Bonds in Combat
Momenta Core Rules · Moment 4 · Combat · Chapter 25
Bonds in Combat
Bonds change what you can do in a fight, not just in a scene. Two rules govern everything below:
- Invoking a Bond costs 1 Resolve, and requires roleplay. Whenever you invoke a Bond, say how the Bond is driving what you do — a line of dialogue, a memory, a promise. If the explanation doesn’t hold, the Bond doesn’t fire and no Resolve is spent. Maneuvers that a Bond unlocks (Tandem Maneuvers, Combo Limit Breaks) cost Vigor as normal, not Resolve.
- Defeated and Lost characters cannot invoke Bonds or use Bond maneuvers — but they can be reached by them.
Bond Maneuvers
| Maneuver | Requires | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoke | Bond 1+ toward the target | 1 Resolve | As described in Narrative Actions (Increasing the Odds): +2d to an action roll, for them or for yourself. In combat this includes attack and spellcasting rolls, never luck rolls. At most one Bond invocation per roll. |
| Stay With Me! | Bond 2+ toward the target | Full turn, 1 Resolve | Call out to a character you hold the Bond toward, within SEN squares and line of sight. Remove all stacks of Faltering and Unraveling from them. |
| Come Back to Me! | Mutual Bond 4+ with the target | Full turn, 1 Resolve (only on success) | Reach an adjacent Defeated or Lost character with whom you share a mutual Bond 4+. Both of you test your luck. If either of you scores 1+ successes, spend 1 Resolve and remove the target’s Defeated or Lost condition. If neither succeeds, nothing is spent but the turn. |
Full-turn maneuvers follow the usual rule: no other maneuvers this turn except the free Move.
Tandem Maneuvers
Two characters who hold mutual Bond 3+ toward each other are tandem partners. Tandem maneuvers grant no extra action economy — everything costs its usual Vigor — but they let tandem partners act out of turn, together.
| Reaction | Trigger | Vigor | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tandem Strike | Your tandem partner makes an attack against a target you can attack. | 2 | Reactive Attack Make a Basic Attack with an equipped weapon (melee or ranged) against the same target, with +1d. A Tandem Strike cannot itself trigger a Tandem Strike. |
| Tandem Defense | Your adjacent tandem partner is targeted by an attack. | As per the chosen defense | Reactive Defense Perform Dodge or Deflect on your partner’s behalf, using your own attributes and equipped weapons. Any damage or effects that get through are still suffered by your partner. This counts as the attack’s one reactive defense. |
| Tandem Advance | Your tandem partner, within SEN squares of you (and you of them), takes the Move maneuver. | 2 | Reaction Take the Move maneuver at the same time as your partner. Reactions such as Forestall trigger on each of you independently. |
Combo Limit Breaks
Two characters who hold mutual Bond 4+ toward each other may perform Combo Limit Breaks — Limit Breaks executed together. Combo Limit Breaks are listed in the Limit Breaks Catalog, and follow these rules:
- Every participant must have the Combo Limit Break equipped.
- One participant initiates on their turn. Every other participant must not yet have taken their turn this round, and must be able to take a full turn (not Broken, Grabbed, Defeated, or Lost).
- Activating a Combo Limit Break uses up the turn of every participant — it is a full-turn maneuver for all of them.
- Only the initiator pays the activation cost: 3 Momentum, or their once-per-combat Crisis activation.
- A Combo Limit Break may state additional prerequisites (all participants adjacent, a required archetype, a formation, and so on).
- Learning them: you unlock a small selection of Combo Limit Breaks the first time you reach a mutual Bond 4 with anyone, and another selection the first time you reach a mutual Bond 5. Realizing certain Specialist Archetypes may unlock more. Some Combo Limit Breaks require mutual Bond 5.