Combat Commands

The shared verbs every character uses to start, steer, survive and end a fight.

These are the combat commands every character has: sizing up an opponent, starting a fight, choosing targets and getting away. Class skills and spells are on the class pages. For how rounds and damage work, see Combat.

Starting a fight#

attack#

Starts a fight, using whatever you have wielded or your bare hands. A number picks one creature out of several with the same name, and attack all takes on every hostile creature in the room at once.

attack wolf
attack warrior 2
attack all
attack stop

attack stop stops your own attacks. Anyone still fighting you carries on, so it only ends your side of the fight.

You cannot attack on consecrated or other protected ground, while mounted, while sitting or lying down, while paralyzed, or in social mode (see dress below). Companions and protected NPCs cannot be attacked at all.

If you lead a group set to attack together, members in the same room join your fights.

melee#

Closes to melee with a target. While you are engaged, trying to flee roots you for a moment, and your opponent has a chance to chase you if you do get away. The target is normally a living creature in your room. A ranger can also name a creature they have scouted a room or two away; the ranger closes the distance on foot while it comes for them. melee stop calls off the chase without ending the fight.

melee wolf
melee stop

Skills and spells#

There is no cast command. Each skill and spell is typed by its own name, with its target after it. powers lists the ones you have, and help <skill> explains one.

powers
help fireball

shoot#

Fires a ranged weapon. The weapon must be wielded and, for most weapons, loaded first. fire is another word for it.

shoot bow at wolf
shoot wolf with bow
shoot bow north

Choosing what you hit#

target#

Sets which creature your blows and abilities go to. It does not start a fight on its own; it steers the attacks you are already making. Numbered targets work here too.

target wolf
target warrior 2

ignore#

The other side of target. It stops you attacking one creature, or everything at once, which is the usual fix when a stray area attack has drawn you into fights you did not want.

ignore wolf
ignore all

enemies#

Lists every creature and player that is currently hostile to you. NPCs remember who they were fighting, so check it before you walk back into a room you fled.

enemies

threat#

Threat is how much attention a defender pays to each of its attackers. Damage builds it, and some abilities build a great deal of it on purpose. A defender attacks whoever holds the most threat unless a taunt is holding its attention elsewhere. A defender's threat clears when it dies, and yours clears when you do.

threat
threat wolf
group status full

A warrior's Taunt draws every hostile creature in the room onto the warrior for a few seconds. In a group fight, threat shows who is about to pull a creature off the warrior holding it.

Reading the fight#

consider#

Compares a creature's level with yours and says roughly how the fight would go. It is a guide from levels alone, not a promise, and it costs nothing.

consider wolf

xa#

Describes the health of your current target, your marked ranged target, or any creature you name, in words rather than numbers. A living creature goes from Perfect Health through superficial scratches, slightly injured, notably hurt, suffering from wounds, grievously wounded, critical injuries and Struggling To Stay Alive!, to Half-Dead... in its last tenth. The undead and constructs have words of their own, such as notably damaged and Falling Apart!

xa
xa wolf

A ranger also sees how far off a scouted, marked or charging target is, in yards, until it reaches them and the fight turns to melee.

A warrior can feign their condition, so the reading on one may be the condition they want you to see, until their real wounds are too deep to hide.

hp#

Your own vitals on one line: current and maximum health, spell points and endurance. score and summary give the fuller picture, but in a fight hp is quicker. vitals shows the same as bars, to you and to everyone in the room.

hp
vitals

Combat messages carry no damage numbers, and no command adds them.

Getting out#

flee#

Runs from the fight by an open way out. You have to be in combat for it to do anything. A boss can hold you in the fight, and so can a wounded leg, being knocked down or being frozen. Being engaged in melee roots you for a moment before you break away.

flee

Nothing makes you flee by itself when your health runs low; there is no wimpy setting. Leaving a fight is up to you, with flee or a class escape skill. Fear is the one thing that moves you against your will, and that is an effect laid on you, not a setting.

Combat mode and social mode#

Your character is always in one of two modes, and the difference matters in a fight.

undress#

Puts you in combat mode. Others see your armor and weapons, your gear does its full work, and you can start fights. This is the normal state, and the one to be in wherever there may be danger.

undress

dress#

Puts you in social mode. Others see your clothing instead of your armor and weapons, which is the point of it for roleplay. It has a cost: in social mode you cannot start a fight, and the bonuses your gear gives, its stats, resistances and defenses, do not count if something attacks you. Type undress to return to combat mode.

dress

After the fight#

loot#

Takes what a corpse holds. In a group the haul is announced to everyone, and if the leader has set group autobury on the corpse is buried afterwards. Alone, only you see what you took.

loot
loot wolf corpse

lootall#

Loots every corpse in the room in one go, with the same group announcement and burial.

lootall

bury#

Buries a corpse and removes it from the room. Anything it still holds is dropped on the floor first, so nothing is lost. With no name it buries the first corpse in the room.

bury
bury wolf corpse

Corpses are also raw material. skin takes hide and bone, and butcher takes meat; a corpse can be skinned once and butchered once.

All of this works on a dead player's corpse too, which holds everything that player carried. See death.

Fighting style#

style#

Your fighting style changes how hard you hit and what each swing costs in endurance, and gives you a chance of a flourish of its own when a blow lands. Mastery of each style grows with use, over fifteen ranks.

style
style defensive
style info duelist

Normal, Offensive and Defensive are open to every class from level 1. The others are learned in their own guilds at a set level: Dirty for thieves, Aetherflow for mages, Aggressive and Berserker for warriors, Reaver for warriors and paladins, Bulwark for warriors, paladins and clerics, and Duelist for warriors, thieves and rogues. Some need particular gear: Reaver a two-handed sword, Bulwark a shield, Duelist two one-handed weapons. style info <name> shows what a style does at your mastery, and the combat guide has more.

Related commands#