Combat

Combat rules include the mechanics of hitting and missing, turning undead, special ways to attack and defend, poison, and more.

Armor Class
Armor Class (AC) is the protective rating of a type of armor. Armor provides protection by reducing the chance that a character is attacked successfully (and suffers damage). Armor does not absorb damage, it prevents it. A fighter in full plate mail may be a slow-moving target, but penetrating his armor to cause any damage is no small task.

Armor Class is measured on a scale from 10, the worst (no armor), to –10, the best (very powerful magical armors). The lower the number, the more effective the armor. Shields can also improve the AC of a character.

High Dexterity gives a bonus to Armor Class.

Damage
Damage is what happens to a character when an opponent attacks him successfully. Damage can also occur as a result of poison, fire, acid, and anything even remotely dangerous in the real world. Damage from most attacks is measured in hit points. Each time a character is hit, he suffers points of damage. It can be as little as 1 point to as many as 80 or more. These points are subtracted from the character’s current hit point total. When this reaches 0, the character is dead.

Melee
Melee is any situation in which characters are battling each other hand-to-hand, whether with fists, teeth, claws, swords, axes, pikes, or something else. Strength and Dexterity are valuable assets in melee.

Missile combat
Missile combat is defined as any time a weapon is shot, thrown, hurled, or otherwise propelled. Missile and melee combat have the same basic rules, but there are special situations and modifiers that apply only to missile combat.

THAC0
THAC0 is an acronym for “To Hit Armor Class 0.” This is the number a character, NPC, or monster needs to attack an Armor Class 0 target successfully. THAC0 depends on a character’s level. The THAC0 number is used to calculate the number needed to hit any Armor Class. THAC0 improves as a the level of a character increases.

Saving throws
Saving throws are measures of a character’s resistance to special types of attacks -poisons, magic, and attacks that affect the whole body or mind of the character. The ability to make successful saving throws improves as the character increases in level.

Speed Factor
Speed Factors are numbers between 1 and 10. The lower the Speed Factor of a weapon, the more quickly the character wielding that weapon begins their sequence of attacks.

Casting Time
The casting time of a spell is the amount of time the caster is busy doing the motions of casting before the spell’s effects take place. Only one spell per round can be cast. Even if you cast a spell with a short casting time, you must wait until the end of the round before starting your next spell.