So far, all of our battles have been between two combatants, Mutt the Hill Dwarf and Grunthar the Orc. But what happens if Mutt convinces a couple of his clansmen to attack the scouting partly led by Grunthar? In this case, we will assume each combatant is a PC or NPC with full stats. Combat takes place just like it did between two fighters.
Initiative: Each character rolls initiative as described under the rules for single character combat. The GM should jot down each characters final initiative value.
Declaration: Starting with the highest value, each combatant describes their actions to the GM. As always, if an action needs to be secret, players can use notes. The actions available are generally the same as in single combat. However, in group combat, a character has the option of falling back away from the battle to prepare a spell, trap or just coordinate the fight. They can still be a target for distance weapons but it would take at least one full round for an opponent to close in for hand to hand combat. This could be modified if the character has found a better observation point (up in a tree, in a cave, etc.) Note: players who back out of battle but still participate (firing attack spells, shooting arrows, etc.) still get XP for the battle if their side wins.
Action: Just like single combat, each action takes place in turn moving from the character with the highest initiative to the lowest. One notable exception is the Sacrifice Maneuver. If a teammate has been successfully targeted and a hit roll made but before damage is rolled another player can choose to dive in the way of the attack if they have remaining actions. The Sacrifice maneuver will use up all of the saving characters remaining actions for that round. The saving character must make an Agility roll and takes the full damage in the same location as original target. The saving character can attempt a block but at 1/2 minus the penalty for multiple actions.
Mutt and his kinsman Jager are overrun by Grunthar and his scouting party. Since they are outnumbered, the fight is going badly for them. Jager is severely wounded and barely able to fight. Unfortunately, Grunthar's also notices this and decides it's time to eliminate Jager for good. Grunthar makes a successful hit roll with his battle ax. Jager attempts to block but fails the roll. Mutt called for 3 actions during the Declaration phase and has already made two of them. He sees the ax flying towards Jager's already wounded head and decides to sacrifice himself to save his kinsman. Mutt leaps between the two (making his Agility roll). Since Mutt has one action left, he can attempt to use it as a block. He needs to roll under half -30 of his Club/Ax skill. With a Club/Ax rating of 70, he would have to roll under 5 (1/2 of 70 is 35 then minus 30 because this is his third action). Mutt fails this roll and thus, takes the full damage to his head.
Another item to note is that generally, one character cannot be attacked by more than 4 equally sized opponents per round. Assume if a character is totally surrounded, there is only enough physical space to fight on each side. If there are more than 4 opponents, they must either use distance attacks or wait their turn. Note: if the attackers can fly, a fifth attacker can attack from above. If all combatants are in the air, a sixth opponent could attack from below. Also, size makes a difference in the number of attackers. Each size level lower doubles the number of attackers per side. Conversely, each size level higher cuts the number of attackers in half.
For example, Mutt is on his way home from the mines after a hard day of work when he is ambushed by 6 goblins. Never one to run from a fight (especially not against goblin!) Mutt readies his pick axe. Since goblins are in the same size category as dwarves (Medium) and all combatants are ground based, only 4 can attack at once. However, Mutt can only attack the four that are currently attacking him. Once Mutt dispatches one of the original four, another can take his place.
If Mutt would have been ambushed by a pack of 8 Abyss Ants (Small), all 8 could attack him every round since two can fit per side. If he was attacked by Dictics (Tiny) instead of Abyss Ants, 16 (4 per side) could attack at once. Or, even worse, 20 Flame Mosquitoes (Tiny) could attack at once since they can also attack from above. Conversely, if he was attacked by Dracogriff (Large), only 2 could attack at once because they are too large to all crowd around him at one time. Given that there is enough room to maneuver, at least two opponents can attack a target at once. Note that if Mutt could back himself up to a wall, it would eliminate one side of attackers. If he could find a corner, it would eliminate two sides of attackers.
As mentioned earlier, the limit on the number of attackers only applies to hand to hand combat. If an opponent has a distance attack (weapon or spells) they can still attack. Note: if the attack misses or the attacked character dodges successfully, there is a 50% chance that the attack will hit an opponent on the other side of the intended target.
If the characters get into larger scale battles with faceless hordes of the enemy, it is recommended to group all like opponents into one group. Roll initiative once for the large group and have them declare the same actions. This greatly simplifies the GM's responsibilies in large scale combat.
Proceed to the Next Chapter Special Combat Rules