Creatures
Combat
Injuries, Poison & Disease
No Attack Status

Creatures
Crasimoff's World is a dangerous place with not only the animals of the natural (albeit fantasy) world, but also the results of bizarre astoff experimentation and the demonic products of the Dark Time. There are well over a hundred different types of beasts to be found upon the world all of which have fully-detailed descriptions and many with special tactics and special attacks. Presented here are just two examples:
 

Water Wyrm Believed to be some form of aquatic relative of the Dragon, Water Wyrms rarely intrude on the life of land dwellers. In some coastal regions however young wyrms are hunted for their body parts. Things such as Wyrmtooth fetch a high price due to its usefulness in various alchemy and spell research. Those Water Wyrms which do come on-land to attack travellers are normally parent beasts in frantic search of a lost young.

 

Greater Dragon Creatures as old as time itself, The Greater Dragons are the most feared of all the beasts of Crasimoff's World. They resemble truly huge lizards with great wings and a long neck and tail. Their heads are topped with between one and four horns and their bodies are covered in thick scales which are reinforced along the spine with spike-like plates.

Not only do these thankfully rare beasts fight with extremely vicious talons and teeth, they can also employ their tails to great effect. Most can breath forth jets of flame though legends tell of some which can squirt acid and release poisonous gases. Greater Dragons are on the whole very intelligent but also rather vain, cruel and savage. Some are believed to worship specific gods and act as their servants with certain scholars claiming that Emperor Crasimoff had his own Royal Dragon over which he had full control through a special artifact.

Combat
As you would expect in a fantasy environment combat can be frequent and deadly. Combat can be begun by players with several orders but is often started automatically by the computer as a result of your party attitude or alignment. You may also be attacked by monsters or other groups.

All characters begin with a small amount of weapon skill with the weapon they started with and usually no experience whatever in any other weapon. A fighter's skill character statistic acts as a bonus which is added to his actual weapon skill. This, plus their ability to have multiple attacks at higher levels, makes fighters usually far better at combat than any other character type.

Combat damage is determined by a combination of weapon skill, toughness and weapon type. Damage is reduced if the target is wearing armour, magical charms or rings. Tougher characters are also able to soak up more damage and so are harder to injure or kill.

When in combat, your party will normally attack in the order they appear in your Party Statistics. This is not always the case, for instance if your group are caught up in an amubush or your priests' faith is such that they are zelously opposed to an enemy.

If combat occurs, initiative and surprise are determined. Then a spell casting phase, followed by missile fire, and finally the rounds of  melee combat. Your group will continue fighting until they win, reach their retreat percentage, realise that defeat is inevitable or the enemy flees.

All characters in combat have a chance to improve their weapon skills, even if the characters are on the losing side. Weapon skill can also improve through training.

Monsters and NPCs have their own retreat percentages. Few will fight to the bitter end. Monsters of the same race will have similar percentages and with experience it is possible to figure these out. By taking advantage of this knowledge a weak group can defeat a powerful, but cowardly monster.

If battle occurs between turns you will be told of it on your next turn.

Note: Axes and daggers are classed as melee weapons, not missile weapons.
 

Injuries, Poison and Disease
Combat is a dangerous business. When a character is injured, their health will drop. If it ever reaches zero, they are considered dead. The health value in brackets ( ) shows the characters top ‘normal' health and the other figure shows the current health. Most injuries will heal naturally or can be cured using priest or mage spells. If your results indicate that a character is poisoned or diseased normal cures may not be work.

If one of your characters dies, the rest of your group will, if possible, salvage all equipment and gold, and carry the body with them to either give the deceased a decent burial or find a way of resurrecting the character.
 

No Attack Status
It is possible to avoid combat will all other player-controlled parties by using the No Attack [NA] order. While it is switched on, other parties will not be able to use the Engage and Steal orders or cast offensive spells against you, nor will you be able to do it against them. Attacks on or by monsters and NPCs are unaffected.

All new parties begin with the NA option switched on. This allows you to get used to the game and gain a little experience before having to worry about other, older parties attacking you. When you are ready, you can turn the option off by issuing an NA order.
 
 
 

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