Phantasy Star: Eternal Story - How to Play

Init:

A round of combat begins when all combatants are prompted to make an initiative roll, wherein they roll a 20 sided dice and add their initiative bonus. The init bonus is usually just the character's DEX mod, but if the character has the special feat Improved Initiative, it will be larger. In any case, initiative determines the order in which each combatant gets a turn. The highest number goes first, the lowest goes last. Once the last combatant has gone, init is rolled again for the next round of combat.

Attacking:

First, the player declares an attack with an action. Do try to spruce up your description a bit; Nick likes embellishment on this part, but try to keep it short enough so that it doesn't eat up lots of time. Once the attack is declared, the player must make an appropriate attack roll with a 20 sided dice. If it's with a sword or some other handheld short range weapon, add the melee attack bonus. If it's with a gun, a ranged technique, ranged touch spell, or some other such long ranged attack, use the ranged attack bonus. The attack must meet or beat the enemy's Defense score. Likewise, if a character is being attacked, an enemy must beat its Defense score. Note that if you are attacked, do try to spruce up the description of the defense.

Actions:

A player's turn is divided into certain types of actions. These action types include:

• Full Round Action (casting certain spells, attacking using the full attack bonus; you can't do anything else during the round except this)
• Move Action (drawing a weapon, moving around; you can't make a full round action after doing one of these)
• Partial Action (making one attack at your highest attack bonus, casting a technique, using a monomate; you may make one of these after a move action or two of these in a turn)
• Free Action (dropping something, speaking, certain other things; you can do one of these plus any of the other things above)

Acceptable combinations of these actions are: A Free Action, plus...

• A Full Round action
• A Move Action and a Partial Action
• Two Partial Actions

Clarification: You'll notice the mentions of "highest attack bonus" and "full attack bonus." What this refers to is that, at some point or another, your base attack bonus becomes multiple sets of numbers. For example, a level 6 Hunter has an attack bonus of +6/+1, meaning that, if the Hunter takes a full round action to attack, he makes one roll at a +6 bonus and another at a +1 bonus, meaning: Two attacks! Highest attack bonus refers to, obviously, the highest number.

Casting Spells and Saving Throws: Spells do not work the same as any weapon or technique. Sometimes they automatically work provided a saving throw is failed. For example, the spell Fireball will hit all enemies within a certain area if they fail a Reflex save (which is d20 plus the reflex save value). If they succeed, they take only half damage from the fireball. Under certain circumstances, all damage can be avoided. Basically, if you're prompted to make a saving throw, roll d20 plus the saving throw requested. When you cast a spell, declare a target or the area you desire the spell to affect.

Those are the basics of combat. Read the Combat Conditions section of the References section for more details.

Basically, you go around and do stuff. Make skill checks when prompted, saving throws as needed.

Very simple: Do as you like, but be reasonable. This will occur rarely.