A majority of dice based combat systems rely on a very simple combat based around simply achieving a meaningful hit and dealing damage. In D20 systems, this consists of a die roll to hit and a die roll damage each with modifiers. This abstraction can be a little weird in combat when a ‘miss’ equates to the same die roll whether you hit a heavily armored enemy for no damage or miss a dodgy enemy entirely.
Additionally, few combat systems have any means of varying your attack patterns, hitting harder and wilder or slower and more precisely or aiming for vital points. Critical hits most often pretend to fill this role with the premise that a character is always trying to hit something vital but only partially successful.
The Five Magiks system adds a small amount of complexity to allow characters a larger degree of control in combat. Like any tabletop RPG, it still relies on certain abstractions, like a roll to hit and a roll for damage, but it uniquely encourages players to use specific combat tactics according to their character’s ability to aim for vital points, attempt to land a powerful charge attack, feint an enemy, or fight defensively.
Similarly, M5 breaks up the typical armor class abstraction into defense and protection. Protection typically makes a character more easy to hit due to wearing cumbersome armor, but reduces damage suffered. On the other hand, a high defense can make a character very hard to hit. This means that an iron golem is actually quite easy to hit, but dealing meaningful damage can be hard. Similarly, a pixie is nearly impossible to hit, but one good hit could deal serious damage.
What does this mean for the player? Players can be that sharpshooter who always goes for the eyes. They can be the furious berserker who lands devastating charge attacks and bullies their enemies across the battlefield. They can be the heavily armored warrior who shrugs off most damage as inconsequential. While these tropes exist thematically across every gaming system, the rules of M5 allow them to be fully realized in a way that makes the heavily armored warrior better than a lithe fencer in some ways, and worse in others, compared to being essentially the same according to the dice rolls in many systems.
In fact, while the name of the game is Five Magiks, it would be more fair if the combat system of M5 was acknowledged as being an important and unique system of its own. Five Magics and Dynamic Combat doesn’t roll off the tongue, however. A key benefit of this more robust and in depth combat system is that fighters, rogues, barbarians, and martial hybrids all benefit from a wealth of combat choices that apply during character creation, at level up, and during every combat encounter. A character might choose to be a one trick pony, such as a barbarian who rages and charges every battle, or a character could become adept in multiple combat tactics and always strike at their opponent’s weaknesses, such as a highly trained warrior.
Even without ever touching a magic system, Five Magiks offers more options for martial combatants of all kinds on both the offensive and defensive with a much deeper game of attack and counterattack along with limited resources to block or counter enemies in the form of limited use Masteries.
Next time, we’ll talk about Masteries and explore some of the specialization available to fighters and all other characters.
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