Combat

The art of Combat uses weapons and armor to defend oneself from harm.

Attacking
The amount of damage you do to an opponent depends on several things:
 * The base damage of your weapon,
 * How skilled you are in that weapon type,
 * How many points you have in that weapon type's governing attribute,
 * The condition of the weapon,
 * Your fatigue,
 * The armor level of your opponent.

Power Attacks
To use Power Attack, hold down the attack buttton. Each rank in Blade and Blunt upgrades the Basic Power Attack to a Mastery Power Attack in a specific direction.
 * Novice – Basic Power Attack - Deals a basic bonus damage when power attacking in all directions i.e. regardless of movement
 * Apprentice – Mastery Standing Power Attack - Additional damage bonuses when power attacking while standing still
 * Journeyman – Mastery Left and Right Power Attacks - Damage bonuses when power attacking while strafing left or right, plus the chance to disarm the opponent
 * Expert – Mastery Backwards Power Attack - Gains a chance of knocking down the opponent when power attacking while moving backwards
 * Master – Mastery Forward Power Attack - Gains a chance of paralyzing the opponent when power attacking and moving forwards

Those proficient in Hand to Hand have the same Novice, Apprentice, and Journeyman attacks, but also have special effects for Expert and Master level:
 * Expert – Mastery Backwards Power Attack - Gains a chance of knocking down the opponent, and, when blocking, gains a chance of a knockback attack
 * Master – Mastery Forward Power Attack - Gains a chance of paralyzing the opponent, and, when blocking, gains a chance of a disarm or a knockback attack

Blocking
Blocking is governed by the Block skill and reduces or neutralizes melee damage from an opponent. Melee attacks can be blocked with shields or, if experienced in Hand to Hand, with your arms. Like attacks, blocking also provides unique blocking abilities at each rank of experience:
 * Novice – Fatigued by blocking, and hand-to-hand blocking against weapons has no effect
 * Apprentice – No longer fatigued by blocking
 * Journeyman – Shield or weapons is no longer damaged when blocking, and opponents may recoil when blocking with hand-to-hand
 * Expert – Blocking with a shield has a chance to do a knockback counterattack, staggering the enemy if the shield blow connects
 * Master – Blocking with a shield has an additional chance of disarming an enemy with a successful knockback counterattack

Knockdown
If you take run out of fatigue during combat, by being hit with hand-to-hand or a Drain/Damage Health spell, then your character will be temporarily knocked down. You will get back up again once your fatigue recovers. You can knockdown enemies by either getting their fatigue to zero or using Mastery Backwards Power Attacks (Expert level required) on your enemy, which can sometimes knock them down.

Dodging
A character with Journeyman level Acrobatics skill can do a quick avoidance roll by pressing block and jumping in a direction to quickly roll in that direction. If your speed is high enough, you can usually dodge an enemy's power attack without rolling by simply moving out of the way.

Yielding
To Yield, simply block and press the use button on the attacking character as if to talk to them. Depending on the situation and their disposition of you, they may accept your yield and stop fighting. If you attack them while their disposition is under ~40 points (need fact check here!) they will refuse your yield.

Monsters and bad NPCs (like Bandits) never yield.

An exploit has occured due to yielding.