[Saber Cherry]

The way I modelled it in the simulator, which I'm pretty sure corresponds to the game, is like this:

A unit with a short weapon attacks a unit with a longer weapon. The following stuff happens, in this order:

ATTACK

If the weapon requires ammo (like a lance) and is out of ammo, the attack ends.

If the enemy has awe and the attacker fails the awe roll, the attack ends.

The enemy makes a repel attempt, and if successful, the attack ends.

If the attacker is no longer alive or awake after the repel attempt, the attack ends (repel attempts can kill or knock out the opponent with fatigue).

Now, the attacker gets to actually attack:

Ammo is reduced by 1 for weapons that use ammo.

The weapon gets one strike at the enemy per "hit". In other words, a flail has 2 hits and gets 2 strikes, but is only affected by 1 repel attempt.

Each strike, successful or not, lowers the enemy defense by 1 for the rest of the round.

REPEL ATTEMPT

The enemy attempts to repel with its longest weapon. This weapon cannot be ranged and cannot use ammo (like a lance), and it must be longer than the attacker's current weapon.

The enemy makes an attack roll versus the attacker's defense. If this fails, the repel attempt ends.

The attacker makes a morale save. If he fails, the repel attempt ends successfuly - the attacker loses his attack.

Otherwise, the attacker attacks anyway. So the enemy takes a strike at the attacker, calculated using the strike routine (a new attack and defense roll), but physical damage is capped at 1. A multi-hit weapon like a flail used in a repel only gets 1 hit.

Note that repel attempt strikes do not cause a defense loss like normal attacks do.

STRIKE

Attacker's attack roll minus enemy's defense roll must be greater than 0, or the attack fails.

If the enemy is ethereal, the attacker must pass an ethereality roll (25% chance, unless he is using a magic weapon) or the attack fails.

If the enemy is lucky, the attacker must pass a luck roll (50%).

In this case, the attacker gets to do damage, equal to the damage roll minus the enemy's protection roll. HOWEVER... if this is a repel strike, the maximum damage is 1.

If the damage is 1 or greater, the attack was a success, and additional damage (paralyze, poison, and fatigue) are added.


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....so, does all that make sense? As far as I can tell, repel attempts can only do 1 physical damage, but they can still do the full poison, fatigue, paralyze, soul-slay, or whatever else kind of damage. So I like to use long, poisoned weapons=) And repel attempts are affected by luck, etheriality, armor-piercing, and attack rating (high attack = better repel chance). A high damage or armor-piercing or magic weapon will typically be more likely to do damage in a repel attempt... but the damage will still be capped at 1 unless the weapon has special effects.

[ December 30, 2003, 20:36: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]