Combat Calls

These are pages that give descriptions of effects that require combat calls, either offensively or defensively.

Calls in Combat and Types of Damage

Combat calls are used to convey information about attacks and special abilities characters have. Some calls are used only with attacks, others are used to announce defenses, and some calls just let people know that you benefit from an ongoing effect.

When you make an attack you announce the damage you will deal to another character by making a combat call, such as "3" or "3 normal" both of which indicate that you are dealing 3 points of normal damage. If no number is announced when you attack with a weapon it is assumed that you are dealing 1 point damage with your attack. Some attacks have no calls at all in which case they inflict 1 normal damage. Other types of damage can be dealt by stating the type after the number, so "2 magic" means 2 points of magic damage.

An attack counts as all things called. Sometimes one call can change some properties of other calls attached. For example the poison call makes an attack not a spell even if the other parts of the attack normally indicate spells.

If a player is using a weapon they have not yet identified but they recognize it as being made of a special material because of the weapon's color that player should make the corresponding call when attacking with that weapon.

When an effect allows you to call for something different with a weapon than you would normally call, you must choose which call to use when you make your attacks. If the something different only applies to the "next successful hit", and you choose not to use it when you make that hit, the effect is wasted.

For example if a character who deals 2 damage with each melee attack has a sword that deals "Nature" damage and they apply Scorpion's Kiss to that weapon so that it can deal "poison weaken" damage for the next successful hit. When they make that successful hit against an opponent they can choose to call "2 nature" or "poison weaken". They may not call "2 Nature poison weaken". Regardless of the effect they choose, the Scorpion's Kiss will be expended after that successful hit.

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