Firan Survival Guide: Combat Styles

From FiranMUX

Combat styles apply modifiers to your various dice pools (attack, defense, engagement, etc.), combat timers, and archery difficulties. They are used to simulate different strategies in fighting. To see what style you are currently in use the style command. To see an overview of all available styles, use the styles command. To find out modifier information on the different styles, use the combat/styles (with help combat/styles explaining the key) or see the table below. (For a description of the modifiers on the top row (ES, ER, etc.) refer to the styles modifications key at the bottom of the page).

Style

ES

ER

EE

DS

DR

DE

AS

AT

DF

DM

TS

TR

TD

SS

SR

SD

Accurate	-2	+1	+0	-2	+1	-1	-4	+3	+2	+2	-4	+2	+0	-4	+2	+0
Aggressive	+1	+1	-1	-2	-2	+1	+1	+2	-2	+1	+1	+2	-1	+1	+2	-1
Archlong	-5	-5	+4	+0	+2	-3	-4	-3	+3	-2	+0	-2	+2	+0	-2	+2
Archmid	-1	-2	+2	+0	+1	-3	+0	-2	+1	+0	+0	+0	+1	+0	+0	+1
Archshort	-1	+0	-2	+0	-1	-2	+0	-1	-3	+1	+1	+1	-2	+1	+1	-2
Berserk	+2	+2	-2	-5	-2	+2	+3	-1	-6	+5	+3	-1	-1	+3	-1	-1
Defensive	-1	-1	+1	+1	+2	-1	-1	-2	+2	+0	-1	-2	+0	-1	-2	+0
Lightning	+2	-2	+0	+1	-2	+2	+4	-1	-1	-2	+4	-2	-0	+4	-2	-0
None	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0
Passive	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20	-20
Turtle	-2	-2	+2	+2	+3	-2	-9	-9	+6	-2	-9	-9	+1	-9	-9	+1
Zero	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0

TABLE 1: Combat Style Modifiers

Which style to use in a particular situation depends on a number of factors, such as your own combat statistics, the skill and strengths of your opponent, how injured you are, how reckless you feel, and so forth. If you're using a ranged weapon (a bow, throwing javelins, throwing knives), however, you need to be using one of the archery styles (prefaced by 'arch') or no style at all. Additionally, the archery styles cannot be used when wielding a melee weapon. Note, however, that it is still possible for someone to engage you in melee combat while you're wielding a ranged weapon and in an archery style. The training center is good for sampling different techniques against different opponents to judge their effectiveness. The following is my extremely subjective impression of the various styles:

• Accurate has the main drawback of being very slow. If speed isn't of the essense it's not a bad style because of the balance between offense and defense. Accurate style can be quite popular at war season, and it works exceptionally well if hunting animals with a melee weapon (where the drawback of speed doesn't really matter).

• Aggressive is another popular style in melee. It works really well if you're better than your opponent, as the defensive drawbacks won't matter quite as much. When in aggressive style you typically want to be the one who engages for the combat, as disengaging in aggressive can be difficult. Even better is engaging someone with a differing weapon length who is unable to fight back. Similarly, however, being engaged by someone with a different weapon length, when you're in aggressive style, is always a thing to avoid.

• Archlong makes it a whole lot harder to be engaged in melee combat, as it represents standing at about the maximum distance for your ranged weapon. Once engaged, there are defensive benefits in avoiding attacks and getting away (though keep in mind that being engaged with a ranged weapon in hand has its own difficulties, especially bows). Don't try to melee attack if you're engaged in this style as you're at huge attack penalties. Really, the most worrisome thing about this style is that the negative dice to shoot/throw makes it less likely to hit, and more prone toward 'friendly fire' accidents. As this is a new combat style it isn't as well understood by me as some of the others.

• Archmid is a more balanced archery style. There's a bit of a benefit in avoiding melee engagements, since you're still at range, but not nearly as good as with archmid. I tend to favor this style simply because it's a middle ground, and if things don't work out, I can (hopefully) retreat and switch to archlong. Again, this is a new combat style so I'm not as familiar with it as others.

• Archshort is nothing to use if you think you might be engaged. You're easy to engage, easy to shoot, easy to damage once engaged, and hard to disengage. I avoid it unless I'm at war in "mop up" mode and the battle is mostly won, or if I'm truly feeling gutsy, or if the situation is very desperate. Again, this is a new combat style so I'm not as familiar with it as others.

• Berserk is a really good style -- unless you get hit, and then it's really awful. I tend to only use it if I'm truly acting in a berserk fashion. Hits landed can be brutal with the +5 damage, but your defenses are really horrid and it can all be over in a flash.

• Defensive makes hitting people really hard, but keeps you from getting pummeled. It's not a bad tactic at all if you have little hope of hurting your target and are biding your time until you can escape, or just killing time in a battle royale waiting for other more skilled people to make their attacks (though hopefully not against you!). At war, if you're one of those 'picked on soldiers' or especially hurt, going to defensive style can give you a little breathing room, but still allow you to cause some damage to your opponent.

• Lightning I hardly ever use. Maybe it's useful. The decreased damage can really hurt if you don't normally deal out much damage in the first place, and your defenses are a little open. It might be good if you're skilled and powerful, and fighting some pesky fast person, maybe. I've also seen people use it in brawls. This is all just theory, though, since I never really use it.

• None or Zero is what I use when nothing seems to work. Or, I might use it if I want to go slightly defensive, but not fully defensive, and don't want the speed hits of accurate style. Or sometimes, if I just can't pick a style, I go to no style.

• Passive is a style I recommend rarely going into voluntarily, even if you're acting passively. You're completely at the mercy of others with no dice to roll for defensive purposes. In theory even if you're passive you're likely to twitch if someone starts lopping at your head with an axe. This is, however, the style you go into when you're immobilized (captured or stocked, for example) or unconscious.

• Turtle is really, really defensive but you're not going to hit anyone. It's your classic duck and cover. I use this when overwhelmed and waiting for reinforcements, or when cowering under a table or something. You can't use it in battle royales, and typically only the commanding general can use it on the battlefields (where it represents the protection of subordinates).

Styles Key

Abbreviation

Full Name

What it does

ES	Engage Speed	Modification to time to wait before engaging
ER	Engager Roll	Bonus to your roll when engaging someone
EE	Engagee Roll	Bonus to your roll when someone tries to engage you
DS	Disengage Speed	Modification to time to wait before disengaging
DR	Disengager Roll	Bonus to your roll when disengaging someone
DE	Disengagee Roll	Bonus to your roll when someone tries to disengage you
AS	Attack Speed	Modification to time to wait before attacking
AT	Attack Roll	Bonus to your roll when attacking someone
DF	Defense Roll	Bonus to your roll when someone tries to attack you
DM	Damage Dice	Bonus to the weapon damage score
TS	Throw Speed	Modification to time to wait before throwing
TR	Thrower Roll	Bonus to your roll when throwing at someone
TD	Throwee Roll	Bonus to your roll when someone tries to throw at you
SS	Shoot Speed	Modification to time to wait before shooting
SR	Shooter Roll	Bonus to your roll when shooting at someone
SD	Shootee Roll	Bonus to your roll when someone tries to shoot at you

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