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Hello All,

After following this system for years I finally got my group to try Palladium with me as the GM. I've read through the combat guide several times, but am wondering if anyone has a more thorough combat primer or explanation? Since I've always played D&D the rounds and auto parrying are kind of confusing.

Thank you for any help.

Just start with
Roll for initiative
Winner has first attack, goes down the initiative order.
Rinse and repeat
Highest goes first, unlike d&d all your attacks are done in your first action, but goes in rounds. Say Philip has 2 attacks a round and Xar Xar has 3.
Philip won initiative roll with 17 on 1d20, Xar Xar got 3
Philip rolls to strike, and rolls a 2, he has +2 to strike so thats a 4, he misses. (First strike roll)
Xar Xar Hits back with his staff He rolls a 14 and has +1 to strike First strike roll)
Philip rolls a 7 to parry, and his +3 to parry shield doesn't help as he only got 10 (autoparry roll)
Xar Xar got 15 to strike, Philips AR is 14 (chainmail) so the blow also penetrates armour.
Phil takes 1d6 damage from the staff.
Phil hits back with his axe for his second action, rolls a 10, with his +2 to strike is a 12
Xar Xar rolls a 6 to autoparry, his +3 takes its to 9, but phils 11 beats this so its a hit, however phils strike doesn't beat Xar Xar's studded leather AR of 12, so his axe does 2d6 damage to Xar Xars studded leather, phil has a strength of 21 (+6 dmaage) and his axe has a bonus of +4 damage from being high quality, he rolls 12 on his 2d6, + 6 from his strength and +4 from the weapon is 22 damage. Xar Xars studded leather sdc is reduced by 22. As this drops it below half its maximum (studded leather is 38) the AR of the studded leather drops to 10, so is easier to penetrate next time. Xar Xar, even though he has more attacks suddenly realises he might be in serious trouble.
Repeat until everyone runs out of attacks.

Note
Autoparry only works if the attack can be seen coming
you can parry without autoparry and it costs an attack.