Battle Stances

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Well, as many of you already know I’m changing the stances a little. From now on there will be six available stances divided into two main groups. The groups are Active and Passive, which also is the name of two of the stances. No Type will now have monopoly on any stance, thou some of the subclasses may have a special stance. I may even make some special stances available as techniques. The new stances are Active, Passive, Offensive, Defensive, Pending1 and Assisting.

Active and Passive
The difference between these two is that some skills works differently, so you need to have a stance in the right group in a battle to be able to use the skill.
The active stances are Active, Offensive and Pending while Passive, Defensive and Assisting are passive stances.

The Active Stance
When in active stance you have one extra action for skill techniques such as acrobatics. This will mean that you can use acrobatics once for only the cost of one action.
You can also use the special action Chase2, this means that if an opponent tries to flee from you after an attack (during the active phase) you can follow him as long as it’s within your movement range and as long as the one you chase is occupying one of the squares around you.

The Passive Stance
When in passive stance you have one extra action to move on, this will mean that your first movement in the round won’t drain any of your regular actions.
You can also use the special action Flee3 which means that you can move away from an opponent when he tries to move against you (during the passive phase). You can only flee your normal movement range, which means that the warriors Athletic won’t count in this matter.

The Offensive Stance
When in offensive stance you have one extra action to attack with. This doesn’t count as a load action, so it won’t reduce the loading time just the attack time.
You can also use the special action Assult, which actually costs one extra action, when you move4 forward and attack your opponent (during the active phase).

The Defensive Stance
When in defensive stance you have one extra action to defend yourself with. This means that you will automatically succeed to defend yourself as long as your CL is 1 and over, but only once.
You can also use the special action Cover5 which will add 1 plus SMI (KN) CL when trying to either parry or avoid an attack.

The Pending Stance
When in Pending stance you cannot move like usual, but you need to use acrobatics if you want to move at all. You can, on the other hand, attack in all phases when you have the initiative. You also have a bonus against sneak attacks6. You also have the special action Interrupt7 which can give you a free action to attack an opponent that tries to do something, or warn your friends of a sneak attack, you can also try to stop an action you can.

The Assisting Stance
The Assisting stance is the most complicated stance. When in the assisting stance you can assist one member of the group by following him/her and as long as you are within his/hers surrounding squares. This affects movement, attack, defense and other things. When you are assisting someone8 their movement increases with one square and their defense as wall as their attack increases with 1 plus your REA (KN). You can also pick up his/hers weapon, or wake them up and so on.
You also have the special action Unify9 which allows you to attack or act at the same time as the one you assist, you loose your chance to act later that round in exchange for acting with your comrade. So if you act before your comrade you can’t Unify.

So, what do you think?

I myself think that this will give the battles more cooperation possibilities and I hope it will be funnier to battle as well. But I will have to test it out more to know for certain. Also know that with this new system new techniques have been made up.

Best regards,
Herid Fel

  1. Avvaktande ↩

  2. You just need to succeed with REA vs. REA ↩

  3. You just need to succeed with REA vs. REA ↩

  4. Your standard movement with no type or class bonuses ↩

  5. Which costs one extra action ↩

  6. REA (KN) plus UPP (KN)  ↩

  7. You just need to succeed with REA vs. REA ↩

  8. You can only assist one at a time, but one can be assisted by many at the same time ↩

  9. Which costs normally ↩

Herid Fel

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2 Responses

  1. Ankan says:
    Thursday October 4, 2007 20:29 at 20:29

    The assisting stance is interesting. It seemed hard to us the earlier passive stance since it was so slow. Now that you can switch fast between the stances I think the old passive would actually work just fine.
    The assisting stance might be hard to balance so if it doesn’t work out; the old one might be what is needed now.

    The pending stance will sure be useful against irritating enemies with the drawback that you will be rather pinned down. Good balance there.
    But I have a suspicion in might be too good since you can attack in all phases. It is good enough if it can be used as defense against a Kremis. But if you go into this stance when you are in close combat you will not have any drawbacks and you will be protected from sneak attack. I don’t like that. You should be more susceptible to sneak attack while in close combat, not less!

    Otherwise it seems good. I want to try them out! Give us battle! Battle! Battle!

  2. Herid Fel says:
    Thursday October 4, 2007 20:42 at 20:42

    Hum…

    I don’t think you actually can say that any of the new stances are even a translation of the previous stances. But I understand how you think in this matter.

    I don’t think that the assisting stance will be hard to balance, it’s a little tricky to use when the limit is that you can only be assisted by one in your immediate vicinity of squares. And as I have said not too long ago to either the group or PB, this new system is adjusted to work out against enemies, not the group. So when you try to fight eachother the same rules may not apply…

    I don’t think that the pending stance is too good. You may attack, yes, and you will be protected for the Kremis attack… almost.

    The Kremis have until now been a very, very, very hard enemy to fight due to the fact that he can disappear and then almost kill you in one blow. So now, if a Kremis want to attack and one in the Pending stance is there, the Kremis will have to use the ability to cast darkness or remove sight.

    This makes it harder and even funnier to play a kremis, when you can counteract him in many ways.

    Hehe, it will be battles, I have avoided it until now due to the fact that I haven’t had time to finish the stances. Now I hope I can use them, improve them, or if needed, nerf them…