Chapter 50 — Combat States — The Four-State Doctrine

Chapter 50: Combat States — The Four-State Doctrine

Design Constraint

Exactly four visible combat states. No status zoo. Each state has a single tactical role, a clear counter, and predictable duration. If a pack needs genre-specific effects, use resources and abilities — not new combat states.

State Reference

GUARDED (`combat:guarded`)

Role: Short-horizon defense. Absorb the next hit.

Property	Value
Duration	2 ticks
Applied by	guard action, brace action
Cleared by	absorbing a hit, attacking (self-clear), disengaging (self-clear), outflanked by reposition, tick expiration
Hit chance	No direct modifier
Damage	50-75% reduction (scales with resolve stat) on first hit, then clears
Counter	30-48% chance to apply OFF_BALANCE to attacker (scales with resolve)
AI response	Attack -10 (avoid), Reposition +20 (outflank opportunity)

Key behavior: Guard absorbs exactly one hit. The damage reduction scales with the resolve stat: base 50%, increasing by 3% per point of resolve above 3, capped at 75%. After absorbing, GUARDED clears automatically. Attacking or disengaging also clears own GUARDED — you cannot defend and act offensively simultaneously.

OFF_BALANCE (`combat:off_balance`)

Role: Tempo punishment. You overcommitted and lost your footing.

Property	Value
Duration	1 tick
Applied by	counter (attacking into a guarded target, 30-48% chance)
Cleared by	guard (stabilization), brace (stabilization), successful untargeted reposition, tick expiration
Hit chance	-15 as attacker, +10 as target
Damage	+1 damage taken
Reposition	-20 penalty to success chance
AI response	Brace +25 (strong recovery signal), Reposition -15 (risky while unstable), Attack +8 vs off-balance enemy

Key behavior: OFF_BALANCE is the rarest state — it only comes from the counter mechanic when you attack into a guarded target. Braced entities resist OFF_BALANCE application with 70% chance. The primary recovery is brace (AI strongly prefers it at +25), though guard also clears it.

EXPOSED (`combat:exposed`)

Role: One-time vulnerability window. You’re open and everyone knows it.

Property	Value
Duration	1 tick
Applied by	failed disengage, failed reposition, being outflanked by reposition
Cleared by	successful untargeted reposition, damage consumed (auto-clears after being hit)
Hit chance	+20 as target
Damage	+2 damage taken, then auto-clears
AI response	Attack +15 (high-value target), Guard +20 (self-recovery), Brace +15 (self-stabilize), Finish +10

Key behavior: EXPOSED is consumed by damage — the first hit against an exposed target gets the full bonus (+20 hit, +2 damage), then EXPOSED clears. This makes it a one-shot vulnerability, not a lingering debuff. Multiple attackers competing for the same exposed target only benefit one attacker.

FLEEING (`combat:fleeing`)

Role: Escape commitment. You’re running and vulnerable to pursuit.

Property	Value
Duration	2 ticks
Applied by	successful disengage (entity moves to neighbor zone)
Cleared by	tick expiration only
Hit chance	+10 as target
Damage	No direct modifier
Cognitive lock	Entity can ONLY disengage while fleeing (all other intents suppressed)
AI response	Attack +5 (pursue), Finish +20 (priority elimination target)

Key behavior: FLEEING is the only state with cognitive suppression — a fleeing entity is locked into disengaging until the state expires or they successfully exit the zone. This makes fleeing a commitment, not a free escape. Enemies see fleeing targets as high-priority finisher candidates (+20 finish scoring).

State Interaction Matrix

States can overlap. Here’s what happens:

Combination	Result
GUARDED + EXPOSED	Both active. Guard absorbs the hit (with reduction), but EXPOSED bonus still applies. After absorb, both clear.
GUARDED + OFF_BALANCE	Both active. Entity is guarded but unstable. Guard still absorbs, but the entity’s own attacks suffer -15 hit chance.
EXPOSED + OFF_BALANCE	Both active. Entity is extremely vulnerable: +20 hit, +10 hit (from off-balance as target), +2 damage, +1 damage. Brace recovers off-balance; untargeted reposition recovers exposed.
FLEEING + any	FLEEING dominates: cognitive lock forces disengage regardless of other states. Other states still apply their passive modifiers but the entity cannot act on recovery options.

Internal Flags vs Visible States

RoundFlags in combat-tactics are per-entity per-tick tracking flags. They are NOT visible combat states:

Flag	Purpose	Lifetime
`braced`	Grants displacement resistance, enables OFF_BALANCE resistance (70%)	Cleared at tick start
`guarding`	Tracked for counter effect timing	Cleared at tick start
`attemptedDisengage`	Prevents double-disengage in one tick	Cleared at tick start
`attemptedReposition`	Prevents double-reposition in one tick	Cleared at tick start

These flags exist for cross-referencing within a single tick. They don’t appear in the entity’s statuses array and are invisible to the narrator and AI intent system.

Pack Author Rules

Do not add combat states. Four is the cap. If you need pack-specific effects, use resources (crowd-favor, ki, bloodlust) and abilities (focused strike, blood frenzy).
Resources can resist states. Use resistState and resistChance in ResourceSpendModifier to let genre resources interact with the state system without adding new states.
Resources can modify state effects. Use TacticalHooks.preAction and defenseModifier to change how states behave for specific packs without adding states.
Test your AI. Run selectNpcCombatAction() with your pack biases and verify enemies respond sensibly to all 4 states.

Narration

The combat-state-narration module enriches status events with description text routed to the narrator channel:

Event	GUARDED	OFF_BALANCE	EXPOSED	FLEEING
Applied	”{name} raises their guard"	"{name} is thrown off balance"	"{name} is left exposed"	"{name} breaks away and flees”
Removed	”{name} guard drops"	"{name} recovers their footing"	"{name} is no longer exposed"	"{name} stops fleeing”
Expired	”{name} guard stance fades"	"{name} steadies themselves"	"{name} regains composure"	"{name} slows their retreat”

The module is optional. Combat works without it, but narrators receive no state change text without it registered.

Module Registration

import { createCombatStateNarration } from '@ai-rpg-engine/modules';

const engine = createEngine({
  modules: [
    statusCore,
    createCombatCore(formulas),
    createCombatTactics(),
    createCombatStateNarration(), // optional, adds narrator text
  ],
});