So I purchased the big gm box set and love it. Beautiful books! I have a some questions about Conflict.
If a monster has a Nature of say 3, does that mean that this is what the monster uses to roll for independent or versus rolls? If so, does the monster use any other skills/abilities for a conflict roll? (Aside from additions or subtractions from say using a spear in a defense action.)
Say my character is a Warrior and is using the Fighter skill, he is rolling an independent roll versus another attack. Do I then roll my fighter skill with no obstacle and count up my successes? If so, then my success would detract from my opponents success or do I subtract my success from the opponents hit point and the opponent, if successful, does the same to my character? (This is assuming there is no one else who could help the character. Can another character help my character in an attack?)
Monsters don’t have skills, they’re always going to be rolling Nature. Special abilities or bonus die would come from whatever weapons they might have (keep in mind Monster weapons can have special effects/powers attached to them, too). The tricky thing with monsters is that whenever they roll, they’re either going to be doing something INSIDE their Nature descriptors or OUTSIDE their Nature descriptors - if it’s outside they only roll half their Nature dice. This can even change from Action to Action/Turn to Turn in a conflict depending on what’s happening in the fiction.
You can have Independent Attack/Attack in a conflict and you’re correct - it’s an Ob 0 test each side damages the other side simultaneously, both sides lose Disposition. There are certain things that can turn Attack/Attack into a vs. test (bows, handaxes, certain spells/invocations, etc) where your dice cancel out your opponent’s in this situation. There’s no special rules for helping in Conflicts other than “if your PC is out of disposition, you can’t help” - so yeah, as long as they would be able to help normally they can help.
Thanks for the info! I appreciate it. One other thing: When using a monster to attack they roll their nature. Say a tomb guardian that has nature 3. I would roll three dice. If I succeed on all three dice does that mean they have three successes or do I add those three successes to their existing nature of 3 giving them a total of 6, say to attack.
I think you’re mixing up generating the Conflict Hit Points / Disposition (Scholar’s, p63 / p172), where there are 3 options:
Listed Conflict type - set Hit points (+1 per Helper)
e.g. Tomb Guardians (Scholar’s p195) has Kill listed as 4 Hit Points (+1 per helper)
Other Conflict type (within Nature) - Hit points = roll Nature, and add Success to Nature.
e.g. Tomb Guardians (Scholar’s p195) does not have Capture listed as a Listed Conflict type. However, if you, as the GM, feel that the PCs Capturing the Tomb Guardians falls within the Tomb Guardians’ “Guarding” Nature, you’d roll Nature (+1D per Helper), and add Successes to Nature, to generate the Hit Points.
In this case, you’d roll Nature 3, and add the successes to their base Nature of 3 (so, you’d get a final hit points total in the range of 3 - 6).
Other Conflict type outside of Nature - Hit points = roll half Nature, and add Success to Nature.
e.g. Tomb Guardians (Scholar’s p195), do not have Bind listed as a Conflict type, and, as GM, you might rule that the Necromancer-PC’s Binding the Tomb Guardian to a specific place / object is outside of the Tomb Guardian’s Nature Descriptors (Guarding, Pursuing, Slaying the Living).
In this circumstance, you would roll half Nature (3 halved, round up to 2), and add Sucesses to their base Nature of 3 (so, you’d get a final hit points total in the range of 3 - 5).
In the midst of the conflict (Attack / Defend / Manoeuvre / Feint), the Monsters “just” roll their Nature (or half Nature), +/- Dice or Successes (based on their weapon).
e.g. If a Tomb Guardian (Scholar’s p195) is doing a Defend with a Shield in a Kill conflict, they would roll their Nature (3) + 2D from the Shield (+1D per helper).
Thank you for the very detailed response. I read this and it has helped me understand the Conflict rules much better. You are a gentleman and a scholar, sir!