The number of attack combos a character knows is determined by their Combat Expertise skill. Characters learn a number of Combo Components from various skills (primarily Weapon Finesse, Weapon Skill, and Ranged Skill).
When a character gains the ability to learn a new combo, he may either be taught one by someone else or develop one himself. When developing a combo, simply add together known components. Components are techniques that are Bold Underlined and are followed by [Attack Combo +X] where X is the Combo Rating that they add to the combo. Combine the Combo Rating for each of these components to determine the combos total Combo Rating for your combo.
The total number of components that can be included in a combo is equal to your total number of ranks in either Weapon Skill or Ranged Skill (whichever is highest) plus one.
Two Combos Components are known to all characters:
Attack [Attack Combo +1]: Make a melee or ranged attack. To gain more than one attack in a combo, the Weapon Skill: Extra Attack technique is needed.
Charge : [Attack Combo -1]: Your combo must be made immediately following a straight movement of at least 6 metres
All characters start the game knowing one combo. Whenever the character's maximum Combo Rating score changes, they can update their combos to meet the new value.
All moves made in a combo occur simultaneously. So if you wound your target in your combo, for example, all future attacks still hit against their original toughness.
A character can use any combo he knows that is within his Combo Rating. Using a combo is a 4SA. The entire combo happens simultaneously. The player has to choose before rolling how many attacks are against which enemies, etc.. All the dice should be rolled at once. If a combo has multiple damage dealing attacks, do not add the damage together . For example, Colonel Mauve attacks a Goblin Mook. Mauve hits three times with an arming sword, so rolls three d8s, and adds +3 to each (his strength score). The results (including the strength bonus) are 8, 6, and 4. The Goblins toughness is 9/3, so the Goblin is wounded three times (8, 6, and 4 are all above 3 but below 9). If the damage were added together (it isn‚t! Here‚s why) it would total 18, which is enough to kill a Goblin eight times bigger in a single hit.
There are situations where a character is said to only be able to make …single attacks,‚ such as with the Nick technique. The single attack can be substituted with any single combo component with complexity 1. For example, the character could use a Grab, Trip or Disarm.