Combat is divided into two broad categories. These are Offensive (how you attack someone else) and Defensive (how you deal with attacks).

Offenses:

Attacks are divided into the following categories based on delivery method. Note that these are generalities and that some modifiers (such as skills, weapon enhancements, etc.) may apply and change the effect of the attack. Normal effect types are declared in the damage call itself.

All weapon strikes must be made with the minimal force necessary in order to make a successful hit. Hitting an opponent too hard WILL draw the attention of the Safety Guides, and can cause you to be ejected from combat and/or the game depending on the seriousness of the infraction.

Valid targets for all attacks are any point on the body except for the head, groin and any hands holding a weapon. For the purpose of ranged weapon and packet attacks, those areas still count as "hits" but repeated offenses may cause the player to be ejected as above. Hands holding weapons are not considered grounds for ejection, although the hand is considered part of the weapon for determining whether the attack was successful or not. If the weapon would have been able to block the attack, the hand that holds it blocks the attack as well. Some players may have invalid targets declared on them by the Safety Guides; this is most commonly used to keep attacks away from a real-life minor injury. Players with more serious injuries are usually reduced to non-combat status (for which every chapter maintains its own rules) or temporarily "benched" from game at Safety Guide discretion. As with all other rules, Safety Guides have automatic precedence in any judgment call involving player safety.

Damage Calls:

Whenever you attempt to affect an opponent with a weapon or spell a "Damage Call" needs to be stated in a clear voice. Shouting is by no means a guarantee of being understood and is discouraged, especially when there are only two people duking it out. This call must be made for every attempt to damage the opponent, meaning with every swing or every shot. Every Damage Call has two to three components.

The first component is Amount. This is the number of points you are damaging your opponent for (or healing them for). Melee weapons have a base amount dependent on the size of the weapon. As a general rule, Melee weapons do between one and three points of damage, whilst ranged weapons typically do between two and four points of damage. See Weapon Guidelines for more information. Amount also designates damage in the case of mystic powers and other packet delivered effects. Some Damage Calls do not have an Amount associated with them; in this case it is assumed that there is no damage taken by the packet (although the effects still count). A damage call with an Amount of "0" will still set off any appropriate defenses (if present) although no damage is taken.

The second component is Flavor. The three most common flavors used by weapons are Basic, Pummel and Piercing. Basic damage (which is the normal damage usually used by weapons) is easily defended against with armor or spells, but can kill you. Pummel is similar to Basic, except that it can never reduce you to below zero hit points. Piercing is also similar to Basic except it is not reduced by Armor. By default, anyone who is able to use a melee weapon can choose whether to use basic or pummel as the situation warrants, although some weapons have designated flavors and may not be changed. Ranged weapons typically only fire for Basic unless you have a skill to alter it. Other Flavors exist; see the section on Combat Flavors for more information. If no Flavor is specified, the Damage Call is assumed to be "Basic", regardless of delivery method.

The final component is Effect. This can be anything in the Combat Effects chart of the Pathways rulebook. Upon being hit with the damage call, you must also take whatever Effect is designated on the chart. A character who is hit with a weapon using an Effect component to its damage call only takes the effect if the damage was not reduced in some way (i.e. Armor, Roll with Hit, or various power effects).

If an Effect is being used, and the Flavor is Basic, the player may opt to not call the "Basic" component for the damage call. I.e. A monster that swings "4 Basic Net" may choose to call "4 Net" instead. It is understood that this damage is of Basic Flavor. Note that packet-delivered attacks generally have a longer verbal requirement than just the damage call, and if the entirety of the verbal requirement isn't completed properly the attack is considered a "Flub" and not taken.

In all cases, the complete verbal requirement (generally just damage call) must be completed before the weapon is swung or the packet is thrown or it is counted as a Flub.

Defenses

If you are hit by anything having a damage call, you immediately take the damage and/or effect unless one of the following rules applies. In any case where you take an effect call and the situation allows, you should call "taken" to indicate to your opponent that you took the damage. While "taken" and "garb" (see below) are not expressly "required" when they apply, it is generally considered polite to do so at the earliest available opportunity.

There are two basic scenarios for defensive calls: having a defensive ability and not having a defensive ability.

In most cases, you won't have a defensive ability or won't want to use it. In these cases, the following guidelines apply:

Dodging an attack means you don't have to take the effect. If the effect doesn't actually hit the target, it doesn't work.

Garb Rule:

With most hits, barely "nicking" garb (flaps of cloaks, coats, things hanging off belts) doesn't count as a hit. Flavor determines whether or not the hit takes effect in this case - if a Flavor has "hit on weapons" marked then the damage call still takes effect even if it hits a "garb" target. Also note that the "Garb Rule" only takes effect in situations where no contact would have been made if the item had not been present on the body. In situations such as where a dagger hanging off a belt blocks a shot that otherwise would have hit the leg instead, then the shot is not considered a "garb shot" and is taken as normal. In cases where the Garb Rule is used, the player who would have otherwise taken the effect should call out "Garb" to indicate to the other player that the shot was a miss.

Blocking an attack with a weapon will usually nullify the attack, unless the Flavor of the attack indicates that it is still effective when it hits a weapon. As a general rule, Flavors used with weapons generally are blockable by weapons, and flavors associated with mystic abilities usually are not blockable by weapons.

Armor, Precasts, and Skills:

Many things to defend against attacks exist. The most common amongst these are Armor, Precasts and Skills. Unless otherwise stated, a defense must be called within two seconds otherwise it is considered "too late" for the effect to take place. The only major exception is Armor, which after a few calls of "reduced" you may wait until a more convenient pause in a battle to say something like "reduced, reduced, reduced" or "I reduced all three of those" or something similar.

Armor is a worn item that reduces the amount of damage taken by most flavors. Your Armor Rating (AR) is a number assigned to you at Debriefing based on the amount of coverage, materials and quality of a suit of armor. Typically, more "solid" materials such as metal will give higher AR than materials like leather, and covering more of your body (full suit rather than just a breastplate, for example) will yield a higher AR.

Any attack that does equal to or less than your AR is reduced to "1 pummel", along with negating any other effects that were part of the same Damage Call. Note that attacks with no Amount designated are unable to be resisted in this manner. When an attack is reduced by armor you should call "Reduced" to indicate to your opponent that the attack did not do its full damage. Some Flavors, such as Piercing, are unaffected by armor and you must still take the damage normally. More information on Armor and the Flavors that can and cannot be reduced with it is found in the Armor and Combat Flavors sections.

Precasts are the general term for any effect placed on a character before an attack is made with the intention of either disrupting a later attack or increasing the power of a future attack. Some of the more common types are listed below. Note that some of these are also replicated by skills - from a rules standpoint there is no difference between a Precast and a Skill if they both have the same Effect. The major difference between Precasts and Skills is that once a Precast has been used, it is gone and may not be used again unless the power is recast on the target, whereas a Skill automatically resets every Debriefing allowing it to be used again.

Resists are more commonly found as skills, and allow the character to choose whether or not to take an effect. Typically a Resist only applies to a very specific Flavor or Effect. If you possess a Resist that is appropriate to the hit you took, you may call "Resist" and not take the damage call. As a general rule, a character may have as many resists as they are able to acquire, unlike many of the other precasts which only allow for one per type.

Shields are most commonly found as mystic powers, and allow the character to block an incoming attack. Shields usually must be used on the first available attack that they apply to, whether the character wants to use it or not. When hit by an attack that you have a Shield for, you must call "Shield" and the attack does not take effect. Only one Shield or Rebound of a specific type may be in place at any given time, so if a Shield Mystic is present and a character wished to get a Rebound then the Rebound would remove the Shield. However, a Shield Mystic would not prevent someone from getting a Shield Chemical if desired. Some items allow an exception to this; if this is the case then it will be designated on the item's Tag.

Rebounds function in a similar manner to Shields, only instead of simply nullifying the attack, it causes the attacker to take the damage instead. As with Shields, a Rebound must be used on the first attack that it is capable of blocking. The target of the attack must call "Rebound", indicating to the attacker that they must take the damage instead. Rebounds, like Shields, may not be stacked with Shields or Rebounds of the same type. When a Rebound is used, the original target is then considered the attacker, so if the original attacker also possesses a rebound then the attack is reflected back onto the original target.

Absorbs are a much rarer defensive type. Unless designated otherwise, an Absorb is stackable with a Rebound or Shield, but not another absorb of the same type. Usually an Absorb must be used on the next appropriate effect to hit you, but this is not always the case. The specific power that granted the Absorb will designate whether it is allowed to be decided or not. When using an Absorb, you must call "Absorb", which prevents the effect from hitting you. You then are able to (in some cases must) use the effect that hit you as a damage call within a specific point in time (usually either two seconds or your next swing).

Thresholds and Reverse Thresholds function in a similar manner to armor, only completely negate any hit below or equal to their number. Note that the Threshold is checked before Armor, so if a character has Threshold 2 and an AR of 4 they can't reduce a "3 basic" hit to "1 Pummel" then apply the Threshold to take no damage. Reverse Thresholds are more rare, and negate any damage above or equal to their number. Only one Threshold can apply at a time, so if a character has an item with Threshold 4 and one with Threshold 2 they would have to choose which they wished to use (probably Threshold 4), not add them together. In addition, you may have a Threshold or a Reverse Threshold, not both.

Some Skills allow you to negate an attack either in part or in whole. Some skills, like Resists and Threshold are covered in the Precasts section above. Typically these kinds of skills may be purchased as many times as desired and are usable whenever desired. Skills also "reset" every Debriefing, allowing them to be used again.

Roll with Hit works similar to Armor, reducing any weapon strike to "1 Pummel" damage. When using this skill, you must either call "Reduced" or "Roll" to indicate to your opponent that their attack was weakened.

Evade allows a character to completely negate any weapon or packet attack. Character must call "Evade" to indicate the dodged attack.

Gambler's Luck allows a character to negate any effect, including traps, once per day per purchase. Gambler's Luck also allows for certain other effects at Plot Discretion. When activated, either "Gambler's Luck" or "Evade" must be called to indicate the effect was not used.

Some characters (particularly NPCs and some types of Undead) are Immune to certain kinds of attacks. If this is the case, the character will call "Immune" to indicate that an attack was completely ineffective. Immunity is always the last resort, so if a character has a "Shield: Net" and Immunity to Mystic, they must still use the Shield if hit with a "Mystic Net" even though they would not have actually taken the effect had it not been shielded.

For all intents and purposes, the two things a character must know when dealing with defensive calls is "Taken" and "Rebound". "Taken" indicates that your target took the full effect of the hit, and "Rebound" means that you just got hit with whatever you just attacked with. All other calls mean that the target didn't take the damage for one reason or another.

Strength

Some effects may grant a player "Superhuman Strength". This is an amount of strength beyond the ken of normal humans. Superhuman Strength may be applied to melee weapons used in one or both hands. If the weapon being used is one handed, up to half the value of superhuman strength may be added to the damage call. If the weapon is two-handed, then the full value may be added to the damage call. Example: Steve is wearing a Battle Suit developed for him by ToeKnee. It grants him +4 superhuman strength. While wielding his Billy Brute Two-hander, he calls his damage adding 4 to the Amount. His opponent, a GeckoBeast, has Superhuman Strength 10. With its single-handed claws, it adds 5 to the value of each of its swings.

Characters with Superhuman Strength may run with a heavy load for 10 seconds per point of strength, before needing to walk or move slower than a walk for one minute of time. A heavy load is considered to be one fully equipped human-sized person. Multiple people can be carried thusly per additional point of strength per ten seconds. IE Grunt, with ten strength, may run with one person for 100 seconds, or ten people for 10 seconds, or five people for 20, or some combination thereof.

Contests of Strength

In certain role-play situations, players may compete with each other in contests of strength. This does not involve ACTUAL strength competition. A contest between a single human and another single human results in a tie. Otherwise, the contest goes to whoever has the higher superhuman strength value. In the event of combined effort, i.e. multiple people working together to hold a door closed, all the strength values of everyone on a side are combined. For the purposes of non-superhumans being on one side, they are assumed to have a value of 1, minus one from the total. Example, a Lesser GoreBeast is attempting to push his way through a door being held shut by Steve, Ripley, and Giggles. The GoreBeast has a Superhuman Strength of 5. Steve, with his powersuit, has a 4, Ripley and Giggles are normal strength humans, giving their side a combined value of 5 as well. The door remains where it is. If either Ripley or Giggles drops out, their side's combined strength value drops to four, and the Gorebeast will break through. In resolution of a contest of strength, the losing side must move back at least three feet, allowing for safe movement.