Templar Battleforce's combat system uses a few types of dice rolls in combat. We will cover the basic types here -- they are not as complicated as they may sound.

The first is to roll opposing pools of dice. This type of dice roll is used in attack and defense.

The attacker and defender both gather a pool of D10s (ten-sided dice) and roll them. Depending on the type of dice (strong or standard), the dice that roll successes are counted. The attacker and defender compare success counts, and whoever has more wins. A tie goes in favor of the attacker.

A strong dice is a D10 that will succeed on a 6 or more out of 10. A standard dice is a D10 that will succeed only on an 8 or more out of 10. The dice are modeled after real-life D10s, so have 1-10 on them.

The amount of strong and standard dice you have in your pools is determined by your Talents, Weapons, Skills and Attributes.

When rolling damage and armor, "big dice" are rolled. If you do 30 - 60 damage, than a D31 (a thirty one sided dice) is rolled. This can give you a pretty wide range of damage (from 30 to 60) depending on the score on the die.

Often, a percentage is rolled. In this case, a D100 (a one hundred sided dice) is rolled and compared to a percentage. For example, in the case of a 15% Critical chance, a D100 is rolled. If the roll is 15 or less, a Critical is scored.

Attacking and defensing is a process of rolling two large pools of strong and standard dice and counting successes. If the attacker has more successes or ties, the attack hits. If a tie is scored, or the attacker misses, there is a chance for a counter-attack if the original attack was melee.

The pool of dice and the strong / standard nature of the dice depends on the Talent and type of weapon you are using.

In a melee attack, your pool consists of:

• Talent Accuracy bonuses as Strong Dice
  
• Weapon Accuracy as Strong Dice
  
• Strength Attribute as Standard Dice
  
• Warrior Skill as Standard Dice
  
• Any Bonuses to Melee Accuracy from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

In a ranged attack, your pool consists of:

• Talent Accuracy bonuses as Strong Dice
  
• Weapon Accuracy as Strong Dice
  
• Attribute is weapon dependent. Light ranged weapons use Quicknessand Heavy weapons use Strength. Grenages use Quickness. The selected Attribute is rolled as Standard Dice
  
• Gunnery or Grenades Skill as Standard Dice
  
• Any Bonuses to Ranged Accuracy from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

In a melee defense, your pool consists of:

• Weapon + Shield Parry as Strong Dice
  
• Warrior Skill as Strong Dice
  
• Evasion Skill as Standard Dice
  
• Armor Evade as Standard Dice
  
• Any Parry Bonuses from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

In a ranged defense, your pool consists of:

• Armor Evade as Strong Dice
  
• Tactics Skill as Standard Dice
  
• Shield Parry as Standard Dice, if carried
  
• Evasion Skill as Standard Dice
  
• Quickness Attribute as Standard Dice
  
• Any Bonuses to Dodge from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

Damage is broken out into multiple types. Standard physical damage is caused by weapons, such as 30-60 Damage. When an attack hits, the attacker rolls damage. The standard damage is rolled on one big die, so in the example of 30-60 Damage, that is a D31 + 29 damage.

Specialized weapons, gear, buffs or Talents may add special damage, such as Bio-Poison, Fire, or Plasma. In the case of special damage, the amount of damage is rolled as one big die, but this type of damage guarantees at least 33% damage, always rounded down. Therefore, if you cause 18 Fire Dmg with an attack, a D18 is rolled to determine the damage. However, by the 33% rule, the damage calculator will set the score to 5 if the die rolls less. All special damage is handled separately from standard damage and soaked by Resistance as opposed to armor.

For example, if a weapon causes 30-60 Damage, you roll D31+29. In this example the D31 rolls a 10 and the standard damage is 39. For the example, the attack also causes 18 Fire Damage, which is rolled as a D18. The roll runs up a 14, and even in an unlucky case the rule of 33% would have set the Fire Damage at 5. Entering the soak phase, the damage being caused is 39 standard and 14 Fire.

Standard damage is resisted by armor. Half of your armor's protection value is reduced from the damage immediately without any dice roll. The other half of the armor's protection is rolled as one big die and then reduced from the damage. An armor with 24 protection will therefore soak up to 12+D12 damage.

Resistances function the same way. All special damage is resisted by your standard Resistance, half of which is reduced without any dice roll, and the other half rolled as a one big die. Then, specific Res is applied, so Fire Dmg is resisted by Fire Res. Fire Res is basically armor for Fire Damage. If you have 18 Fire Resistance, you can soak up to 9+D9 Fire Damage.

For example, the target is taking 39 standard damage and 6 Fire damage. The target has 24 Armor, 4 Resistance and 2 Fire Resistance.

The Armor soaks 12+D12 damage, and after the roll totals a 16. 39 Damage - 16 Soak = 23 standard Damage. The standard Resistance soaks 2+D2 = 3 and the Fire Res of 2 soaks 1+D1 = 2, which results in a final 14 Fire Dmg - (3 + 2) = 9 Fire Damage. At the end, all damages are summed and applied to the target's hit points. Therefore, 23 standard damage + 9 Fire damge = 32 final damage.

Based on your class, you get additional soak bonuses for standard and special damage. All standard damage is additionally soaked by you Fortitude x Class multiplier. All special damage is additionally soaked by your Willpower x Class multiplier. These additional soaks function just like armor, where half of the soak is automatic and half is rolled on a big die.

The final soak pass is applied. In our example, the target her 6 Fortitude and 3 Willpower. As a Scout class Templar, the Fortitude Class multipler is 0.5 and the Willpower multiplier is 1.0. This results in 3 soak for fortitude - a 1+D2 rolls total of 2. And the Willpower soak is 3 as well, resulting in a 1+D2 rolls a total of 3. These are soaked out of the damage, and the true final damage is 27.

All weapons provide a penetration value and all armor provide a deflection value.

Whenever an attack hits, and before armor soaking is done, a penetration roll is made. The target's Deflection value is reduced by the attacker's Penetration value. For example, an enemy with 80 Deflection has their value reduced by your attack's 42 Penetration. A D100 is rolled against this remainder, in this case 38. If the attack is more than or equal to the value, a penetrating hit is scored.

In the case of a penetrating hit, the 50% of armor value that is usually immediately reduced from damage is ignored. Only the armor's 50% dice is rolled. Penetrating hits do not affect Fire Damage or Bio-Poison.

On the map, a penetrating hit can be see when a "p" is printed after the damage, such as 42p.

Soldiers and Neptune Templars can use Overwatch to setup a fire zone on a protected area. If an enemy tries to move into any square covered by the template, the Templar opens fire before the move occurs. A target hit by an Overwatch attack may stop moving or plan a new route forward after the attack. Every attack with Overwatch adds Heat to the firing Templar.

As enemies move through Overwatch protected fire zones, they clear a path for other enemies for the remainder of that turn. For example, if a Goliath charges through an Overwatch area and survives the fire, it has cleared a path and other enemies may move through those exact tiles without being targeted by an Overwatch attack.

Combat is full of special situations in which you can gain an advantage.

Whenever a Templar is attacked in either melee or ranged, an Auto-Block percentage roll is made. All of your Auto-Block bonuses are added together, plus your Focus Attribute, into a final percentage and a D100 is rolled against it. If you roll less than your final score, the hit is immediately blocked. In the case of a melee attack, you get a chance to roll for a counter-attack.

With buffs and gear, you're Auto-Block % cannot exceed 59%. Your Focus Attribute is always added to your Auto-Block last and is allowed to raise your Auto-Block above 59%, to a maximum of 75%.

In melee combat, those Templars and enemies that are trained to fight in close-quarters may generate Counter-attacks. For Templars, only the Captain, Berserk, and Paladin will make Counter-attacks. For enemies or xeno, any that use a melee as their primary attack can also make Counter-attacks. Note that this indicates you are safe from Counter-attacks for monsters like Spitters, if you can close to melee range with them.

In combat, if the attacker misses or ties the defender in successes on the accuracy roll, the defender is allowed to make a Counter-attack. Any defender can only execute 2 Counter-attacks per turn at maximum. If a Counter-attack is made on the Templar's turn, this attack does consume AP.

Buffs, gear, and weapons may increase Counter-attack %. Your Quickness is also added to your Counter-Attack %. Even in the case of hits, an additional D100 roll is made whenever your Templar is the target of a melee attack. If your Templar rolls less than your final Counter-attack score, you make a Counter-attack immediately.

Whenever a Counter-attack is made, the Templar uses their first Talent. For example, your Captain uses the Slash Talent. Therefore, improving Slash can make your counter-attack more powerful.

Whenever an attack is made, all Critical % improvements are totaled. Your Critical % is also increased by your Tactics skill. A D100 is rolled against the final sum Critical %. If the die is rolled under the Critical %, a Critical Hit is scored and the damage is massively increased. The damage increase is based on two damage multipliers for the attack type. The damage multiplication is done before armor soak is applied. The damage multiplication does not apply to special damage types, such as Fire or Plasma.

All attack types have a pair of Attributes or Skills responsible for their damage multiplier. Melee attacks use Strength and Focus, Grenade attacks use Willpower and Focus, Sniper Rifles use Stealth and Focus and all other ranged attacks use Quickness and Focus. Every point added to a damage multiplier stat increase Critical hit damage by 7%.

Needle Rifles and Sidearms fire deadly metallic darts that deliver deadly bio-poison agents against their target. At the time of the attack, the Bio-Poison rating is rolled as special damage against the target and resisted by Bio-Poison Resistance.

If the attack damages the target, the bio-agents are delivered. For three turns, at the end of their turn the target will suffer Bio-Poison damage equal to the attack's Bio-Poison rating, reduced as normal by their Bio-Poison Resistance. If an enemy target is reduced to 0 HP by the residual damage of Bio-Poison, they die at the end of their turn.