Classes

While all your character creation decisions bear narrative weight, none influences the way you play the game like your choice of class. Your class determines how your hero battles the threats of the timescape and overcomes other obstacles. Do you bend elemental forces to your will through the practiced casting of magic spells? Do you channel the ferocity of the Primordial Chaos as you tear across the battlefield, felling foes left and right? Or do you belt out heroic ballads that give your allies a second wind and inspire them to ever-greater achievements?

Your class provides you with many of your features, most of your abilities—your most potent combat moves and noncombat options and a Heroic Resource that fuels many of those abilities. This book presents nine classes to choose from.

Censor: A censor is a trained warrior devoted to a saint or god. They hunt down the forces of evil using melee weapons and magic granted to them by their divine patron, specializing in confronting the wicked and locking down single enemies during combat.

Conduit: A conduit is the devoted priest of a saint or god. They wield divine magic that smites enemies with holy energy and supports their allies, and are renowned for their healing abilities.

Elementalist: An elementalist studies the elemental forces of the timescape and controls earth, fire, the void, and more with magic. Many of their abilities cover wide areas of the battlefield, and they have a versatile array of tricks that allow them to both control combat and manipulate the environment around them when the fight is done.

Fury: Coursing with the ferocity of the Primordial Chaos in their veins, a fury is a mobile warrior who gets up close and personal with enemies to dish out lots of damage. Leaping around the battlefield felling foes and breaking down walls is where the fury lives.

Null: Disciplined and calm, the null is an unarmed warrior who manifests an aura that quells the supernatural and hinders the offensive prowess of their enemies. They use psionics to make their body stronger than any steel and faster than any steed.

Shadow: Stalking from the darkness, the shadow is an expert assassin and thief who fights equally well in melee and at range as they get the drop on their foes. They utilize magic to help them stay mobile on the battlefield and sneak up on their prey.

Tactician: A brilliant strategist and weapons master, the tactician excels at granting allies more movement and actions on the battlefield. They also support allies outside of combat, always inspiring their friends to greatness.

Talent: A talent is the master of psionics, manifesting powers that manipulate objects, minds, and time. These heroes can reach far into themselves to use abilities even when they don't have their Heroic Resource to spare—if they're willing to face the cost.

Troubadour: A troubadour inspires their allies with storytelling and swordplay that is as much an art as it is an act of war. Their quips, songs, poems, and epic tales produce actual magic that harms foes and bolsters allies. They can even use their magic to tweak the campaign's story in real time to better suit their needs.

Subclasses

Each class also has a number of subclasses presented in this book. Your subclass determines many of your hero's abilities and features, and further defines how you interact with the world from 1st level on. You choose a subclass when you create your character.

Abilities

Abilities are special actions, maneuvers, and more that allow you to affect creatures, objects, and the environment. They represent the main activities your character can undertake when the game is in combat or some other time-sensitive scenario. All characters have access to a few basic abilities, including free strikes and maneuvers such as Grab and Knockback (see Maneuvers in Chapter 10: Combat). But your class, ancestry (see Chapter 3), kit (Chapter 6), titles and treasures (Chapter 13: Rewards), and other heroic options give you access to more powerful abilities that make your hero stand out.

Abilities are presented in a special format that first describes the ability, then summarizes its mechanical details, and finally breaks out the ability's power roll (if it has one) and effects.

Abilities in Combat

All the abilities appearing in this book are used as a main action, a maneuver, a triggered action, or some other part of your turn. As such, these abilities are all explicitly usable in combat or some other time-sensitive scenario where the game unfolds as combat rounds. If a creature has an ability that takes 1 minute or longer to use, that ability can't be used in combat.

Name and Story Text

Each ability has an evocative name that sets up what it does in the game, followed by a line or two of flavor text that provides a sense of how the use of the ability might appear if described in an action scene in a story.

The name and story text for abilities sometimes refers to specific ways in which the ability plays out—particularly combat abilities whose names imply specific types of weapons or tactics. However, that narrative flavor has no effect on how an ability can be used. For example, the fury's Impaled ability allows you to grab a target, setting up the idea of harpooning your monstrous foe with a sword to keep them close. But you can use that ability with an axe, a mace, a hammer, or any other weapon.

Heroic Resource Cost

Each class has a Heroic Resource that your hero earns during combat, with some of your class's abilities—typically your most potent abilities—having a Heroic Resource cost to use them. When you use one of these abilities, you spend some of the Heroic Resource bestowed by your class, then activate the ability.

The nine Heroic Resources in the game are:

The censor's wrath
The conduit's piety
The elementalist's essence
The fury's ferocity
The null's discipline
The shadow's insight
The tactician's focus
The talent's clarity
The troubadour's drama

Heroic Abilities

If an ability has a Heroic Resource cost to activate—as in, you can't use the ability at all without spending some of your Heroic Resource—then it is a heroic ability. If an effect allows you to use a heroic ability when it isn't your turn, you must still pay its Heroic Resource cost to use it unless the effect says otherwise.

Some abilities don't cost your Heroic Resource to use but allow you to spend your Heroic Resource to enhance or add effects to the ability, such as the conduit's Healing Grace. These abilities are not heroic abilities unless the baseline ability can't be used without spending your Heroic Resource.

Signature Abilities

Some abilities granted by your class, kit, and other parts of the game are signature abilities. The rules specifically state when an ability is a signature ability. Signature abilities don't require your Heroic Resource to use, but sometimes let you spend your Heroic Resource to enhance or add to their effects.

Ability Keywords

Each ability has one or more keywords that explain how the ability functions. Keywords appear in the first line of the ability beneath the flavor text, on the left side, and can include any of the following entries. (An ability that has no keywords is noted as "-".)

Area

Abilities with the Area keyword create an area of effect. Many area abilities deal damage to targets in their area, but such abilities are treated differently than strikes made against specific targets. (See the It's Not All Strikes! sidebar, as well as Strike and Area Abilities below for more information.)

Charge

Abilities with the Charge keyword can be used with the Charge main action instead of a melee free strike. (The Charge main action is described in Main Actions in Chapter 10: Combat.)

Magic

Abilities with the Magic keyword are used by characters who can cast spells, have innate magical features, or wield magic treasures. Such abilities do magical things such as create rays of fire, open swirling portals, or summon creatures.

Melee

Abilities with the Melee keyword can be used only over very short distances, typically within a character's reach, because they require a character to make contact with a creature or object with their body, a weapon, or an implement. (An implement is a special object used by characters channeling magic or psionic power, described in Imbue Treasure in Chapter 12: Downtime Projects.)

Psionic

Abilities with the Psionic keyword are used by characters who can manifest psionic powers, have innate psionic features, or wield psionic items. These abilities might create blasts of psychic energy, move objects with telekinesis, or slow down time with chronopathy.

Ranged

Abilities with the Ranged keyword can be used to affect creatures who are too far away to make contact with.

Strike

Abilities with the Strike keyword (often referred to simply as "strikes") deal damage to or impose a harmful effect on specific creatures or objects.

It's Not All Strikes!

The Strike keyword and phrases such as "makes a strike" are reserved for abilities that have a creature targeting specific creatures or objects (not affecting creatures or objects in an area) and harming those targets in some way by making a power roll. The many abilities in the game that target areas of effect are not strikes. They instead use the Area keyword. That means if a feature distinctly interacts with a strike, that feature has no effect on abilities with the Area keyword.

Weapon

The Weapon keyword is used in abilities that must be used with a blade, a bow, or some other offensive weapon. Weapon abilities also include strikes creatures make with their own bodies, such as a character's unarmed strikes or a monster's punches, kicks, bites, tail slaps, and more.

Your character's kit determines the types of weapons you wield and use with your weapon abilities (see Chapter 6: Kits).

Type

Each ability notes the type of activity required to use it, on the right side of the first line beneath the flavor text. Most abilities require you to use a main action, a maneuver, a move action, a triggered action, a free maneuver, or a free triggered action (with all those terms explained in Taking a Turn in Chapter 10: Combat). For instance, if you use an ability that has "Main Action" as its type entry, you must use your main action to activate the ability.

Trigger

If an ability requires a triggered action or a free triggered action to use, a "Trigger" entry is part of the ability. For example, the trigger for the tactician's Parry ability is: "A creature deals damage to the target." A tactician can use their Parry ability only when that specific triggering event occurs.

Distance

An ability's "Distance" entry, represented by this symbol 📏, indicates how close you need to be to a creature or object to affect that target with the ability.

Melee

Melee abilities have a distance of "Melee X" and require you to make contact with a creature with your body, a weapon, or an implement. The number X is the maximum distance in squares at which you can physically make contact with another creature or object targeted by the ability. For instance, a distance of "Melee 2" can be used to target creatures or objects within 2 squares of you, while "Melee 1" limits you to adjacent targets (those within 1 square).

Ranged

Ranged abilities have a distance of "Ranged X" and can be used to target creatures or objects too far away for you to make contact with. The number X is the maximum distance in squares at which a creature or object can be targeted by the ability. For instance, a distance of "Ranged 5" can be used to target creatures or objects within 5 squares of you.

If you make a ranged strike while any enemy is adjacent to you (within 1 square), you have a bane on the strike's power roll. (See Edges and Banes in Chapter 1: The Basics.)

Melee or Ranged

Some abilities have a melee distance and a ranged distance. When you use such an ability, you choose whether to use it as a melee or a ranged ability.

An ability never has both the Melee and Ranged keywords at the same time. For example, if you have the Cloak and Dagger kit, which has a weapon damage bonus to melee abilities and a weapon damage bonus to ranged abilities, only one bonus at a time applies to an ability with both the Melee and Ranged keywords. (See Chapter 6: Kits.)

Self

If an ability has a distance of "Self," that ability originates from you, and often affects only you. The ability's description specifies how it works.

Area Abilities

Area abilities cover a number of squares on the battlefield at once, creating an effect within that area that lets you target multiple creatures or objects. When an ability creates an area of effect, it sometimes notes a distance for the effect in the form "within X." The number X tells you how many squares away from you the area can be. If an area ability doesn't have this distance, it originates from you and you are at the center of the area.

If an area ability originates a distance away from you, then one square of the area of effect must be within that distance, and must also be within your line of effect (see below). This square is referred to as the origin square of the area of effect. The area of effect can spread from the origin square however you choose, according to the rules for the shape and arrangement of that particular area.

You can place an area of effect to include one or more squares where you don't have line of effect, as long as you have line of effect to the origin square. Unless otherwise noted, area abilities don't pass through solid barriers such as walls or ceilings, and they don't spread around corners.

An area ability might use any of the following areas of effect.

Aura

When an ability creates an aura, that area is expressed as "X aura." The number X is the radius of the aura, which always originates from you and moves with you for the duration of the ability that created it. A creature or object must be within X squares of you to be targeted by an aura ability.

Burst

When an ability creates a burst area, that area is expressed as "X burst." The number X is the radius of the burst, which always originates from you and lasts only for as long as it takes to affect its targets. A creature or object must be within X squares of you to be targeted by a burst ability.

Cube

When an ability affects a cubic area, that area is expressed as "X cube." The number X is the length of each of the area's sides. A creature or object must be within the area to be targeted by a cube ability.

Line

When an ability affects a linear area, that area is expressed as "A x B line." The number A denotes the line's length in squares, while the number B equals the line's width and height in squares. When you create a line area of effect, the squares in that area must be in a straight line. A creature or object must be within the area to be targeted by a line ability.

Wall

When an ability creates a wall, that area is expressed as "X wall." The number X is how many squares are used to make the wall. When you place a wall, you can build it one square at a time, but each square must share at least one side (not just a corner) with another square of the wall. A creature or object must be within the area to be targeted by a wall ability.

You can stack squares on top of each other to make the wall higher. Unless otherwise stated, a wall can't be placed in occupied squares, and a wall blocks line of effect.

Straight Lines

Talking about a straight line area of effect on an encounter map doesn't mean the line can only be a straight vertical or horizontal line of contiguous squares. It means each square in the line's length must move in the same direction without bending back in an opposite direction. To make a line area quickly, pick your line's origin square, then pick each subsquent square in the line one at a time in a single direction without bending back in an opposite direction.

Likewise, abilities and effects that require a creature to move in a straight line, such as the Charge main action or forced movement that is a push or a pull, don't have to take the form of a straight series of squares on the grid. Simply move the creature one square at a time in a single direction without ever bending back in a direction opposite to where they've already moved.

Target

The "Target" entry of an ability, represented by this symbol 🎯, notes the number of creatures, objects, or both who can be targeted by that ability. You can always affect fewer targets than the number indicated by this entry.

Creature

If an ability targets one or more creatures, it can affect creatures within the ability's distance or area. You aren't an eligible creature target for your own abilities unless those abilities also have "self" as a target (see below), or unless the ability indicates otherwise.

Object

If an ability targets one or more objects, it can affect any object within the ability's distance or area. Unless otherwise noted, objects have poison immunity all and psychic immunity all. (Damage in Chapter 10: Combat has information on damage immunity.)

When an ability can target creatures and objects, the ability can damage objects. However, unless otherwise noted (as with the talent's Minor Telekinesis ability) or if the Director allows it, objects are immune to an ability's other effects. If an ability forces an object to make a test, the object automatically gets a tier 1 result on the test.

Enemy

If an ability targets one or more enemies, it can affect only creatures who are hostile to the creature using the ability. Typically, you decide who counts as an enemy for the purpose of using your hero's abilities, though the Director has the final say.

Ally

If an ability targets one or more allies, it can affect only willing creatures who are friendly to the creature using the ability. Typically, you and any other player whose character you target with an ability decide who counts as an ally, though the Director has the final say.

You aren't an eligible target for your own abilities that target allies unless those abilities also have "self" as a target, or unless the ability indicates otherwise.

Self

If an ability targets "self," it can affect only the creature using the ability. Your own abilities can affect you only if they target "self."

Each [Target]

If an area ability doesn't provide a number of targets but instead says it applies to each creature, object, enemy, or ally in the area, then all eligible targets for the ability are affected.

Telling Friend From Foe

There might be times when a foe disguises or obscures themself so that they're temporarily seen as an ally—or at least not seen as an enemy. Until the effect ends, such a creature can't be targeted by abilities that would usually target them by targeting enemies. Fear not, though. All classes have access to at least one ability that targets creatures, whether friend or foe.

Ability Roll

If an ability requires a power roll, it has a "Power Roll" entry that tells you which characteristic to add to the 2d10 roll you make when you use the ability. (Chapter 1: The Basics talks about power rolls.)

Unlike power rolls made as tests (see Chapter 9), ability rolls always do something useful. You're rolling to determine the impact of the ability, including how much damage it deals and any other effects it imposes based on the tier outcome of the power roll. For instance, the fury's Brutal Slam ability is a melee strike that targets one adjacent creature (within 1 square), and which has the following effects:

Tier 1 (11 or lower): The ability deals damage equal to 3 + your Might score, then pushes the target back 1 square.
Tier 2 (12-16): The ability deals damage equal to 6 + your Might score, then pushes the target back 2 squares.
Tier 3 (17 or higher): The ability deals damage equal to 9 + your Might score, then pushes the target back 4 squares.

Characteristics and Damage

Certain damage-dealing abilities note that damage as a number followed by a plus sign (+) and the letter M, A, R, I, or P. The indicated letter means you add your characteristic score—either Might, Agility, Reason, Intuition, or Presence—to the damage dealt by the ability. Certain abilities let you use your highest characteristic score for the power roll.

Using the fury's Brutal Slam ability as an example again, that ability uses a Might power roll and features the following damage expressions in the three tier outcomes of the power roll:

≤11: 3 + M damage
12-16: 6 + M damage
17+: 9 + M damage

For a fury with a Might of 2, the ability's damage breakdown would be:

≤11: 5
12-16: 8
17+: 11

The damage for these abilities increases at each echelon of play, since your characteristics improve each time you reach a new echelon.

Some abilities, including your free strikes, allow you to pick which characteristic score you add to their damage. Such abilities use a format similar to "7 + M or A damage," indicating that you can add your Might or your Agility to determine the damage.

(Chapter 10: Combat has more information on damage.)

Abilities With Damage and Effects

Strikes and area abilities can deal damage and have an additional effect on a target. The damage and the strength of the effect are determined by the ability roll.

To keep things moving quickly and to make abilities easy to read during play, damage and effects are separated with a semicolon in a power roll tier entry, with effects abbreviated whenever possible. An effect determined by a power roll always applies to the target unless otherwise specified. For example, the Brutal Slam ability mentioned above has the following power roll setup in the ability format:

Power Roll + Might:

≤11: 3 + M damage; push 1
12-16: 6 + M damage; push 2
17+: 9 + M damage; push 4

Unless otherwise indicated, any effects that are determined by a power roll's tier outcome occur after the power roll's damage has been dealt to all targets. If an ability roll deals damage to multiple targets but its effect targets the creature using the ability or the Director, such as Muse of Fire, then the effect only occurs once, not once per target. If different tiered outcomes affect multiple targets, the creature using the ability picks which tier of rolled effect applies to them or the Director. If an ability creates multiple effects, those effects resolve in the order in which they are presented.

"During the Move"

Certain ability effects allow you to move and affect other creatures or objects during that move, such as the shadow's One Hundred Throats ability. For such abilities, the move begins in the space you first leave when you start the move and ends in the last space you move into.

Rolled Damage

Certain effects talk about rolled damage, which refers to the variable damage determined by making an ability roll. If an ability or effect deals damage without requiring a power roll, that is not rolled damage, and effects that add to or are triggered by rolled damage don't apply.

Potencies

Many abilities and other effects impose conditions and unique statuses on targets. But creatures sometimes get a chance to resist such effects. After all, a monster with a high Might should be harder to knock prone most of the time than a creature lacking in that characteristic.

Ability effects that have a potency are applied to a target only if the effect's potency value is higher than the target's indicated characteristic score. The characteristic a target uses to resist a potency is based on the ability used, while the value of the potency for your hero's abilities is based on one of your characteristics and determined by your class.

Your character has a weak, an average, and a strong potency value, as follows:

Your weak potency value is equal to your highest characteristic score − 2.
Your average potency value is equal to your highest characteristic score − 1.
Your strong potency value is equal to your highest characteristic score.

In abilities and other effects, a potency always appears as the single-letter abbreviation for the target's characteristic: M for Might, A for Agility, R for Reason, I for Intuition, or P for Presence. That characteristic is followed by a "less than" sign (<) and your potency value—for example, M < WEAK or R < AVERAGE -with the value indicating the minimum score in that characteristic that the target needs to beat the effect.

As an example, consider the conduit's Judgment's Hammer ability, which has the following power roll:

Power Roll + Intuition:

≤11: 3 + I holy damage; A < WEAK, prone
12-16: 6 + I holy damage; A < AVERAGE, prone
17+: 9 + I holy damage; A < STRONG, prone and can't stand (save ends)

At 1st level, a conduit uses their Intuition score to determine their potency values, and that score is 2. That gives the conduit the following potencies:

Weak: 0
Average: 1
Strong: 2

When writing Judgment's Hammer on their character sheet, the conduit's player updates the damage and converts the weak, average, and strong potencies into their numerical values, knowing that those values won't change until the character hits 2nd echelon and their Intuition score becomes 3. That produces the following:

Power Roll + Intuition:

≤11: 5 holy damage; A < 0, prone
12-16: 8 holy damage; A < 1, prone
17+: 11 holy damage; A < 2, prone and can't stand (save ends)

During a game session, the conduit uses Judgment's Hammer to target a bandit with an Agility score of 0. The ability thus has the following outcomes at each tier:

With a tier 1 outcome (11 or lower), the ability deals 5 holy damage to the bandit. But the bandit resists the additional effect because they have Agility 0 (and therefore don't have an Agility of less than 0).
With a tier 2 outcome (12-16), the ability deals 8 holy damage. But the bandit is also knocked prone, unable to resist the additional effect because they would need an Agility of 1 or higher to do so. If the bandit had Agility 1 or higher, they would have taken 8 holy damage but stayed standing.
With a tier 3 outcome (17 or higher), the bandit takes 11 holy damage and is knocked flat and left struggling to stand, unable to resist the strong potency of the additional effect with a mere Agility 0.

Potency Presentation

Potencies are presented in an abbreviated style in abilities so they don't take up too much space, and so you can read them by saying: "If the target's [characteristic] is less than [potency value], they [suffer effect]." If our 1st-level conduit obtained a tier 2 outcome when using Judgment's Hammer, the player would say, "I deal 8 holy damage, and if the bandit's Agility is less than 1, they fall prone."

Reading the ability this way prevents a lot of back and forth. You don't need to ask, "What's the target's Agility score?", wait for a response, and then give the outcome. You can simply say, "If they don't have an Agility of 1 or higher, they fall prone." Players can let the Director figure out whether the target is prone and keep the game moving, with the Director doing the same in reverse when monsters and other foes use abilities with potencies against the heroes.

Adjusting Potencies

Potencies are made for quick resolution at the table, but a number of triggered actions and other abilities—for example, the censor's Judgment ability and the null's Null Field ability—allow you to manipulate the value of potencies. If you build a hero who can adjust potencies, pay attention during combat! You might be able to help out a friend who needs a little boost to make their ability take full effect, or hinder an enemy about to lock down one of your allies.

Spending Resources on Potencies

If an ability or feature allows you to spend your Heroic Resource on an effect that is entirely dependent on a potency and the target is unaffected because their characteristic is high enough to resist the potency, then you don't spend the Heroic Resource.

For example, the tactician's Overwatch ability allows the tactician to spend 1 focus to impose the slowed condition on a target who has R < AVERAGE. Since spending focus this way has no other effect, if the tactician targets a creature whose high Reason leaves them unaffected, the tactician doesn't waste any focus. However, if spending this focus had another automatic effect such as dealing extra damage to the target, the 1 focus would be spent even though the potency was resisted.

This rule also applies to Director-controlled creatures who spend Malice on abilities and features that affect a target using a potency and have no other automatic effects.

Critical Hit

Whenever you make an ability roll as a main action and the roll is a natural 19 or natural 20-a total of 19 or 20 before adding your characteristic score or other modifiers—you score a critical hit. A critical hit allows you to immediately take an additional main action after resolving the power roll, whether or not it's your turn and even if you are dazed (see Conditions below).

You can't score a critical hit with an ability roll made as a maneuver or any other action type, but you can score a critical hit with a main action you use off your turn. For example, an opportunity attack made as a triggered action or a signature ability used as a free triggered action with the assistance of the tactician's Strike Now ability can be critical hits.

Roll Against Multiple Creatures

When an ability has multiple targets (whether a strike with more than one target or an area affect), you make one power roll and apply the total to all targets. If you have edges or banes (see Chapter 1: The Basics) against some but not all of your targets, you might apply a different tier outcome to individual targets.

For example, if you target three creatures with a strike ability and the power roll totals 11, each of the targets should be affected by the tier 1 outcome of the ability. However, if you gain an edge on strikes against one of the targets to add 2 to the power roll, your total against that target is 13, and they are affected by the tier 2 outcome of the ability.

Surges

A troubadour's battle song, a fury's building ferocity, and a shadow's patient insight can all make a hero more effective in a fight. These advantages are represented by surges, with many abilities granting heroes surges during a battle.

When you gain surges, you keep track of them on your character sheet. Surges can be used in combat to deal extra damage to your foes and increase the value of your potencies, as follows:

Whenever you deal rolled damage, you can spend up to 3 surges to deal extra damage to one creature or object targeted by the ability. Each surge you spend deals extra damage equal to your highest characteristic score.
Whenever you target one or more creatures with an ability that has a potency, you can spend 2 surges to increase the potency by 1 for one target. You can't increase a potency by more than 1 using surges, though you can spend additional surges to increase the potency for multiple targets.

You lose surges as you spend them. At the end of combat, you lose any surges you have remaining.

Effect

Many abilities that require power rolls also have effect entries describing additional effects or rules for how the ability is used. If an ability doesn't require a power roll, it has an effect entry that describes how it works.

Actions Within Actions

If an ability's effect allows you to take a main action, a maneuver, a move action, or a triggered action, the cost of doing so is subsumed in the ability's type entry on the first line below the flavor text. You never need to spend additional time to use an ability. For example, the shadow's Black Ash Teleport ability is a maneuver that allows you to teleport and then use the Hide maneuver as its overall effect. Using the Hide maneuver is part of the maneuver to use the ability, so that you don't need to have another maneuver available to do so.

Spend Heroic Resource

Some abilities have a "Spend X [Heroic Resource]" entry in the body of the ability. These grant additional effects to an ability, where X is the amount of your Heroic Resource you must spend to activate those effects. If an entry reads "Spend X+ [Heroic Resource]," you can spend as much of your available Heroic Resource as you like in multiples of X to increase the effect's impact, as described in the entry's details.

Stacking Unique Effects

The unique effects of different abilities are combined—effectively stacking on top of each other—if their durations and targets overlap. However, the effects of the same ability used multiple times don't stack. Instead, the most impactful effect—such as the highest bonus—from each use of the ability applies. The most recently used ability applies for determining duration.

For example, the null's Null Field ability reduces the potencies of enemies within the field by 1. If two allied nulls each have their Null Field ability active and an enemy cultist is targeted by both abilities, that cultist's potencies are reduced by 1, not by 2.

Different effects that impose the same condition (see Conditions below) don't stack to impose the condition twice. For instance, if a hero is targeted by numerous creatures whose abilities cause a target to become weakened (imposing a bane on the target's power rolls), the target isn't weakened twice to impose a double bane on those rolls. A character who is grabbed by an enemy can't be grabbed again by another enemy. The same holds true for game effects that aren't conditions. For example, if a hero is targeted by multiple abilities or effects that can halve their recovery value, the hero's recovery value is halved only once.

Ending Effects

When a creature suffers a lasting effect, whatever ability, feature, hazard, or other mechanic imposed the effect specifies how long the effect lasts. Unless otherwise noted, all effects and conditions that are imposed on heroes during a combat encounter end when the encounter is over if the hero wants them to, except for being winded, unconscious, or dying. After combat, effects and conditions imposed on other creatures end when it's convenient for the heroes, allowing characters to easily bind or slip away from unconscious foes. However, the Director is free to decide that an unconscious dragon doesn't stay that way long enough to be tied up.

End of Next Turn (EoT)

Many effects last until the end of the target's next turn, abbreviated as "(EoT)" in the tier outcomes for an ability's power roll. A creature suffers from such an effect until the end of their next turn, or the end of their current turn if the effect was imposed on their current turn.

Saving Throw (Save Ends)

If an effect has "(save ends)" at the end of its description, a creature suffering the effect makes a saving throw at the end of each of their turns to remove the effect. A saving throw represents the sheer luck involved in shaking off an effect. Because a target typically had a chance to avoid a "save ends" effect using a characteristic score to resist a potency, it's now down to fate.

To make a saving throw, a creature rolls a d10. On a 6 or higher, the effect ends. Otherwise, it continues.

End of Encounter

Some effects last until the end of the encounter. If such an effect is used outside of combat, it lasts 5 minutes.

Creature Ends an Ability Effect

A creature who imposes an effect on another creature using an ability can end that effect as a free maneuver unless the ability says otherwise.

Adjacent

Many abilities and other options refer to creatures, objects, or spaces that are adjacent to a specified creature. Something is adjacent to a creature if it is within 1 square of that creature.

Line of Effect

To target a creature or object with an ability or effect, including making a strike against them, you must have line of effect to that target. If any solid object, such as a wall or pillar, completely blocks the target from you, then you don't have line of effect.

If you're not sure whether you have line of effect to a target, imagine drawing a straight line from any corner of the space you occupy on an encounter map to any corner of a space the target occupies. If one or more corners of your space connect to any corner of the target's space with no obstruction in between, you have line of effect to the target.

At the Director's discretion, flimsy or fragile obstructions such as a glass window or linen curtains don't block line of effect, and might be automatically broken or torn by strikes or other abilities used through them.

If you use an ability that creates an environmental effect, such as a portal, you must have line of effect to the space where you create the environmental effect. If you want to create an area of effect in a specific area, you must have line of effect to at least one of the squares in that area. See Area Abilities above.

Straight Line

Whenever a creature moves or is subjected to forced movement—a push, pull, or slide (see Chapter 10: Combat)—that movement is typically in a straight line. Abilities that allow you to move or to force move another creature often talk about moving straight toward or away from a creature or an object. But even when movement must be in a straight line, it doesn't have to be a horizontal or vertical line on an encounter map. (See the Straight Lines sidebar earlier in this chapter.)

Ground and Ceiling

Some abilities and other effects refer to a hero or their targets being "on the ground." Unless otherwise indicated, "ground" means any surface a creature could typically stand, sit, or lie upon, whether a castle's stone floor, the dirt of a road, the deck of a ship, or a metal platform suspended high in the air.

Likewise, if an effect refers to a "ceiling," that means any solid surface above a creature, whether a wooden tavern ceiling, the rocky roof of a cave, or an invisible wall of force.

Conditions

Some abilities and other effects apply specific negative effects called conditions to a creature. The following conditions show up regularly in the game and can be tracked on your character sheet when they affect your hero.

Bleeding

While a creature is bleeding, whenever they use a main action, use a triggered action, or make a test or ability roll using Might or Agility, they lose Stamina equal to 1d6 + their level after the main action, triggered action, or power roll is resolved. This Stamina loss can't be prevented in any way, and only happens once per action.

You take damage from this condition when you use a main action off your turn. For example, a signature ability used as a free triggered action with the assistance of the tactician's Strike Now ability triggers the damage from the bleeding condition.

Dazed

A creature who is dazed can do only one thing on their turn: use a main action, use a maneuver, or use a move action. A dazed creature also can't use triggered actions, free triggered actions, or free maneuvers.

Frightened

When a creature is frightened, any ability roll they make against the source of their fear takes a bane. If that source is a creature, their ability rolls made against the frightened creature gain an edge. A frightened creature can't willingly move closer to the source of their fear if they know the location of that source. If a creature gains the frightened condition from one source while already frightened by a different source, the new condition replaces the old one.

Grabbed

A creature who is grabbed has speed 0, can't be force moved except by a creature, object, or effect that has them grabbed, can't use the Knockback maneuver (see Maneuvers in Chapter 10: Combat), and takes a bane on abilities that don't target the creature, object, or effect that has them grabbed. If a creature is grabbed by another creature and that creature moves, they bring the grabbed creature with them. If a creature's size is equal to or less than the size of a creature they have grabbed, their speed is halved while they have that creature grabbed.

A creature who has another creature grabbed can use a maneuver to move the grabbed creature into an unoccupied space adjacent to them.

A creature can release a creature they have grabbed at any time to end that condition (no action required). A grabbed creature can attempt to escape being grabbed using the Escape Grab maneuver (see Chapter 10: Combat). If a grabbed creature teleports, or if either the grabbed creature or the creature grabbing them is force moved so that both creatures are not adjacent to each other, that creature is no longer grabbed.

A creature can grab only creatures of their size or smaller. If a creature's Might score is 2 or higher, they can grab any creature larger than them with a size equal to or less than their Might score.

Unless otherwise indicated, a creature can grab only one creature at a time.

Prone

While a creature is prone, they are flat on the ground, any strike they make takes a bane, and melee abilities used against them gain an edge. A prone creature must crawl to move along the ground, which costs 1 additional square of movement for every square crawled. A creature can't climb, jump, swim, or fly while prone. If they are climbing, flying, or jumping when knocked prone, they fall.

Unless the ability or effect that imposed the prone condition says otherwise, a prone creature can stand up using the Stand Up maneuver (see Maneuvers in Chapter 10: Combat). A creature adjacent to a willing prone creature can likewise use the Stand Up maneuver to make that creature stand up.

Restrained

A creature who is restrained has speed 0, can't use the Stand Up maneuver, and can't be force moved. A restrained creature takes a bane on ability rolls and on Might and Agility tests, and abilities used against them gain an edge.

If a creature teleports while restrained, that condition ends.

Slowed

A creature who is slowed has speed 2 unless their speed is already lower, and they can't shift.

Taunted

A creature who is taunted has a double bane on ability rolls for any ability that doesn't target the creature who taunted them, as long as they have line of effect to that creature. If a creature gains the taunted condition from one source while already taunted by a different source, the new condition replaces the old one.

Weakened

A creature who is weakened takes a bane on power rolls.

Abilities in Class Tables

Each class in this chapter includes a table that shows the progression as a hero gains new levels in that class. Each of those tables has an Abilities column and another column that shows abilities granted by the hero's subclass, tracking all the heroic abilities a hero of that class has at each level. Each ability is represented by a numeral noting the ability's Heroic Resource cost.

For example a 6th-level censor has "Signature, 3, 5, 7, 9" in their Abilities column, and "5, 9" in their Order Abilities column (representing the censor's subclass). This means a censor of that level has a signature ability and four heroic abilities costing 3, 5, 7, and 9 wrath respectively, plus an additional two subclass heroic abilities costing 5 and 9 wrath.

Quick Build Gold Icons

Abilities granted by your class that are quick build options are indicated by a gold icon to the left of their name. Look for this icon if you're using the quick build options when creating your hero: