Editing Combat (section)

= Basic Melee Skills =

To master the art of combat perfectly, one must possess the knowledge in certain groups of skills. The skills that affect one's damage dealt in combat, one's hit chance in combat, and so on, come in groups of increasing difficulty.

== Offensive Skills == 

Melee is, as the name implies, the basic melee combat skill. It is the base for all combat, and should be trained as much as possible. It in helps attacking your opponent, no matter how you are doing it. The higher the skill, the more proficient the character is in melee combat. There are also the basic defense skills 'dodge' and 'parry'.

The next stage of weapon skills are the weapon group skills, representing the different construction of weapons, and their different way of dealing out destruction. There are three different weapon group skills, bludgeoning weapons, piercing weapons and slashing weapons.

Slashing weapons help with swords, axes, and any slashing type weapon, piercing weapons helps with daggers, spears, and any piercing type weapon. Bludgeoning weapons are blunt and crush the enemies, while piercing weapons have sharp points to pierce enemies. Naturally, slashing weapons have sharp edges that cut the enemy into small pieces. These skills represent more refined knowledge of combat than the basic melee skill. Bludgeoning weapons are easy to use and because shields are also bludgeoning, this skill is quite valuable for newly created inexperienced characters.

The final stage of weapon mastery are the individual weapon type skills. These skills, for example swords skill, enable the character to use the weapons even more efficiently and increase hit chances and damage. Most characters should concentrate on a few weapons to master, for these skills are quite expensive.

== Combat and Hit Styles ==

After basics of offensive skills come combat styles. One style might concentrate on waiting for the right moment to strike, while another would concentrate on dealing the most damage possible, at the cost of accuracy and defense.  

Combat styles are the finer things in battle. They represent a more sophisticated approach to combat, enabling a character to concentrate on more essential parts of battle while sacrificing others. [[combat styles | Combat styles]] lists all the available combat styles, but you must have the skill for a particular combat style for it to be of any use. All offensive combat styles increase some offensive capabilities, while defensive styles enhance defense. Most combat styles have certain hit styles that are used specifically with them, further enhancing the combat prowess of the character by allowing them to make extra attacks.

You don't have to remember the combinations to use them, but the list gives you an idea of what skills might be important to you.

Next comes hit styles, which combines weapon types (slashing, piercing or bludgeoning) with combat styles in order to strike more deadly blows.

== Battle Strategies ==

Battle strategies are the final group of skills a character must master in order to achieve the full competence in battle. The strategies greatly enhance the appropriate combat styles, increasing effectiveness of melee skills and increase damage. A character who knows battle strategies has great knowledge of battle, and is a very dangerous opponent.

A player with combat style knowledge can sometimes predict what's going to happen, and can vary the style he fights, but a player who does know battle strategies can instantly perceive the current combat situation, and predict the opponent's possible next move.

== Defensive Skills ==

There are far fewer defensive skills available than offensive skills. The most important and effective ones are dodge, avoid hits, shield parry and weapon parry. Elite infantry and other higher level characters can train other, more effective methods of defense, but dodge and avoid hits are available to most characters, and can easily save your life.

The difference between parrying and dodging is naturally the fact that in order to parry, you need to wield a weapon. Parrying hits completely is hard, and depends on your weapon/shield parry skill. Even with low skill it is possible to parry many hits, but only partially. Avoid hits, on the other hand, always affects the enemies' chances to hit you, and sometimes you can wholly avoid the the hits with dodge. Note, that the amount of carried weight and your combat points greatly affect these skills.

Some more advanced defensive skills include block, which is a last minute effort to reduce the damage that you receive by putting a weapon in the path of the attack. This, however does not stop the attack, but simply reduces the damage the hit causes. The skill avoid hits is quite similar to dodge, gut it requires more wisdom than physical capabilities, and makes you a harder target overall.

Other fairly important defensive skills are determination and contact reflexes. Determination lets you ignore the pain of those really hard hits cause, preventing you from getting stunned. Contact reflexes enable you to reduce the actual damage from those hits by bending with them. Finally, Combat Sense affects all aspects of combat, including your defense.

== Important Melee Skill List ==
Here is a short list of the most important melee skills:

* The basic skill: Melee
* Weapon Groups: Bludgeoning weapons, Piercing weapons, Slashing weapons
* Weapons: Axes, Hammers, Shields, Swords, Spears
* Basic Combat Styles: Defensive, Offensive
* Basic hit Styles: Swing, Cleave, Thrust, Pierce, Flail
* Battle Strategies: Offensive battle strategy, Defensive battle strategy
* Defensive Skills: Dodge , Avoid Hits, Weapon Parry, Shield Parry, Block, Determination, Contact Reflexes, Combat Sense