User Guide

Selecting Your Opponent
Sometimes, you will encounter only a single group of monsters. Other times, you will
think you have walked into their family reunion!
When you encounter more than one group of monsters, select your opponents by
clicking on their group in the monster listing. Until the opponent runs away or dies,
the group you select will be your “default” target. Of course, you can always select
another group. Depending on the character’s position in your party and the length of
his or her weapon, some monsters may be out of reach.
Fight
Swords are drawn and shields are readied. The Fight option pits your characters
against the monsters in hand to hand, armed combat. Their weapons, strengths, and
weaknesses also come into play. Of course, skills and hundreds of other factors also
play a part in the attack.
When your character opts to fight and swing her weapon at a monster, three different
questions are raised:
• Did she hit the monster? Her chances of hitting a monster are known as “To
Hit.”
• If she hit the monster, did she penetrate its armor or skin? Her chances of
cutting through these layers is known as “To Penetrate.”
• If she penetrated its armor or skin, was any physical damage done? Known as
just plain “damage”, it’s the bottom line.
Depending on your characters’ skills and weapons, you may be able to choose from
one of several methods of fighting. The method you choose is called a fighting mode.
(To see which modes your weapons use, Assay them.) Each mode has its own
strengths and weaknesses, and relies heavily on the Weaponry skill of its user.
The basic mode is a Swing, a side-to-side slicing blow. The chart at the top of page 224
compares the other available fighting modes to the Swing in three areas:
TO HIT: The likelihood characters will hit a monster with their weapon. For
example, if characters select melee, they swing wildly hoping to hit something.
Obviously the odds to hit are down when you are not really looking where your
weapon is going. Yet, a Swing, covering a wide arc and with direction has a good
chance of a hit.
TO PENETRATE: The likelihood your character will penetrate the monster’s
armor after a successful hit has connected. For example, a direct Thrust into a
monster’s leather armor has a better chance of penetrating it than a glancing
Swing.
DAMAGE: Once a blow has successfully hit the monster and penetrated its
armor, the damage column compares the actual amount of physical damage
inflicted upon the monster. For example, while odds to hit a monster are down
with a “Melee” attack, if you connect, Melee does double damage!
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Wizardry Gold