Combat Guide

Combat Flow

When a fight breaks out, the Director calls for combat. Play proceeds in rounds; each creature gets one turn per round until combat ends.

Starting combat:

1. The Director announces what's happening and places creatures on the map.
2. Surprise: if the heroes catch enemies unaware, those enemies can't take a turn in the first round (and vice versa).
3. Who goes first: the heroes decide which side takes the first turn. After that, sides alternate: heroes' side, then enemies' side, back and forth.

Turn order within a side: Heroes choose among themselves who acts next. The Director does the same for enemies, but creatures in the same group share a turn and act together.

End of round: Once every creature has acted, a new round begins.

Read more: Combat Round

Setting the Battlefield

Combat takes place on a square grid (each square = 5 feet). Creatures occupy one or more squares depending on their size.

NPC allies on the heroes' side are controlled by the Director, acting on the heroes' turn.

Read more: Set the Map

Your Turn

Each turn you have three kinds of actions available, usable in any order (you can even split your movement):

You also have access to triggered actions (reactions to specific events) and free maneuvers (trivial tasks like drawing a weapon or opening a door; no action cost).

Read more: Taking a Turn

Main Actions

On your turn, choose one of the following as your main action:

• Use an ability: your class signature or heroic abilities, spells, etc.
• Charge: move up to your speed, then make a melee free strike against an adjacent creature.
• Defend: impose a double bane on all ability rolls made against you until your next turn.
• Free Strike: make a basic melee or ranged attack (see Free Strikes below).
• Heal: touch an adjacent creature; they spend a Recovery and regain Stamina equal to their recovery value.

Read more: Main Actions

Maneuvers

Choose one of these as your maneuver each turn:

Read more: Maneuvers

Movement

Your speed determines how many squares you can move with your move action. You can break movement up across your turn (move, act, move again).

Movement types:

Shifting: Some abilities let you shift: move without triggering free strikes from enemies.

Difficult terrain: Costs 1 extra square of movement per square entered.

Falling: You take damage when you fall more than 2 squares: 1d6 per additional square fallen (after the first 2).

Forced movement: Abilities that push, pull, or slide creatures move them a set number of squares. A creature with high stability reduces forced movement by a number of squares equal to their stability score.

Read more: Movement

Free Strikes

A free strike is a basic attack you make outside your normal turn, most often as an opportunity attack when an adjacent enemy voluntarily moves away from you.

You can also use a free strike as your main action when you have nothing better to do.

Standard free strikes:

Read more: Free Strikes

Damage

Every damaging ability specifies how much damage it deals and what type. Damage types matter because creatures may have immunities or weaknesses to specific types.

Damage types: acid, cold, corruption, fire, holy, lightning, poison, psychic, sonic

• Immunity X: reduce incoming damage of that type by X (minimum 0).
• Weakness X: take X extra damage of that type.

Read more: Damage

Stamina and Dying

Stamina is how much punishment you can take. When it hits 0, you're in trouble.

Key thresholds:

Recoveries are your in-combat healing resource. You have a limited number per adventure. Spending one restores Stamina equal to your recovery value (one-third of your Stamina maximum). Use the Catch Breath maneuver or the Heal action to spend them in combat.

Dying: When you reach 0 Stamina, you fall prone and are dying. On each of your turns while dying, you lose 1 Recovery. When you have no Recoveries left and take damage, you die. An ally can stabilize you with the Heal action.

Temporary Stamina acts as a buffer; it absorbs damage first but doesn't stack with itself (take the higher value).

Read more: Stamina

Battlefield Conditions

Cover

A creature has cover if at least half their body is blocked by a solid object. Abilities that deal damage have a bane against creatures with cover.

Concealment

A creature is concealed if they're in darkness, heavy fog, or otherwise invisible. Targeting a concealed creature imposes a bane on the roll. Fully invisible creatures have a bane against them only if the attacker has a way to detect them.

Flanking

Two allied creatures flank an enemy when they are both adjacent to it and on roughly opposite sides. Flanking allies each gain an edge on melee strikes against the flanked creature (requires line of effect).

Read more: Cover · Concealment · Flanking

Special Environments

Mounted Combat

Your mount must be larger than you. You and your mount act on separate turns. Use the Ride move action to move your mount. If your mount is force-moved or killed, you may be dismounted and take falling damage.

Underwater

• All submerged creatures gain fire immunity 5.
• All submerged creatures have lightning weakness 5.
• Creatures who can't automatically swim take a bane on power rolls while underwater.

Suffocating

You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to your Might score (minimum 1). After that, you take 1d6 damage per round in combat. Out of combat, you can hold your breath for a number of minutes equal to your Might score.

Read more: Mounted Combat · Underwater Combat · Suffocating

Ending Combat

Combat ends when the scene's objective is met, not necessarily when every enemy is dead. Common objectives:

When the objective is met, the Director can call a dramatic finish: remaining enemies are narratively defeated without further rolls.

Victory: Winning a combat encounter earns the party 1 Victory. Victories convert to XP at the next respite.

Read more: End of Combat