Hand-to-Hand Combat Skill Reference

Zone of Influence

See the ZoI page.

HTH Skill Notes

Skill	Notes
Brawling	Average BCS for Improvised Weapons WDM = 1 + Hand AV/30
Flexible Weapon	May Entangle for added Damage DFT Effect Group compare with target to hold entanglement.
Knife	No offhand penalty A second attack (Second not Secondary) without WDA loss from primary hand if using a weapon with a SEC of T (such as switchblade). May not hold one weapon in each hand without Two Weapon; in that case, the second attack is with offhand without off-hand dexterity averaging. With two knives, and Two Weapon skill, a player may make a primary hand attack, a primary hand second attack (if SEC is T) and and offhand attack (3 attacks at -1, +1 STR Grp, but loss of WDA, due to two weapon) Many knife attacks allow Trusting. Thrusting is -1 STR Grp and +1 BCS. When combined with Two Weapon, these cancel out! (2 attacks with no modifiers, but loss of WDA, 3 if SEC of primary is T)
Longsword	May make secondary attack if primary misses. Average BCS for secondary, loss of WDA. May be combined with Two Weapon skill, but BCS is always calculated as Longsword. When using a sword that is one handed with Longsword skill, the character may use two hands and gain a STR/10 bonus to WDM.
Fencing	May not be combined with Two Weapon, or any other Frontal Stance combat skill, as the stance is incompatible.
Bola	It takes 3 actions to throw a Bola.
Sling	It takes 3 actions effectively launch a bullet, 4 actions gives a 2xWDM.
Nunchaku	One or Two Weapons STR rating of both weapons combined must be less than STR Group or suffer the penalty of -1 STR Group. Secondary strike (1 or 2 weapon) Loss of WDA if all weapons secondary strike Two Weapon skill not required to use two Nunchaku. Oddly, if combined with Two Weapon, STR of both weapons would need to be equal to or below the STR of the character.
Polearm	Butt Stroke: Secondary strike, WDM 1. May be combined with Two weapon as a secondary on the Polearm (a third attack).
Sai	One or two weapons When utilizing a Defend Option a character with Sai Skill may either gain the increase in Overall Defense Ability or retain his normal value and gain a special ability. This ability allows the user to attempt to disarm an opponent attack him with a Hand-to-hand weapon.
Two Weapon	Primary and Second attack -1 BCS to both attacks Second weapon Average BCS with Off-hand Dexterity. The fighter will lose the benefit of his WDA during the Attack. Neither weapon's STR GRP requirement may exceed the character STR group, or there is an additional penalty of -1 STR Group. When making two attacks, if the offhand weapon is a knife used with knife skill, it doesn't require averaging with offhand dexterity.
Tonfa	Grapple if with Unarmed Combat
Unarmed Combat	No situational modifiers due to positioning for fighting Brawler or Unarmed Opponent. Hand: Second attack with Averaged with Offhand Dexterity Kick: 1 per attack, +1 STR group Leaping: -1 BCS per meter, +2 STR Group Throws: +1 if in same hex Defend Action: Any miss means free attack.
Weapon and Shield	Secondary attack with shield, WDM = SF/10 Missile attacks in shield range 50% chance of hit to shield. Shield STR requirement is ENC*2 rounded.

Notes and Justification

Any number of skills can be used to attack in a single action.

Example: Angus attacks, holding two weapons. To use two weapons, he needs two weapon skill, if both weapons are not Nunchaku or knives. The first attack uses the appropriate skill for that weapon. If it is an SW weapon, then two weapon is used. If it is a LS, PL, Sai, KN skilled weapon, use that skill or two weapon. However, special abilities such as butt stroke on miss for Longsword only apply if using Longsword skill to attack.

Treat each attack separately when determining modifiers.

With the Longsword attack, it receives a -1 BCS because it is allowed with Two Weapon skill. If the Longsword attack misses, a secondary butt stroke is allowed with an average BCS, even though there is a second attack coming from the knife because they are treated separately and the attack rolled Longsword skill. Again, if Two Weapon skill was used, then this would not be allowed.

With the knife attack in the above example, it is with an off-hand, but does not suffer an off-hand penalty or loss of WDA because it is using knife skill. Two Weapon was used to allow the attack, so -1 to the BCS applies.

Remember: A player may use the ability of a skill and use a different skill for the BCS. For example, fighting with two weapons, but using Longsword skill for the first attack BCS and Knife for the second. Note that Two Weapon skill is never rolled, but having the skill allows the use of two weapons and this both get the -1 attack penalty due to Two Weapon.

To get the Knife/Two Weapon 3 attack with no modifiers and loss of WDA, the primary weapon needs to be a switchblade and the offhand needs to be a weapon that uses KN skill and allows Thrusting and both attacks are trusting.

"Any weapon usable by Single Weapon Combat Skill may be used with Two Weapon." Book 2, Page 72. This may imply that only weapons with SW skill may be used with two weapon, so no knives. Since fighting with a sword and a knife is a common two weapon combat style, I interpret this to mean that a character holding a knife must use Knife skill, not Two weapon skill for BCS. Also if a player does not have knife skill, a knife can not be their second weapon in Two Weapon because they are not skilled it its use (It is KN only not SW,KN). The same things goes for a character using a longsword and a knife. They can attack with both, but must use LS and KN for their two weapon attacks.

Knife skill: "This is not a TWO Weapon Skill, however, so a character attempting to fight with two knives is subject to the rules for two weapon combat." Book 2, Page 9. The rules for two weapon combat deal with ENC. This seems to say that characters can't attack with two knives at the same time, but STR notwithstanding, can hold a knife in each hand. Since a knife is not a valid weapon for two weapon, a character using two knives must have both two weapon and knife skill, but the BCS for attacks is always knife, not two weapon.