Special Combat Rules
This section describes various special rules that arise during combat. The rules are presented alphabetically by topic.
Area Attacks
Certain weapons and effects, such as grenades, autofire weapons, or the Force Slam Force power, target all creatures in a given area instead of a single target.
When you make an area attack, you make a single attack roll; if your modified attack roll is equal to 10 or higher, compare the result to the Reflex Defense of every target in the area. Creatures you hit take full damage, and creatures you miss take half damage. A natural 20 on an area attack roll automatically hits all targets within the affected area, but area attacks do not deal double damage on a critical hit.
Autofire Weapons: A weapon set on autofire targets a 2-square by 2-square area (see Autofire).
Burst Radius: Grenades and explosives usually have a burst radius. When you make an area attack with such a weapon, you must decide where to center the burst before you make the attack roll. The center of a burst is always the corner of a square (at the “crosshairs”).
Splash Weapons: Some weapons have a splash radius. When you make an attack against a target, that target takes full damage if your attack roll exceeds its Reflex Defense, and half damage if the attack misses. Also compare your attack roll against the Reflex Defense of every target adjacent to the primary target; those adjacent targets take half damage if the attack hits or no damage if the attack misses.
Evasion: A character with the Evasion talent takes half damage from a successful area attack, and takes no damage from an area effect that that misses their Reflex Defense.
Attacks of Opportunity
If an opponent moves out of a square adjacent to you, or performs an action that forces them to let down their guard, you can make a single, immediate attack against that opponent (even if you’ve already acted during the round). This is called an attack of opportunity.
You can only make attacks of opportunity with melee weapons, natural weapons, pistols, carbines, and any weapon with a folded stock. You may also make attacks of opportunity while unarmed if you have the Martial Arts feat.
Provoking an Attack of Opportunity
Two Actions can provoke attacks of opportunity:
- Moving out of a Threatened Square.
- Performing an action that distracts you from defending yourself, and lets your guard down while in a threatened square.
Most characters threaten the squares adjacent to them; larger creatures threaten all squares within their reach (see Reach, below). A creature only threatens an area if it is armed with a natural weapon, a melee weapon, a pistol, a carbine, or any weapon with a folded stock.
Moving out of a Threatened Square: When you move out of a threatened square, you generally provoke an attack of opportunity. You do not provoke an attack of opportunity if you use the withdraw action, or if you successfully tumble. Involuntary movement, such as being the target of a Bantha Rush or the Move Object power, never provokes an attack of opportunity.
Performing an Action that Distracts You: Some actions, when performed in a threatened area, provoke attacks of opportunity because they make you divert your attention from the fight at hand. The following actions provoke attacks of opportunity:
- Making an unarmed attack without the Martial Arts feat
- Aiming
- Loading a weapon
- Picking up an item
- Retrieving a stored item
- Moving into an opponent’s square
- Using any skill that distracts you or forces you to drop your guard (GM’s determination)
Making Attacks of Opportunity
An attack of opportunity is a single free attack, and you can only make one attack of opportunity per round. You don’t have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to. An attack of opportunity is always made at your full attack Bonus, minus any situational penalties you suffer.
You can’t make an attack of opportunity if you’re flat-footed.
Combat Reflexes: If you have the Combat Reflexes feat, you can make more than one attack of opportunity during a round. However, you may only make one attack of opportunity per provoking action. (Moving any number of squares is treated as a single provoking action.)
Autofire
Any ranged weapon that has an autofire setting can be set on autofire as a swift action. The weapon tables on their respective weapon group pages indicates whether or not a specific weapon has an autofire setting. Some weapons, such as the E-Web Repeating Blaster, operates only in autofire mode.
Autofire is treated as an area attack. You target a 2-square by 2-square area, make a single attack roll at a −5 penalty, and compare the result to the Reflex Defense of every creature in the area. Creatures you hit take full damage, and the creatures you miss take half damage. Autofire consumes ten shots or slugs, and it can only be used if the weapon has ten shots or slugs in it.
Autofire-Only Weapons: If you are using an autofire-only weapon, you may brace your weapon by taking two swift actions in the same round immediately before making your attack. When you brace an autofire-only weapon, you take only a −2 penalty on your attack roll when making an autofire attack or using the Burst Fire feat.
Only heavy weapons, rifles, and pistols with an extended stock can be braced.
Burst Fire: The Burst Fire feat allows you to use a weapon set on autofire against a specific target instead of an area. You take a −5 penalty on your attack roll, but deal +2 dice of damage. Using Burst Fire expends only half as many shots or slugs (five instead of ten). This is not considered an area attack, so the damage cannot be reduced using the Evasion talent.
Evasion: A character with the Evasion talent takes half damage from a successful autofire attack, and takes no damage from an autofire attack that misses their Reflex Defense.
Concealment
Concealment encompasses all circumstances where nothing physically blocks a blow or shot, but where something interferes with an attacker’s accuracy. An attack that would normally hit, might actually miss because the target has concealment. A target might gain concealment from fog, smoke, poor lighting, tall grass, foliage, or other effects that make it difficult to pinpoint the target’s location.
To determine whether your target has concealment from your ranged attack, choose a corner of your square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target’s square passes through a square or border that provides concealment, the target has concealment. When making a melee attack against an adjacent target, your target has concealment if their space is entirely within an effect that grants concealment (such as a cloud of smoke).
If you attack a target with concealment, you take a −2 penalty on your attack roll. Multiple sources of concealment (such as a defender in a fog at night, with no illumination) no not apply additional penalties.
If you attempt to notice a target with concealment, you take a −5 penalty on your Perception check.
Ignoring Concealment: Concealment isn’t always effective. For instance, a character with low-light vision ignores concealment from darkness (But not total concealment; see below). Likewise, a character with darkvision ignores all concealment from darkness (even total concealment).
Fog, smoke, foliage, and other obstructions work normally against characters with darkvision or low-light vision.
Total Concealment:
If you have line of effect to a target, but not line of sight (for instance, if they are in total darkness or if you are blinded), they are considered to have total concealment from you. You can’t attack an opponent that has total concealment, though you can attack into a square that you think they occupy. If you attack a target with total concealment, you take a −5 penalty on your attack roll. You can’t make attacks of opportunity against an opponent with total concealment, even if you know what square or squares the opponent occupies.
If you attempt to notice a target with total concealment, you take a −10 penalty on your Perception check.
Cover
Creatures and terrain features can provide cover against attacks. A creature with cover gains a +5 cover bonus to its Reflex Defense, no matter how many creatures and terrain features are between it and the attacker. Terrain features that provide cover include trees, walls, vehicles, and cargo crates. A target with cover or improved cover takes no damage from area attacks if the attack roll is less than the target’s Reflex Defense. For a burst or splash weapon, determine cover relative to the center of the weapon’s area of effect. For an autofire weapon, determine cover relative to the attacker.
To determine whether an opponent has cover, choose one corner of the attacker’s square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target’s square passes through a barrier or any square occupied by a creature, the target has cover. The target does not have cover if the line runs along or touches the edge of a wall or other square that would otherwise provide cover.
An adjacent opponent never has cover.
Big Creatures and Cover: Any creature with a fighting space larger than 1 square determines cover against melee attacks slightly differently than smaller creatures. Such a creature can choose any square that it occupies to determine whether an opponent has cover against melee attacks. Similarly, when making a melee attack against such a creature, you can pick any of the squares it occupies to determine whether it has cover against you.
Cover and Attacks of Opportunity: You can’t make an attack of opportunity against an opponent with cover relative to you.
Cover and Stealth Checks: You can use cover to make a Stealth check. Without cover, you usually need concealment to make a Stealth check.
Low Objects and Cover: Low objects provide cover to creatures in those squares. However, the attacker ignores low objects in its own fighting space and adjacent squares. Low objects in the attacker’s space and in adjacent squares don’t provide cover to opponents; essentially, the attacker shoots over them.
Improved Cover
In some cases, cover may provide a greater bonus to Reflex Defense. For instance, a character peering around a corner, or through a narrow aperture has even better cover than a character standing behind a low wall, or a landspeeder. In such situations, double the normal cover bonus to Reflex Defense (+10 instead of +5). A creature with improved cover takes no damage from area attacks that fail to hit its Reflex Defense. Furthermore, improved cover provides a +5 bonus on Stealth checks.
The GM may impose other penalties or restrictions to attacks depending on the details of the cover. For example, to strike effectively through a gun port, you need to use a long thrusting weapon, such as a lightsaber. A vibro-ax just isn’t going to get through a narrow slit.
Total Cover
If you don’t have a line of effect to your target (for instance, if they are completely behind a high wall), they are considered to have total cover from you. You can’t make an attack against a target that has total cover.
Damage Reduction
A creature or object with damage reduction (DR) ignores a certain amount of damage every attack. The amount of damage it ignores is always indicated; for example, an object with DR 10 ignores the first 10 points of damage from each attack.
Damage reduction is sometimes bypassed by one or more specific damage types (noted after the DR value). For example, a creature with DR 5/energy ignores 5 points of damage from any source except one that deals energy damage (such as from a blaster). Similarly, a creature with DR 10/piercing or slashing ignores 10 points of damage from any source except one that deals piercing or slashing damage.
Certain talents grant damage reduction. When a character with multiple types of damage reduction takes damage, use whichever damage reduction value most benefits the character, based on the type of damage. For example, if a character with DR 1 and DR 10/energy is struck by a blaster, it’s better for the character to apply their DR 1 against the attack (since DR 10/energy is bypassed by a blaster).
Lightsabers: Lightsabers ignore damage reduction unless specifically noted otherwise.
Diagonal Movement
Moving diagonally costs double. When moving or counting along a diagonal path, each diagonal step counts as 2 squares, as shown in the diagram below. If a character moves diagonally through low objects or difficult terrain, the cost of movement doubles twice (that is, each square counts as 4 squares).
A character can’t move diagonally past the corner or end of a wall that extends to a grid center.
Difficult Terrain
Broken ground, buckled deck plating, and similar obstacles are collectively refereed to as difficult terrain. It costs twice as much to move into a square containing difficult terrain. Creatures of Large size and bigger must pay the extra cost for moving across difficult terrain if any part of their fighting space moves into such a square.
Difficult terrain does not block line of sight or provide cover.
Encumberance and Speed
Wearing medium or heavy armor or carrying a heavy load reduces your character’s speed to three-quarters normal (4 squares if your base speed is 6 squares, or 3 squares if your base speed is 4 squares). While wearing heavy armor or carrying a heavy load, you can only run at triple your speed.
A character with a fly speed cannot fly while carrying a heavy load.
Fighting Space
The squares that a creature occupies on the Battle Map are collectively refereed to as its fighting space. Small and Medium creatures (including most characters) have a fighting space of 1 square. Large creatures have a fighting space of 4 squares (2 squares on a side). Huge creatures have a fighting space of 9 squares (3 squares on a side). Gargantuan and Colossal creatures have much larger fighting spaces.
Flanking
If you are making a melee attack against an opponent and you have an ally on the other side of an opponent so that the opponent is directly between the two of you, you are flanking that opponent. You gain a +2 flanking bonus on your melee attack roll. See the diagrams below for examples of flanking.
You don’t gain a flanking bonus when making a ranged attack.
Helpless Opponents
A helpless opponent—one who is bound, sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise at your mercy—is an easy target. You can sometimes approach a target that is unaware of your presence, get adjacent to it, and treat it as helpless. If the target is in combat or some other tense situation, and therefore in a sate of acute awareness and readiness, or if the target can use its Dexterity bonus to improve its Reflex Defense, then that target can’t be considered unaware. Furthermore, any reasonable precautions taken by the target—including stationing bodyguards, placing its back to the wall, or being able to make Perception checks—also precludes catching that target unaware and helpless.
Attacking a Helpless Opponent: A melee attack against a helpless opponent gains a +5 bonus on the attack roll (equivalent to attacking a prone target). A ranged attack gets no special bonus. In addition, a helpless opponent can’t add its Dexterity bonus (if any) to its Reflex Defense. In fact, its Dexterity score is treated as if it were 0, so its Dexterity modifier to Reflex Defense is −5.
Ion Damage
Ion pistols and ion rifles emit powerful bursts of electrostatic energy that can disable droids, vehicles, and electrical devices in much the same way that stun weapons can incapacitate living creatures.
When you make a successful attack with a weapon that deals ion damage, first subtract half of the ion damage from the target’s hit points. Creatures that do not have cybernetic prosthetics are singed by the ion energy, but suffer no other ill effects. droids, vehicles, electronic devices, and cybernetically enhanced creatures may suffer additional effects, as noted below:
- If the ion damage reduces the target’s current hit points to 0, the target moves −5 steps on the condition track and is either disabled or knocked unconscious.
- If the ion damage (before being halved) equals or exceeds the target’s damage threshold, the target moves −2 steps on the condition track.
Line of Sight
A character can target an enemy that they see, which is to say, any enemy within their line of sight. Draw an imaginary line from any point in the attacker’s fighting space to any point in the target’s fighting space. If the player who controls the attacking character can draw that line without touching a square that provides total cover (A wall, closed door, or similar barrier) or total concealment (thick smoke, total darkness, or anything else that prevents visibility), that character has a line of sight to the target.
A line that nicks a corner or runs along a wall does not provide line of sight. Other characters and creatures, low objects, difficult terrain, and pits do not block line of sight.
Line of Effect: Line of effect works just like line of sight, but it ignores squares that provide total concealment. For example, a character who is blind or in total darkness doesn’t have line of sight to any target, but that character has line of effect to any target that doesn’t have total cover.
Moving Through Occupied Squares
Sometimes you can pass through an occupied square.
Ally: You can move through a space occupied by any character, creature, or droid that doesn’t consider you an enemy.
Dead or Unconscious Enemy: You can move through a square occupied by an enemy that doesn’t present an obstacle, such as one who is dead, unconscious, or disabled.
Much Larger or Smaller Enemy: Any character can move through a space occupied by an enemy three or more size categories larger or smaller than the moving character.
Tumbling: A character trained in Acrobatics can attempt to tumble through an enemy’s fighting space.
Prone Targets
Various attacks, talents, feats, and Force powers can knock a character prone. A prone character takes a −5 penalty on melee attack rolls. mele attacks made against a prone character gain a +5 bonus, while ranged attacks against a prone character take a −5 penalty. Being prone may also give a character total cover instead of normal cover (for example, being prone behind a low wall), subject to the GM’s discretion.
Reach
A creature’s reach determines the distance it can reach when making a mele attack. A creature threatens all squares within its reach. Small and Medium characters have a reach of 1 square, which means they can make mele attacks only against targets in adjacent squares. Larger creatures tend to have a greater reach and, respectively, a bigger threatened area.
Bigger Creatures: A creature with greater-than-normal reach (more than 1 square) can still attack opponents directly next to it. A creature with greater than normal reach usually gets an attack of opportunity against an opponent when the opponent approaches it, because the opponent must enter and move within its threatened area before making a mele attack.
Smaller Creatures: A Fine, Diminutive, or Tiny creature must be in your space to attack you; moving into your square provokes an attack of opportunity. You can attack into your own space if you need to with a mele attack (but not a ranged attack), so you can attack very small opponents normally.
Shield Rating
Some droids, devices, and vehicles have a shield rating (SR). Whenever a target with SR takes damage from an attack, reduce the damage by the shield rating. The remaining damage (if any) is dealt to the target’s hit points, subtracting damage reduction normally.
Shield Damage: If the damage dealt by an attack exceeds that target’s SR, reduce the shield rating by 5. This reduction is cumulative, so a target’s shield rating can eventually be reduced to zero. A character may recharge the shields of a device or vehicle by spending three swift actions on the same or consecutive rounds to make a DC 20 Mechanics check; if the check succeeds, the target’s SR improves by 5 points (up to its normal maximum). A droid may recharge its own shields by spending three swift actions on the same or consecutive rounds to make a DC 20 Endurance check; if the check succeeds, its current shield rating improves by 5 points (up to its normal maximum).
Shooting or Throwing into a Melee
If you shoot a ranged weapon or throw a weapon at an opponent that is adjacent to one or more of your allies, you take a −5 penalty on your attack roll. This penalty accounts for the fact that you’re trying not to hit your allies.
Precise Shot: If you have the Precise Shot feat, you don’t take this penalty.
Special Initiative Actions
Usually you act as soon as you can in combat, but sometimes you want to act later, at a better time, or in response to the Actions of someone else.
Delay
By choosing to delay, you take no action when your turn in the initiative order arrives. Instead, you act normally at whatever later initiative point you decide to act. When you delay, you voluntarily reduce your own initiative count for the rest of the encounter. When your new, lower initiative count comes up later in the same round, you can act normally. You can specify this new initiative result or just wait until some time later in the round and act at that time, thus fixing your new initiative result at that point.
Delaying is useful if you need to see what your friends or opponents are going to do before deciding what to do yourself. The price you pay is lost initiative. You never get back the time you spend waiting to see what’s going to happen.
Example: Deel and Vor’en approach a locked hatch, behind which they expect to encounter a crime boss and his thugs. Vor’en’s initiative result is 22, but he delays. He wants to open fire on the crime boss with his heavy blaster rifle, so he delays. On initiative count 14, Deel uses his Mechanics skill to unlock and open the door. Now Vor’en can move through the doorway and fire a shot at the crime boss, but his initiative is reduced to 13 (just after Deel’s initiative of 14). For the rest of the battle, Vor’en acts on initiative count 13.
Multiple Characters Delaying: If multiple characters delay their actions, the one with the highest initiative check modifier has the advantage. If two or more delaying characters both want to act on the same initiative count, the one with the highest initiative check modifier gets to go first.
Ready
Readying lets you prepare to take an action later, after your turn is over but before your next turn has begun. You can ready as a standard action. To do so, specify the standard, swift, or move action you will take and the circumstances under which you will take it. Then, any time before your next turn, you may take the readied action as a reaction in response to those circumstances (assuming they occur).
Initiative Consequences of Readying: The count on which you took your readied action becomes your new initiative result. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed your readied action, you don’t get to take the readied action (though you can ready the same action again). If you take your readied action in the next round, before your regular action, your initiative rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action in that round.
Example: Kelko and his friend Sia-Lan have just encountered a trio of Tusken Raiders in the wilds of Tatooine. On initiative count 14, Kelko specifies that he is going to fire his blaster at the first Raider that tries making an attack. On count 10, Sia-Lan moves next to Kelko and readies an attack with her lightsaber, so that she can strike any foe that comes within 1 square of her position. On count 7, the Tusken Raiders charge, brandishing their gaffi sticks. As soon as the lead Raider raises his weapon, Kelko fires his blaster, but misses. Next, Sia-Lan swings at the first Raider to reach her and drops him. Other Raiders, however, reach Sia-Lan and attack her. From this point on, both Kelko and Sia-Lan act on initiative count 7 (and before the Raiders).
Squeezing
Creatures of Large size and bigger can squeeze through small openings and down narrow hallways that are at least half as wide as their fighting space, provided they end their movement in an area that they can normally occupy. Big droids and vehicles can’t squeeze at all, unless they can compress their frames to accommodate the tighter space.
Creatures of Large size or bigger can’t squeeze past opponents.
Stunning
Sometimes you’d rather knock an opponent unconscious than kill them. That’s why many weapons have stun settings and why stun batons and stun grenades are popular with law enforcement agencies throughout the galaxy.
Various melee weapons and blasters have a stun setting, and switching a weapon to its stun setting (or resetting it to normal damage) is a swift action. Some stun weapons, such as stun grenades, only have a stun setting. Unless otherwise noted, the stun setting on a blaster weapon has a maximum range of 6 squares (no range penalties).
Only creatures can be stunned. Droids, vehicles, and objects are immune to stunning effects.
When you make a successful attack with a weapon that deals stun damage, subtract half of the stun damage from the target’s hit points. Additional effects may occur as well, depending on the amount of damage dealt:
- If the stun damage reduces the target’s current hit points to 0, the target moves −5 steps on the condition track and is knocked unconscious.
- If the stun damage (before being halved) equals or exceeds the target’s damage threshold, the target moves −2 steps on the condition track.
A creature knocked unconscious by a stunning effect does not die if it rolls a natural 1 on its Constitution check to regain consciousnesses or if it fails the check by 5 or more points. It simply remains unconscious.
Unarmed Attacks
Striking for damage with punches, kicks, and headbutts is essentially like attacking with a melee weapon. unarmed attacks deal normal bludgeoning damage.
A Medium creature normally deals 1d4 points of bludgeoning damage (plus Strength modifier) with a successful unarmed attack; A Small creature deals 1d3 points of bludgeoning damage (plus Strength modifier). Certain talents, feats, or special abilities may increase the damage a character deals with their unarmed attacks.