A brief note: I don't expect any of you to memorize this post. This is meant to be a quick and easy way of looking up anything you're uncertain of or confused by in combat. When you have a question regarding combat, remember to look here first.
@Crow, please threadmark this post.
CHALLENGES
From here on out, I may not always specify the dice required for a given roll. When I mention rolling a Challenge, or ask you to roll a Challenge, it will almost always be 2d6+the relevant attribute. Something to keep in mind.
COMBAT RULES/MECHANICS
A NOTE ON ROLLS: Youma generally do not roll to present a more consistent threat. They instead add 7 to their relevant attribute. Minions will not use these rules and instead roll normally.
INITIATIVE
When combat begins, all participants determine their initiative to decide the turn order. Initiative is decided by a Physical roll (2d6+Physical). The turn order goes from highest Initiative to lowest. In the case of two participants having equal initiative, player characters will go first.
In Magical Burst, a Round is composed of everyone's Turns. Remember this distinction, because even the rulebook forgets sometimes.
ATTRIBUTES
At the beginning of each round, each participant distributes their Magical Attributes for the round between Attack, Defense, and Support. Attack and Defense are self explanatory, but Support is used for combat sorcery and in certain challenges, like status effects. Overcharge is another motivator for being careful with your attribute distribution. If you are attacking often but find that the attribute you've been using for Attack has generated an unhealthy amount of Overcharge, you will likely want to change attributes next round.
OVERCHARGE
Overcharge is a core mechanic in Magical Burst, but fortunately not one you all have had to deal with so far. Overcharge is not used for Normal Challenges, but reserved for Magical Challenges. It represents the inherent instability of your magical powers - their wild and chaotic nature is potentially a source of great power, but also a source of ruin.
When you generate Overcharge, you gain an extra d6 to whatever challenge you are rolling for. There are two types of Overcharge - Voluntary and Involuntary. Voluntary Overcharge is Overcharge that you choose to take to boost your roll. Involuntary Overcharge is Overcharge generated on a roll of 6 for any Magical Challenge. These dice do not continue exploding - you cannot generate Involuntary Overcharge from Involuntary Overcharge.
You cannot gain more than three additional dice on a challenge from Voluntary Overcharge or abilities that specify adding Voluntary Overcharge dice (such as Energy Storage or Final Strike). Abilities that modify the challenge in some way but do not directly add Overcharge dice do not affect this limit. Involuntary Overcharge dice do not count towards this limit.
Each Magical Attribute can generate up to 8 Overcharge - but take warning. Grave consequences await the player who recklessly abuses Overcharge in the form of Fallout, which will be covered in a later post. For now, remember that 4 Overcharge is the point where the side effects begin to become serious, and 6 is where things could become permanent. Don't hit 8 Overcharge.
ACTION TYPES
There are multiple types of Action in Magical Burst. We'll go over them now:
Normal Actions are your standard action. You may take one each round. If an ability does not specify what type of action it is, it is a Normal Action.
Special Actions are used in response to specific circumstances outside your turn, but take up your action for the round - meaning you cannot take a Normal Action and a Special Action in the same round. However, you can still perform certain actions during your turn, even after you have used a Special Action, usually related to specific Magical Effects such as Full Drive or Twin Style.
Free Actions have no restrictions on their use - you may take as many Free Actions as you'd like on anyone's turn.
Reactions are the final type of action. Like Special Actions, they are activated in response to specific circumstances, though unlike Special Actions these circumstances are not necessarily outside your turn. The important thing to remember about Reactions is that you may not use two Reactions in response to the same event, or a Special Action and a Reaction. Note that the opposed challenge for a Magical Attack is considered a separate event from the success/failure of the attack - or, in other words, an 'attempted magical attack' is different from a 'successful or failed magical attack'.
MISC. RULES AND TERMINOLOGY
Initial Damage is the damage dealt by an attack before applying any damage reduction abilities to it. Final Damage is the damage afterwards. Generally, whenever an ability asks you to halve damage, it will mean Final Damage. Bonuses 'to hit' add to the result of Magical Attacks, and bonuses 'to damage' add to the damage dealt by the attack (and not to anything else, unless explicitly stated). Abilities that target 'an ally' may target yourself.
COMBAT ACTIONS
ATTACK
Self-explanatory. To perform a Normal Attack, roll an Attack challenge. If your result is equal to or under the enemy's Passive Defense (Defense Attribute+4) then the attack has failed. You may spend Overcharge at this point to boost the result past the enemy's passive defense, if you wish. If the attack beats the passive defense, then the defender may choose to roll an opposed Defense challenge. If the attacker wins, the defender takes 1d6 points of damage, plus half the attacker's Attack stat (rounded down), plus 1 for each Overcharge die incurred on the attack roll.
Note that the defense challenge is optional - the defender could always choose to take the hit and avoid getting Overcharge.
There are three other kinds of attack to go over...
MULTIPLE TARGET ATTACK
When you want to hit multiple targets, this is the way to go. Make an attack action as detailed above, determining the number of targets you want to hit. For each target after the first, you suffer a -2 penalty to hit and a -1 penalty to damage. In addition, you take a -2 penalty to your defense attribute until your next turn. Enemies that attempt to Clash this attack get a +2 bonus, but suffer the same penalty to attack that you did. For the purposes of abilities, this attack is only considered to have missed if you miss every target, but abilities that activate on a hit only work on enemies you actually hit.
To clarify - this is one big attack, not several smaller ones. Therefore it is one roll.
SIGNATURE ATTACK
The rules for these are in the OP. Remember to use them wisely.
TEAM ATTACK
Two Magical Girls can work together to deliver a more effective attack. One must Hold (see below) so that they act on the same turn, and they must be using the same Magical Attribute to attack (Heart and Heart could work, but not Heart and Fury). Once these conditions are met, each Magical Girl rolls an attack with +2 to damage and hit. You may only participate in one Team Attack per battle.
ASSIST
As a Special Action, you may Assist an ally who is in the process of making a challenge. This gives a +2 bonus to the roll in question. Multiple people may assist the same roll, but each assist after the first only adds a +1 bonus. Assist may never grant more than a +4 bonus to a roll. Assist can be used in noncombat situations, so long as it makes sense (whoops, could have said that earlier) but the person who uses Assist in this manner gives up their ability to roll for the challenge in question. Assist may be used after the initial roll is seen, so long as the action has not been resolved yet.
CLASH
Instead of defending against an attack, you may attempt to clash it as a Special Action. Instead of rolling Defense against the attack, roll your own Attack challenge. If the original attacker succeeds, you take damage as normal. If you succeed, you deal damage as though you had landed a Normal Attack. You can also Clash on someone else's behalf. You can only Clash once per battle. If you cannot attack, you cannot Clash. Failing a Clash is not the same as missing an attack. If the clash result is equal, both attackers take damage as though they had been hit by the attack.
COVER
If someone has been attacked and has failed to defend themselves, you can attempt to cover for them as a Free Action. To Cover, make a TN13 Support challenge. If you succeed, you take the damage instead of them. You may only cover once per round.
GUARD
Before rolling a defense challenge, as a Special Action you can choose to Guard against it, sacrificing your normal action for a +2 bonus to defense. If the attack hits anyway, you take 2 less damage.
HOLD
You can choose to Hold your turn, waiting to take action until a later moment. You can choose to take your turn anytime, so long as it is not during someone else's turn. If you hold until the end of the round, you must take your turn or lose it.
INTERRUPT
If you're holding your turn, you may attempt to interrupt someone after they've decided on an action but before they've resolved it. Make an opposed Physical challenge. If you succeed, you can act before them. They can then either complete the action you interrupted, or take a different action at a -1 penalty. If you fail, you act directly after the enemy.
READ AN ENEMY
To read a magical foe, make a TN13 Support Challenge. On a success, choose one of the following, and on at least one Raise, choose two. You can scan enemy magical girls this way, but only if they are transformed. Options do not stack, you may not choose the same option twice even if you use this ability against the same target more than once. Use of this action against one member of a homogeneous group (like minions) grants the bonus against all members of that group.
- Gain +1 to Attack challenges against the target for one battle, as well as +1 to damage to the first successful attack against the target.
- Gain +1 to Defense challenges against the target for one battle, as well as +1 to resist the target's special abilities.
- Gain information on one of their special abilities. You may specify defensive or offensive, but you do not have to. Can be taken twice. If none, pick another option.
- Learn the target's immediate motivation.
That's all for now. There's still some left, but for the sake of getting at least some sleep tonight I'll cover it when it becomes relevant.
