Combined Attack

[Rhino]

I am having trouble determining when a combined attack is allowed.

 

I understand that a combined attack is not possible with a focus based attack and an additional version of the same focus bought using the equipment rules.  But what about two separately bought focus based attacks?  For example, what about a power ring and a staff of power?

 

 

[Steve Long]

6E2 74 states that Combined Attack “counts as” a form of Strike. Therefore a character can’t perform one with other attacks that are considered Combat or Martial Maneuvers. This includes not only all Combat/Martial Maneuvers, but attacks with weapons. As I’ve stated a couple times in the past when answering similar questions:

 

 

Combined Attack specifically says it’s for powers or similar abilities, and not for Combat/Martial Maneuvers — and using a weapon is typically a Strike Combat Maneuver, or some Martial Maneuver. So a character making two weapon-based attacks is using Multiple Attack in its standard form, and thus derives some benefit from negating OCV penalties.

 

Where this leads to some confusion, both for you (I think) and for other gamers, is that technically speaking, using “powers or similar abilities” also is a form of Strike. Pretty much any time a character makes an attack with anything other than some other Combat/Martial Maneuver, technically it’s a Strike. That’s the HERO System applying its principle of “generic game elements” and “you specify the special effect for what you buy or do” to the concept of attacking. For that reason, the fact that Strike is a “Combat Maneuver” is usually ignored for purposes of rules restricting things that characters can use with Combat Maneuvers. (For example, a character can Haymaker with a Punch, which is a type of Strike.)

 

Combined Attack is not a rule that ignores the fact that Strike is a Combat Maneuver. But that means the issue you raise can’t be answered by saying “you can’t use any form of Strike with Combined Attack,” because that essentially makes it impossible to use Combined Attack. Instead the rules should provide some (hopefully relatively simple and straightforward) guideline for GMs to apply to determine when to allow a Combined Attack.

 

And that guideline is this:  it depends on a common sense and dramatic sense interpretation of what the rules specifically state that Combined Attacks are for:  “sing two or more powers or similar abilities[.]” That primarily refers to superpowers in Champions campaigns, but it could also apply to spells in some Fantasy campaigns, psionic powers in some Science Fiction campaigns, and so on. In both the everyday sense and the gaming sense in which the gaming community uses the term “power,” neither hitting someone with your hand or foot, nor using a weapon, is a power. (This holds true regardless of whether a character pays Character Points for his weapons, gets them as free equipment, buys them via the 5-point doubling rule, or any other method.)

 

It’s up to the GM, using his common sense and dramatic sense, to determine whether an attack is a “power or similar abilit[y]” (and thus can be used to make a Combined Attack), or is a Combat/Martial Maneuver, a weapon, or something else for which the rules do not intend Combined Attack to be used (they, instead, use Multiple Attack).

 

In the example you cite, I personally would rule that both objects are de facto weapons, and thus your character couldn’t use them to perform a Combined Attack. That’s part of the price you pay for the cost savings you get from taking the Focus Limitation. But other GMs might prefer a looser interpretation of the situation.