For Melee combat, in addition to the traditional rules for actions and maneuvers in combat, additional options are being made available to spice up combat and allow for more precise action.

We will be breaking up some of the traditional combat actions into four parts.

1. Effect: Pick an effect or effects for the maneuver. Note the attack penalty
2. Drawbacks: Pick drawbacks that remove some of the attack penalty.
3. Net Effect: Add up the penalty and drawback modifiers.
4. Visuals: Description of how it works

You make an attack that covers a wide area. You might sweep over a group of enemies with a large weapon, throw a large object that crashes onto several of your foes, or send a ceiling or wall collapsing down upon them.

Key Ability: Strength

Prerequisite: You must have some way of physically harming the entire targeted area, such as having reach to it. This effect represents a single attack that sweeps through an area, not multiple attacks.

Rules: You attack an area rather than a single target. You may pick as many 5-foot squares as you could conceivably reach with your weapon. (Unless you are using a reach weapon, the most squares you could affect would be all those you are adjacent to.) You take a penalty on your attack roll based on the number of squares you try to strike. You make a single attack roll and apply its result against all foes in the area. Roll damage separately for each target you hit.

Penalty: You take a –5 penalty on your attack roll for each 5-foot square that you try to attack. For example, a strike against three squares entails a –15 penalty. You cannot score a critical hit with an attack that uses this maneuver.

You slash at an opponent’s eyes, temporarily blurring his vision with a bloody cut to his brow or directly injuring his eyes.

Key Ability: Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom
Prerequisite: Your target must use eyes or a similar organ in order to see.
Rules: The target of this effect is considered blinded for 1d4 minutes.
Threat: On a critical hit, the target is blinded for 2d4 minutes instead of 1d4.
Penalty: You take a –30 penalty on your attack roll. Not only must you strike at a foe’s eyes, but you must hit him in the precisely correct spot to cause injury to the visual organs. Most creatures wear helms or take special care to defend their faces.

Effect: Inflict Penalty (–2 on attacks): –20
Drawback: Attack of Opportunity, Target Only: +5
Drawback: Saving Throw (Fortitude, DC 10 + half base attack + Strength modifier): +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –10

You slash at an opponent’s arm, tentacles, or another body part that it uses to make attacks. The pain of the injury and the damage you deal to its tendons and muscles cause a –2 penalty on all its attacks.

Effect: Bonus Damage (+4): –10
Effect: Stagger: –10
Drawback: Saving Throw (Stagger, Fortitude, DC 10 + half base attack + Strength modifier): +5
Drawback: Full-Round Action: +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –10

This attack is meant to model a careful, deliberate strike. The maneuver avoids provoking attacks of opportunity by waiting for the proper moment to strike (hence the full-round action), but it comes at a cost. This attack can only stagger a foe, since it lacks the wild strength of the other called shots.

Effect: Disarming Attack: –20
Drawback: Effects Only: +5
Drawback: Saving Throw (Fortitude, DC 10 + half base attack + Strength modifier): +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –10

You smash your foe’s weapon and hand, causing stinging pain and forcing him to drop his weapon. This attack focuses on brute force to knock a weapon away. Compare it to the standard disarm attack from the core rules to see how the maneuver system can use a different path to achieve a similar end. This attack forgoes dealing normal damage to reflect the fact that it is a strike against a weapon and hand, and to keep the attack roll penalty manageable.

Effect: Movement Damage: –10
Drawback: Saving Throw (Reflex, DC 10 + half base attack + Dexterity modifier): +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –5

You slash at your opponent’s legs, wings, or other body parts associated with movement, slicing tendons and muscle to slow him down. This relatively low-risk maneuver proves useful for capturing opponents or for slowing down a mighty foe who could pursue you if you attempted to flee.

Effect: Bonus Damage (+2): –5
Effect: Stun: –30
Drawback: Attack of Opportunity, Total: +10
Drawback: Full-Round Action: +5
Drawback: Saving Throw (Stun, Will, DC 10 + half base attack + Intelligence modifier): +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –15

You land a blow at a sensitive portion of an opponent’s anatomy. This maneuver shows how Intelligence can serve as a key ability. It relies on knowing where to strike rather than striking with tremendous force. The attack of opportunity drawback is a great leveler, making this maneuver most useful in one-on-one fights where the attacker doesn’t have to worry about multiple attacks of opportunity.

Effect: Forced Movement: –10
Drawback: Full-Round Action: +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –5

You make a show of easily knocking aside an opponent’s attacks before easily breaking through his defenses. Daunted by your skill, your opponent steps away from you.

Effect: Disable Natural Attack: –20
Drawback: Free Strike: +10
Drawback: Saving Throw (Fortitude, DC 10 + half base attack + Strength modifier): +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –5

As a monstrous foe snaps at you with its bite attack, you slam its jaw, shattering teeth and bone.

Effect: Disable Natural Attack: –20
Drawback: Attack of Opportunity, Target Only: +5
Drawback: Effects Only: +5
Drawback: Full-Round Action: +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –5

You carefully study a creature’s moves, seeking the one perfect place to strike it to ruin a joint and disable one of its natural attacks. Contrast with jawbreaker, above.

Effect: Bonus Damage (+10): –25
Drawback: Attack of Opportunity, Target Only: +5
Drawback: Overwhelming Effort: +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –15

This wild shot represents a hurried strike aimed at a foe. It has little chance of hitting a competent foe, but when it strikes, it can be devastating, making it the preferred attack of the desperate, the crazed, or the lucky. Unfortunately, the attacker loses his guard (provoking the attack of opportunity), and the wild, uncontrolled swing sends him tumbling to the ground. This maneuver puts the attacker in a bad position after his strike. Hopefully for him, it’s the last attack he needs to make against this foe. Otherwise, he’s in trouble.

Effect: Knockback: –10
Effect: Knockdown: –20
Drawback: Attack of Opportunity, Target Only: +5
Drawback: Full-Round Action: +5
Drawback: Reflective Effects: +10
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –10

This maneuver is useful against smaller foes that have superior combat training and are outnumbered. By throwing yourself at your opponent, you send him reeling backward and off his feet. While your leap also leaves you knocked back and prone, your allies are in a good position to step in and finish off your now very vulnerable foe.

Effect: Inflict Penalty (–2 to attacks): –10
Drawback: Full-Round Action: +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –5

Using your skill at arms and your natural ability to manipulate others, you deliver a series of stinging blows that enrages your opponent and makes him take wild, poorly aimed attacks.

Effect: Inflict Penalty (–3 to AC): –15
Drawback: Effects Only: +5
Drawback: Full-Round Action: +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –5

You grasp a fistful of dirt, sand, or some other debris and cast it at your opponent’s face. While he coughs and wipes at his eyes, you can take advantage of the distraction.

Effect: Disarming Attack: –20
Drawback: Effects Only: +5
Drawback: Opposed Check (Strength): +5
Drawback: Reflective Attack: +5
Net Effect: Total attack roll penalty: –5

You lock your opponent’s weapon with your own, tangling it on your pommel or blade. The two of you struggle for a moment, giving you the opportunity to tear your foe’s weapon from his grasp.

When you turn, you send out a wave of positive energy in a 30-foot burst. All undead in this radius are allowed a Will saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 your cleric level + your Charisma modifier. A failed save results in positive energy damage equal to 1d6 for every two cleric levels beyond the first and the undead is frightened for 1d4 + your Charisma modifier rounds. A successful save negates the frightened condition and halves the damage.

When you rebuke, you send out a wave of negative energy in a 30-foot burst. All undead in this radius are allowed a Will saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 your cleric level + your Charisma modifier. A successful save by the undead prevents you from controlling it. A failed save results in negative energy healing the undead equal to 1d6 hit points for every two cleric levels beyond the first and the undead is under your control. The undead cannot exceed their maximum hit points and the controlling cleric cannot control more Hit Dice of undead than his level.