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In this instalment of her exploration of all things Mythras, the intrepid Kaitlyn Walden delves into Combat, Healing and Experience...

7 More Differences Between D&D and Mythras

7 more differences? How many differences are there? At the core, about 14. Why are there so many? It’s rather simple. D&D and Mythras are two different systems (d20 and d100). End of story. And for those of you coming from the d20 system, it helps to understand how things run to make life easier.

If you’ve read the first part of this blog series, you know how D&D and Mythras compare in terms of Character Creation. If not, that’s okay. You don’t need to read the first one to understand this one. Just remember, this is all about maximizing the fun of your gameplay.

My name’s Kat, and like you, I am trying to figure out the differences between the systems. Mythras is a flexible roleplaying system that uses skill % instead of difficulty classes (DCs) or target numbers. It provides for greater realism, and in this blog we’re going over the basics of Combat, Healing, and Experience.

But before you get into combat (BTW, I’m a little jealous, you get to fight a chimera) you should learn a few things about what can affect combat.

Reach and Size Matter

Isn’t reach one of those things that only certain weapons have? Yes, in D&D you’re absolutely correct. The only things to have reach are weapons or certain monsters. But what we’re talking about here is not just how you can hit something 10 feet away, like in D&D. Weapons reach in Mythras acts more like a spell’s reach in D&D.

You have access to spells in D&D that range from touch, short, medium, long, or very long. After a certain distance, it’s labeled in meters or feet for D&D, but you get the idea. Weapons act exactly like this in Mythras. The thought is more, ‘how far can you keep your opponent away from you?’ And your chosen combat style will give you a list of what weapons you’re trained in.

I bet you’re wondering how size matters. The size of your weapon isn’t only about how much damage it can do. It’s about how much damage your weapon can mitigate when parrying. When you think about it, taking a dagger (a small weapon) and trying to parry a great axe (a much bigger weapon) isn’t really a feat you can pull off without coming away injured (meaning full damage). But if you wielded a broadsword against that great axe, you’d be more likely to come away with only a few scrapes (or half damage).

Makes more sense as to why reach and size matter, right? Now that we’ve covered that, we should break down how the action economy differs between D&D and Mythras.

Action Economy

Action economy is the key to combat. But being able to remember everything you can do is a lot. Most of the time in D&D, you’re just chopping away at the health tree, praying that you dish out enough damage before your opponent Turns you into paste. With the action economy in D&D, you have the following options:

• Movement–How far you can move.
• Free Action–Small actions, like speaking or dropping an item.
• Action–Usually attacking, defending, or spell casting.
• Bonus Action–Some spells, class feats, drinking a potion, or certain attacks.
• Reaction–Usually attacks of opportunity.

You can do these things in 6 seconds on your Turn. But most of the time, you only have maybe two of these that you can do. You move, attack, and maybe take a potion. That’s your Turn. Then the next person goes.

Mythras Core on page 8 gives you how to calculate them. If you’re using Mythras Imperative the Action Points are fixed so everyone has even footing.

The combat rounds in Mythras are 5 seconds and are a bit more realistic. Your Turn is when you can use an Action Point to enact proactive actions. Finally, when you’re threatened, you can use an Action Point to enact a reactive action.

Here’s a list of things you can do with your Action Points:

Proactive Actions–Attack, Brace, Cast Magic, Change Range, Move, Outmanoeuvre, Ready Weapon, Regain Footing, Take Cover, and more.

Reactive Actions–Counter Spell, Evade, Interrupt, and Parry.

Free Actions–Assess Situation, Drop Weapon, Signal, Speak, Use Luck Point, and Ward Location.

Proactive and Reactive Actions cost 1 Action Point and can be used within the Cycle of combat.

Let’s break it down further and explain a round of combat.

Rounds, Cycles, and Turns.

If that header seems a little confusing, let me explain. In Mythras, combat is broken down into more than Turns and Rounds. It’s broken into Rounds, Cycles, and Turns. Let’s review D&D before we go further since it’s straightforward.

• Your GM announces you need to roll initiative.
• You roll your initiative to figure out Turn order.
• Then you start from the highest number and each person makes the most of their action economy on their Turn.
• After everyone has their Turn, the Round ends.
• Then you’re back at the top of the initiative order for Round 2.

Pretty straight forward. It makes for functional and potentially epic gameplay, but there’s not much in the way of flavour to the combat. Let’s go over how Mythras approaches things.

You’ve already got a great baseline because of your experience with D&D combat. The same concept applies to Mythras, but as I’ve mentioned before, there’s another realistic step to Mythras. Above you read about action economy and a little about Action Points.

With Mythras, you use your Action Points on your Turn in the Cycle of the Round. Broken down simply, it looks like this:

Rounds = The span of time it takes for everyone to exhaust all of their Action Points.

Cycles = The order and span of time it takes for everyone to take their Turn.

Turn = The order in which combatants use 1 Action Point.

Now let’s break this up like we did with a D&D round.

• Roll initiative to determine the order in which everyone takes their Turn, going from highest to lowest. This begins Round 1.
• Cycle 1 begins with the 1^st person in the order taking their Turn by expending 1 Action Point from their pool.
• Then each person in combat takes their Turn to use 1 Action Point, following initiative order, highest to lowest.
• The end of Cycle 1 is once each person in combat has taken a Turn.
• Round 1 ends when enough Cycles have completed that everyone has used all of their Action Points.
• Now you start Round 2 from the top of the initiative order.

Using actions points isn’t just on your Turn, though. If you’re being attacked, you can use a reactive action, which uses an Action Point from your pool. This gives Mythras a back and forth for creative responses in combat.

Since we’ve covered reach, action economy, and how Rounds break down. I think it’s time we rolled initiative.

Initiative Equations

As every RPG player knows, combat can be incredibly entertaining, but also on of the most challenging parts of the game. Especially when it comes to the initiative order. This is something that acts similarly between D&D and Mythras. Each character rolls initiative and adds their bonuses, then you’re given the order going from to highest to lowest. There’s a difference between how it’s calculated in D&D versus Mythras:

D&D rolls like this: d20 + dex modifier = results.

Mythras rolls like this: (d10 + initiative modifier) – Armour Penalty = results.

This is where realism kicks in. A person in a full set of plate armour is going to have more disadvantages in initiative than those who aren’t. Though when you think about it, would you rather be mobile or durable? That’s the significant benefit of using plate armor. You can take hits like no tomorrow, even if you’re a little lower in the initiative order.

Now that you’ve come this far, it’s off to that fight I promised at the beginning!

Combat Simulation: Chimera

Chimera?! Yeah, I know. Chimeras are a pain in any game. I chose it because it was the most similar in action, style, and toughness between both systems.

So, let’s give you that example round.

D&D runs like this: every character rolls initiative, then the round begins at the top of the order.

You’re a 2^nd level human fighter. Your party camps for the night in a cave that is a chimera’s lair. Bad news, right? You roll initiative and wind up in the 3^rd slot right AFTER the Chimera goes. Not too bad. The rogue in the party[LW3] goes first, missing his first attack before using disengage to get away, since the chimera is right on top of him. That’s his Turn.

The chimera is next and sets its eyes on you. It moves forward and attacks you three times. One bite attack that hits for most of your health. One horn attack that misses you, and one claw attack that rolls minimal damage. You’re bleeding, but undeterred, and now it’s your Turn.

You roll your dice (scoring 7) and add your +6 to the roll. 7 + 6 = 13. You look at your GM in hesitation and they grimace with a shake of their head.

“I use action surge!” You declare, rather annoyed at your dice as you roll again. A 10 lands upright and the GM smiles.

“You hit.” Then you roll damage against that seemingly infinite health pool of the Chimera’s. Then your three other companions go after you.

After a grueling battle, you’ve fallen unconscious twice, been revived, stood back up and had the final blow on the Chimera. Walking away rather damaged but looking forward to your well-earned long rest.

You see how, while fun, the ever-triumphant story has no real flavour? Let me hit the rewind button real quick and we’ll swap systems.

Let’s run the same scenario through Mythras.

Here’s a little insight into your party’s Action Points versus the chimera’s. This’ll give you an understanding of why this fight is difficult but not insurmountable.

As your human fighter, you have 2 Action Points to spend during combat with 60% in your combat style, which also has the Defensive Minded trait. This means your weapon is counted as one size larger for defensive purposes and has the chance to mitigate more damage; however, you cannot attack during the Round if you want to rely on this Defensive Minded capability. You’re also wearing a full suit of plate armour, which brings with it an armour penalty of 10 and is deducted from the initiative calculation.

Your rogue friend has 3 Action Points to spend and 72% in his Cautious Fighter combat style. The Cautious Fighter works much like disengage for Rogues in D&D.

Your 3 other friends each have 2 Action Points to use through combat with varying combat styles.

However, the chimera has a significant advantage with 5 Action Points to spend with 75% in its Chimeric Chaos combat style (which also includes attacks with heads, claws and stinging tail).

So, ready to begin?

You and your party are camping for the night and find out the hard way it’s a chimera’s den. You roll initiative, a (10 + 15) –10 = 15. After rolling initiative, your rogue friend made first with 17, the chimera rolled 16, then you at 15 with your three other companions coming after you.

The rogue uses his cautious fighter style and gets some distance from the chimera with the use of 1 of his 3 Action Points. That’s the rogue’s first Turn in the Cycle. The Chimera moves next and decides that the skinny rogue isn’t worth the time, but you, the shiny fighter, looks tasty. It takes its 1^st Action Point to cautiously circle forward to engage with you. That’s its first Turn in the Cycle.

Next comes your action. Your shield is with your kit, and too distant to reach right now, but you do have your sword. Problem is, your sword is a Medium sized weapon, and the claws and bite of the chimera are larger and more powerful. Using your Defensive Minded combat style though, and keeping in mind that your best defense comes when you don’t attack, your sword will count as being Large size as long as you don’t go for an outright attack and play it safe. So you draw and ready your broadsword, which takes your 1^st Action Point from your pool of 2. Your three other companions take their Turns respectively positioning, readying, or loading their ranged weapons. Then the Cycle ends, and you begin a new Cycle with the same initiative order.

The rogue readies his bow, spending the second of his 3 points. The Chimera spends its 2^nd point, slashing claws at you. It succeeds in its attack by rolling under its combat style (75%) and you can either parry or take the blow. Considering the potential damages, you choose to parry. You critically succeed in your roll – rolling under 04, which is less than 1/10^th of your 60% combat style –triggering a Special Effect. You can find a full list of Special Effects on pages 95–100 in the Mythras core rules. Special Effects are triggered when one side gains a better roll than the opponent they’re engaged with, even if the opponent succeeded, and – here’s the genius part – even if you’re defending, which you are. You choose a Special Effect too; it’s not random, so you can select the best one for the situation.

Since you critically succeeded, you choose Overextend to put some distance between you and the chimera, forcing the monster to over-reach: it can’t hit you on its next action. With your Defensive Minded combat style giving your weapon a size boost, you also successfully negate all the damage from the chimera’s claws, since your weapon is a considered a size category larger. You’re now out of Action Points and unable to do anything for the rest of this Round. Your companions each use their last point and either move forward or attack, respectively, before they’re unable to do anything else either.

Now we come back to the rogue and the chimera, who are the only ones with Action Points left. The rogue attacks, damaging the chimera like another of your companions in the prior Round. The chimera takes its Turn and you’re its tasty new chew toy.

For its 3^rd Action Point, the Chimera can’t attack on this Turn, as you over-extended it on your previous Turn. It roars in defiance instead.

But, the chimera has 5 Action Points, and still has 2 points remaining. While it was over-extended on its previous Turn, it can use its 4^th point to swing its tail at you. It misses by rolling over its 75%. With this miss, the Cycle ends once more, and the chimera uses its 5^th and final point. The lion’s head bites at you again and this time succeeds. You have zero Action Points and so cannot defend; you’re going to have to rely on your armour. The chimera also has a Special Effect, and the GM chooses Disarm, as the monster tries to seize your sword and bite through your arm. The bite inflicts 6 points of damage, and the hit location roll is your right arm. Fortunately, your plate armour’s 8 Armour Points absorb the chimera’s bite, and in an Opposed Roll of your Athletics against the chimera’s attack, the chimera fumbles, meaning that it fails to rip the sword from your grasp. This ends the Round as everyone is now out of Action Points. Then you begin Round 2…

You see how much more engaging that makes battle? Instead of having three or four things done to you, you have the chance to react every Turn so long as you have the points available. Combat in Mythras takes more thought and strategy than the luck of the roll. Though lucky rolls and luck points do help.

In this example, I listed two things that are specific to Mythras. One of which was the armour protection and the other was Special Effects. Armour protection is the number of points you need to exceed to start doing damage to the body. Remember each part of you has its own Hit Points. And scoring a better level of success than your opponent triggers Special Effects like Bleed, Flurry, Blind, or Disarm Opponent. Each of these effects adds its own unique spin on how combat resolves.

And while in your D&D combat, you had to kill your chimera. In Mythras, you can just try to incapacitate it, using a combination of damage, Special Effects, and the advantage of numbers. Here’s that sense of realism again. Incapacitating doesn’t mean killing blows. It can mean that they sustained a serious wound and in too much pain to continue fighting? That’s what brings the element of mortality to your character.

Thinking of that, you probably want to know more about how you heal after combat.

Healing

I need you to imagine if your armour wasn’t plate, and those claws went through the armour straight to your gut. You wouldn’t have been standing much longer after that without some serious intervention, would you? You should know that there are ways to heal, even if you and your party sustained injuries like you did in the chimera battle.

A long rest in D&D has a different effect than in Mythras. Injuries magically disappear overnight in D&D. After you end a long uninterrupted rest, you and your companions are fully healed and become fit to fight as if nothing had touched you.

In Mythras, you have a heal rate, based on your Constitution. Magic can affect your heal rate if your GM is running a magical campaign. And here’s where I need to direct you back to the first blog. For now, let’s focus on the ways to heal and what can happen to you. On average, you heal 1, 2 or 3 points per day, week, or month, depending on how severe the injury. But like you should in real life, you need to make sure you aren’t doing strenuous activity, or that healing rate is reduced by 1d3.

In the case above, you came away with battered armour, but relatively unscathed. Your rogue friend sustained some minor wounds and two of your companions suffered serious wounds. Here’s a quick explanation about wound levels:

• Minor wounds: You sustained injury but your HP did not go to 0 or lower.
• Serious wounds: You sustained injuries that reduced your HP to 0 or negatives. But not equaling or exceeding the original HP.
• Major wounds: You’ve sustained a life-threatening injury. This is when your HP equals or exceeds the original number as a negative.

Natural healing starts with both minor and serious wounds, but major ones require first aid (a healing roll) before they can. There are permanent injuries that can occur both in D&D and Mythras. D&D just has a lesser chance and more healing options to recover from ‘permanent’ injuries. However, in D&D and Mythras, the more serious the problem, the less likely you’re going to find someone to fix it.

Mythras has common healing magics for minor wounds. Sorcery (a little less common) for minor and serious wounds and the rare magics for major ones. No matter how small the healing spell, it will always stabilize your character even if you’re about to die.

Thinking of death, shall we talk about one more way to stop it before rolling out XP?

Luck Points

You always remember what caused you to be awarded your first point of inspiration in D&D. But likely, it was your only one for that character. Inspiration is the bane of GM’s existence. You can call it karma, good fortune, or even fate, but Luck Points are there for the unfortunate circumstances that keep plaguing you. You can spend a Luck Point to help alter things like bad dice rolls and killing blows. Luck points are determined by your power characteristic.

Say we’re back in combat with the Chimera and his second bite attack, didn’t miss. Say it hits for max damage (1d6 + 1d8 = 14). 14 bypasses your armour and he would have easily eaten your chest, causing a serious wound. You can spend 1 of your Luck Points and declare that you’re making the serious wound into a minor one. And that’s just one of the ways to use Luck Points. Others include re-rolling skill attempts, or even reversing how you read the d100 result to gain some advantage. For example, a result of 60 is a failure if your skill is 50% - but if you flip that result to 06, it actually becomes a Success, which might be the difference between life or death.

Now that we’ve wrapped up combat and healed with our luck points, let’s talk about that juicy experience.

Experience and ‘Leveling Up’

There are many ways to level up in D&D. Each class has their own set of level up requirements, from spells to ability score changes, feats, and specializations. It’s static and unless you multiclass, you don’t really have a large pool of what to choose from. Mythras uses Experience Rolls. You use experience rolls for a variety of things, like:

• Increasing your characteristics: By increasing this, you can boost all your thresholds associated with the characteristic. This tends to be EXPENSIVE.
• Increasing existing skills: This helps raise your threshold for success in that skill.
• Increasing your passions: Passions are chosen during character creation and are another way to boost your threshold for success if your passion applies to the situation. Alternatively, your passions can also cause blind hatred, which can make your rolls that much harder.
• Learning new skills: Such as new spells.
• Training to improve your current skills: You can train with trainers, teachers, your cult or brotherhood. You can only train one skill at a time.

You see how experience rolls can be more flexible in developing your character? Now you’re all leveled up and ready to get into the world. So what’s next? You keep playing, of course!

Realism or Steamrolling?

You’re armed with combat differences for d100 systems like Mythras and d20 systems like D&D. As I see things, you’ve got an option. Stick with steamrolling or shoot for realism. It’s not just the flexibility of Mythras that makes d100 so appealing. It’s the volley of strategy between you, your friends, and the GM that makes it a good game.

If you’re the type to dip your toes in, check out Mythras Imperative. If you’re ready for a cannonball into the deep end, grab Mythras core.

I'll be back next month with more thoughts and explorations of Mythras! If you want to stay notified, add us to your RSS Feed for notifications on when new Blog posts drop.

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