Unit Combat

For combat featuring small groups or large groups, combat rolls can be a little different. In order to preserve the diversity of species and magic on Shem, there are some special features that only apply in group combat situations:

Average Scores

The main purpose of a unit determines what stat, skill, power or ability is chosen for its average score. If a unit is infantry, cavalry, ranged, siege, magical, or something else determines the main score used. Infantry take average attack score as PRO and defense as Toughness. Cavalry take the same, but add movement for their mounts. Ranged use the relevant skill (archery, firearms). Siege use their siege weaponry skill. Magical units use their relevant magical ability or power. This can be even more precise or varied - units of scouts might use scouting or tracking, spies might use STH and AWA, naval units might use sailing, etc. If there is more than one stat taken for an average score, they are all averaged together for a total average score used to determine their relative power to other units.

If someone has a bonus to the relevant score that will last the entire battle, that bonus can go toward the average score.

If the unit is not composed of individuals already designed, the GM or player designing the unit may simply assign an average score without designing individual scores, but all individuals will then have the same stats thereafter if it is a uniform unit. For mixed units, some work must be done to design the individuals or small groups that compose the group.

Initiative

Initiative is based on the average AWA (NOT PRO) of the unit unless there is a leader or leaders present. If there is one leader present, it is their AWA or PRO that determines reaction time. If there is more than one leader, it is the average of the leaders’ AWA or PRO that determines it.

Attack

The PRO and ranged attacks of a unit are based on the average of all members of the unit. If a member of the unit does not have the relevant skill for a ranged attack (firearms, archery, etc.), then that counts as a 0 in the list - the total average is divided by everyone in the unit, not just those with the skill.

Stun/Wound

Stun and wound scores are based on average STR plus average weapon bonuses for melee. Each is averaged separately. Unarmed combatants have a -3 to wound if attacking with basic punching or kicking, but if they have claws, horns, fangs, etc., those can be substituted. This can mean a unit’s wound score weapon bonus goes down significantly if too many units are not armed with a melee weapon other than their fists.

Ranged stun/wound is not STR-based, but based on the weapon’s scale of damage based on NH/SH/EH/CH. This will be noted on each weapon. If multiple kinds of ranged weapon are present, each damage level is averaged.

Parry or Block

The blocking ability of a group is based on the average parry (PRO) or blocking score, usually PRO+shield size.

Defense

Defense is determined by STR and body armor only unless enough units have helmets or shields. As long as one unit has armor, there’s at least a +1 to defense. Average STR plus any averaged armor bonuses. If more than 30% of the unit has helmets, this can turn exceptional or critical hits into special or normal hits once for every 10% above 30, starting at 1 for 30%. Shields can be used as a bonus to parry/block.

Movement

Movement is based on the average movement of the members of the unit. Movement is based on ATH (see the Stats page), but sometimes the movement of a group can be above the movement determined by the average ATH because of how the math plays out, so it counts to average both ATH and movement. If the unit has individuals with special kinds of movement (climbing, jumping, swimming, flight, etc.), it can only count these if the whole unit engages in that kind of movement. The average scores of most special movements will be base ATH plus the ones with a higher or lower score averaged, but since most beings cannot fly, flight is only possible if all members of a unit have the ability to fly UNLESS the fliers can carry the members of the unit (50% fliers) - however, this will effectively mean the fliers are not capable of combat while flying, and any attack that targets the fliers could kill the whole unit.

Magical Effects

Magical properties of weapons, armor, or items can be added as magical abilities if and only if there is more than 1% of the unit using them. The power of this is averaged over all those who have the effect, not all members of the unit.

Communication

Internal communication is assumed to be effective unless the unit is divided or somehow damaged or affected with magic that would harm it. This can cause disharmony in the unit and lower attack rolls, initiative, and/or movement. If a leader is present, they will prevent disharmony with a PRS roll vs. a difficulty based on what caused the disharmony.

External communication can be affected by battlefield conditions, loss of a leader, or loss of a designated communications person (if there is one). This can cause confusion on the battlefield that leads to friendly fire between units when dealing with ranged attacks. In rare cases, it can happen with melee attacks, but this would require significant battlefield impairment. When determining a ranged attack, if external communications have been compromised, friendly fire occurs on exceptional or critical failures to hit or on a failed AWA roll if an effect is intentionally trying to cause friendly fire situations.

Inventory

If an item can be reasonably shared amongst the unit, it may be used for the entire unit, but this will take a turn if not done before combat. This means foods, drinks, and certain magical items may have their effects applied to a whole unit.

Uniform Units

Units that are all the same species and occupation simply roll the average stats of their species/occupation and have the abilities and powers of their species and occupation. If a group is fighting another group of similar size, they just roll as if they were two individuals fighting. If a group is fighting an individual or much smaller group, they roll attack once with bonuses based on how much larger in group size they are (+2 per size level larger). These apply to to-hit rolls, stun, and wound. If they are using magic, it applies to any unified magical attack or area of effect attack. If an individual in the group is using a different kind of magic, they roll as an individual and must have a separate initiative.

Group Size

If a small group is fighting a larger group, it scales up the same way. The small group roll as normal, the larger group gets bonuses. A medium group would have +2 vs. the small one, moderate has +4, etc.

Group size	Level
1	Individual
2-5	Small
6-10	Medium
11-20	Moderate
21-40	Large
41-75	Extra Large
76-120	Big
121-200	Huge
201+	Massive

So for an individual vs. a small group, the small group gets +2 to attack the individual and the individual takes no penalties to hit a single target in the group. If the individual has an area of effect attack, it works as normal on the group. For every size level above, it’s another +2 to attacking the individual - medium groups get +4, moderate +6, etc.

Group Damage

Damage to the group works differently as well. Unless the attack is targeting a single individual, explicitly non-fatal (like a sleep spell), or called not to kill, it is assumed the goal is killing as many people in the unit as possible. Individual vs. group still works like individual combat when it comes to damage. Group vs. group works differently, with stun levels indicating incapacitation of a number of members of the unit and wound indicating death of a percentage of the unit:

Roll	Stun	Wound
Critical	Whole unit incapacitated	75% dead
Exceptional	75% incapacitated	50% dead
Normal	25% incapacitated	10% dead
Special	50% incapacitated	25% dead
Tie	10% incapacitated	5% dead

Percentages round up or down as usual (i..e, if more than half, it’s up, if not, it’s down).

Powers and Abilities

A unit will have special actions based on the magical powers or abilities of those in it. In a mixed unit, the effectiveness of special actions will be based on the percentage of the unit with that magic.

The special actions are determined by the occupations and species present in the unit. For any unit larger than 10 people, it is based on percentages. Below ten, it is based on individuals within the unit. Special actions cannot be powers or abilities that involve alteration of the self (i.e., the whole unit does not get the ability to turn into a wolf if there’s a werewolf in the unit). The magic must be applicable to the unit’s purpose, to attack, or to defense. If only one person in the unit has a power or ability, it is only usable as focused assistance.

Units may use a special action once per round in addition to an attack unless it is an attack action. They may use a special defense once per round as well, meaning subsequent attacks will not be affected unless otherwise noted in the defense.

The more of a unit that has the special action, the more powerful it is. It starts at the average and has bonuses. This is based on percentages, giving bonuses as it goes up:

Percent	Score
1-15	+1
16-30	+2
31-45	+3
46-60	+4
61-75	+5
76-90	+6
90+	+7

Group Effects

If an individual in the group has a power, ability, or item that provides an effect to the entire group or has an area that could include the entire group, it is included as a group effect at the power of the individual. If more than one person has it, it gains bonuses based on the percentage of the group that has it. If a leader has it, it automatically has at least +1.

Group Weaknesses

Weaknesses are based on the percent of the unit that have a specific weakness. For every 20 percent, there’s a -1 to their defense against that weakness, except at 100%, where it becomes -6 instead of -5. If there are multiple weaknesses above 1%, there’s multiple weaknesses.

Percentage	Penalty
1-20	-1
21-40	-2
41-60	-3
61-80	-4
81-99	-5
100	-6

Mixed Units

A mixed unit is one where not all the species and/or occupations are the same. In this, they can still operate like a single unit if they all have a shared skill - they all intend to use PRO to attack or firearms or archery, for example. In these circumstances, the group rolls from the average of their relevant stat or skill and work as if they were a uniform unit. However, if they are using different attacks or magic, there are different mechanics. Furthermore, the mix of species and occupation often leads to each individual having different defenses.

For mixed attack rolls, if the attacks are the same range, they can be averaged to average to-hit rolls and average stun/wound. If the attacks are different ranges, you take the percentage of the group using different kinds of attacks and treat them as smaller groups (i.e., those shooting are one group, those stabbing are another), again taking average scores to roll from.

Focused Assistance

If the unit wants, they can focus on one individual’s unique attributes and effectively help them with it, giving them bonuses to using a power, ability, skill, or type of attack that others in the unit do not have. This bonus goes up if a portion of the unit has the same. This would be flavored as covering fire or assisted aiming or some other practical support. For example, if a wizard is in a group of soldiers and chooses to cast a spell, the soldiers can make it easier for the wizard to hit their target by providing defense from attacks so the wizard can focus on casting. The bonuses scale up depending on how much of the unit is the same kind of occupation or species and how much is acting to support.

Unit Leaders

Unit leaders provide tactics bonuses, morale, and decisiveness that aid on the battlefield. Unit leaders must choose each round what quality they will provide their unit: tactical advantage, morale, decisiveness, or a special action.

For a character to be a unit leader, they must have a tactics score of 8 or more.

If the unit leader has the same special action as the wider unit, it provides an extra bonus to it.

Tactical Advantage

If the unit leader uses tactical advantage, they roll AWA vs. a difficulty based on how powerful their opponent is. This is based on the average score of the enemy opponent and how it compares to the unit’s average score:

Difference	Difficulty
-10+	16+
-7-9	14
-4-6	12
-1-3	10
Equal	8
1-3	6
4-6	4
7-9	2
10+	0

It goes up or down two per 3 points of difference.

If the roll is successful, the unit takes the high die for that round.

Morale

The unit leader may roll PRS vs. a difficulty based on the same chart above for tactical advantage. If they have a relevant substat or professional skill (command, intimidation, even persuasion) that is higher than PRS, they may roll that instead. If they succeed, they take high die on any morale rolls from casualties and the unit has +1 to +9 vs. psychological attacks for that round.

Decisiveness

The unit leader may use decisiveness to move the unit’s place in initiative up. They do this by rolling AWA vs. the STH or PRS of the nearest visible units. This only works on nearby units and only if they are visible. Any success means going before those units. Every time they use this against a unit, however, the unit gets better at spotting it, giving them bonuses the next time it is used against them (+2 per time).

Leader’s Powers and Abilities

The unit leader’s magical abilities and powers can be used as a special action that draws on the power of their unit for bonuses. This acts as a special action for the entire unit, but it does not require more than one person in the unit using that magic to give it bonuses.

Leader Weakness

Any weakness a leader has gives penalties to damage to the group, one penalty point per leader who has that weakness.

Casualties and Desertion

If a unit suffers more than 30% casualties (of total, not current members) in a single attack, their leader must roll PRS vs a difficult that scales up as casualties do:

Casualties	Difficulty
30%	4
40%	6
50%	8
60%	10
70%	12
80%	14
90%	16

A success means no one tries to desert. A tie means 1% of the unit tries to desert. NF is 10%, SF is 20%, EF is 40%, CF is 80%.

A unit without a leader rolls their average PRS vs. the difficulties above +3 (so 30% losses means a 7 difficulty)..