Individual Combat

Individual combat resolves one creature as one distinct combatant and tracks its injuries in hit points. Run the encounter through Combat Phases. The offensive-check, defensive-check, and effect sequence is defined in Roll Checks; shared pool notation is defined in Dice-Pool Resolution.

Attack Sequence

Attack and defense rolls are skill checks. Both use toPass = Stat + Skills + Buff Bonus - Debuff Bonus.

1. Roll the offensive weapon or effect skill check against its final toHit chance. A failed offense ends the attack.
2. On a successful offense, the target rolls its chosen armor or evasion check against its final toDef chance.
3. A successful defense prevents that hit unless the action states a reduced effect. On a failed defense, roll the hit's damage or other toEffect.

Single hits make this sequence once. Cluster attacks make it once per cluster hit. Areas skip the offensive roll and begin with one defense per exposed target or exposure unit.

Combat Item Classes

The item selects the Embodiment stat used in its check. Force weapons use STR; Finesse weapons use DEX; Endurance weapons use CON. Finesse defensive items use DEX; Endurance defensive items use CON. Add the applicable trained Skill and normal buffs or debuffs with the standard formula—classification does not create a second formula.

Endurance weapons generally require the user to sustain load, recoil, charge, aim, or another prolonged physical demand. Great weapons are mixed Force + Endurance items. Sniper rifles are mixed Finesse + Endurance items. A mixed label alone does not add both listed stats; the weapon action must state the approved way it uses them.

Defense

Choose one defense that can answer the incoming effect. A carried defensive item's class selects DEX for Finesse or CON for Endurance; armor, cover, and the item's stated defense value remain bonuses:

evasion toDef = DEX + Evasion skill + cover
                + buffs - debuffs

armor toDef = armor bonus + allowed DEX + armor skill
              + shield + cover + buffs - debuffs - armor piercing

All entries are percentage points. Armor piercing reduces the armor bonus first; it does not remove DEX, skill, shield, cover, or another typed resistance unless its rule says so.

Cover

Cover applies only when it lies between the defender and the incoming line or area. A creature completely outside an area is not a target and rolls no defense.

Armor

For a D&D armor not listed here, use this conversion as a starting value:

Ninefold armor bonus = (D&D AC - 10) x 5 percentage points

Then apply the closest listed armor's DEX rule. This is a conversion note, not a second armor system.

Personal Armor Piercing

An armor-piercing arrow has AP 25%: subtract 25 percentage points from the target's armor bonus, to a minimum armor contribution of 0%, before calculating toDef.

Hit Points

A creature derives maximum hit points by rolling its hit dice or taking 3.5 hit points per hit die. For example, three hit dice produce 3d6 hit points or an average of 10.5.

Hit points persist between fights and record healing, injury, and attrition. Hit dice define the creature's health capacity but are not the damage track used during individual combat.

Single-Target Damage

After a single-target attack gets through its defense, roll the action's listed damage dice. Subtract their total from the target's hit points. Individual combat keeps the exact dice printed by the weapon or effect: a dagger deals 1d4, a mace deals 1d6, and a longsword deals 1d8.

A favorable critical doubles the number of damage dice. An unfavorable critical halves the number of damage dice, rounding down to at least one die. Hit-die damage is a unit-combat value and does not replace the listed damage dice in individual combat.

Area Effects

An area effect skips the offensive roll. Determine how many exposure units of each target are inside the area, resolve one defense per exposure unit, and roll one effect for each failed defense. The listed area damage is a rate per fully exposed five-foot square or five-foot base, not one flat pool for the entire area.

Scale a fully engulfed individual by base diameter:

For multipliers of x1 or more, the multiplier is the number of defense/effect pairs. For a base smaller than four feet, roll one defense; on a failed defense apply the listed fractional effect to each effect die, rounding the final total up to at least 1. A one-foot target therefore takes 1 damage for each listed d6 rather than rolling that d6.

For bases larger than eleven feet, count the number of five-by-five-foot squares covered by the base's surface area and use that as the multiplier. Use actual overlap when only part of a base is inside the area.

For example, a 30-foot-diameter area dealing 1d6 per five-foot square produces:

• 4d6 against one fully engulfed creature with a ten-foot base;
• 4d6 against a unit of four creatures with five-foot bases;
• 12d6 against a unit of four creatures with eight-foot bases;
• 2d6 against a four-member, five-foot-base unit when only two members are exposed; and
• 1 damage against a fully exposed creature with a one-foot base.

If an effect is authored in hit-die damage, each hit die equals 3.5 hit points for an individual.

Defensive Skills

A defensive skill applies only when its action can answer the incoming effect. A parry can answer a single incoming strike but not an area effect without a distinct rule allowing it.

Base Size

An individual's base size is the diameter of its physical footprint. It belongs to the Embodiment and is independent of square, hex, or gridless maps.

Dice-Pool Resolution · Unit Combat · Scale Conversion · Back to Combat