Weapon Category, Combat Specialty and Combat Skills

Weapon Category Skills
Weapon skills are the base damage dealing skills in the game of TAG. Every character type should learn some weapon skills.
 * Classes such as warrior, barbarian, thief and rogue will benefit mostly from taking two skill levels each level of at least one or more weapon.

For more details about weapon skills visit the weapon skills page.
 * Pure spell casters, such as clerics, mages and mystics, should consider one level of one weapon skill each level, just in case they run out of spell points during a battle.
 * Hybrid spell casters, such as battle mages, paladins, jesters, monks, warmongers, hooligans, wizards, and bards may chose to take one or two levels of one weapon each round for at least ten levels.

Combat Specialty Skills
Combat Specialty provides a character advanced skills for use in combat. If your character is not a spell caster it is highly advised that you learn a Combat Specialty list. These skills can provide a huge advantage in combat. The character uses a pool of Aggression points, which is based on the character level, Endurance stat and Aggression Points skill levels, to cast or use a specific Combat Specialty skill from the list. There are six different Combat Specialty lists that a character can learn: Combat Protection - skills designed to protect the character, enhance his abilities to draw fire from enemies, and avoid being damaged by physical and magic attacks. (tanks would go here) Combat Expertise - skills designed to increase a character's damage, weaken the opponent, and tip the battle in his favor. (for dealing heavy damage) Combat Ranged Attacks - skills designed to help maneuver around the battle field, increase damage dealt while reducing damage taken, and confuse the opponent. (great for rogues and those wanting more ability to avoid damage while increasing damage) Combat Leadership - skills designed to enhance the group's abilities in combat. Combat Unarmed - skills designed to increase the combatant’s ability to deal damage, disarm the opponent and incapacitate them without using traditional weapons. Combat Deceptions - generally thought of as unfair and unorthodox tricks for gaining advantages in combat, yet very effective for the unscrupulous. Combat Specialty Skills are available in lists similar to spell lists.

For more details about Combat Specialty Skills and aggression points visit the Combat Specialty page.
 * Primary Stat: dependent on character

Combat Skills
Combat skills improve a character's ability to survive and inflict damage in combat. Warriors, Barbarians, Thieves and Rogues typically learn these skills at lower costs, with some exceptions that you will discover by looking over the Skills Acquisition Chart.

Of course any character can learn any skill if they want to spend the skill acquisition points necessary to learn the skill.

Following is a list of the Combat Skills:

Guns
Guns are created by Mythic Engineers. The guns skill allows the character to attack with guns. Guns can be duel wielded. Some guns can be fired with spell points or shells. Non-engineers use Ingenuity spell points to fire the gun if a shell is not available.
 * Guns may or may not be readily available in a TAG world. The GM will make this determination.
 * Primary Stat: Agility (Engineers can use Ingenuity for the stat bonus)

Duel Wield
Duel Wielding is the ability for a character to use a weapon in each hand, which gives the character a main hand attack and an off hand attack each round.

''Caution: Duel Wielding is an advanced skill and should only be learned if the player is willing to spend extra time to understand the rules for calculating attacks and damage. Some players find that the minor advantages to dealing damage may not be worth the extra effort each round. Remember the idea is to have fun!''

When a character wields a weapon in each hand no impacts to the main hand weapon are taken as long as the player has at least 5 levels of duel wield skill; if not they take -5 to attacks with the main hand. There are always penalties and limitations to attacks and damage for the offhand weapon. The following rules apply to the offhand weapon:
 * Characters with 0 levels of Dual wield skills attack with their offhand weapon at -25 and gain no weapon bonuses.
 * A character with duel wield skills of 1 or more can attack with the offhand weapon at ¼ the weapon’s total attack bonus, including all types of bonuses – weapon, skills, magic, stat, etc.


 * Attacks from the offhand weapon cannot score above 150 on the attack matrix chart.
 * The offhand weapon cannot do a critical hit above a B critical; critical hits above B are rolled as B critical hits.


 * The off-hand attack cannot produce a critical strike above 100.
 * The off-hand attack can never have bonus to attack above the main hand, unless temporarily altered for a special in-game circumstance granted by the GM.

Example: Level 10 Barbarian with +136 to hit. (1/4x136=34) + (22 DW SL's=62)  provides an off-hand to hit of 34+62=96 
 * Each skill level of Duel Wielding adds the following
 * +3 to hit for off-hand up to level 20
 * +1 to hit for offhand weapon level 21 and higher
 * Primary Stat: Strength, Agility or Ingenuity dependent on weapon and character

Shield Proficiency
The Shield Proficiency skill provides a character with the ability to use a shield to the fullest of its ability. Shields are great defensive tools, but for the unskilled they reduce the attack roll. Shields can also be used as a weapon by a character with shield proficiency. Different types and sizes of shields provide different levels of defense.

Shield Proficiency Usage

 * An equipped shield by a character with 0 skills in shield proficiency provides the base shield defense for the type of shield and results in -25 to attack.
 * For anyone with at least one skill level in Shield Proficiency equipping a shield causes a -20 to attacks and maneuvers, but not to defense.
 * When a shield is equipped, each level of Shield Proficiency adds +2 to defense, and +1 to attacks and maneuvers to offset the -20 penalty stated above.
 * A shield never subtracts from your defense even if you have no Shield Proficiency skill levels

Shield Proficiency Limitations
For a list and description of shields visit the Shield Description page.
 * Shields cannot be used with weapons that require 2 hands to use
 * Shields cannot be used while using martial arts or brawling
 * Shield proficiency cannot be used with the Dodge skill (you can learn both, but you must use one skill or the other each round)
 * Shields create a maneuver penalty equal to their base defense.  This penalty is not deducted from combat, only from special maneuvers, trickery, etc.
 * Primary Stat: Agility

Dodge
Dodge is a skill that assists a character in avoiding a melee, ranged or directed magical attacks. Each skill level of Dodge adds defense using the following chart:

Armor Maneuver
Armor maneuver is the ability to move and act while wearing heavier and more restrictive armor. This skill only provides +1 for each skill level and should only be learned to level 20. Skill bonus: special +1 per skill level to 20.

Armor Penalty
Armor penalty is assessed against a character’s actions. It is equal to the armor rating of the character minus the character's armor maneuver skill level. A character with an armor rating of 7 with only two levels of armor maneuver skill has an armor penalty of -5. That penalty is subtracted from all attacks, maneuvers, combat skills, deception skills, adventuring skills, and any other skill that requires the character to move to perform the skill.

Armor Rating
Characters wearing only normal clothing have an armor rating of 0. When a character puts on a soft leather helm his armor rating raises to 1, add leather body armor and the armor rating becomes 2. A character wearing a chain helm (3), hard leather body armor (2), chain gloves (3), plate leg armor (4), soft leather armor on his arms (1) has a armor rating of 13, which is calculated by adding the appropriate values from Armor Rating Chart: 3+2+3+4+1=13.
 * Primary Stat: armor maneuver skill does not use a stat bonus.

Health Points
The Health Points skills increases the Health Points a character gains per level. Health Points represent how many points of damage a character can take before being rendered unconscious due to bodily physical trauma.

The number of Health Points a character has can be greatly increased as they progress in levels by purchasing the Health Point skill. All character types besides Warriors receive 10 health points for every level of the Health Point skill they have learned. Warriors gain 12 health points for every level of the Health Point skill.

The formulas for calculating a character's health points are as follows: For details on calculating Health Points visit the Character Creation page and read Step Five: Calculate Health Points.
 * Non Warriors: Endurance + (Endurance Stat Bonus x character level) + (Health Point skill level x 10)
 * Warriors: Endurance + (Endurance State Bonus x character level) + (Health Point skill level x 12).

Aggression Points
The Aggression points skill increases the amount of aggression points a character gains per level. Aggression points are used to cast Combat Specialty skills.