Since Melee Combat is a mainstay of Heroic Fantasy, let's take a look at a few examples of how skill-based combat resolution might work.
First, we need to quantify some skill limitations in order to understand the reasonable range of expectations in combat. ANY Skill can only be developed to twice its base Ability. Why? Look at highly trained individuals in our culture. Given the same opportunities in training, the more naturally talented excel to the higher level, and ultimately can be trained at a higher level. Take football for instance. Untold thousands play football in high school, but only a small percentage are chosen to play in college, and of all these really good players, only a very select few ever play on a professional field. They all get trained up, but it is largely the ones with natural ability that progress to the highest levels. The same is true in intellectual pursuits. We see it in every vocation, several will have the same job, but some select few are able to take their skills higher and be more successful. These select few are highly represented among adventures that survive their first encounter...
Second, I would like to spend a moment explaining training. After a character starts adventuring, advancing skills comes through training. This is done through Development Points (DPs). Development Points are awarded to players for successful role-playing, much as experience points (XPs) are awarded in D&D. Except, DPs are few in number and a running total is not maintained. DPs are spent to acquire dice (d6) in various skills. Costs are as follows:
1st die in a skill: 2DP
2nd die in a skill: 4DP
3rd die in a skill: 6DP
4th die in a skill: 8DP, etc
This quickly makes having high levels of skill very expensive, but there are ways to reduce cost. The cost never drops below 1DP, but the player can reduce the cost by obtaining a teacher/trainer for their character. Each teacher used subtracts the difference between the teacher's level of skill and the character's level of skill. Example: Teacher has skill of 5 dice and the character has 2 dice and is training to get a third. The character would have to pay 6DP, if they self-trained, but using this teacher would lower the cost by 3DP. This is because the the Teacher's 5 dice minus the character's skill of 2 dice is a difference of 3, which is subtracted from the 6DP cost. If the trainer in this example had 7 or more dice, this character's cost would be only 1DP, the minimum. There are other considerations. Training facilities can also reduce cost in addition to the trainer. Having good facilities and other students to train with will reduce cost. The more famous the school, the better this reduction in DP cost. Also, training cost can be reduced with tomes and scrolls with relevant knowledge. Finally, there are some magical items that can reduce these costs, though they are rare.
So the above teacher and student are sparring. Let's take a look at how their skill dice effect the combat.
The master has 4d6 Athletics Ability, 7d6 Melee Sword Skill, 2d6 spiritually blessed wooden sword of teaching that has a 1d6 material quality bonus. He'll bring 14d6 to the sparring.
The master is wearing high quality padded practice armor 4d6 with 3d6 light armor skill and 3d6 Reaction Ability.
The student has 5d6 Athletics Ability, 2d6 Melee Sword Skill, but has not acquired a blessing for his mundane sparring sword (1d6). He'll use 8d6 to the sparring.
The student is wearing standard practice armor 2d6 with 1d6 light armor skill and 3d6 Reaction Ability. He has 18 Health (3d6) points.
When they spar, the Master will have a commanding advantage, rolling twice as many dice.
The student is the first to attack with 8d6, rolling 25. The master skill roll of 14d6 rolling 47. The master easily deflects the clumsy attack, but does not using his higher roll to hurt the student with a counterattack.
The master attacks, rolling a 48. The student rolls a 26. The overage is 22 which is applied against the student's defense. As the student realizes he has not positioned his sword to properly block the the attack, his body tries to twist from the blow with his Reaction Ability, rolling only a 7. The rest of the damage(22-7=15) hits the padded armor, which deflects/absorbs 13 points of it (3d6 roll 13. 15-13=2). These 2 are subtracted from the student's Health (18-2=16). That is going to leave a nasty bruise. The Master will continue the sparring lesson until the student has learned or falls unconscious (Health less than zero). Death would not come until (-18), though the unconscious can not treat themselves and will need to stabilize before they bleed out (internally or externally).
Each minute, the player makes a Stabilization roll with using the characters Health Ability dice (in our example 3d6) and tries to roll higher than the present number of Health Points below zero the character presently is. If the character is at -7, then the target to tie or beat when rolling the 3d6 is 7. Thus, stabilization becomes harder as the damage is more traumatic. If the roll is missed, then the player subtracts 1 point from Health Point total (-7 to -8) and can try again in the next minute. Once the character reaches negative their Health Total (in this case -18), the character is dead. Note that Health Points are the maximum possible roll of the present Health Ability total (in our example 3d6). Weaker being would have less, and tougher beings could have much more. Sadly, once the character falls below zero they are helpless to a death blow.
Another note: In the above combat between master and student, the master could fight two or more such students at the same time, dividing his effort (represented by the dice) between them as he chose. At the beginning of each round, any player facing multiple combatants would announce how many dice of effort the character will spend on each one. Thus, the player decides whether to divide somewhat equally or all on one specific or any such combination. The opponents that do not face any of the melee weapon skills attack the armor defense directly.
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