Combat Maneuvers Adjustments

Combat Maneuvers have gotten a major balance and rules pass. Quite a few changes have been made.

To understand these changes here are a few thoughts from me as to why and what they are.

Powers should be the centerpiece of your character. They should be the strongest and coolest things you can do.

However, when you use up all your Powers in an Encounter and there are still things that need to be done, characters need to have things they can still do.

This is where Basic Attacks and Combat Maneuvers come into play.

Basically, they are At-Will Powers that everyone can use. These shouldn’t outshine regular character Powers. They are a backup.

Players can easily create Powers that act just like Combat Maneuvers. Potentially making them far more powerful, effective, and customized to have that character’s flare.

With all of this in mind when taking a close hard look at Combat Maneuvers there were several things that needed to be addressed. They were never intended to be a separate system within Atomic. They are supposed to be just “back up powers” that players have the option to use in a pinch.

However, I do understand that some players really do like Combat Maneuvers and may want to be a little better at them than others. So, I created a few new Specialties for them!

Changes to Combat Maneuvers

• Combat Maneuver Power Effects have been removed.
  • There are no longer Combat Maneuver Effects players can add to Powers or Items. Powers that used these effects will still exist, but some modifications will need to be made to reassign any Power Points gained through this change.
  • Public Powers will be either fixed or removed if now broken.
  • Public Items will be either fixed or removed if now broken.
• Head Games descriptive text now reads “You attempt to mess with your target’s head. Roll Spirit Attack against Spirit Defense. On a successful Attack, they suffer an Attack penalty.”
  • Removed the flavor text of “On a successful Attack, you can dictate who the target must attack. If they fail to attack the Head Games target, then they suffer an Attack penalty.” The part about choosing a target or getting a penalty has been removed. They will get the Penalty on a successful hit regardless of who they attack.
  • This verbiage suggested there was a type of taunt mechanic in the game. There is no specific taunt mechanic in Atomic.
• Combat Maneuver Specialties Added (Minor, Lesser, Improved, Greater, Superior versions)
  • The bonuses they grant stack (add to the existing base numbers) with the standard Combat Maneuver stats for your character!
  • These are Advanced Specialties available to Atomic RPG Epic Hero, Atomic RPG Legendary Game Master, and Atomic RPG God accounts.
  • They are Active Specialties. Meaning they will need to be manually added when used. This will be changed in a future update to auto calculate them for you.
  • Enhanced Exploit Weakness
    • Additional Defense Lowered
    • More Creatures!
  • Enhanced Head Games
    • Additional Attack Penalty
    • More Creatures!
  • Enhanced Knockaround
    • More Creatures
    • More Move Enemy
    • NEW Additional Reaction Penalty!
  • Enhanced Reckless Offense
    • More Speed
    • More Attack Bonus
    • More Defense Penalty
  • Enhanced Careful Defense
    • More Speed
    • More Defense
  • Enhance Parley
    • More Attack Bonus
    • More Creatures!
  • Published Powers with Combat Maneuver Effects have been modified to use other Effects. The spirit of the Power was kept in mind while making changes.
  • Public PCs and NPCs have been modified to reflect the changes. The spirit of the character was kept in mind while making these changes.
  • Public Items with Combat Maneuvers Effects have been modified. The spirit of the original item was kept in mind while making these changes.
  • Various pages have updates to the content to reflect these changes.

That about covers it with this update. I hope this helps to clarify and simplify Combat Maneuvers. I hope the new Specialties offer a bit of customization or cool potential new items.

As always, thanks for playing!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns find us on Discord.