Duel
A duel of honour is a one-on-one fight between two characters, usually fought for slights of honour.
Contrary from real life, challenges in BattleMaster can be refused with no ill effect. We made it this way because in BattleMaster, anyone can challenge everyone else for any reason, while in the real world social norms would prevent a lowly noble from challenging the king, or anyone challenging for a petty reasons - things that the game code can not and should not decide upon.
Duels are decided by three factors: Swordfighting skill, strategy, and a little bit of luck.
There are five strategies, with the two advanced strategies only available to characters with some swordfighting skill. Depending on the strategies choosen by the two participants, one of them may have a tactical advantage during the duel, which gives him a bonus on the swordfighting test. Even with advantage, however, beating someone with a much higher skill level is unlikely. If both participants choose the same strategy, neither will get an advantage.
- Aggressive
- An offensive fighting style. Gives advantage against the neutral and trick moves strategies.
- Defensive
- Receiving the opponent and acting carefully. Gives advantage against the aggressive and overrun strategies.
- Neutral
- A balanced fighting style. Gives advantage against the defensive and the trick moves strategies.
- Overrun
- An advanced and even more aggressive style, giving advantage against the neutral and aggressive strategies.
- Trick Moves
- Advanced skill-and-trickery style, gives advantage against the defensive and the overrun strategies.