Building Bhakashal - Crunchy Combat
In Bhakashal I offer two systems for combat, one vastly simplified, one with all the bells and whistles.
You can of course customize.
Today I thought it was time for a bells and whistles example to show you what you can do with this system at full speed. Bhakashal retains the idea of an abstracted 1 minute round. But within that round it has a lot of flexibility. Every round you can perform and roll for a non-combat action or a combat action, and in every segment but the segment your action culminates, you can move.
You roll an initiative score for each individual, based on their planned action
Initiative Score: Base d6 + weapon speed / spell casting time modifier
Record Initiative Score
Proceed segment by segment, each PC’s and NPC/Monster’s Initiative Score is the segment the action culminates, for example:
Segment 1
All actions with an initiative score of 1 culminate simultaneously
All participants who are not acting in this segment can move their movement rate in feet per segment (eg move of 12” is 12’ per segment) if so desired
Segment 2
All actions with an initiative score of 2 culminate simultaneously
All participants who are not acting in this segment can move their movement rate in feet per segment if desired
Repeat until segment 10
An attacker may Hold Their Action until any later initiative score segment.
An attacker may Change Their Action any time before it culminates, providing the new action doesn’t require too much time to execute (e.g. switching weapons as opposed to digging out a map).
When you run this at the table you may notice that the tactical situation changes a lot, and you might want to scratch out the combatants on a piece of paper. I tend to do this in my head, but not everyone will enjoy that. If you find it too laborious you can use the simple system with no movement during combat, but I prefer the dynamism of a constantly shifting battleground and the tactics it inspires.
There are some other conceits of the system, your initiative score is the precise segment when your action for the round culminates, but that action might change as the situation changes.
If you end up in a place where you can’t execute your attack (e.g. you are no longer near enough to your foe), then you lose your attack, so movement during the round can be tactically costly. Breaking off while in melee range does allow an attack of opportunity against you, so moving is always risky once engaged.
Players will learn that quickly enough.
I’ll run a full example, with all criticals, weapon effects, spell times and components, movement and positioning, all rules in play, to give you an idea of what this is like.
Short story: it’s fast, it’s deadly. Once you decide on violence, it’s pretty much the quick and the dead, with spoilers from magic, armor and weapon types. Due to weapon criticals and combat criticals, reduced overall hit points and WvrsAC adjustments, weapons are extremely deadly in Bhakashal, armor is very effective, and speed is crucial all around. Very few combatants wear the heaviest armor unless they are higher level and have retainers, as the setting is extremely hot and humid, so heavy armor gives you both greater potential for exhaustion and initiative /movement penalties.
The math is addition and multiplication in some cases, all straightforward, you track distances when combatants move, and everyone has a chance to move around their action segment. As a result, when two combatants are in melee and not trying to run away from each other, combat simplifies a lot.
Finally, two important things: first, this is not a “side a hits, side b hits, repeat” example, I will show off the system by using the ability to move around, to show how flexible and fun this can be. Moving around means situational modifiers change, so it’s not as simple as some might like.
Second, combat in Bhakashal is not to be “gotten through”, it is to be savored. If you want something that doesn’t involve rolling or adding modifiers, this isn’t for you. Unlike many actual plays I have seen and many tables I have sat at, Bhakashal, though theatre of the mind based, is different in this sense: initiative sequences the actions for the round, and then you roll to execute those actions. The sequencing is part of combat, the rolling to resolve is another part, and the narrating of the result by the referee is the last piece. All three pieces are enjoyable and give players room for agency and skill. I don’t want to rush that. The saving grace of this is that combat is extremely deadly in Bhakashal, so fights don’t last long…
To work through an example, I turn to a PC who made a journey in the “example of play” part of my previous post on mounts. We pick him up on his way back to the city. All dice results in this sample encounter were rolled.
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Mharal the Ivory is an Emberi (human) Akhaada Combatant Primus Warlock at House Magnar. This means he regularly fights in the arena representing his House.
He is traveling through the marshes back to Bhakashal after a successful fantastic component exchange with another warlock. In return for some grell tentacle he was given hair from a yeti, which he hopes to use in his strength spell for enhanced effects.
He is riding his amaran (giant white tiger) mount, “Julki” and has a journey of 80 or so miles ahead of him.
On their way to intercept the warlock are Toru Quarn, a mercenary unaffiliated with any House at the moment, he is normally a competitor in the arena, and he is a high enough level Mercenary to have three henchmen, Borgam Ruk (LV:3 Saan - Lizardfolk - mercenary), Layam Chama (LV:2 Emberi mercenary) and Cuthross Kima (Lv:4 Saan mercenary). The henchmen all ride giant frogs (Tulures) , Quarn rides a Raggam (giant boar). They have tethered these near the ambush spot but are not mounted when it happens.
Quarn has been promised a steady supply of potions, the potions duplicate a Protection from Normal Missiles spell, with 3 doses in each, from the House Jin warlock Hosag the Bronze. Mharal has humiliated a few House Jin warlocks in the arena recently. Hosag wants Mharal either roughed up or taken out (either will do) outside of the arena, to send House Magnar a message or at least throw him off his game. Quarn wants that potion supply for obvious reasons, and ambushing / slaying a House Warlock is his ticket.
We join where they meet on the road, at approximately the 12 hour mark, the weather is clear and it is dusk.
The Encounter
This is a planned ambush at a particular part of the road, so there won’t be any parley or negotiation, and we move directly to a roll for surprise. Since Toru and his men are hidden and prepared, Mharal’s odds to be surprised are 3 in 6. Mharal rolls a 2, and is surprised. In Bhakashal, surprise is always 1 free action on the surprised party by each of those doing the surprising. An encounter distance roll is made and the mercenary and his men are 30’ away when they get their surprise attack.
Note that surprise in Bhakashal, like 1e AD&D, is very deadly, the encounter could quite easily end in the surprise segment if I roll particularly well. If Mharal is lucky, however, he might escape with his skin.
Toru and his men are flanking the road, Borgam and Cuthross are together on either side, staggered slightly to avoid friendly fire, Toru and Layam are slightly further down the road at a spot where the woods almost touch the roadway. They attack when Mharal is between the two groups but closer to Toru and Layam. Essentially this:
Borgam Toru Layam
____________________________________________________________________
Mharal
_____________________________________________________________________
Cuthross
They all get one attack unanswered thanks to surprise. In a normal initiative round I track things segment by segment, in a surprise round I just go through each attacker in whatever order I prefer, same for the players when they gain surprise.
Borgam and Cuthross choose to shoot missile weapons, Toru and Layam are going to charge in on foot.
All attacks in Bhakashal are on the Attack Table:
Attack Table (d20)
1-14 - miss
15-19 - hit for ½ damage
20-24- hit
25+ critical hit
I have Borgam and Cuthross attack first
Borgam Bonuses
Weapon: +2 to hit with crossbow
Situationals: +2 for a rear shot, no distance modifier for short range
WvrsAC: Crossbow adjustment against “no armor” is +3
Armor Class: Mharal is AC 7, so +7 is added
Total: +2 +2 +3 +7= +14.
Cuthross has all the same mods = +14
Borgam rolls a 3 which becomes a 17, Cuthross gets a 8 which becomes a 22. Both are hits, one for half damage. Rolled damage for the first is 2 (halved to 1) and for the second a 2 again, so 3 hp damage total.
Mharal has 19 HP, so he is now down to 16hp. Damage is interpreted by the referee, such light damage in this case is described as near misses/grazing, etc.
Referee - “Julki’s steady stride has almost put you to sleep several times, you haven’t seen anyone on the road for miles, and the trees surrounding the road are dark and quiet. Then, a whistling noise, Julki springs at the sound, and you feel a rush in the air by your ear, then a twang in the dim light, and your sleeve is torn as another missile grazes you. ”
While the bolts hiss by, Toru and Layam charge the warlock on his amaran, still in the surprise round. They can charge at 2x MV, so 18’ per segment, at 30’ distance they reach Mharal well before the surprise round is up.
Layam was instructed to distract the amaran, so stabs with his spear at the beast, hoping for a chance to blind it or otherwise incapacitate it.
Layam Bonuses:
Weapon: +2 to hit with the spear
Situationals: +2 on charge
WvrsAC: Julki is “none” for WvrsAC purposes, spear gets a +3 to hit
Armor Class: Julki is AC 6, so +6
Total: +2+2+3+6= +13
Layam rolls a 5 which becomes an 18, a hit for ½ damage. He rolls a d8 for the spear, gets an 8 and does 4 hp damage to the amaran, who has 40hp, enough to get her attention.
Referee - “A tall, red haired emberi armored in breastplate and greaves charges out of the nearby wood with a spear, Julki has begun to bolt and the warrior is perfectly positioned to stab the amaran, however she sees him soon enough and pivots, and all the tall warrior gets are a few droplets of blood and a tuft of hair from near her shoulder, followed by a snarl of rage.”
Toru charged the warlock, one critical effect of a bardiche is dismounting, he tries for a critical hit
Toru Bonuses
Weapon: +7 for bardiche
Situationals: +2 for charging
WvrsAC: +3 vrs “no armor”
Armor Class: +7
Total: +19
He rolls a 10, so 29, which is a critical, so he gets the damage and dismount. Direction of fall is rolled and Mharal is knocked to the other side of his mount from Toru.
He takes 2-8 +3 damage, a total of rolled 3 + 3 = 6hp damage, reducing Mharal to 10 hp, just above half. The fall to the ground from Julki is from 5’ (Amarans are 5’ at shoulder), anything less than 10’ gets no damage (otherwise d6 per 10’)
Referee - “A man in heavy armor with an iron mask charges you, he heaves a bardiche, striking towards your midsection to gut you. At the last moment you pull back so it only slices a burning line across your belly, but you plunge off of Julki and fall to the ground, bleeding.”
SURPRISE ROUND OVER
Initiative
Mharal is on the ground with Julki between him and his masked assailant. The other warrior stands in front of Julki with a spear in hand. Two saan are reloading crossbows in the trees 30’ behind them.
Each attacker rolls a d6 and adds weapon speeds/casting times to their roll, lowest roll goes first.
Layam rolls a 4+3 = 7 with his spear
Borgam rolls a 2+3 = 5 for his crossbow, he can now only shoot at Julki from his angle unless he wants to deal with a cover bonus to AC.
Cuthross rolls a 3 +3 = 6, he can shoot at the warlock directly
Julki rolls a 3+1 = 4
Toru has to run around the Amaran to get at Mharan, he rolls a 5 + 6 = 11 for initiative for the Bardiche and will be attacking next round. He runs to close the distance in this round.
Mharal’s player knows he is pressed, and Bhakashal has a “luck rule” that allows you to spend your HP to alter to hit, damage, saving throw and initiative rolls, so he chooses to spend hit points to alter his initiative roll, you can do a point per point spend to reduce your roll, taken from your HP. So Mharal rolls a 2, and the player spends 1 hp to reduce that to a 1, add 1 for the spell he is about to cast, and his Initiative Score is 2. He is now at 9 hp, just under half, and a Jack is turned up to indicate that Mharal takes a 1 point penalty on everything until he heals up.
I roll to see if Toru is going to burn some HP to speed up here and reduce his initiative roll, and he does, spending 4 hp to reduce his score to 7. Note you can only reduce the roll, not the modifiers. He chooses to run around the back of the amaran.
Mharal acts on segment 2 so he will be able to execute his spell without interruption.
Initiative Score order by segment:
2 - Mharal
4 - Julki
5 - Borgam
6 - Cuthross
7 - Layam, Toru
Segment 1
Movement
- Toru runs 9’ around Julki
Segment 2
Actions
- Mharal shouts the “follow” command to Julki, then spell casts. In Bhakashal you roll to see if a spell goes off successfully or not, Mharal’s odds are 77%, he rolls a 54, and is successful. Mharal takes a grasshopper leg and says the word, “szöcske” three times over, snapping it, crouches down and leaps 30’ away, landing near the edge of the woods slightly ahead (remembering that the crossbow shots had come from behind). When he lands he speaks the words again, snaps another grasshopper leg, and leaps another 30’ down, landing by the forest’s edge, 60’ away.
Movement
- Toru continues to run around Julki, to find the warlock gone when he arrives
Segment 3
Actions
- Julki is an immediate threat to both Toru and Layam, so they don’t run off and risk an attack of opportunity against them, and they take no actions in this segment. Remember that their attack action in this round culminates on the segment indicated by their initiative score, they cannot attack at any other point in the round, so the referee has to interpret that in deciding on their actions.
Movement
- Mharal moves 24 feet per round when running, he travels 10 feet to the woods and is now in the trees for 75% cover and -7 to hit. Since he is traversing into a new terrain I don’t give him his full running move of 24, he starts the next segment just in the woods
Segment 4
Movement
- Julki does not attack this round as expected, instead she follows the command Mharal gave and changes her planned attack and jumps on her attack segment, springing over their heads, landing 50’ away (a regular tiger can jump around 25’), 20’ from the forest’s edge. Mharal is now 12 feet into the woods (the woods halve your doubled running movement rate).
- Cuthross moves 12’ out from the woods into the road for a clearer shot.
Segment 5
Actions
- Borgam shoots his crossbow at the fleeing warlock, he is lining up a shot through the trees as he is still in the forest. Mharal is around 114’ away.
Borgam Bonuses
Weapon: +2 for crossbow
Situationals: -7 for cover
WvrsAC: +3 vrs “no armor”
Armor Class: +7
Total: +5
He rolls a 6 and gets a 11, a miss.
Referee - “The Saan’s bolt flies through the air and sinks into a tree”
Movement
- Toru and Layam charge towards the woods, 60’ away, this gets them as far as Toru can run as Layam won’t run ahead. Toru walks at 9” so runs at 18”, 18 feet per segment. So they move 18 feet towards the warlock.
- Julki runs 30’ in this segment, and enters the woods.
- Mharal is now 24 feet into the woods
Segment 6
Action
- Cuthross, who is on the road, shoots at Mharal
Cuthross Bonuses
Weapon: +2 for crossbow
Situationals: - 7 cover
WvrsAC: +3 none
Armor Class: +7
Total: +5
He rolls a 7 and gets a 12, a miss. Since his comrades were running towards his target and potentially in line of fire, I roll to see if one of them is hit. I roll randomly and Layam is the potential target, in Bhakashal you then “invert” the “to hit” roll by subtracting it from 20, and add modifiers to see if it is a hit.
The 12 gets inverted to an 8.
Cuthross Bonuses
Weapon: +2 for crossbow
Situationals: +2 back shot
WvrsAC: -1 metal armor
Armor Class: +7
Total: +10
So 18 total, a half damage hit, he rolls 2-5 and gets a 5, doing 3hp damage, Layam has 7 hp, reduced to 4, just above half. So no penalties, but it’s a major hit.
I roll a d6 for hit location on the bolt,
1 - Head
2 - Torso
3 - Left arm
4 - Right arm
5 - Right leg
6 - Left leg
I roll a 3.
Movement
-Julki is now at 15’ to the forest
- Mharal is at 36’ in the forest
- Layam and Toru charge another 18’ now at 36’ of 60’ distance to the forest
Referee - “The lizard man draws a bead and shoots, the crossbow bolt hisses through the air and takes a chunk out of the charging red headed emberi’s arm, he screams and curses as he stumbles forward”
Segment 7
Actions
- Layam and Toru’s actions come now, but they are not close enough to engage in melee and do not want to switch to missiles, so they hold their actions
Movement
- Layam and Toru, instead of acting, move for this segment another 18’ putting them at 54’ feet, 6 feet from the forest’s edge.
- Julki is now at 30’ in the woods
- Mharal is 48’ in
- Borgam runs out to Cuthross and they charge together as their shooting is not working out. Together they move 12’ of the 90 feet to the forest.
Segment 8
Actions
- Toru and Layam charge into the woods, like the two before them they just emerge into the woods and now they have to find Mharal and Julki to determine which direction to run. The pair are around 50 feet or so in, it’s at night, and both Toru and Layam are Emberi and have 120’ infravision, so they spot the huge amaran and the warlock as shimmering outlines of red, blue and white as they flee. Toru signals to his henchmen to flank the warlock.
Movement
- Cuthross and Borgam charge another 24’ to 48’ of 90 to the woods
- Julki and Mharan are now 45’ and 60’ feet in.
Segment 9
Movement
- Toru and Layam bear northwest, and they move to put Mharal between them and the amaran. He and Layam cover 9’ in this segment due to the terrain.
- Cuthross and Borgam charge another 24’ to 72’ of 90’ to the woods
- Mharal continues moving West another 12’ to 72’, Julki at 60’.
Segment 10
Movement
- Mharal shouts at Julki to come to him, which the amaran does, Mharal mounts Julki.
- Cuthross and Borgam charge the remaining 18’ to the edge of the woods, they will enter in the next segment.
- Toru and Layam cover another 9’, and are now approaching Mharal from the northwest; they have kept their distance and are 60’ away, just newly positioned.
END OF ROUND 1
Round 2
At the beginning of the round, Cuthross and Borgam are 72’ away from the pair, Toru and Layam are 60’ away. Cuthross with his bastard sword and Borgam with his broadsword are now in the woods and see Toru and Layam moving into place. On a signal from Toru all four charge at Mharal and Julki, presenting them with two fronts to choose from, they move at 12’ and 9’ per segment. Mharal begins to cast his spell.
In Bhakashal, on charge, you can ignore initiative
Weapon to Weapon - longest weapon strikes first
Weapon to Spell/Missile - use WS for missiles and CT for spells, and determine how far the charging party has advanced in that time. In this case the spell goes off before they reach him.
Toru and Layam charge, they cover 9’ per segment. Mharal’s spell takes 3 segments to culminate, in that time they cover 27’, so they are 33’ away from Mharal when the spell fires.
At 12’ per segment, Cuthross and Borgam will be 36’ away from Mharal at that time
Mharal has a 77% chance of successfully casting the spell, he rolls a 13 and it is cast. Mharal chooses to target Toru and Layam, he holds the iron rod with mercury on it in his fist ahead of him, and speaks the words, “A vasból rozsda, a fémből por lesz”, three times slowly, the rod glows a dull green as he does so, pulsing each time he speaks the words, then a swirling ball of green and black fire engulfs his hand, it dances on his fist and then he pulls back his hand and brings the sphere forward, hurling it through the air towards Toru and Layam. It explodes when it reaches them, engulfing them in a sphere of emerald and ebony.
All of the metal objects on both warriors have to roll a save versus lightning as if they were soft metal, so a 16. Layam rolls for his armor, sword, arrowheads, spearhead and dagger. He rolls a 2, 18, 5, 11 and 13, only his sword remains.
Toru rolls for armor, broadsword, bardiche, battle chain, and two hand axes. The sword gets a +3 on the save (for it’s highest bonus) and the armor gets a +2 bonus. He rolls a 9+2=11 for armor, 14+3=17 for the sword, a 12 for his bardiche, a 19 for his battle chain, a 2 for his first axe and a 15 for his second.
Only his battle chain and sword survive by the saves, Toru decides to have his armor save by spending 5 hp to increase the 11 to a 16, everything else metal on his person melts away to dust, corroding in seconds.
Mharal chooses to parley with the masked man, he brandishes the iron bar in his hand and shouts, “You want another? Maybe this time you lose your armor and Julki tears you to pieces. Tell me who sent you and you leave with your skin.”
In Bhakashal this situation prompts an encounter reaction roll. Toru is not affiliated with a House, and Mharal is, but Toru is working for a rival Warlock, so their Houses are opposed.
Encounter Reaction Table
01-05 - Violently hostile, immediate attack
06-25 - Negative, immediate action
26-45 - Negative, no action
46-55 - Neutral, uninterested, uncertain
56-75 - Friendly, no action
76-95 - Friendly, immediate action
96-100 - Enthusiastically Friendly, immediate action
Standard Modifiers for NPCs
PC is a member of an opposed faction: -5%
PC’s have an obvious spell caster: +10%
PC’s are outnumbered: -10%
PC’s level: +2% per level*: +12%
Mharal’s CHA modifier: +15%
+22% modifier, Toru knows the warlock has other tricks up his sleeve, and that cat will keep them busy long enough…
Rolled 08, so 30% - Negative, no action - this needs to be interpreted, perhaps Toru wants to pause the fight and reassess. The warrior holds up his hand, telling his henchmen to stop when Mharal speaks.
The masked man snarls, “There are four of us, any one could end you with a single blow, surrender now and we won’t leave you dead.”
Mharal laughed, “I can end you all before you can get past Julki, you aren’t that good, how good could you be, no House would have you, you come before me with a mask on, you have no honor.”
Toru growls and orders his henchmen to attack. They are going to charge so there is no need for initiative again.
Mharal decides to have Julki jump
Toru charges with his sword
Layam does the same
Cuthross does the same
Borgam does the same
Mharal waits until the charging Toru and Layam are 15’ away (2 segments) and has Julki leap, landing 50’ away, well out of melee range.
The warriors turn and Toru orders Borgam and Cuthross to spread out, take up crossbows and fire. He charges ahead up the middle with Layam so they won’t accidentally hit them.
Initiative
Toru - Charging
Layam - Charging
Borgam - rolls 5 + 3 for crossbow = 8
Cuthross - rolls 2 +3 for crossbow = 5
Julki - rolls 2+1 = 3
Mharal - rolls 2+3 = 5
Julki’s attack is jumping on to Toru, so I treat her like a missile attack against a charging opponent, otherwise it would be the longest weapon strikes first when the charging foe arrives. Toru can’t reach Julki before she attacks
Segment 3 -
Action
- Julki leaps and attacks
Julki Bonuses
HD: +7 to hit
Situationals: -2 to Toru’s AC for charging, +2 to hit against him for Julki leaping
WvrsAC: -1 for claw against Toru’s metal armor
Armor Class: -1
Total: +9
Julki rolls a 11, 8, 6, 2 and 15, which become 20,17,15,11 and 24.
Toru has 17 HP
Claw 1 - full damage, 2-5, rolled 5 - 12 HP remaining, just below 1/2, so the referee turns over a Jack to indicate that Toru is -1 on his rolls until healed
Claw 2 - half damage, 2-5, rolled 4 becomes 2 - 10 HP remaining, 2nd blow while under 1/2 HP means the referee turns over a Queen and Toru is -2 on rolls until healed
Bite - half damage, 2-12, rolled 9 becomes 5 hp - 5 hp remaining, as the third blow while under 1/2 of max HP, the referee turns over a King and and Toru is -3 on rolls until healed
Back claw 1 - miss
Back claw 2 - full dice damage - rolled 4 hp - 1 hp remaining, as the fourth blow taken while under 1/2 of max HP, the referee turns over an Ace and Toru is -4 on rolls until healed.
Toru is left with 1 hp and -4 on all rolls
Referee - “The fierce amaran springs forward with a roar, landing atop the Bhakashal warrior, her two claws rip into his back, tearing into the joins of Toru’s armor, her teeth sink into Toru’s shoulder, penetrating the chain mail around his neck, sending arcs of blood through the air as she tears at his flesh, and one of her back claws rakes down Toru’s chest, eliciting a horrific scream from the powerful warrior. Blood is dripping from the amaran’s claws and teeth as he hits the ground.”
Segment 4
Action - Layam is charging, and Mharal is now close enough for a strike, but Mharal is using his naginata, which is longer than Layam’s longsword, and on charge, strikes first.
Mharal Bonuses
Weapon: +5 for Naginata
Situationals: +2 mounted against ground target, -1 for exhaustion
WvrsAC: -1 metal armor
Armor Class: +7
Total: +12
Mharal rolls a 9, which becomes a 21, a regular damage hit. He rolls 4 hp from the naginata, +4 damage, Layam has 7 hp.
Referee - “With Toru’s body beneath Julki’s claws, the red headed emberi warrior attempts to slash at you with his sword, but your naginata sings through the air and cleanly slices open the mercenaries neck.”
Segment 5
At this point I roll a morale check for the remaining warriors. Toru is as good as dead, Layam has his throat slit… and the henchmen roll well.
Loyal to the end.
Action
- Mharal moves Julki off of Toru, Borgam and Cuthross forgo their crossbow attacks and attend to their master and Layam, not knowing if they will live. Borgam attempts to bind Layam’s neck wound, Cuthross attempts to help Toru to his feet.
- While they do this Mharal takes out a small length of rope and a burnt shoe heel from his front right belt pouch, he holds one in each hand, and says the words, “Ezzel a sarokkal, égett veszem, Tedd kígyóvá ezt a zsinórt”, slowly. The rope begins to grow and shoots out towards the men as they attend to Toru and Layam, 20’ in the distance, and wraps around them.
He then calls out to them.
“Who do you work for, tell me and I will leave you here alive.”
Toru coughs blood and says nothing, neither do his men.
“Your silence is your death”, Mharal speaks and orders Julki to attack.
Initiative
None of Mharal’s opponents can attack as they are currently bound, so there is no roll for initiative.
I roll randomly to see who Julki attacks first on the leap, I get Cuthross.
Julki Bonuses
HD: +7 to hit
Situationals: +2 to hit for leaping, +4 for bound targets
WvrsAC: -1 for claw against metal armor
Armor Class: +7 (Cuthross)/ +8 (Borgam)
Total: +19/+20
Julki rolls a 7 for 26 and a critical with her first claw attack, the critical is cleave, so it does full dice damage (5 hp) to Cuthross, second roll is a 10 for 29 another critical and full dice damage claw attack for 5 hp damage, two front claws hit so two back claw attacks, the first is a rolled 9, another critical, full dice damage is 8 hp, enough to slay the saan mercenary. The second back claw attack can’t be redirected as it is associated with the two front claw attacks. Her last attack, however, is her bite, and it may be directed at anyone in melee range, she rolls a 17 for that, for a final critical and full dice damage of 12 hp to Borgam, slaying him instantly.
Referee - “The amaran leaps and lands on the men, his two claws tear the first saans back badly and he howls in agony, then one of her back claws tears his front open, disemboweling him. As the saan crumples to the ground Julki bites the other mercenary in the throat, tearing it out, he twitches, gurgles and dies.”
Mharal turns around on Julki and stops beside Toru, recalling his rope into his hand. He looks down at the mercenary, his henchmen all dead or dying, him bleeding out from multiple wounds.
Mharal speaks - “Choose now, death or dishonor, I care not which”
The mercenary coughs and spits blood, pulling off his mask.
“Death before dishonor”.
Mharal smiles grimly, “Death before dishonor, you die a warrior with a naked face”.
He plunges his naginata into the fallen fighter, stabbing him in the neck where Julki bit him.
Mharal contemplates taking one of the bodies back to extract information from the dead with magic, but he doesn’t know if there are any more men in the woods after him, or mounts about that might attack, and he leaves immediately.
He was bleeding from wounds and his stomach was on fire, but he lived, and he would have to find out who sent these men to slay him…
Analysis
1. If you choose to use the optional WvrsAC rules then you will find that fighting gets a lot deadlier. Bhakashal is a game of cumulative bonuses, and WvrsAC adds to existing bonuses to tip the results a bit higher. What they offer you is increased tactical flexibility and greater deadliness, choice of weapon matters, choice of armor matters, and martial characters who have more weapon choice benefit the most from this.
2. Armor is weighted towards the upper end of the AC range, full plate fighters are rare, one of the reasons I ran this example with Toru was precisely that he’s a rare example of a heavily armed warrior. In real historical cases soldiers have chosen to wear less armor than they could, and less effective armor, as it’s lighter or less restrictive, particularly in warmer climes. Bhakashal defaults to lighter armor for most combatants, so the combination of lighter armor and WvrsAC bonuses on top of regular bonuses makes weapons all the deadliler.
3. HP are, on the average, much lower in Bhakashal, which means that any fight can be a short fight, even for a high level character. The entire skirmish depicted above took essentially 3 rounds, 3 minutes of fighting. The beauty of this system is that you had surprise, charging, missile fire and spells, fleeing, seeking cover, tactical decision making, coordinated attacks and a lot of moving around all happening in a short window. Fast and furious.
4. You might object that the warlock here had the “help” of his mount, and that the mount was decisive. However, mid-to-high level warlocks, just like mid-to-high level mercenaries, don’t ever really travel alone, they have henchmen, or charmed monsters, or animal companions, or fantastic Mounts. The warrior in this example, a mid level mercenary, had three henchmen, levels 4, 3 and 2. Part of being mid-level is to have a crew with you. Status and repute brings those who hitch their wagon to your star.
5. The critical system in Bhakashal allows players to make up criticals, pick a critical from the list, or take the critical associated with the weapon. Once players start to get a feel for their odds of producing critical hits, they start to use them more and more. I pinched this idea directly from Talislanta and I think it’s genius. In this example I stuck mainly to weapon criticals, but it is important to know that you can draw on general combat criticals as well, or just come up with your own idea.
6. If you are playing with younger players one option to simplify this for them (though it is not an option I use in my games as the players WANT to do the work so they can know what their PC can do), you can remove the job of adding the situationals, WvrsAC modifiers and AC to the roll, e.g. all the player has to do is to roll the dice and add their weapon modifier (which represents the total of bonuses for STR, magic and proficiency), then the referee would add any situationals, WvrsAC and AC to the roll. I personally prefer to download this to the players, but it is an option to do it yourself.
7. The flexibility of being able to move around can be completely ignored by many players, they just want to get to a target and fight, not to dance around like a boxer. And PCs/NPCs moving over multiple segments does take some getting used to. However, once you have got it down YOU WILL NEVER GO BACK. Combat with movement has a fluidity and unpredictability to it that is addictive.
8. I know many people don’t like it, but individual initiative is another one of the secret weapons of Bhakashal. Forget all the nonsense about it “wasting time”, the variability introduced by having everyone have their own initiative score shakes things up. Combat is “boring” because it is predictable, make it opaque and chaotic and watch how they hang on every word.
9. The HP system in Bhakashal is key to making this all work. Being able to spend HP on hits, damage, saving throws, initiative and AC, while reducing overall HP, is a perfect risk/reward mechanic. Frankly the elegance of it at the table is game-changing. It doesn’t break the game, but it does allow for the occasional nudge of results that aren’t too far off. This combination of low frequency and small impact means that it comes into play often enough to be useful but not so often that it changes the feel of the game.
10. Monsters and animals are VERY DANGEROUS in Bhakashal. Many have multiple attacks per round, all have all their attacks happen on the same initiative score segment, and all natural attacks are Weapon Speed 1, monsters and animals are FAST and FEROCIOUS. Monsters also have more HP than PCs comparatively, as monsters don’t “cap” like PCs do at 6th level and beyond. This was an intentional design feature to ensure that animals and monsters are VERY DEADLY. Thus, animal and monster allies are a significant part of the game.
For reference, here are the stats for our combatants.
Participants
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Bhakashal Spells
Morshoggoth’s Evasive Lanyard (Alteration)
Level: 3
Casting Time: 3 segments
Range: 1”
Duration: 1 turn/level
Area of Effect: 1 rope
Components: V,S,M
Saving Throw: none
The evasive lanyard is designed to aid a mage on the run in an urban environment. When cast upon a 1 foot length of rope (or greater) it grows to 60’ and is given the following properties:
- For the duration of the spell it functions as a rope of climbing, it will be: “strong enough to support 3,000 pounds. Upon command the rope will snake forward, upward, downward, or in any other direction at 10’ per round and attach itself securely wherever desired. It will return or unfasten itself likewise. In any event, one end of the rope must be held by a character when it performs such actions. It can also be commanded to knot itself, and this will cause large knots to appear at 1 ' intervals along the rope; knotting shortens the rope to 50' length while so knotted.” The rope may be used to climb walls, or to swing from place to place.
- The rope can be shrunk and held in one hand, and the warlock can then jump forward up to 30 feet (good for jumping roof to roof), and can run at charging speed for as long as desired for the duration of the spell.
- Once during the duration of the spell it can be used as a rope of entanglement for M or smaller opponents only. The rope has an AC of 5 and takes the warlock’s HP of damage to destroy.
The material component of this spell is the original length of rope and a piece of a burnt shoe heel.
Sjin’Saar’s Corrosive Decay (Alteration)
Level: 3
Casting Time: 3 segments
Range: 1” per level
Duration: instantaneous
Area of Effect: up to a 1/2” rad sphere per level
Components: V,S,M
Saving’s Throw: special
Once described as the “battle mage’s fireball”, Sjin’Saar’s Corrosive Decay causes all metallic items in the area of effect (soft or hard) to save against lightning or be instantly corroded and fall apart. Note that the save versus lightning is switched, soft metal saves as hard and hard metal saves as soft, as soft metals are generally more resistant to corrosion. Iron based Magic weapons rust apart when they corrode. Magic metals weapons and armor gain a bonus on their save equivalent to plus of weapon or armor. Additional powers (e.g. magic swords) give +1 save bonuses for every power. Rings, amulets and other soft metals, being made of gold or silver, gain a +1 for every power. Iron wands/staves/wands are also impacted. Items that make their saving throws take no damage. The material component of this spell is a rod of iron and a drop of mercury, and it generally manifests as a swirling ball of dark green fire that explodes to fill the AOE.
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