Parry This! is my attempt at improving combat in Minecraft, by adding new mechanics and weapons. If you aren't sure how to get started, a patchouli guidebook is available, crafted with a book and gold sword.

MECHANICS:

The core of the mod is its mechanics, which add new ways to attack and defend. These are intended to supplement the vanilla combat system, and make new playstyles viable.

Parrying:

Parrying is a relatively simple mechanic. When you are hit with a melee attack, if you are swinging a weapon the attack will be deflected. A "weapon" in this case is any item with an attack damage value, eg a sword or pickaxe. To parry, you must be aiming at the attacker. Parrying is easier the higher the attack recharge meter is. A successful parry reduces the defense meter.

Dual Wielding:

Dual Wielding allows you to use a weapon from your offhand. Parry This! uses a unique implementation of dual wield. Instead of using right click to trigger an offhand attack, you will alternate between your main and off hands by attacking normally. Dual wielding grants a small boost in attack speed, as well as a penalty for using weapons with differing speeds. Some weapons are marked as "two handed", and cannot be used for dual wielding.

Shield Bash:

Shield bash is a special attack that can be performed using a shield. While blocking, pressing the attack button (default left click) will cause the shield to bash against anything in front of you. A bash can hit a maximum of 3 targets at once, though the "bashing" enchant can allow you to hit more. Bashing a target will do one of two things; Against players, bashing will briefly remove their ability to parry attacks. Against mobs, it will cause the them to briefly take 150% damage. Upon bashing, your shield will be placed on a cooldown. This cooldown increases with each target hit, and is drastically reduced if you miss your shield bash.

Backstab:

Backstab is a powerful special attack that can be performed by attacking a target from behind. It's hard to hit, but if you get your aim right, you can deal 300% damage to your target. Combined with vanilla stealth mechanics, such as sneaking and invisibility, a rouge or ninja playstyle becomes practical. In pvp, backstabs are practically impossible if your enemy knows you are coming, so use stealth to your advantage. Backstab works with both melee and ranged attacks, making sniping possible as well. Backstab only affects targets with 20 max health or less by default.

Dodge:

Dodge is a movement ability, similar to sprinting. By holding alt (configurable) and tapping A, S, or D (or whatever keys your movement is bound to) you can leap left, backwards, or right, respectively. This ability has a short, invisible cooldown. Knockback resistance has an adverse effect on dodging, reducing its power. Thus, wearing Netherite armor will make dodging somewhat less effective. Additionally, you must be touching the ground to dodge, so it may not always be effective in pvp due to the large amount of jumping. The distance you dodge can be improved through the jump boost effect. Each level of jump boost adds roughly one block of dodge distance.

Armor Penetration:

Certain weapons have a new attribute called "armor penetration". This attribute specifies a percentage of the weapon's damage that ignores armor. So if your weapon has 35% armor penetration, 35% of the weapon's damage will ignore armor. All bludgeoning weapons possess armor penetration to varying degrees.

Defense Meter:

The defense meter is the little shield under your crosshair that appears whenever you block or parry. Whenever you parry a blow or block one with a shield, your defense meter is reduced. If it hits zero, you are briefly stunned, and any shield you were using is disabled briefly. It recharges fairly quickly, but higher damage blows will reduce the meter more, so be careful when up against high damage enemies such as vindicators or players with a hammer.

WEAPONS:

Parry This! adds several new weapons, with various strengths and weaknesses. These include armor penetrating bludgeons and throwable stabbers.

Maces:

Maces are relatively standard bludgeoning weapons. They deal the same damage as a sword, but are slower. The main advantage of a mace is their armor penetration, which allows them to kill armored targets faster than an equivalent sword.

Hammers:

These heavy weapons deal a large amount of damage, and ignore a large portion of the target's armor. The downside is they are very slow, and as such are not very suitable for parrying.

Flails:

These unique weapons are very fast, and have a tiny amount of armor penetration. Their main advantage over other weapons is they can bypass a shield, dealing 50% damage to blocking targets. Flails also have a chain sound and unique animation.

Spears:

Spears have extended reach, and can be thrown. A thrown spear deals more damage than a melee attack with one. Yes, they can backstab, even at range. Spears cannot be used for dual wielding.

Daggers:

Fast and throwable, daggers are versatile weapons. They have the unique ability to reduce the time a target is invulnerable after an attack, making them very useful for rapid attacks. Thrown daggers can indeed backstab, making them a rouge's favorite.

Scoped Crossbow:

This crossbow variant can zoom in like a spyglass, and fires zero gravity arrows, allowing for truly long range shots.

ITEMS:

Weapons aren't the only items added by Parry This!, the mod adds a few utility items as well.

Quivers:

These items have been teased by Mojang on and off for years, and finally I decided to take matters into my own hands. Quivers work like bundles, with the following differences: they can only hold arrows, have a max item limit of 256, and can be cycled by right clicking. They can also be dyed, and can be obtained through crafting, trading, or looting. They will automatically provide arrows to any bows or crossbows that are based on the vanilla items. This includes the scoped crossbow, of course.

Scabbards:
Similar to quivers, but for swords! A scabbard can hold a single sword, which can be drawn with the press of a key. The scabbard can provide a sword from anywhere in the inventory, and any item you were holding will be moved elsewhere in your inventory, or dropped if you don't have enough space. Like the quiver, the scabbard can be dyed. While only minorly useful on its own, the scabbard becomes a deadly damage booster when combined with the Swift Strike enchantment.

TWEAKS:

In addition to new mechanics and items, Parry This! also changes a variety of vanilla mechanics.

Pets no longer take damage from their owners.
Potion arrows with positive effects no longer deal damage. The exception is instant health against undead mobs.
Flaming arrows ignite blocks.
Golden equipment is no longer useless, with stats similar to iron, but lower durability.
Golden armor has knockback resistance.
Piercing crossbows deal armor penetrating damage. The higher the level the greater the penetration percentage.

ENCHANTMENTS:

Parry This! adds multiple new enchantments to modify the new mechanics in various ways, or to add extra effects to a weapon.

Deflection:

This enchantment can only be applied to swords, and allows arrows to be deflected if you are swinging the sword. The arrows will be redirected in the direction you are facing, with an offset relative to the aim of the shooter. The arrows will have their speed reduced upon being deflected, with each level of deflection retaining 20% of the arrow's speed, to a maximum of level 3 (60% speed). This enchantment is mutually exclusive with sweeping edge and riposte.

Riposte:

This rare enchantment grants strength 1 to the wielder upon parrying a blow. The effect does not stack. This enchant can be applied to swords or axes. This enchantment is mutually exclusive with sweeping edge and deflection.

Bashing:

The bashing enchantment increases the number of targets a shield bash can hit by 1 per level, to a max of 3. At max level, you can bash 6 targets, with a 10 second cooldown.

Crippling:

An enchantment for bludgeoning weapons, crippling has a random chance of applying slowness to your target. This is a rather nasty enchantment, particularly in pvp.

Treachery:

This powerful enchantment increases damage from backstabs. If you can pull one off, even a lowly iron dagger becomes a deadly weapon. Incompatible with venomous.

Venomous:

This enchantment inflicts a poison effect equal to its level on a successful backstab. While not as powerful as treachery, it is still useful if a target manages to survive the initial strike. Incompatible with treachery.

Fragile:

The curse of fragility can afflict any weapon, and causes the amount of durability lost from parrying to be tripled.

Phasing:

This dastardly curse causes parrying to have a 1 in 3 chance of failing (The deflection enchantment is unaffected). A sound will be played when a parry fails, as the enemy's attack phases through your weapon.
Jousting:

This powerful enchantment is exclusive to spears. When riding an entity, the wielder of the spear will find that their spear has a considerable increase to damage. This works with any entity that is ridable. Yes, including vehicles like boats. Minecart jousts, anyone?

Intrusion:

A curse for quivers and scabbards that can sometimes be a blessing in disguise. Items enchanted with this curse will take priority over other similar items. This is especially useful when looting, as loot quivers and scabbards can sometimes come with items already inside.

Providence:

When an arrow is drawn from a quiver with the providence enchantment, there is a small chance the arrow won't be consumed, effectively duplicating the arrow. This works with any and all arrows, including tipped arrows. The chance is small though, so farming arrows with this is very difficult.
Swift Strike:

An enchantment for scabbards, swift strike is inspired by fictional representations of Japanese Iaido techniques. When a sword is drawn while sneaking, the player will perform a deadly special attack with the benefit of strength 5. This attack can hit up to three mobs at a time, provided they are close together. With a strong enough sword, this attack can easily one-shot many mobs, if you time it right. It also stacks with backstab, for even more damage. It is somewhat hard to time right though, and after performing it the scabbard is put on a very long cooldown, so it should be used sparingly.

CONFIG:

Many aspects of this mod are configurable:

Parrying, bashing, backstabbing, dual wielding, and dodging can all be individually disabled.

The effective angle required for parrying, bashing, and backstabbing can be configured.

The cooldowns for bashing and dodging are all configurable.

The damage multiplier for backstab can be changed.

The maximum health for backstab can be changed.

The minimum number of targets for a shield bash can be changed (bash all the things!)

The curses can be configured to appear from the enchantment table.

Each enchantment can be disabled in survival mode individually.

Each weapon can have its crafting disabled.

MOD COMPATIBILITY:

Most enchantments support Darkhax's enchantment description mod.

Most melee weapons and arrows from Spartan Weaponry should work with parrying.

Most modded swords/axes/etc should work with parrying.

Most arrows from Archer's paradox should work with deflection.

Most modded shields should be able to bash.

KNOWN INCOMPATIBILITIES:

Epic fight is not compatible. It replaces the vanilla combat system with its own, and as such renders this mod largely useless. Use one or the other.

Shields from Spartan Shields have their own shield bash, and as such can not use mine.

Modded weapons that are similar to my own cannot have my mechanics (i.e. armor penetration on other mod's maces), as this would require me to modify other mods' code, which is something I do not want to do. Any modder looking for compat with their mods (and willing to help add it!) can reach out to me via curseforge messages.

FAQ:
Why can't I deflect arrows?
Answer: you need the deflection enchantment on a sword to do this.

Can you add weapons made of steel/blazemetal/other mods materials to the mod?
Short answer: No
Real Answer: I may do this in the future, but this would take a lot of work, as each weapon would need textures and those take time.

Can you add x?

I am always open to listening to ideas! HOWEVER: I have a very specific vision for this mod, so I wont always accept a suggestion.

Can you update <old version>/backport?

No. Working on one version of the mod takes up enough time as it is. That said, if you want to backport, message me and we can work something out. Same thing goes for updates to old versions.