New Combat Manuever: Strike the Weapon

     While blades and weapons meet all the time in the melee, it's an entirely different matter to try and willfully strike your opponent's weapon in an attempt to break it but it is a tactic that was employed on the battlefield, especially against pole-arms.

     By forfeiting your attack you may instead choose to attack their weapon. Unlike attacking a weapon of someone that's holding you at bay to move it out of the way, this is a deliberate strike to deal damage. The attack is against the defender's shieldless defense +6.

     On a hit the attacker rolls a reduced damage die that's as follows:

• All piercing weapons only deal 1 point of damage
• All crushing weapons use the lower of their two damage dice
• All non-polearm hacking weapons deal the higher of their two damage dice
• All hacking pole arms use the lower of the two dice rolled and they drop the +3

      Weapon breakage rules are similar to shield breakage rules with pole arms being treated as bucklers in terms of breakage and every other weapon treated as medium shields. The more damage, the more likely you are to break the weapon

      If a weapon falls it's breakage save, it doesn't shatter but instead the strike lowers the quality of the weapon, depending on the amount of weapon failed by (as per the usual rules found on page 197 of the PHB). After -4 the weapon shatters and is useless.

Fighting Unarmed with 1 or 2 hands

    Normally when attacking with an unarmed attacked you add your FoS to the special results sum to determine if your move was successful. This is the case whether you use two hands or one, which seems a bit silly.

     When fighting with ONE HAND, you add your damage modifier from strength to your special results sum. In this case it acts like a reduced FoS and doesn't add anymore to the damage.

     When fighting with TWO HANDS, you'll add your full FoS, just like normal.

New Combat Manuever: Power Attack

     Commonly called "Baseballing", Power Attacks allow a trade of accuracy and defense for power.

     While an Aggressive Attack is a series of feints designed to open an oppenent up, a Power Attack is a series of aggressive swings forcing an oppenent to move out of the way or get his head caved in. Power Attacking is also used to try and smash shields and weapons.

     While Power Attacking, you receive a -3 to Attack and Def in exchange for an additional none penetrating damage die. If the weapon has two different damage die, use the larger of the two.

     If you hit, you also add the difference between your FoS and their's for determining knock-backs.

     Like Attacking Aggressively, if your oppenent has Given Ground or Scampered Back, the Power Attack's damage is halved.

      Example: Red and Blue are locked in epic struggle. Red is growing angry and so he switches to a move offensive fighting style: he decides to start Power Attacking with his long sword.
      On the first round of attacks Red swings and gets a 15 on his roll. Blue counters but only gets a 13 so the attack lands.
      Red's damage would normally be 2d8p+3 (Red's got a strength of 15/73) but because he Power Attacked he instead rolls 2d8p+1d8+3 for damage. he rolls a 3, 2, and 8 on his dice. Even though he rolled an 8 on a d8, it doesn't penetrate because it was his bonus die from Power Attacking, so his total is 13, not too shabby but again, because he was baseball batting his attack, he adds the difference between his FoS (+8) and Blue's (+3) to determine whether or not it was a knock back.
      So the total was 13 damage but 18 for knock-back, sending Blue staggering back against the onslaught.

      The next round of attacks go by and Red attacks again with a Power Attack. This time Blue Gives Ground, but his defense only ends up totaling 7 against Red's 11. Red rolls a 5, 6, 4, giving him a total to damage of 18 but because Blue moved back, Blue only takes 9, however Red's total for knock-back was 14, meaning that Blue's managed to hold his ground. And, hey, at least he didn't take the full 21 damage.

NPA/NPD and Unarmed Attacks

     If you successfully score a Near Perfect Attack or a Near Perfect Defense, you may instead forgo the standard bonus to gain a free unarmed combat maneuver against your opponent.

     It doesn't effect your count or switch your to fighting with two weapons (attacking with both). If you are using an Advance Combat Maneuver, you still add any bonuses of penalties from that.

     If you are swapping out a Near Perfect Attack, you'll still need to roll a separate attack roll for the unarmed maneuver.

     Obviously, you must be in melee with your attacker to gain this bonus.

Revised Shield Bash

Shield bashes suck right now. I've redone the damage:

Bucklers:            1d4+1d4p

Small:                 1d4p+1d6

Medium:             1d6p+1d4p

Large:                 1d4p + 1d4

Body:                  1d6+1d4

Shields have a maximum Reach of 0. So, an ogre and a human using a shield will have a Reach of 0, while a dwarf or halfling will have a Reach of -1.

Going into combat with only a shield means that you count as unarmed and the attacker attacks at half speed, however the attacker doesn't get the free attack if the defender shield bashes.

Medium shield are more effective then their smaller counter parts at shoving your opponent around. As such, you gain your net FoS to determine Knock Backs when bashing with them.

Large and Body shields have reduced damage dice because they are harder to swing effectively in combat. Obviously, if someone was to grab one end of a body shield and swing it, full-boar, into someone's face, it'll do a lot better damage, but that's not usually the case in pitched melee.

When shield bashing with a Large, or Body shield a lot of it is using force or momentum to try and throw your attacker around, rather then strictly do damage. Because of this, using these two types of shields to bash have their damage count as double for determining knock-backs and you may add your net FoS as well (your FoS - their FoS)

Superior Quality Shields and Bashing
A well-balanced shield made of the finest materials would, of course, be more effective at not only its defensive job but also its offensive job so any bonuses or penalties that a shield has is added to its Attack and Damage, just like a normal weapon.

Reach and Closed Spaces

    There are no penalties on fighting in a small space with a large weapon, I've decided to remedy that.

    When engaged with an opponent, you take up roughly 5 sq ft of space on the board. This is to represent the back and forth and moving to or fro of combat.
    Even when you have a pole-arm and a sword fighter has closed in on you, you don't fight with penalties because you have space to move around, however that is not always the case. It's only when you get backed into a wall that things start to become a problem.

    For example: these two fighters are battling out in the alley behind the tavern because the sword fighter (blue) insulted the pole-arm fighter's (red) girlfriend. Blue is using a long sword (3 1/2 foot reach) while Red is Halberd (7 foot reach).
    While there is a lot of debris in the alley, they still both have enough space to maneuver their weapons so even though Blue's token is touching Red's, Red fighter without a penalty as he's choked up on his weapon and has enough enough space behind him to work with.

     However, if you are pushed up against a wall or another person fighting or really anything that keeps you from having the space you need to fight, problems start to arise for the bigger weapons. If your character is against some behind them then they get a penalty to their attack, defense, speed, and damage equal to how many feet over 5 ft their weapon is.

     Continued example: Red and Blue continue to exchange blows. Realizing that the cramped conditions could give him an advantage, Blue bull-rushes Red, succeeding in diving him back against the wall.
     Now that his back is blocked, Red is less able to move his Halberd about to attack or defend and takes a penalty of 2 to his Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage because his base reach is 7.

     Being pushing into a corner is bad for everybody, not just weapons with longer reach. When up against a wall, the situation can turn dire even for the smallest weapon.
     Should your opponent score a knock-back on you while your back is against a wall, then you automatically take 2(d4p-2) +1 for every point of damage over what was needed to knock you back originally -1 for every foot traveled to get there, as your character is slammed against the wall. You can make a Feat of Agility to half that damage by half the amount of damage you initially took is added to the opposed roll, so the harder you were knocked back, the less likely you are to avoid the damage.

     As you recover, your attacker can then press forward, further pushing you against the wall. He halves whatever remaining fighting space you have (rounded up). So, the first time he limits your fighting space to 3 feet, then to 2, then to 1.
    Not that this is without cost for him, as it limits his fighting space by the same amount as well as he has to get in close and personal to force his advantage.

    Continued Example: Red knows that he's in trouble unless he turns the tables soon so he begins to Attack Aggressively. Blue, knowing how badly a Halberd can if it strikes true, decides to give him the ground and begins to shuffle back.
    Spurned on by the move, Red closes the gap and swings, scoring a double knock back and sending him against the alley. He drops his dagger and charges Blue.

     The charge is successful. Red is a pretty swole dude and even with the dagger, he does 9 damage, which because he charged, counts at 18 damage for the purposes of knock backs, throwing Blue into the wall behind him.
      Blue then makes a FoA vs d20p+9 because even though the dagger technically only did 9 damage, it was still counted as 18 for the purposes of knocking him back.
      Blue makes it and takes half of 2(d4p-2)+3. Still, he was thrown back into the wall and Red moves up with his dagger.
   

      Now both fighters are fighting in a smaller space. Blue is finding it a tad bit difficult to maneuver his long sword in the cramped conditions, but he's doing alright for himself only taking a penalty of 1 to his Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage, while Red is having no trouble in the these conditions to wield his dagger.
     The battle continues with neither side gaining or losing ground until Red, spurred on by his fury at Blue's insult, does a particularly powerful blow with his dagger, knocking Blue back further and limiting him to 2 feet of fighting space.
     Because the Longsword's reach is 3 1/2 feet it gets a penalty of 2 to Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage, really putting a damper on Blue's ability to pull out a win.

     If the tables had been turned and Red was still fighting with his Halberd in 2 feet of space then he'd be fighting at a penalty of 5 to Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage but since he's using a dagger he's breathing easy.

     Red delivers the final blow, gutting Blue and letting his body slide down the wall. He wipes his blade on Blue's tunic, retrieves his Halberd and disappears into the night mist. To be fair to Blue, Red's girlfriend is pretty ugly.

Near Perfect Attacks

While Near Perfect Defenses get all the glory, with their free unarmed attacks with awesome damage, the Near Perfect Attacks get a measly +1 to damage, which in my opinion, is slow low that it's almost worth just dropping it entirely.

It further pales in comparison when considering that the NPD gets 2(d4p-2), or if your a thief, full dagger damage. This shouldn't be.

When scoring a natural 19 on an attack, the attacker gets a Near Perfect Attack, and, should he hit, he adds an extra 1d4p to his damage.

This 1d4p has auxiliary effects like a penetration.

It doesn't receive its own attack roll like a NPD to speed up combat.

Example: Brian is using a longsword while fighting a goblin. During the exchange he rolls a NPA and totals 24 as his attack roll, while the goblin rolls a 13.

Because he hit he then rolls damage. He rolls his normal 2d8p + 1d4p + 2 for damage. 2d8p from base damage, 1d4p from NPA, and a +2 because there was a difference of 10 between attack and defense. He has no modifiers from strength, specializations, or talents.

He rolls a 7 on the d8s, a 2 on his d4, which gives him a total of 11 points of damage, 4 of which were considered penetration, giving the goblin a -2 to Str and forcing it to make a Str check or drop its weapon.

Attacks and Damage

In real life, the more precises your strikes, the more damage you do. In the base game how well you attack has no reflection on your damage. So to increase the verisimilitude I'm adding a new rule:

For every 5 full points on your attack roll over your opponent's defense, you get a +1 to damage.

So if you roll a 15, while your opponent rolls a 3, you get a +2 to damage. This is in addition to any other effects from fumbles, crits, or so on.

On top of this, if there is a penetration, this bonus damage is added that when considering auxiliary effects.

I feel like it shouldn't need to be said but to cover my bases: enemies also gain this bonus.

Called Shots Secondary Effects

     The Called Shot section is a little dry. There may or may not be secondary effects that will be outlined in the GMG whenever that comes out, but for now, players that use Called Shots will be disappointed. To amend that until further rules come out, the following rules have been made:

     Called shots allow a character to apply secondary damage effects (the charts for which are found here) to their damage. Obviously, the location is based on where the character was aiming but the severity is based on the lesser of the two die with DR subtracted as deemed appropriate (Note: all suits of armor come with helmets but fingers may or may not be covered.). If the attack was greater then the defense roll by 5, then it's the larger of the two damage rolls and if greater then 10 then it's both damage die. This is further added to any penetration damage that should be rolled.
     Obviously, this only gives a broad overview. If the character is aiming for fingers and hits, use the Arm hit location for a general guide line of what happens. In this case, the enemy is more likely to drop what ever they're holding. A good guide line is to add the penalty to hit for the location to the effective severity (meaning that while the fingers are harder to hit, they're also fairly easy to sever once hit.)

A&8s Secondary Effects

     I love the extra combat damage effects that Aces&Eights uses to add a little more danger to their combats. Because of this I've adapted those charts to work in Hackmaster.

     Secondary effects come into play on a penetration and where they land is determined by the difference between the attacker's and defender's roll.
     1-5          Legs
     6-10        Arms
     11-15      Body
     16-20+    Header
   
     The severity of the secondary effect is based the damage from penetration die minus DR. The secondary effect is tacked on to the total wound damage and it doesn't go away until that wound is fully healed.
     The charts are found here: