Attack Results in GS4
Miss
Either your character simply fails to strike an opponent,
or its armor, shield, or weapon deflected your character’s attack safely away.
Clash
When your character’s weapon strikes an opponent’s arms or
armor, a clash may result. Depending on
the strength of the weapons and armor, the clashing items may be damaged or
broken. The more damaged an item
becomes, the weaker it becomes, thus it is more likely to become further
damaged in a subsequent clash.
Note: Clashes, as well
as Damage and Repair, have been put on hold for now, but they will eventually
be released.
Health Damage
Health damage is caused by weapon hits and aimed spell
hits. It is the amount of damage
inflicted to cause pain, bleeding, shock, trauma, and ultimately death. Each character and creature can withstand a
certain amount of health damage before the total accumulation results in death.
Severe Damage (Criticals)
Every time a blow is struck, a hit location is determined,
and a message is given to describe the amount of damage done, the type of
damage done (a sword hit, a fire attack, etc.), and the area to which the
damage was delivered. As more and more
damage is done, these messages become more severe at different rates, dependent
on the location of the hit. Targets who
are struck in the eye need to take very little damage before they are
stunned. Targets who are struck in the
arm cannot be killed that way (although the arm could be cut off).
The messages and resultant effects will tend to vary,
making strikes to the head, neck, and other critical areas more severe than
strikes to the hand, leg, and those that are less important to sustaining life.
Factors that increase the severity of damage are the base
amount of damage done, the attacker’s Dexterity bonus, weapon weighting, and
special attack bonuses (ie Ambushing).
Factors that reduce the criticals are armor padding and the defender’s
Constitution bonus. Additionally,
heavier armors provide better protection against criticals.
Severe Damage to Creatures
Certain types of unusual creatures are subject to different
types of damage. Mainly, if the creature
is larger or smaller than your average monster, has a different number of limbs
than normal (such as a spider), or is otherwise significantly different than a
humanoid in its form, then the messages given during combat may be
different. Some creatures have
susceptibility or resistance to certain damage types, and may even have
outright immunity. For example, most
undead are susceptible to fire spells, while a fire elemental might actually be
healed by the fire.
Stun
Severe damage to some areas may, in addition to the damage
done, cause the target to be stunned by the force of the blow. A stunned target cannot move or change its defense
options for the duration of the stun. An
attack against a stunned target will also be easier, since the stunned targets
may not easily defend themselves.
Bleeding
Severe damage to some areas may cause bleeding in that area
as well, simulated by a Health Point (HP) damage per round representation. For instance, if a severe blow breaks the arm
of an opponent, that opponent may bleed at 2 HPs per round, meaning that every
round the opponent will take an additional 2 points of health damage until that
wound has been healed or bandaged.
Bleeding will not stop on its own, and your character could
bleed to death if his wounds are not healed.
However, with the TEND command, the First Aid skill can stop the loss of
HP damage due to bleeding if it is successfully applied.
Death
The most severe hits can result in the instantaneous death
of a character even if that hit did not damage the target enough to bring their
Health Points to zero. Some severe hits
can kill in a single strike by critically damaging body parts necessary for
life.
Upon being restored to life, a character will be in a
weakened state, with all stats experiencing a reduction of 40%. The rate of
recovery depends on how the character died and was restored to life.
|
Types of Death |
Stat Recovery |
|
Death with Deeds and
Resurrection |
4% per minute |
|
Death with Resurrection, No
Deeds |
2% per minute |
|
Decay with Deeds |
2% per minute |
|
Decay without Deeds |
1% per minute |
The Cleric spell, Holy Receptacle (325) - Chrism, can be
used to mitigate this weakness, reducing it by up to 50% (to a 20% stat
reduction). This will allow characters to prepare for emergencies, like major
invasions, and be able to get fallen heroes back into the fray within minutes,
if needed, but at a cost of a Chrism gem. Also, characters under level 10 will
recover at twice the normal rate.
In addition to the above, the character's Constitution will
be reduced, with the amount based on the way that the character died and the
number of times the character has died recently. Recent deaths are defined as
those in the last 50,000 experience or 30 days, whichever results in fewer
recent deaths. Players may type EXP to see their number of recent deaths.
Constitution reduction for each type of death is as follows:
|
Type of Death |
Constitution Loss
and Other Penalties |
|
Death With Deeds
and Resurrection |
-1
Constitution per recent death |
|
Death Without
Deeds, With Resurrection |
-3
Constitution per recent death; reduced health, stamina, spirit and mana recovery
rate for the next 2000 experience |
|
Decay With Deeds |
-3
Constitution per recent death; greater reduction in recovery rates |
|
Decay Without Deeds |
-3
Constitution per recent death; reduction in recovery rates as decay with deeds,
effective for next 10,000 experience |
The modifier for recent deaths will be capped at 5; even if
a character has a chronic death problem, the character will not lose more than
5 Constitution for a normal death with resurrection. The cumulative maximum reduction will be
capped at 25. These points will be
recouped at a rate of 1 point per 2000 exp gained. The Cleric spell, Holy Receptacle (325) -
Chrism, may mitigate this temporary Constitution loss, reducing it by up to 2
points. Characters under level 10 will
not lose Constitution for recent deaths.
Characters will also lose any unabsorbed field experience at the time of
resurrection.
There is a means in which characters can recoup these
temporary losses ... it is a puzzle for
the players to figure out. All I know is
to look for the priestesses that wander the towns and that the shadowy dragons
and mounds found outside of town are involved.