Some OSR (old-school Renaissance) fantasy RPGs feature elements to make melee combat a bit more interesting. But not all do. And not all those that do offer a clean system. So consider this for your game. Here’s a link to a GM Binder version. These rules are similar to my overall 2nd Edition D&D house rules.

Tactical Choices

Each round, you can choose fighting tactics:

• Aggressive: You attack normally. If you hit for damage and your opponent misses entirely, you can force your opponent back 5 feet, if they are your size or smaller. If you are also charging and hit for damage with your first attack, you deal double damage.
• Defensive: You fall back 5 feet, and all melee hits against you from your front do half damage. You attack normally. You can’t also be forced back by an aggressive attack.
• Sweep: You swing your hand-and-a-half or two-handed melee weapon at up to three enemies nearby for half damage with one attack roll, as long as you move at least 10 feet in reaching them.

Hits, Blocked Hits, & Misses

To attack, you roll 1d20 and add any attack bonuses.

• If your modified roll is equal to or greater than the opponent’s armor class, you hit for damage.
• If your modified roll is less than the opponent’s armor class, your attack is blocked. This means it’s fended off the opponent’s weapon, shield, claws, etc. or it bounces off the opponent’s armor or hide. This counts as a hit for touch attacks.
• If you fail to hit armor class 10, you miss entirely. Otherwise, a miss means your attack is blocked or bounces off the opponent’s armor or hide.
• If you roll a natural 1, you suffer a mishap. Your weapon could be broken.
• If you roll a natural 20, you score a critical hit, according to your system.

Weapon Effects

I wrote about weapons effects awhile back. When you score a melee hit with a natural 19 or 20, you can choose an effect based on your weapon type.

• Knockback: Knock a same-sized opponent back 5 feet or a smaller one back and prone.
• Rend: Rend the opponent’s armor or hide for -1 AC (or chops off a tentacle, tendril, tail, etc.).
• Trip: Same size or smaller opponent takes half damage but falls prone or is unhorsed.
• Bonus: Deal +2 damage.
• Grapple: Regardless of weapon, if you have one hand free, you can choose to deal normal damage and still automatically get hold of your opponent with a grapple hand-to-hand combat maneuver (see below).

Certain weapons also have special traits:

• Agile: You apply your dexterity modifier to damage instead of your strength modifier.
• Parry: If your natural attack roll is higher than your opponent’s modified attack roll, you parry a successful hit by your opponent and take no damage, as long as the opponent’s roll was not a natural 19 or 20. If your modified attack roll hits, you do half damage.
• No Shield: The opponent’s shield doesn’t count for armor class against you.
• Reach: One opponent’s hits do no damage until you miss entirely in the same round (or don’t attack at all). Then, you must fall back 5 feet and choke up on the weapon–eliminating the reach trait–or fall back and switch weapons.

Hand-to-hand Combat

If you have at least one free hand, roll 1d20 against the target listed for the maneuver. Strength bonus applies. For creatures one size smaller, you get advantage. For creatures one size larger, you get disadvantage. You can’t fight other sizes or most non-humanoids this way.

• Tackle: On a 6 or better, you tackle your opponent and go down together. Fail: only you go down.
• Plow: On an 8 or better, you plow your opponent back 5 feet and go with them. Fail: you go past them.
• Grapple: On a 10 or better, you get a hold on your opponent. The next round, you can make an opposed strength check to move the opponent 5 feet in any direction or (if you have two hands free) do 1d6 hp damage plus strength bonus. Failure (or being hit for damage) means the hold is broken.
• Knockback: On a 12 or better, you shove or kick your opponent back 5 feet. Smaller opponent is also knocked prone. Fail: do 1 hp damage plus strength bonus.
• Knockdown: On a 14 or better, you knock your opponent prone. Fail: do 1 hp damage plus strength bonus.