Community:Fallout: V.A.T.S/Combat

Fighting in the post-nuclear wasteland
"Violence never solved anything" so the old saying goes, and while it certainly can't solve everything, it can certainly solve most problems this side of the Apocalypse. Inevitably, whether your party wants to or not, they'll get into a fight, and this section details the mechanics and options of combat players have.

Initiative
Time is combat is divided into turns (generally considered six seconds long). During each turn, characters can take multiple actions of their choice by spending Action Points (AP). This total amount of AP refreshes at the beginning of each turn, and unspent points do not carry over.

Fights are not often stared fairly or obviously, so in the case that one or more combatants initiate an encounter without the other side being fully prepared, the combatant(s) initiating combat get a full turn of actions before their opponents can respond. After those actions are over, or when combat is initiated in a situation where all opponents are combat-ready, then initiative is rolled. Whether or not combatants(s) are able to foresee an ambush like this ahead of time, is an opposed Perception roll VS. the Sneak skill of the ambushing party. Any character that succeeds against this Sneak check, does not lose their first turn and may roll initiative immediately.

Initiative rolls are 1d10 + AGI + PER. Whoever has the highest roll acts first, the combatant with the second-highest roll acts second, and so forth, continuing until every party with initiative has acted. At that point, the turn is over, everyone's AP refreshes, and a new turn begins.

If any combatants roll the same total initiative, the one with the highest Agility acts first. If their Agility scores are identical, the one with the highest Luck acts first. If both combatant's Luck is still identical, they act simultaneously. The Game's Overseer should keep track of the sequence of simultaneous actions. i.e. if a character using an AP 2 weapon is going simultaneously with an enemy throwing an AP 5 Grenade, and the first character deals enough damage to kill the enemy in the first two attacks, then the enemy will die before they had time to arm their Grenade and throw. For ease of gameplay, a Game Master may opt to roll a single initiative for all enemy combatants using the average of their Agility scores.

Activate PipBoy Function
Characters who possess a PipBoy may with to activate features of their PipBoys during combat at times. Turning on or off the Pipboy’s light, accessing its Automapping program or any other installed or native program, costs 1 AP. This includes the most common in-combat Pipboy Function, activating the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.). V.A.T.S. acts as a penalty reduction system for the turn it's activated. By defualt, V.A.T.S reduces up to 30 points of penalties per turn, and can be all used for one attack or spread out over many. i.e. The party is being assailed by raiders, and one of them has a Fatman! Not willing to let the raider get a chance to shoot, Joyce wants to fire her Anti-material rifle at the trigger mechanism on the weapon and cause it to go off in the raider's hands! Her sniper rifle mean's she would take no range penalties, but attempting to hit such a small part of the weapon, incurs a -70% penalty to her shot. Joyce decided to first activate V.A.T.S. for 1 AP and chooses to use all 30 points of reduction to make the shot at only -50%. Finally, Pipboys included a “heads up display” that allows a character to locate and assess targets. (Alert the wearer of targets within their 5 times their Perception in meters, including hiding creatures that are not completely obstructed by cover(stealth boys count as total cover) Activating the H.U.D. costs 2 AP but will last until turned off. Turning off H.U.D is a 0 AP action. AP COST: 1AP Activate Core Pipboy Function (i.e. V.A.T.S.). AP COST: 2AP Activate Pipboy H.U.D.

Attacking
The most common action any combatant will take is simply attacking with their weapon until their foe stops moving. The AP costs for attacking varies wildly depending on the weapon being used, and are listed in the weapon’s description on the Tiered Weapons List. AP COST: Variable

Basic Item Use
Using an item from your inventory, such as a Stimpack or chem, costs 2AP. Readily available items, like equipping holstered items (usually weapons) or worn clothing (like switching hats, or masks) costs 1AP less than the above cost. AP COST: 1AP Equip (weapons) or use Holstered Items AP COST: 2AP Equip (weapons) or use an item stored in inventory

Basic Movement
The Basic Movement action is the most common way to manoeuvre around the battlefield. Terrain conditions can impose a bonus or penalty to the character’s effective Agility for the purpose of movement rates. If moving through snow, for example, they would receive a penalty depending on the depth of the snow. If a character is carrying more than her Carry Weight allows, their effective Agility is reduced to 1. Carrying more than 150% of a character’s Carry Weight allowance will reduce their effective Agility to 0. If a character’s effective Agility is reduced to 0, the character cannot move. AP COST: 1AP for moving (END + [AGI x 2]) in meters.

Dodge
Once a player has decided they completed enough actions, they may use any amount of remaining AP to gain a dodge bonus that last until the start of their next turn. For AP spent this way, your opponents suffer a -15 penalty to hit. You can spend AP this way up to your Effective Agility score. AP COST: 1AP per -15 Penalty imposed.

React
If you know something coming ahed of you, or at least have good idea, but your not sure you'll be able to do anythung until after it happnes? Delaying and action by spend AP for a React can be really useful. Once a turn, you can choose to hold any single action of yours an dtie it too a specifc trigger. For instance, a carvan guard might be staring out into the night, watching a lonely stretch of roadway. If they became aware of multiple enemies but didn’t have a line of sight to them, they could chose to hold their action and attempt to react as enemies became visible while dashing from cover to cover. Changing what you are reacting to, or changing the react action, adds an extra 1 AP to the action and a -10% penalty to accuracy. Changing multiple times accrues cumulative penalties. AP COST: Variable Costs the action being held.

Reload
Unfortuanley, every gun runs out of ammo eventually, even melee weapons stop working if they have the Powered tag. Replacing those batteries, or slapping in a fresh magazine into your assault rifle takes time, but the amount of AP it takes, depends on the type of Weapon. AP COST: 1AP for single shotguns or guns with clips, drums or speed loaders. AP COST: 2AP for Revolvers, Bolt-Action, Lever-Action, and Pump-Action guns without speed loaders. AP COST: 3AP for Heavy Weapons, and powered Melee weapons

Unjam/De-glitch a Weapon
Whenever you critically fail at using most weapons, they jam or freeze, and must be fixed before being used again. Small guns and Big Guns are counted as having been Jammed whereas Energy weapons and Powered Melee weapons count as having been Glitched. While Unjamming a firearm can be difficult, it is often more apparent how to fix than a complex Energy weapon, as such they have different AP cost to fix. AP COST: 2 APTo Unjam a Small Gun or Big Gun. AP COST: 3 APTo De-glicth an Energy weapon or Powered Weapon. In the case of weapon Glitching, Gauss always counts as an Energy weapon.

Advanced Combat Actions
The actions above may be the most commonly used, but that does not mean advanced combat actions should be ignored. Their use cases are often times more specific and sometimes risky, but with the wide variety of shit you can accidentally step-on in the Wasteland, it's good to have a few tricks up your sleeve.

Charging
It’s possible to cover even more distance if you don’t care about turning or dodging, and when you Charge, you cover 5+END + (AGI x 2) in feet in a straight line per 1 AP spent, but you must take 2 AP if you wish to safely slow down enough to do another action. Until your next turn, anyone attacking you gets a +10% accuracy bonus per 1 AP you spent charging. Instead of slowing down safely however, you can chose to throw your momentumn into an opponent for greater damage. Any Slam, or Flying Tackle immediately preceded by one or more consecutive Charge movements, you may add your END + (AGI x 2) as damage provided that you moved at least one full Charge. However, you take half that amount as Non-lethal Damages to yourself. Power-Armour protects against this damage. Charging is exhausting; the maximum number of successive charge actions you can take is equal to your (END / 2, rounded up). AP COST: 1 AP Per 1 +END + (AGI x 2) Meteres charged in a straight Line AP COST: 2 AP To stop a charge

Climbing
See that mountain? You can go there! But cna you fight there? Sure you can, it'll just be a little morew diffuclt. You can climb up STR+END+AGI/3 in meters for 3 AP assuming you can find places to grip. The Overseer may require an Agility or Survival roll to find purchase on trees, rocks, statues, and other objects not explicitly made for climbing. AP COST: 3 AP Per STR+END+AGL/3 Meteres climbed

Dropping/Crouching
Yikes! A vertibird is swooping low and you can see it's minigun lighting up, but there's nothing for cover but shrub bush! You better drop to the ground! Dropping this way cost 1 AP, while crouching or squatting costs no AP. Any cover bonus gained this way, will be as specified by the Overseer, But Generally Dropping behind cover is twice as effective as crouching behind it. AP COST: 0 APTo Crouch or Squat AP COST: 1 APTo Drop to the ground

Jumping
During movement, if there are small cracks or obstacles (less than a foot tall or across), the small jumps they require are made freely as part of the movement action. Attempting to run up and jump on board that vertibird as it clips your party, or jumping over a chasm with Red Cloud billowing below, is a dangerous move and requires the jump action. Jumping from a standstill cost 2 AP, whereas at the end of a movement action it only costs 1 AP. The maximum height any given character can jump is a quarter of their STR + AGI (rounded down) in feet. When the goal of the jump is distance, characters can leap half their STR + AGI (rounded down) in feet, with Charging adding a bonus equal to one quarter of the distance charged. Both of these can be bolstered by taking a temporary one point penalty to Endurance in order to add the END to the distance. The penalty goes away when you have time for a full night's rest, or have it healed medically. See, Healing SPECIAL damage. AP COST: 1 AP To jump up to (STR+AGL)/4 from movement AP COST: 2 AP To jump up to (STR+AGL)/4 from standstill AP COST: 1 AP To jump forwards to (STR+AGL)/2 from movement AP COST: 2 AP To jump forwards to (STR+AGL)/2 from standstill

Stand Up
Perhaps the first thing any charter ever learned as a baby, once upon a time, still requires AP to do in combat. Whether you intended to be on the ground or not, getting back on your in combat takes time and puts you at risk if you're in Melee range with enemies. If you attempt to do so, all foes within Melee range get a +10% to hit you until the start of your next turn. AP COST: 1 AP to stand up from a crouch. AP COST: 2 AP to stand up from Prone/laying down.

Swimming
Not a very common activity after the bombs dropped. Most water, if you can even find any, is either highly irradiated, filled with unsightly creatures from the depths, or both. However and whyever you found yourself in a situation where you need to swim is your concern, how it mechanically works is this guides. Your swim speed is (STR+END+AGL) /3 in feet (Rounded down). AP COST: 2 AP Per (STR+END+AGL)/3

All-out-swing
When the one two punch ain't enough to get through that muties thick skin, it's time to really throw your weight behind a strike! An all-out-swing is a powerful strike with both hands clasped together. This unarmed attack costs triple your unarmed weapon's AP to perform and cannot be parried. This attack can benefit from any hand-worn unarmed weapon, so long as you are wearing the same weapon on both hands. This attack Roll is made at +15% accuracy, and if successful, inflicts double your normal damage to the target. If the target is not more than one size larger than you, then they must make a successful END roll to avoid being knocked down, with a penalty of 1 for every Lethal or Non-Lethal Damage dealt. Whether successful or not, opponents gain a +10% accuracy bonus to strike you until your next turn for each time you swing. AP COST: 3X AP

Break Free
Assuming you're being pinned to the ground by an angry Yao guai, or choked out by some chemed up waster, and you're not into ding this way, it's time to break Free! Breaking free requires you winning an opposed STR test at a cost of 3 AP. AP COST: 3 AP

Choke
It can be either a stealthy play to knock out the guards without bloodshed, or a rage fueled vent for your maddened fury. Whatever the reason, if you are attempting to choke out an opponent into unconsciousness, these are the rules. Assuming you're already maintaining a pin on the creatures, starting a choke require no attack roll. Otherwise, It initially requires an attack roll at a -30 penalty and the opponent may attack or attempt to move while being choked. Opponents being choked suffer a -20 penalty to all attack rolls. While you're choking an opponent, you may take no other actions except attempting basic move actions, requiring you to manoeuvre your opponent with you. Movement distances for both you and your opponent are reduced by half, and move actions are contested with opposed agility rolls. Successfully choking an opponent takes a number of turns equal to the opponent’s Endurance. A choked-out victim remains unconscious for ten minutes, after which they may make an Endurance roll to recover. If they fail, they may repeat this roll once per minute until they awaken. AP COST: 0 AP If attacking an already pinning opponent. AP COST: 3 AP If attacking an opponent that you are not already pinning.

Disarm
Seeing someone run at you with a ripper is scary, and sometimes you'd prefer they just don't have that weapon in hand. In these times, you can attempt a manoeuvre meant to relieve opponents of their weapons. Roll a contest of your Melee or Unarmed skill (whichever you are wielding) at a -40% penalty to accuracy against the opponent’s Melee skill. This can be improved by making it a precise strike. AP COST: Variable Same as the AP of the weapon you are wielding.

Parry
You're still getting hit Melee combat? Try getting gud. When you parry, you can attempt to nullify a close combat attack using a melee weapon or unarmed attack, whichever you are currently wielding. This action is done on the attacking opponent turn. If you are currently holding a ranged weapon, you can still attempt a melee parry with the melee weapons skill, but at-20% penalty. Roll Melee or Unarmed skill and compare your margin of success to your opponent’s margin of success; defender wins on a tie unless the attacker got a critical success and the defender did not. You must have 1 AP remaining per opponent whose attacks you wish to parry. If you have none left, you may choose to take AP from your next turn, at twice the cost. AP COST: 1 AP Per parry attempt with leftover AP. AP COST: 2 AP Per parry attempt with no leftover AP.

Pin
If your opponent is laying prone on the ground, you may attempt to pin them and hold them at your mercy. You must first succeed at a STR + AGI test at a +2 bonus versus the target’s opposed STR + AGI test. A pinned opponent cannot move and is at a -30% penalty to any action other than the break free action. This manoeuvre costs 2 AP each turn you maintain it. Neither you nor your opponent can take a movement action during a pin. You cannot dodge or parry while holding a pin. AP COST: 2 AP Per round a pin is successfully held.

Precise Strike
If you're facing a particularly slippery opponent in combat, or you just can afford to miss, a precise strike with your close-quarter weapon of choice is the best play. You may spend up to your current effective Perception in AP to make a carefully aimed strike, gaining a +5% bonus to accuracy per AP point spent. You may spend this AP at the end of one turn to apply to an attack at the beginning of your next turn, provided that attack is your first action on that turn. This action cannot be used for a “Wild” attack. AP COST: Variable Up to your PER for each 5% accuracy bonus.

Slam
You channel the spirits of great American football quarterbacks from the good ol'days and throw your body into an opponent! When you make a slam, you may send the target flying. This unarmed attack costs 3AP to perform and cannot be parried. If successful, this attack deals normal bare fisted damage. If you are wearing Medium or Heavy armour, the Armours total weight dived by 10 rounded down is added as Non-Lethal Damage. Then make an opposed STR check with a bonus of +1 for every 1 damage dealt before the opponent DR (to a max of +5). For every degree of success you achieve on the opposed roll, you hurl the target 5 Feet in any direction, so long as the target is not more than one size larger than you. Should your target contact a solid object before the end of their movement, they and the object take 1NL damage per 5 feet of remaining movement. Should the damage from knock back exceed the object's HP, the object breaks and the target continues moving whatever distance remains. If you fail any part of this attack, roll an Agility check to stay upright. Failing this, you go prone. AP COST: 3

Tackle
Go for it! You leap at your opponent, attempting to knock them back then pin them to the ground. Attempting a tackle, costs triple your unarmed weapon's AP to perform and cannot be parried. If successful, this attack deals normal damage, plus it knocks them back as with a Slam and allows you to pin them. You must succeed at an opposed STR + AGI test with a bonus of +1 for every 1 damage before armour (max +5) that you inflicted with the attack. So long as the target is not more than one size larger than you, if you beat your opponent’s result, you knock your opponent to the ground and pin them automatically. In addition, for every degree of success you achieve on the opposed roll, you deal an extra point of damage. If you fail any part of this attack, you take half normal unarmed damage and are automatically knocked down and go prone. AP COST: 3X AP

Trip
Heh, it's nothing personnel, kid. Whether or not you know how to teleport behind your enemies, you can always attempt to trip them onto their ass using either a Melee weapon or an Unarmed attack. Tripping counts as a normal attack action, but does no damage. Roll STR+ Luck versus your opponent’s AGI + Luck. If your result is higher, your opponent is knocked down prone. AP COST: Variable the same as wielded Melee or Unarmed weapon.

Wild Swing
There are lost of uses for unspent AP, mostly which involve making sure you don't die. Instead, You can take a wild swing with any leftover AP. As long as you don't have enough for a basic attack with your Melee or Unarmed weapon, you can do this as your last action. This isn't exactly a very accurate manoeuvre or very elegant looking, so for every AP you are short being able to do your weapon's standard attack, you take a -10% penalty. AP COST: Variable All remaining AP

Burst Fire
Certain weapons have the burst tag. When attacking using a burst weapon or a weapon in burst mode, you must make a special attack. Attacking this way always incurs a base penalty of -10% to hit, and your Critical failure range is multiplied by the burst amount (by default three, unless specified otherwise). You then roll the attack once, spending the weapon's base AP once, and if you hit deal the Base damage multiplied by the burst amount. Firing a burst weapon consecutively adds another -10 penalty to hit. AP COST: Variable Weapons normal AP

Full Auto
This gun may cost 400,000 caps to fire for twelve seconds, but how does it work exactly? Using an automatic weapon on full auto (most only have this mode) is more work than just firing a normal dinky pistol. First, you roll a number of times equal to the weapon’s RoF (rate of Fire) and expend twice that much ammunition. Each shot is at a -(5 x ROF) penalty to accuracy, and if you are under Strength for the weapon, there is an additional -10% accuracy to hit for every roll. For every success, if the result is odd, one bullet hits, whereas if the result is even, two bullets hit. AP COST: Variable Weapons normal AP

Suppression Fire
With a fully automatic weapon, you may choose, instead of attacking a specific target, to attempt to keep opponents behind cover. Ammo is expended as normal for a Full Auto attack. In general, only one corner of a building or both sides of a small obstruction like a car can be covered (about 15 feet across). Any opponent in the suppressed area who expends AP while at least partially exposed (i.e. returning fire or moving out of cover) is automatically attacked once (at normal Full Auto penalties) for every 1AP they spend while not in full cover. These attacks are resolved exactly as if coming from an automatic weapon, with RoF: 1. Obviously, once all bullets have either hit or missed, no further suppression can occur. Actions performed while exposed to suppression fire (including shooting back) are at a -10% penalty per R.O.F. of the weapon used. Being shot at is rather distracting. AP COST: Variable Weapons normal AP

Precise Shot
You don't always have to fire from the hip, the sights are there for a reason! You may spend up to your current effective Perception in AP to make a carefully aimed strike, gaining a +5% bonus to accuracy per AP point spent. You may spend this AP at the end of one turn to apply to an attack at the beginning of your next turn, provided that attack is your first action on that turn. This action cannot be used for a “Wild” attack. AP COST: Variable Up to your PER for each 5% accuracy bonus.

Wild Shot
With AP leftover, but not enough to fire your weapon normally, a Wild shot is your best option. If the outcome you want is to hit the broadside of a barn. This poorly aimed attack has a penalty of -10% accuracy to hit for every point of AP that the character is short. AP COST: Variable All remaining AP

Comabat Modifiers
Probably the first thing that you should figure out, before all that complex attacking stuff above, is if you can even hold your weapon. All weapons have a Strength requirement. If you don't meet it, you can still use it, but for every point of STR you fail the requirement by, you take a -10% penalty to attacking or using that weapon effective in any way. If teh long-barreld weapon you're attmepting to fire is bracd against terrin, like rock or fence, you cna reduce the STR reqwuiremnt by 2. This costs 1 AP to start, but as long as you don't move, yor weapon stays braced.

Next is knowing how far away an enemy eve is, and if you can hit them. The below table summarize the penalties each weapon takes at range.

*Thrown explosives and thrown weapons count as short range weapons **Every additional full 450 ft adds a cumulative -5%. ***At GM discretion, a sufficiently large penalty may be applied to hit something beyond effective range.

Also, did you detremine where you are? Are you even standing up? is your oppnet standing up? And how big are they? Sniping a bloatfly's eye is a big diffnerc from a deathclaws tail. If you are attacking from prone (laying on the ground), you take a -20% penalty with ranged,a dn a -40% peanlty with Melee. Howver, if your opponet is on the ground prone, you get a +20% bonus to hit them back! For every step diffenrace in size, a -10% penalty is imposed for large creatre attacking smaller ones,a nd a 10% bonus is applie dto smaller creatures attcking larger ones. So if that bloatfly (small) were to take aim at that Deathclaw (Huge),since they're three steps apart, the bloatfly gets a +30% chance to hit! It will still lose that fight however.

You could stop there, but what if, instead just target the whole enemey, you want to target a specifc spot to weaken them somehow or cripple a limb? Well than you have know what you're aiming for an how percise it'll be to hit.

Crippling
If you're trying to be clever, or cruel, you can target a specific body part of a creature (as in the table above) Should you hit, you must deal damage to that part equal to at least half the current health of the Target in one turn. Targeted attacks deal only actually only deal half damage, but full damage is taken in consideration for whether or not they are crippled. For enemies with lots of health, It is best to weaken them first before trying to cripple areas, as it make it much easier.

Does that sound hard?

Don’t worry! Some weapons have special attacks that for the purpose of determining Damage dealt to a limb, Deal more Damage.

Ex. Machete’s Ability;CHOP!: +2 AP, +6L to Cripple Limbs

The final attack on your turn that matches or exceeds the targets current health, is the Crippling Attack. The Target takes a specific Negative effect determined by what was Crippled. However, they take no Direct damage from the Crippling attack. DR Applies to both this damage and damage to cripple any area that is covered by the DR.

Ex. A combat Helmet That provides DR/1, Would apply to a Targeted head Shot, BUT NOT if the targeted shot was the enemies eyes, which are not covered by the helmet.

As for effect of Crippling, see chart above.

Lastly,if you really wanted to, you could cripple a crippled limb. At this point the target would probably be already really weak, so it might kill them, BUT for fun roleplay reasons, if you do want to cripple a crippled arm/leg/hand/foot it is destroyed. POOF!. Gone. No more of that part. So if you want to maim people inside of combat. That’s how to do it, you freak.

Critical Hits and Failures
Sometimes the stars align, and you roll a critical hit on your opponent! What happens then? A critical step is applied to their weapon base damage. There are more than one way to increase critical steps than just rolling well, attacking and unaware opponent from stealth, gives a critical step as well as targeting the head and eyes. If you're really lucky, you could get 4 critical steps in one attack. Whoever is on the receiving of that is probably paste. Though there are only 4 base ways to increase critical steps, some circumstances or perks up to the Overseer discretion could increase the limit.

Being critically hit on the other hand isn't very fun, aside from take the extra damage, armour worn at the time, loses one step on its condition track (see Item Conditions). Alternatively, when you critically fail an attack yourself, your weapon along with jamming or glitching if eligible, will drop a step on its condition track.