Wand Combat

This guide explains how duels and battles work, and the rewards or dangers involved with each. This feature is mostly optional, though certain quests or tasks may require you to partake in a duel. Duellingalso evolves into a more strategic event after graduation, with bigger rewards or consequences.A duel is a form of training that increases your skills and prepares you for the possibility of being in a battle. There are no actual incantations used, and the entire event is modded by RPG staff. At worst, your character could be injured or humiliated. 

A battle is when things get messy. Actual incantations are used from the spells your character has learned, and there's lots of creativity involved in RPing a battle. The stakes are also higher. When under attack, a character can use whatever (realistic) means necessary to survive or escape. If your opponent isn't a student, unforgivable curses may be involved. During a battle, if you ignore warnings that your health is low or the foe is gaining a heavy upper hand - your character may be killed. Unless the death was pre-arranged, often some intervening force may give you a last chance to survive.

Unlike duels, a battle's not necessary one-on-one or evenly balanced. Schoolyard battles can happen as well, when a character starts attacking another and forces someone to defend themselves (RP-wise - members themselves must still agree to battle). These likely won't result in death, but can get rather out of hand and may need an intervention. If caught having a battle, the consequences could be far higher than just detention or the loss of house points.Until your character's Duelling skill reaches level 3, your duels are limited to the Duellist Chamber. Afterwards, you can continue using the chamber or duel somewhere else - so long as you use common sense. If it's a public place or where professors may spot you, there's a higher risk of getting caught and severely punished. The Training Grounds is the most ideal location outside of the chamber.

Both members and characters involved must agree to duel, unless you've chosen to train against a dummy. Due to the house point rewards involved, you cannot duel a member of your own house unless during a special duelling session hosted by a Professor.

Winning or losing a duel is decided by Duel Points. When you run out of points, you've lost. Each character's points are determined as 5 + duel level. So if you have a Duelling skill of level 6 then your total Duel Points will be 11. You must have a Curse skill level of 1 or higher to use curses. If training against a dummy, it has the same stats as your character - though a dummy doesn't cast curses. 

• Before a duel can begin, both members involved must RP the events or discussion leading to the duel as a manner of showing you're both agreeing to it. You can pre-arrange the duel with a member, but that still must be clear in the actual thread through RP or an OCC note. If challenged to a duel, you're under no obligation to accept.

• When a character initiates the actual duel, they get to cast the first spell. After that, whoever received the most damage will cast first in the following round. Only the required caster has to post to keep up progress, though the other member is welcome to add reactions or RP as well if they want to. 

• During your turn, you have two options: cast a spell or cast a curse. Your opponent's response will always be the same, thus why only the caster is required to post before mods can determine the outcome. The options are:
• Cast a spell - character casts an offensive spell, which is responded to by the opponent casting a defensive spell. Damage is calculated as caster's charms skill vs opponent's defence skill. A die roll each is also added (1 - 6 points) to make the total score. Whoever has the highest score wins that round - the loser takes damage (of whatever remains after the lowest score is subtracted from the highest score). 
• Cast a curse - character casts a curse, which is responded to by the opponent attempting to dodge. There's an odd/even die roll (thus a 50% chance of success) to determine the outcome. If the curse hits, the opponent takes damage equal to the caster's curse skill level. If the curse is dodged, the caster regains Duel Points equal to their curse level.

• Duels are intended as a short and fun way of training your character's wand combat skills. To keep things progressing and as intended, there is a void duel clause. Meaning, if the required poster (as in, it's that member's turn to cast) takes longer than 48 hours to post then the duel will be void and ended. It will be RPed as a tie, regardless of Duel Points remaining.

• No incantations or spell specifics are RPed but each post during a duel is still part of the RPG, so be sure to include reactions and otherwise. Free-RP is allowed to a degree. If taking damage from losing a round, you can have your character be knocked back or injured and so forth. Mentioning things like using a flourish of their wand or mentioning the colour of a spell is also allowed. If hit with a curse, it should be painful.