goblins. The goblins roll a 5 for the party. The goblins have initiative.
Round 1
The round segments count upward. The first two segments are used in charging movement allowing the charging goblins a movement of 24 feet. (movement rate of 6 = 6 feet per segment, charging doubles this).
Then the charge attack happens outside of melee initiative. So segment two the first charging goblin comes in and instantly would attack. However, the ranger's spear is set to receive charge and will impale if hit for double damage.
The Ranger rolls a 15 to hit. The goblin has AC6 normally. However, as it is charging "Creatures with no dexterity bonus become 1 armor class lower", making this an AC7. The spear strikes the goblin and does double damage. This does 8 points of damage to the charging goblin who has 5 and it is impaled and out of the fight.
The two other sword goblins run into the tight corridor and one is engaged in melee. Note that merely engaging in melee does not grant an attack.
The two with slings fire at the ranger. Since the ranger and the goblin are locked in melee, each slinger has a 66% chance of hitting the intended target as the engaged goblin is small and the ranger is medium.
The goblin rolls a 52 and at least shoots the right target.
The sling goblin rolls a 17 to hit. The rangers armor class is 6, so it hits.
Damage is rolled as 3 damage, bringing the ranger down to 10 hp.
The second sling goblins goes for the same, rolling a 27 to miss his goblin friend and attempt to hit the ranger. The to hit roll is an 11 and misses the ranger.
The goblins are done, the ranger is done. The fighter has nothing he can do for now. The Magic-User throws a dagger. His math is inverse to hitting his target (the goblin in front of the ranger) so that he only has a 33% chance of not hitting his friend. He rolls a 27, avoids hitting his friend, and rolls the attack. The roll is a 12.
That would be a miss. The round is now over.
Declare actions… again!
At this point both groups are not only aware of each other, but can see each other.. The sling goblins see the other two party members in the back and decide that the goofy looking guy in a robe has to be dealt with. The remaining two sword-goblins will push melee if able.
The party declares that the ranger will attack with his spear, the fighter will stand in front of the mage hoping to draw some of the missile fire. The Magic-User declares that this will be a good time to use the sleep spell.
Round 2: Fight!
The party rolls a 4 for the Goblins. The goblins roll a 1 for the party. The party has initiative.
Segment 1 - The ranger attacks the goblin in front of him. He rolls an 18 to hit. It’s a hit!
Damage is rolled… damn, a 4. This goblin has 5 hp so it lives with 1 hp. Just kidding. Rangers get a bonus to the damage against Goblins and it is taken down.
The Magic-user begins casting sleep. It has a casting time of one, which means it’ll happen at the end of the segment (segment 1). (Note that people used to AD&D2e, the casting time segment is ADDED to init in 2e, so it happens a full segment later, In 1e, it starts counting at the top of the acting segment)
Segment 1 is now over. Sleep goes off and instantly knocks the remaining goblins out and are murdered quickly after.
This is an excellent example. The only thing that tripped me up was the resolution of the Charge and its interaction with missile weapons. Would the missile weapons not strike BEFORE the Goblin enters melee?
ReplyDeleteMissile weapons would benefit if there was a reaction/attacking adjustment to the initiative. Charging takes as long as the travel time to terminate with 10 feet. Since the Goblins are on segment 4 (and the party is on 5), the charge of only 2 segments happens first.
DeleteIf this was an NPC party and the slingers were halflings with a dexterity of 18, the acting segment of 4 on init would modify to 1 (+3), and then those would resolve first. Charging happens outside of initiative, would take 2 segments, so the 1 would beat it.
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