Evade
Evade is part of the Evade-Block-Parry mechanics that contribute to a character's defense against an attack roll. Even before the attack roll is made, there is a chance to avoid the attack outright through one of these three means. If a character fails to evade, block, or parry an attack, the various factors involved still contribute to the character's Defensive Strength (DS) when the attack is resolved.
Dodging is the primary skill involved in evade defense. Evade is often also referred to as Dodge, but for clarity this article will only use "Dodge" to refer to the Dodging skill.
Avoidance
Evading an attack causes it to miss completely. The possibility of evasion is increased through training the Dodging skill, agility, intuition, and maintaining low encumbrance, among other factors. Shields and armor make it more difficult to evade an attack, especially larger shields and heavier armor.
While in stance offensive, a character single trained (1 rank per level) in Dodging has approximately a 5% chance of evading an attack against a like-level foe. A character double trained (2 ranks per level) has a 10% chance and a character triple trained (3 ranks per level) has a 15% chance for an outright evasion. The possibility of evading an attack is increased through a character's intuition and agility. Spells such as Mass Blur, Mobility, Song of Mirrors, and the combat manuevers Evade Mastery (available to warriors, rogues and monks) and Duck and Weave (available to rogues and monks) will also improve the chance to evade an attack. Encumbrance, shields and heavier armor make it more difficult to evade an attack, especially larger shields and heavier armor.
There is no available formula to determine the exact chance that an attack will be evaded, but level of the defender vs level of the attacker is an important factor. Ranged attacks from ranged weapons, thrown weapons, and bolts are harder to evade than melee attacks.
Defensive Strength
If the attack is not avoided outright, it proceeds to an attack roll where the Dodging skill contributes to the defender's Defensive Strength. Evade DS is only part of the defender's total DS, which is the sum of Evade, Block, Parry, and Generic DS.
Melee Defense
The first step in determining the Evade DS bonus is to calculate the Base Value.
| Base Value = Dodging Ranks + (AGI Bonus) + trunc(INT Bonus / 4) |
The second step is to enter the Base Value into the Dodge DS formula with the values of the other factors (see tables below).
| Evade DS (Melee) = ((Base Value × Armor Hindrance × Shield Factor) - Shield Size Penalty)) × Stance Modifier |
Note: Truncate results to integer values after each operation in the formula.
Ranged Defense
| Evade DS (Ranged) = (Base Value × Armor Hindrance × Shield Factor × Stance Modifier) × 1.5 |
Note: Truncate after each operation. Round up final result.
Armor Hindrance
The Armor Hindrance values to be used in the formula are as follows. The armor hindrance penalty is equal to half the armor's action penalty, and can be reduced accordingly with the Armored Evasion rogue specialization.
| ASG | Name | Hindrance Factor |
ASG | Name | Hindrance Factor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Normal Clothing | 1.00 | 12 | Brigandine armor | 0.94 | |
| 2 | Robes | 1.00 | 13 | Chain mail | 0.94 | |
| 5 | Light leather | 1.00 | 14 | Double chain | 0.93 | |
| 6 | full leather | 1.00 | 15 | Augmented chain | 0.92 | |
| 7 | Reinforced leather | 0.98 | 16 | Chain hauberk | 0.91 | |
| 8 | Double leather | 0.97 | 17 | Metal breastplate | 0.90 | |
| 9 | Leather breastplate | 0.97 | 18 | Augmented breastplate | 0.88 | |
| 10 | Cuirbouilli leather | 0.96 | 19 | Half plate | 0.85 | |
| 11 | Studded leather | 0.95 | 20 | Full plate | 0.83 |
Shield Factors
The Shield Factors to be used in the formula are:
| Size | Shield Factor |
|---|---|
| Small | 0.78 |
| Medium | 0.70 |
| Large | 0.62 |
| Tower | 0.54 |
Note: The shield factors are derived from the following shield penalties: 22% (small), 30% (medium), 38% (large) and 46% (tower).
Shield Size Penalty
Shield size penalties vs. melee attacks are 0 for small/medium shields, -5 for large shields, and -10 for tower shields.
Stance Modifiers
The Stance Modifier value is (75% + Stance/4):
| Stance | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Offensive | 0.75 |
| Advanced | 0.80 |
| Forward | 0.85 |
| Neutral | 0.90 |
| Guarded | 0.95 |
| Defensive | 1.00 |
Examples
Example 1
Dodge DS for a character with:
- Dodge Ranks: 60
- Agility Bonus: 20
- Intuition Bonus: 18
- Armor: Brigandine Armor (0.94 factor)
- Shield size: Medium (0.70 factor)
- Stance: Advanced (0.80 factor)
Step 1 (Base Value) Calculations
Step 2 (Dodge DS) Calculations
Without truncating after each operation there would be an incorrect result of 44 DS.
Example 2
Dodge DS for a character with:
- Dodge Ranks: 60
- Agility Bonus: 20
- Intuition Bonus: 18
- Armor: Brigandine Armor (0.94 factor)
- Shield size: Tower (0.54 factor)
- Shield size penalty: -10
- Stance: Advanced (0.80 factor)
'Step 1 (Base Value) Calculations'
'Step 2 (Dodge DS) Calculations'
Encumbrance Penalty
There is a 1% penalty to Evade DS for each 1% encumbered body weight.
Example: A character with a body weight of 200 lbs. and a defensive stance dodge DS of +100 will sustain a penalty of -1 DS for every 2 lbs. of encumbered weight. With 200 lbs. of encumbered weight, dodge DS will be zero. There is no additional penalty (negative dodge DS) when encumbrance is greater than total body weight.
Note: There is no block or parry encumbrance DS penalty.