A party of four should feel like a group that knows how to fight. The player’s attention should have somewhere useful to go: understanding the encounter, choosing a target, conserving a resource, or recognizing the moment to intervene.
Caelwick’s tactics system gives each hero an ordered set of rules. When the hero is free to act, the list is read from the top. The first rule whose conditions are true and whose action is possible becomes the next action.
Order is a decision
Imagine a Warden with enough charges to attack and an ally who needs protection. Both actions may be available. If the protection rule comes first, the ally takes priority. Put the attack first and the same encounter can lead to a different choice.
This is the idea behind the interactive example on the website. The example simplifies the encounter so you can see the effect of one change. It illustrates the system’s priorities rather than running the game’s combat simulation.
A tactics list is a statement of what matters first.
Targets and conditions do different jobs
A target selector chooses who an action is aimed at. A filter narrows who is eligible. A condition says when the hero should consider taking that action.
For example, choosing the most injured ally is different from choosing the most injured ally who has no shield. In the second case, shielded allies are removed from consideration before the remaining targets are compared.
Keeping these choices readable matters. The design uses plain conditions that all have to be true. More involved priorities can be expressed through several ordered rows rather than nested logic.
A useful starting point
Each class has authored tactics and basic actions. A preset gives the player a starting point; it should be possible to get to know the class before editing its rules.
When no action in the selected set can fire, the class’s basic tactics provide a fallback. That lets a hero keep contributing when a resource is empty or an ability is unavailable. It also makes conserving resources an intentional approach to a climb.
Leave room for judgement
Tactics handle recurring priorities. They do not remove the need to understand the fight. Your chosen thresholds and ordering express a policy, and a policy can be a poor fit for a particular moment.
The interesting loop is to prepare a plan, see how it behaves, and make a better one. A class preset can carry you into your first encounter. Experience teaches you when to change it, and why.
The alpha already provides the foundation for editing tactics. Broader discovery and sharing ideas remain future work; the focus here is on making the party’s decisions clear and useful.