Combat maneuvers

Introduction

Combat maneuvers are commands for attacking an enemy or putting yourself into a better defensive position. Each manuever favors certain kinds of weapons and damage types, defensive stances like parry, shield, or evasion, and vary in the amount of roundtime and fatigue required to perform successfully.

Attack

The ATTACK command is one of many commands associated with combat. It's designed to be a perfectly average attack, with no particular strengths or weaknesses. The ATTACK command issues potentially any of the melee maneuvers that is relevant to the non-ranged weapon held including brawling.

It chooses a maneuver that is neutral in nature, meaning it does not potentially choose the "best" attack but one that brings you back into a normalized state of combat related to your fatigue, balance, and position.

While it is good for almost any situation, there is almost always a better option for a specific weapon or specific situation, so once you become more accustomed to combat you may want to investigate using other combat maneuvers.

Offhand Attacks

Your right hand is your main hand and your left hand is your offhand. Use ATTACK LEFT to attack with a non-ranged/non-brawling weapon in your left hand. This will train both the weapon skill and Offhand Weapon skill.

Adding the word LEFT also works with all the other attack maneuvers, for example FEINT LEFT or LOB LEFT.

Targeting Attacks

You can optionally choose who or what you attack by specifying their name after the maneuver command. For example, ATTACK RAT, SLICE SECOND BEAR, or HURL LEFT FRODO.

If you don't specify a target then the game will automatically choose the next eligible living creature. In general, letting the game auto target is preferred. When you specify the target, the game doesn't exclude dead creatures. For example, ATTACK RAT would try to attack the first rat listed in the room rather than the one you're currently facing (unless they're the same) and you may end up trying to attack a dead rat.

Melee Maneuvers

The following table lists details about each attack maneuver. The data comes from the (MANEUVER) HELP FULL command.

See Roundtime for specific weapon minimum attainable roundtimes per maneuver.

Maneuver	Type	Fatigue	Balance	Speed	Accuracy	Most Suited	Least Suited	Least Penalizes	Most Penalizes
Thrust	damage	2 - somewhat fatiguing	4 - balance building	3 - reasonably paced	2 - accurate as most	puncture	slice	parry	evasion
Lunge	damage	5 - extremely fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	4 - slow	3 - more accurate than most	puncture	slice	parry	evasion/shield
Slice	damage	2 - somewhat fatiguing	4 - balance building	3 - reasonably paced	2 - accurate as most	slice	puncture	evasion/parry	shield
Chop	damage	5 - extremely fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	4 - slow	3 - more accurate than most	slice	puncture	evasion/parry	shield
Sweep	damage	4 - fatiguing	1 - very unbalancing	4 - slow	3 - more accurate than most	slice/impact	puncture	equal	equal
Feint	debuff	1 - barely fatiguing	5 - very balance building	1 - very quick	1 - less accurate than most	slice/impact	puncture	equal	equal
Jab	damage	3 - moderately fatiguing	5 - very balance building	1 - very quick	1 - less accurate than most	puncture	slice/impact	parry	evasion/shield
Draw	debuff	5 - extremely fatiguing	5 - very balance building	2 - quick	3 - more accurate than most	equal	equal	equal	equal
Slam	damage	4 - very fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	3 - reasonably paced	2 - accurate as most	impact	slice	equal	equal
Pummel	damage	2 - somewhat fatiguing	3 - balance neutral	2 - quick	1 - less accurate than most	impact	slice	evasion/parry	shield
Bash	damage	5 - extremely fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	4 - slow	3 - more accurate than most	impact	puncture	evasion/shield	parry
Parry	defensive	1 - barely fatiguing	3 - balance neutral	2 - quick	-	-	-	parry	evasion/shield
Dodge	defensive	1 - barely fatiguing	3 - balance neutral	2 - quick	-	-	-	evasion	parry/shield
Block	defensive	1 - barely fatiguing	3 - balance neutral	2 - quick	-	-	-	shield	evasion/parry
Weave	tactical	5 - extremely fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	3 - reasonably paced	2 - accurate as most	equal	equal	evasion	parry/shield
Circle	tactical	3 - moderately fatiguing	4 - balance building	3 - reasonably paced	2 - accurate as most	equal	equal	evasion/parry	shield
Bob	tactical	1 - barely fatiguing	5 - very balance building	3 - reasonably paced	2 - accurate as most	equal	equal	evasion	shield
Grapple	tactical	2 - somewhat fatiguing	0 - extremely unbalancing	3 - reasonably paced	3 - more accurate than most	equal	equal	evasion	shield
Tackle	tactical	5 - extremely fatiguing	3 - balance neutral	1 - very quick	1 - less accurate than most	equal	equal	equal	equal
Shove	tactical	2 - somewhat fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	3 - reasonably paced	3 - more accurate than most	equal	equal	evasion	parry/shield
Punch	brawling	2 - somewhat fatiguing	4 - balance building	1 - very quick	2 - accurate as most	impact	slice	equal	equal
Claw	brawling	2 - somewhat fatiguing	4 - balance building	2 - quick	2 - accurate as most	slice	impact	parry/shield	evasion
Gouge	brawling	3 - moderately fatiguing	5 - very balance building	1 - very quick	1 - less accurate than most	puncture	slice/impact	parry/shield	evasion
Kick	brawling	5 - extremely fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	2 - quick	3 - more accurate than most	impact	slice	parry	evasion/shield
Elbow	brawling	3 - moderately fatiguing	4 - balance building	1 - very quick	2 - accurate as most	impact	slice	evasion	parry
Slap	brawling	3 - moderately fatiguing	4 - balance building	1 - very quick	1 - less accurate than most	impact	puncture/slice	evasion	parry/shield
Bite	brawling	3 - moderately fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	2 - quick	2 - accurate as most	puncture	impact	equal	equal
Butt	brawling	2 - somewhat fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	1 - very quick	3 - more accurate than most	impact	slice	equal	equal
Swing	damage	2 - somewhat fatiguing	4 - balance building	3 - reasonably paced	2 - accurate as most	impact	puncture	evasion/shield	parry
Knee	brawling	2 - somewhat fatiguing	2 - unbalancing	2 - quick	3 - more accurate than most	impact	slice	equal	equal

Throwing Maneuvers

Most weapons can be thrown in addition to their normal combat maneuvers. Weapons which appraise as either Light Thrown or Heavy Thrown are better suited for this purpose and will have higher accuracy. Items that don't appraise as either skill may still be thrown -- this is known as an improvised thrown weapon. If the improvised thrown weapon weighs less than 25 stones then it uses your Light Thrown skill, otherwise if it is 25 stones or greater it uses your Heavy Thrown skill.

• THROW: Moderately damaging attack with normal chances for weapons to lodge.
• HURL: Incredibly damaging maneuver for thrown weapons with a guaranteed chance to lodge for all types of weapons (even blunts). More accurate than THROW command.
• LOB: Lightly damaging, fast attack for thrown weapons that has no chance to lodge with all types of weapons. Less accurate than THROW command.

Advanced Combat Maneuvers

Formerly known as "Charged Maneuvers", these commands no longer take a certain amount of time to "charge up" in between the command being typed and when the action is executed. Like other combat maneuvers, the attack is instant.

These manuevers have greatly increased damage and are more difficult to defend against.

Syntax

MANEUVER LIST - Display all known maneuvers.
MANEUVER (ability name) (target) To use a specific maneuver.
MANEUVER HELP (ability name) To learn more about that maneuver.

Maneuver	Weapon Type	Description
Powershot	Bows, Crossbows, Slings, Blowguns	This preparation includes the necessary aim time, and does greatly improved damage.
Cleave	Small, Larged, Twohanded Edged	This attack is difficult to block with a shield and does a great amount of additional damage.
Crash	Small, Large, Twohanded Blunts	The attack is difficult to block with a shield and does an exceptional amount of extra damage.
Impale	Polearms	The attack penetrates armor with ease and does extraordinary damage.
Twirl	Staves	The attack is very difficult to evade and does extraordinary damage.
Palmstrike	Brawling	The attack is extraordinarily accurate and ignores the enemy's armor.
Suplex	Brawling (grappled)	This maneuver is very accurate, does exceptional damage and ignores the enemy's armor.
Doublestrike	Dual wielding one-handed weapons	This attack is difficult to block with a shield and does a great amount of additional damage.

Notes

• Powershot includes the bonus of a fully aimed shot. Aiming will prevent the maneuver and show the message You are unable to focus on performing a maneuver while aiming at an enemy.
• Powershot only fires one arrow from a bow. If you've dual loaded, the bow will still have one arrow loaded after the shot.
• There is a small chance that any melee advanced combat maneuver may trigger a simultaneous attack with your offhand weapon. Doublestrike guarantees it.
• If the first hit from doublestrike kills the enemy then the combat messaging won't include the second strike.

Cooldown

After performing an advanced combat maneuver there is a cooldown before you can perform the same maneuver again. The cooldown is per maneuver, which means you can immediately perform a different maneuver that's not on cooldown back-to-back. For example, you can CLEAVE with your longsword, change to a mallet, then CRASH while the first maneuver is on cooldown, then DOUBLESTRIKE while dual wielding the longsword and mallet. That's three maneuvers performed back to back. Switch to another weapon type, like staves or polearms, to keep the momentum going.

• Cooldown on charged maneuvers is 90 seconds for non-Barbarians.
• Barbarians who pass an Expertise check versus the enemy's defenses will have the cooldown reduced randomly to between 45 to 55 seconds (reduced by 35-45 seconds). If you pass the expertise check to get reduced cooldown then you'll see the message "With expert skill you end the attack and maneuver into a better position."

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Additional Information

• Attack command
• Maneuver command