COMBAT

This section covers combat in Rifts in its many different forms and contains all the modifiers needed for just about any situation.

COMBAT ENTRIES (in alphabetical order)
ATTACKS PER MELEE	ATTRIBUTE BONUSES	AUTOMATIC DODGE	BACK FLIP	BACK FLIP: ATTACK
BACK FLIP: ESCAPE	BLIND / BLINDED	BODY BLOCK / TACKLE	BODY FLIP / THROW	COMBAT BONUSES
CRITICAL STRIKE	DAMAGE	DEATH BLOW	DISARM	DODGE
ENTANGLE	HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT	HIT POINTS	HOLDS	HORROR FACTOR
INITIATIVE	KARATE KICK ATTACK	KARATE PUNCH / STRIKE	KICK ATTACK	KNOCKDOWN
KNOCKOUT/STUN	LEAP KICK	M.D.C.	MEGA-DAMAGE	MELEE / MELEE ROUND
MISS	MISSILE COMBAT	MULTIPLE ATTACKERS	NATURAL 20	PAIRED WEAPONS
PARRY	POWER KICK	POWER PUNCH	PUNCH	PULL PUNCH
RANGED ATTACK	ROLL WITH FALL / IMPACT / PUNCH	S.D.C.	SIMULTANEOUS ATTACK	SNEAK ATTACK
	STRIKE	STRIKE WHEN THROWN	USING WEAPONS

Combat is best resolved in a structured way. I use a slightly different approach to the normal rules. The normal rules say that the first character with initiative attacks, and after parry and damage has been resolved, the defender then gets to attack their attacker, before moving on to the next intiative character and so on. I use the initative determines all system. This means the defender can defend in response to an attack, but can only attack back when it is their intiative order to do so. This means multiple initative winners could strike at the same defender before they have a chance to return any attack. It also means the defender under this situation would have to split attacks against their multiple attackers and may not have any attacks as they have used their melee actions to defend or roll with impact. Defenders always get a chance to parry, dodge, and roll with impact (if available to them) when under attack, as long as they have melee actions still available.

STEPS OF COMBAT:

Initiative
1st initiative attacks
Defender parries or dodges
Any damage is applied
Defender rolls with impact
2nd initiative strikes (follow steps 3-5 for that character). Repeat steps 2-5 for all other intiatives in initiative order
New Round (if needed) Determine new Initiative and go to 1.

1. INITIATIVE
Any time opponents square off against each other, Initiative must be determined.

Initiative = Highest Roll on 1D20 + Initiative bonuses

Successful Sneak attack or Long-Range attack wins Initiative over any other form of attack. If more than one Sneak attack or Long-Range attack then these should roll Initiative between them to determine who of them goes first.

Initiative is rolled per melee Round (15 seconds). Ties are rolled between them to determine who goes first.

Characters that may be performing actions that do not attack, should still have an initiative order to determine when their actions may be interacted with by other attackers (example: a character moving behind cover (using Prowl) may be intercepted by a later attacker as they pass between two hiding places (especially if they fail their Prowl).

2. 1ST INITIATIVE STRIKES
The character with the highest intiative result goes first, and thus attacks first, if that is their intention.

NOTE: Knockout/Stun, or Death Blow attacks must be declared before rolling to strike!

Strike = Roll 1D20 + To Strike Bonuses

Strike rolls of 4 or less (counting bonuses) mean a miss.
Strike rolls of 5 or more mean a hit. Defender can now parry, dodge (or entangle if applicable) to avoid the attack.
Strike must be above any Armour A.R. to hit the character or else if between 5 and the A.R. the armour alone is hit and takes S.D.C. damage.
Strikes against M.D.C. armour damages the armour, and only when the armour is destroyed does the character take damage (although certain attacking impacts can alter this).
Strikes of a natural 20 are Critical Hits (double damage) and can only be avoided with a natural 20 parry or dodge (or entangle if applicable).
Strikes that damage with impact may have their damage reduced by half if a successful Roll With Impact is made.

3. DEFEND
The defender against an attack may choose to Parry (a free melee action if trained) or Dodge (using an available melee action) or Entangle (using an available melee action). Bullets and energy weapons can not normally be parried.

Defend = Roll 1D20 +Bonuses

Defending rolls (Parry and Dodge) must be better or equal to the attackers To Strike roll, Entangle must be better than the attackers To Strike roll; defenders always win ties against their attackers.

Defenders can only defend if they can see the attack coming. Attacks from behind can normally not be Parried, Dodged or Entangled.

Parry
Dodge
Entangle

4. DAMAGE
If the Strike was successful but the defence was not, the attack hits and does damage.

Human physical attacks inflict their normal damage (i.e. Punch = 1D4 S.D.C./Hit Points) Plus any damage bonuses from a high P.S. and/or Hand-To-Hand Combat and Physical skills (such as Boxing).

If it is a hand-held weapon (knife, club, chair, etc.) the attack inflicts the weapon damage Plus damage bonuses from Hand-to-Hand Combat skills and any high P.S. attribute bonuses. All are cumulative.

The same process applies to Mega-Damage level strength (P.S.) and M.D.weapons. If the attacker has ordinary strength, punches and kicks do no damage to M.D.C. structures (armour or such). A M.D. weapon will be needed, in which case no bonuses from P.S. apply.

Augmented and robot P.S. may inflict M.D. with their punches and kicks. See P.S..

5. DEFENDER ROLL WITH IMPACT
The defender can attempt to roll with the impact if the attack is a physical impact from things like a punch, kick, club, mace, hammer, staff, thrown rock, fall, explosion, or similar. In order to successfully Roll With Impact the defender must equal or better theattacker's roll to strike. Roll With Impact uses 1 melee/attack action.

Roll With Impact = Roll 1D20 +Bonuses

Successfully rolling with impact means the character takes half damage.
Successfully rolling with a Knockout Punch means the character takes double damage, but is NOT knocked out or stunned.
Successfully rolling with a Death Blow results in the loss of half of all remaining S.D.C., or Hit Points (if S.D.C. is less than 12, or M.D.C. if the creature is a Mega-Damage being or wearing M.D.C. armour)
Failing to Roll With Impact means the character has used up a melee/attack action and still takes full damage from the strike.

6. NEXT INITIATIVE STRIKES
The next highest Initiative then follows the same sequence of rolls (stages 1-5).

7. ONCE ALL HAVE ACTED - NEW ROUND INITIATIVE
The new round requires a new initiative roll and steps 1-6 followed once again. This continues until one set of combatants is triumphant over the other (one side are all slain, surrender, captured, or flee), or combat ends for another reason (an intervening event or person, or such).

If one combatant has more attacks per melee than others, the combat follows the steps above until the one with the greater number of attacks per melee has the advantage. At that point the one who is out of attacks can only try to Parry. They may opt to Dodge, but each Dodge will take away one of their attacks from the next melee round, leaving them in an even worse situation until soon, all they may be able to do is run and Dodge.