Core Rules

Start with Base Resolution to learn how actions are resolved, then use Character Creation and Progression to build a character with the GM. The chapters that follow explain time, perception, combat, health, and magic. Combat Examples shows one round in play.

Use the later chapters as references when you need to recover, face a hazard, choose materials, summon a creature, or work with enchantments. The GM can turn to GM Techniques for preparing encounters and guiding the campaign.

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Philosophy

In Cerberus, you describe what your character tries to do and how they approach it. The GM judges the situation, taking their attributes, history, equipment, and plan into account. When the outcome is certain, play moves on without a roll.

When the outcome is uncertain, three types of roll resolve the action: a prescribed chance roll, an opposed check, or a saving throw. The GM judges, and the dice decide.

Attributes

Every character has six attributes, expressed directly as modifiers: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Charisma (CHA). A character with STR +8 adds 8 when a roll calls for Strength.

Roll No. 1—The Prescribed Chance Roll

To resolve an uncertain task, such as climbing a wall or picking a lock, the GM announces the character's chances of success. These depend on their attributes, history, equipment, and the player's proposed plan.

One convention, always from the player's perspective: the GM announces “X chances out of Y.” The player rolls 1dY. On a result of X or lower, the player gets what they wanted.

GM: Climbing that wall at night, with your agility and rope: 4 chances out of 5. Player: (rolls 1d5) I rolled 2. GM: You clear the wall without a sound.

Three golden rules for the GM:

1. Do not roll when the outcome is certain. A master thief picking an ordinary lock succeeds. A peasant trying to jump a 30-foot chasm fails. Roll only when genuine uncertainty exists.
2. The plan matters more than the character sheet. Waiting for the guard shift, creating a diversion, or crossing the roof improves the odds.
3. Announce the odds before the roll, never after. The stated probability is a contract. A player can withdraw after hearing the odds, but cannot negotiate once the die has been cast.

Roll No. 2—Opposed Checks

An opposed check directly compares two conflicting forces. Each side rolls a d20 and adds the indicated value. The higher result wins. The effect that caused the check specifies what happens on a tie.

The most common opposed checks are:

Check	Formula
Reflex check	1d20 + Reflex modifier against 1d20 + Reflex modifier
Caster level check	1d20 + CL against 1d20 + CL
DC check	1d20 + DC against 1d20 + DC

A character's Reflex modifier equals DEX plus the level bonus assigned by their class: full level for a good Reflex Save, half level for a standard Reflex Save, rounded down.

The Reflex Duel (Priority)

When two actions conflict in time—who strikes first, whether the spell fires before the arrow—each side makes a Reflex Save. The highest result acts first. On a tie, roll again.

Roll only when the order matters, after the actions have been declared. Combat has no fixed turn order or initiative roll at its start. See Reactive Combat for competing actions and the bonus for declaring first.

Roll No. 3—Saving Throws

When the world acts on a character, they resist with one of three Saves:

Save	Formula	Resists
Reflex	1d20 + Reflex modifier	anything avoided by moving
Will	1d20 + WIS + class level bonus	illusions, fear, mental manipulation, invisibility
Fortitude	1d20 + CON + class level bonus	poison, disease, exhaustion, transformation

Compare the Save with the effect's DC. For a spell, DC = 10 + CL/2 + the caster's magic attribute. For an environmental danger, the GM sets the DC; see the Environment chapter. The defender wins a tie. For each Save, the class adds full level for a good progression or half level, rounded down, for a standard progression.

Advantage and Disadvantage

Some feats, items, or circumstances grant Advantage on a roll: roll twice and keep the better result. Disadvantage is its mirror: roll twice and keep the worse result. With Advantage, a Will Save rolled at 7 and 15 keeps the 15.

Rounding Convention

When a calculation produces a fraction, retain it through every step. Round the final result down once.

Round each independent value separately. Round a DC, derived attribute, or number of slots when calculating it. For damage, retain fractions while applying bonuses, percentages, critical hits, and DR, then round down the final damage of each attack.

With CL 5 and INT +8: 10 + 5/2 + 8 = 20.5, resulting in DC 20.

Attacks: No Roll to Hit

An attack that is neither dodged nor parried hits automatically. Roll damage directly. The defender can dodge or parry with a weapon or shield. Armor reduces the damage by its Damage Reduction (DR). See Martial Combat and Defenses.

Chapter Summary

• General uncertainty → prescribed chance roll (“X out of Y”; low is success).
• Direct conflict → opposed check. Reroll ties in a Reflex duel.
• The world acts on you → Save against DC.
• Attack → direct damage, mitigated by dodge, parry, and DR.

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Describe who your character is, choose their class with the GM, then give them attributes, feats, and equipment. Attributes are assigned, never rolled. During play, the character grows through training, discoveries, and the events of the campaign.

What Attributes Mean

Strength gives a concrete scale for reading attributes:

Strength	What It Represents
+1 to +2	an ordinary adult with no particular training
+5	a visibly powerful human: muscular, fit, and tough
+10	a Brazzant barbarian, strong enough to rival a wild beast
+15	a small giant or an ogre
+20	an average giant

Strength is the easiest attribute to increase. An effect that changes a creature's size category routinely doubles its Strength. See Size below.

Dexterity uses the same scale, but climbs it less often. A human with +5 has remarkable reflexes—an experienced rogue. At +10, they are plainly superhuman. Extremely high Dexterity is rarer than extremely high Strength. An ogre is much stronger than a human, but not quicker.

Intelligence and Charisma are the rarest and hardest attributes to increase. An Intelligence of +10 describes a mind that defines an era.

What Each Attribute Governs

Strength (STR)—muscular power.

1. HP, using the multiplier in the character's class progression.
2. Damage, both in melee and at range (see 7).
3. Grapple maneuvers, whose prescribed chance accounts for both opponents' Strength, Dexterity, size, and experience (see 7).
4. Prerequisites for feats based on raw power.
5. Physical efforts judged by the GM, such as lifting or forcing a door.

Dexterity (DEX)—speed, coordination, and reflexes.

1. The Reflex Save, which determines which action occurs first and therefore governs dodging, parrying, initiative, and spell interruption (see 1).
2. Attack damage when Dexterity exceeds Strength: a quicker character strikes with speed (see 7).
3. Speed: +2 ft per tick per point (see 6).
4. Prerequisites for feats, including those granting additional attacks or actions.

Constitution (CON)—the body's ability to endure.

It determines the Fortitude Save against poison, disease, exhaustion, and magic that attacks the body.

Intelligence (INT)—reasoning, study, and the construction of magic.

1. Spell DC: the more intelligent the sorcerer, the more tightly constructed and difficult to resist their spell is (see 9).
2. Enchanting objects (see 16).
3. Crafting objects: higher Intelligence improves the prescribed chance that completes the work, with the character's experience counting just as much.
4. Many prescribed chance checks and roleplaying situations.
5. Prerequisites for advanced feats, especially wizard feats.

Wisdom (WIS)—the mind's ability to endure and reject both magical manipulation and ordinary lies.

1. The Will Save against illusions, invisibility, fear, and domination. A wise character is less likely to fall for traps and ambushes.
2. Prerequisites for some high-level feats.
3. Roleplaying situations reserved for it by the GM.

Charisma (CHA)—the mind's ability to exist fully in its own right. Charisma influences not only other people but the universe itself.

1. Caster level and spell slots, according to the source of power. Human red mana and the Partage use Charisma as shown in the power-path table in Creation in Five Steps.
2. The ability to influence others during roleplay.
3. The potential to develop strange powers. At high levels, some characters enchant objects through their presence alone.

Attribute Affinities in Magical Progression

When the GM assigns weeks or months to develop a spell, feat, or magical technique, the relevant attribute helps determine that time. These affinities are guidance for organic progression, not automatic prerequisites or universal multipliers.

• Intelligence governs study, formulas, research, crafting, enchantment, and the deliberate design of spells. It is also strongly associated with controlling blue mana: a human Psychic uses Intelligence to organize converted blue mana and train new pathways in their cerebriles.
• Charisma is the primary affinity of human red mana. It is especially relevant when developing Metamagic and other feats that expand, accelerate, suspend, preserve, or otherwise force red mana beyond its ordinary limits. Quicken Spell, Long Spell, Suspend Spell, Grab Gold, and Additional Time are typical examples.
• Wisdom governs self-mastery: Will, meditation, Ki, resistance to mental influence, and techniques internalized through disciplined practice. It may support appropriate Monk and Barbarian feats, but does not replace the physical attributes required by feats built primarily on strength, speed, or endurance.

For the Monk of Kaz'Nakaram, Wisdom governs the implant's Ki reserve and the blue mana the Monk can direct. Use the specific class or power-path rule when it differs from these general affinities.

Creation in Five Steps

1. Concept, origin, and class. Write a few paragraphs about who the character is, where they come from, and why they became an adventurer. Add a defining anecdote or a few lines of dialogue. These give the GM something to draw on when deciding how the character progresses. Choose a class that fits their background and way of acting. Every character has one.

2. Attributes. Assign the six modifiers with the GM. Match the numbers to the person: a sickly scholar has high Intelligence and low Constitution. See What Attributes Mean above.

3. Starting feats (2 to 4). Give the character feats rooted in their history. A horseman's technique might work from the saddle; a veteran might gain an advantage by studying an enemy. A feat can modify a spell or rule, grant a bonus, or provide a technique. It may be passive or cost actions.

A feat's specific rule takes precedence over a general rule.

4. Power path, if any. Red magic, blue psychic magic, divine magic, alchemy—or none. Record the caster level, DC, regeneration rate, highest spell level actually mastered, and starting spell list.

Every character begins play at caster level 1. What a character adds to that base comes from their source of power:

Power path	Caster level from attributes	Slots
Human, red mana	+1 CL per 2 points of Charisma	4 per spell level + ½ CHA
Human, power of the Partage	granted by rank, capped at 7 × CHA (6)	6 per spell level + ½ CHA
Dwarf, Valerium implant	none—experience and story only (8)	4 per power level + ½ WIS
Drow, psychic	none—experience and story only	4 per spell level + ¼ INT

A human with +10 Charisma therefore opens at CL 6 at Level 1: the base of 1, plus the 5 granted by Charisma. Everything above that is earned in play and awarded by the GM. A class can improve the racial ratio (Using Classes); none of them lowers it.

Drows and Monks of Kaz'Nakaram gain caster level through experience and the story. Their attributes govern other parts of their magic, as shown in the table.

The GM may open a character higher still when the story already accounts for it: a prodigy, an apprenticeship served before the campaign, an implant installed years earlier.

Caster level alone does not unlock complex spells. A character needs both the minimum CL required by the spell level and the corresponding level of mastery in the story. At creation, a Level 5 Wizard or Cleric can normally be considered to have mastered spells through Level 5, but not Level 6 spells. An unusual history may justify slower mastery.

5. Derived values and equipment. Calculate everything that follows from attributes and level:

• HP = Strength × the multiplier given by the class at the character's level.
• Saves = 1d20 + attribute + the class's level bonus: full level for a good Save, half level rounded down for a standard Save. Use DEX for Reflex, WIS for Will, and CON for Fortitude.
• Speed = the class's base Speed +2 ft per point of Dexterity, then modified by race, size, feats, or spells.
• Jumps: horizontal distance = 1× Speed; height = ¼ Speed.
• Action reserves and dedicated dodges: use the class tables at the character's level.

Choose starting equipment that fits the character's history and circumstances.

Example: Creating Osseur the Barbarian

This example uses Barbarian of Brazzant, at Level 1.

1. Concept and class. Osseur the Steady is a young barbarian of Brazzant's Feather Clan, known for his resolve. He once went an entire month without eating chicken to test his mind.

2. Attributes. The concept demands an overwhelming physique and extraordinary willpower. The GM assigns WIS +10, his famous resolve; STR +8; DEX +8; CON +5; CHA +5; and INT +2. Osseur is an exceptionally gifted beginner. Most start one step lower.

3. Starting feats. Mental Stability gives his resolve an effect in play. I Love to Fight grants an additional melee attack and Action Board slot when at least two enemies can reach him without moving. The feat entries give their complete rules.

4. Power path. Osseur has no learned spells. As a human with CHA +5, he still has CL 3: 1 + 5/2, rounded down. His tree leaf will later grant him a minor mist spell.

5. Derived values, at Level 1:

• HP = 12 × 8 = 96
• Saves, attribute + level: Reflex +9, Will +11, Fortitude +6
• Speed = 40 + 2 × 8 = 56 ft per tick; horizontal jump 56 ft, vertical jump 14 ft
• 3 attacks, 2 spells, 1 dodge, and 3 general actions per round
• Equipment: his village's axe (1d12), a bow too weak for his Strength, leather armor, and barbarian clothing

Progression after creation. The rest of his current sheet came from play: the +2 Strength gained by eating the tree leaf, the mist spell unlocked by the same leaf, additional feats, and reaching Level 2, which grants +1 to Saves but leaves his action economy unchanged. None of these elements can be purchased during creation.

Progression through Play and Levels

Organic progression (continuous). The GM grants advancements as direct consequences of play: +2 Strength for eating the tree leaf, a spell unlocked by an artifact, or a feat earned through an exploit or training. Tie each advancement to what the character did or experienced.

Level progression (discrete and slow). Level governs general elements: HP, action economy, Save progression, and feat thresholds. It never changes attributes, which belong exclusively to organic progression. The GM grants a level at major campaign milestones. As a guideline, grant one level every three to five sessions. Level 10 is epic. For encounter planning, a Level N+2 character is worth roughly two Level N characters.

Reading Class Progression

Use the tables in the character's class. Each value applies from the listed level until the next threshold.

HP. Multiply Strength by the class's HP value at the character's level. A Level 1 Barbarian with STR +8 has 12 × 8 = 96 HP. At Level 3, with the same Strength, they have 24 × 8 = 192 HP.

Actions. The class lists attacks, spell actions, general actions, and dedicated dodges available each round. Each point is an action token. The reserves refill at the start of the next round. Feats, spells, and equipment can increase them; conditions can reduce them.

Use Reactive Combat to build the Action Board and determine how many actions fit into each tick. Martial Combat and Defenses explains how attacks can be spent on parries.

Choosing a Class

A class defines action reserves, HP, dodges, Saves, and base Speed. It may improve the Charisma-to-caster-level ratio or provide a signature mechanic. See Using Classes for a comparison of the classes and their shared rules.

Available classes are Fighter, Barbarian of Brazzant, Rogue, Ranger, Wizard, Cleric of Archon, Psychic, and Monk of Kaz'Nakaram. The epic Lazy Wizard uses its own progression.

Improving Combat Abilities

Characters improve their damage through attributes, equipment, feats, and spells:

• Strength and its enchantments. Every point of Strength gained through a leaf, ring, potion, or training increases damage alongside HP.
• Magic weapons. A higher-tier weapon deals more damage and penetrates DR more effectively (see 13 and 16).
• Number of attacks. The class's progression, feats, and transformations can grant more attacks per round.
• Size. Enlargement spells and animal or colossal forms raise Strength, HP, and weapon damage at the cost of Reflex. Each spell or form defines the magnitude.
• Combat styles. Feats such as Osseur's Fighting Style provide bonuses that grow with the character.
• Spell scaling. Each spell defines how its damage grows with caster level.

The GM awards these improvements through the events and opportunities of the campaign.

Size

Some effects—Giant Form, a Polymorph form, or a naturally colossal creature—change a character's size category. The entire game uses one scale:

Medium · Large · Huge · Gargantuan · Colossal. Some effects extend it to “Colossal+.”

Increasing size by one step raises Strength, HP, Speed, and weapon damage. Reflex falls in exchange, through Dexterity. Reflex governs dodging, parrying, priority contests, and avoiding areas of effect. A colossus is devastating but vulnerable to quick opponents.

The effect granting the size defines the exact magnitudes: increased Strength, reduced Dexterity, and the form's abilities. See Giant Form, Polymorph, and the creature templates. The GM adjudicates anything the effect does not specify: a colossus cannot hide or fit through a narrow door and may sweep allies aside in melee.

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The GM announces the current time scale: tick, scene, day, or journey. Use ticks when the order of actions matters, and broader scales for conversation, exploration, rest, and travel.

Four Scales

Tick (about 2 seconds). Resolve actions and movement in combat or another urgent situation. Three ticks make one round.

Scene (minutes or hours). Play conversations, exploration, and infiltration. Describe what characters do and use prescribed chance rolls or Saves when needed, without counting individual actions.

Day (and night). Track elapsed time for spell-slot recovery, healing, daily abilities, and alchemical preparation. Rest and Recovery gives the hourly and nightly recovery rates.

Journey (days and weeks). Follow the group's progress across the map. A day of walking covers about 20 to 30 miles, depending on terrain. Play encounters and other events as scenes; summarize the travel between them.

Action Durations in Ticks

Spells, feats, and items give their action cost as a label or a duration:

Label	Ticks
Swift (or Fast)	1
Standard	2
Full	3
1 round (1 turn)	3
2 rounds	6

Round and turn mean the same thing. One minute is about 30 ticks.

Changing Scales

Switch to ticks when the order of actions matters: an ambush begins, two opponents strike, or a guard reaches for an alarm bell. A situation requiring a Reflex duel is played in ticks.

Return to a scene when that urgency ends: the last enemy falls, the pursuers lose the group, or surrender is accepted. Stop counting ticks once priority is no longer contested.

Keep track of work already done when changing scales. If an attack interrupts an hour-long ritual, the GM determines how far it has progressed before resolving the attack in ticks. During a journey, a potion can finish brewing at the evening camp; there is no need to count the intervening ticks.

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Perception and Stealth in a Scene

A character can slip past a guard, follow tracks, or search a room for someone hiding. Outside combat, resolve these attempts with a prescribed chance roll. The GM judges the odds from the character's abilities and the surroundings: experience, equipment, size, scent, noise, terrain, light, viewing angles, and distractions.

An experienced thief tries to enter a well-guarded castle at night. After comparing the thief's experience and equipment with the guards' vigilance, the GM grants 4 chances out of 5 of remaining unnoticed.

Physical Disguises

A physical disguise uses clothing and makeup to change how a character looks. A simple disguise lets them pass as a traveler, guard, servant, or merchant. A detailed disguise imitates a specific person the character has studied. It changes neither their voice nor their size, and gives them none of that person's memories.

Without proper equipment, creating a simple disguise normally takes one hour and a detailed disguise one full rest. A Disguise Kit reduces these times to 10 minutes and 1 hour. Putting on and adjusting a prepared disguise normally takes 10 minutes. The Lightning Disguise feat greatly reduces these times.

When an observer has reason to look closely, the GM calls for a prescribed chance roll. Consider the resemblance, clothing and makeup, preparation time, light, distance, and the observer's familiarity with the person being imitated. Above all, consider how the disguised character behaves: a long conversation with a close acquaintance is far more dangerous than passing a sentry. Water, sweat, injury, or a lost accessory can damage the disguise and justify a new roll.

Perception and Stealth in Combat

Invisibility

Invisibility is an illusion that deceives visual senses. A creature looking toward an invisible character makes a Will Save against the effect's DC to notice them.

If the invisibility also masks sound, the same Save can reveal the deception. Scent, tracks, moving objects, or other physical evidence may grant a bonus to the Save or prompt a separate chance roll at the GM's discretion.

Attacking from Hiding

When a character who is not invisible attacks from hiding, the GM first decides whether the defender could react in time.

• The defender cannot react: the attacker acts first, and every attack in that action is an automatic critical hit.
• The defender could react: resolve a Reflex duel. If the attacker wins, they act first, and every attack in that action is an automatic critical hit. If the defender wins, they act first; the attacker is revealed when their action begins, and their attacks are not automatic critical hits.

The GM may grant either side a bonus for the hiding place, viewing angle, available senses, and other circumstances.

Visibility and Lighting

Darkness. A creature needs a light source, Darkvision, or another suitable sense to see something that is not illuminated. A Save cannot reveal what is hidden by the lack of light. Each source of Darkvision specifies its range.

Darkness is not opaque. A creature standing in darkness can still see an illuminated place beyond it, and a distant light remains visible across an unlit area.

Magical light. A luminous effect may blind creatures looking at it. The spell specifies the Will Save and the consequences of failure.

Chapter Summary

• Stealth or perception scene → prescribed chance roll.
• Physical disguise → prescribed chance roll when an observer looks closely.
• Invisibility → Will Save against the effect's DC.
• Attack from hiding → automatic critical, or a Reflex duel if the defender can react.
• Darkness → light, Darkvision, or another suitable sense.

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Combatants declare actions and react to one another: raise a shield against an arrow, strike a mage during an incantation, or put a wall in the path of a fireball. When the order matters, a Reflex duel determines which action happens first.

A round contains three ticks. Each character has reserves of attacks, spell actions, and general actions, plus dedicated dodges. The reserves show how much they can do in a round; the Action Board shows how much fits into each tick.

Action Tokens and the Action Board

The character's class gives their action reserves. Each attack, spell action, or general action is represented by one token. Feats, spells, and equipment can change these reserves.

The Action Board has one row for each tick. Each row contains the same number of slots, calculated from the largest of the three reserves:

Slots per tick = largest reserve ÷ 3, rounded up.

Largest Reserve	Slots per Tick	Total over Three Ticks
1 to 3	1	3
4 to 6	2	6
7 to 9	3	9
10 to 12	4	12
13 to 15	5	15

Calculate this when the character sheet changes, not at the start of every round. The sheet can simply record A 9 · S 3 · G 4—3 slots per tick. During combat, the player tracks spent tokens mentally or checks them off on the sheet.

The scale continues beyond the table: a reserve of 18 opens six slots per tick. The largest reserve determines capacity even when the character does not use that category during the round. A weapon master with 12 attacks therefore retains four slots when choosing to cast or manipulate objects instead.

Each slot accepts one attack, spell, or general action token. Categories can be mixed during the same tick, but every spent token leaves its own reserve. Unused tokens are lost at the end of the round; all reserves refill at the beginning of the next.

The player can leave slots empty. They spend tokens only for actions they take.

Action Categories

Attack. An ordinary attack lasts one tick and spends one attack token. A character with several slots and enough tokens can attack several times during the same tick.

Spell. Every tick spent casting or releasing a spell costs one spell-action token. A Standard spell takes two ticks: one to begin casting, one to sustain and release it. Quicken Spell reduces casting to one tick and one spell action, at an increased spell-slot cost.

General Action. Drinking a potion, opening a door, picking up an object, or mounting a horse normally lasts one tick and spends one general action token.

Retrieving equipment. Drawing a sheathed weapon or taking a flask from a belt, a cartridge from its pouch, or a wand from the hip takes a 1-tick general action. Retrieving something stowed in a backpack, bedroll, saddlebag, or the bottom of a satchel takes a 2-tick general action. Follow the rules for sustained actions below.

Dodge. A dodge is a reaction. It spends one dedicated dodge but occupies no Action Board slot.

Parry. A parry converts an attack into defense. It spends one attack token and occupies one slot during the tick when declared.

Actions Spanning Multiple Ticks

An action that spans several ticks must be sustained without interruption. Every stage spends one action of the relevant category and occupies an available slot, though that slot can change from one tick to the next.

The player must retain enough actions and reserve a slot for every stage. If they cannot or choose not to pay for the next stage at the required tick, the action is lost. A spell's incantation ends without effect, and actions already spent are not refunded. The damage interruption rules in 9 apply in addition to this requirement.

An action can cross a round boundary. It continues during the first tick of the next round, but committed actions do not recover until the action finishes or is lost. The GM places a marker on the board as a reminder.

Declaring, Reacting, and Resolving Priority

At the beginning of a tick, the GM asks what each combatant does. Players declare their actions and can respond as others reveal theirs.

Declaring first reveals your intent and gives opponents the information they need to react. The character who declares their action first gains +5 to the Reflex duel or +25% to their result, at the GM's discretion. The percentage applies to the total after rolling the d20; round down the final result. The GM can adjust the bonus for the table; some groups use about 10%.

Roll only when the order changes what happens. When actions conflict—does an arrow leave before the wall rises, or does an attack reach the mage before the spell is released?—the participants make a Reflex duel. The winner acts first. That result can make the other action impossible, interrupt it, or let both occur in that order. On a tie, roll again.

When several actions compete for the same instant, each participant rolls once and the results order every action from highest to lowest. Tied participants reroll without changing the rest of the order.

Controlled Creatures and Coordinated Groups

A character and creatures under their direct control can declare their actions together and resolve them at the same instant. An animal companion, trained mount, combat familiar, or summoned creature can form a coordinated group with its master. Each creature must understand the order and be capable of carrying it out.

The group makes only one Reflex roll when its priority is contested:

1. if a player character belongs to the group, use that character's Reflex;
2. if the group is mounted, use the rider's Reflex;
3. otherwise, use the best Reflex among the group's members.

Choose the member providing Reflex before rolling.

The shared result orders every coordinated action, including responses to the same danger. Each member keeps their own Action Board, tokens, dodges, movement, HP, DR, range, and targets. Effects apply to each creature individually.

A Ranger can strike while their companion bites another enemy. Both attacks occur together, and each spends its own attack token. One may be knocked prone or unable to dodge while the other remains able to act.

Subgroups. When several similar creatures fight together, the GM divides them before rolling according to position and intent. Eight scattered bandits might form one group of three in melee, two archers on a roof, and a final group of three on the move. Each subgroup rolls separately and acts together.

Large Battles. When tracking individual combatants or subgroups becomes unmanageable, leave tactical combat. The GM prescribes the chances of decisive maneuvers based on numbers, experience, command, terrain, equipment, magic, morale, and casualties. Return to ticks when an individual action deserves to be played: holding a gate, reaching a mage, or confronting a captain.

Example 1—A Starting Character

A Level 1 Fighter has 3 attacks, 2 spell actions, and 3 general actions. The largest reserve is 3, so the board has only one slot per tick.

Tick	Slot	Reserves after the Tick
1	Standard Spell—casting	A 3 · S 1 · G 3
2	Standard Spell—release	A 3 · S 0 · G 3
3	Attack	A 2 · S 0 · G 3

With one slot per tick, drinking a potion at tick 2 would leave no room to sustain the spell. The spell would be lost.

Example 2—Two Slots per Tick

A character has 6 attacks, 4 spells, and 6 general actions. The largest reserve is 6, so every tick has two slots. The character can mix all three categories freely without exceeding their respective reserves.

The character chooses the following round:

Tick	Slot 1	Slot 2
1	Attack	Standard Spell—casting
2	General Action	Standard Spell—release
3	Attack	General Action

This spends 2 attacks, 2 spell actions, and 2 general actions.

Example 3—Mage-Fighter with Four Slots

A mage-fighter has 12 attacks, 4 spells, and 3 general actions. Attacks are the largest reserve and provide four slots during every tick.

The character wants to prepare a Standard spell, cast a second spell with Quicken Spell, attack, and leave time to drink a potion:

Tick	Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
1	Attack	Attack	Spell 1—casting	Spell 2—quickened
2	Attack	Attack	Spell 1—release	Drink a potion
3	Attack	Attack	Attack	Attack

At tick 2, releasing the first spell spends a second spell token and occupies a new slot. It does not need to use the same column as the incantation.

Example 4—Parry, Volley, and Slot Count

A starting fighter has 3 attacks, so only one slot per tick. Three archers standing opposite fire together. The GM groups their arrows into one volley, and the fighter raises a shield. The fighter spends one attack, occupies the tick's slot, and makes one Reflex duel against the group. On a success, the fighter blocks all three arrows. Two attacks remain for later ticks, but nothing else fits into the first tick.

If two archers fire while a soldier charges from another direction, the arrows form one volley while the soldier's blow remains a separate attack. The fighter can use the slot to block the arrows, then spend the dedicated dodge against the soldier. The fighter could accept the blow instead, but cannot make a second parry without another slot.

With 4 attacks or more, the board has at least two slots per tick. The fighter can spend two attacks during the same tick: one to block the volley with the shield and another to parry the soldier's sword with a weapon. See Martial Combat and Defenses for grouping attacks and the equipment needed to parry them.

Example 5—Two Actions Counter Each Other

At tick 1, an archer declares a shot at a mage. The mage responds with a quickened Elemental Wall of stone between them. Both actions take one tick and fit on their respective Action Boards.

The archer and mage make a Reflex duel. If the mage wins, the wall rises first and the arrow strikes it. If the archer wins, the arrow reaches the mage before the wall cuts the line of effect.

Chapter Summary

• A round contains three ticks, represented by the three rows of the Action Board.
• Attacks, spell actions, and general actions each have their own token reserve.
• The largest reserve determines the board: one slot for every three tokens, rounded up. Slots freely accept all three categories.
• Every stage of a long action spends one token and one slot. The action is lost if not sustained during the next tick.
• A Standard incantation normally requires two spell actions; a quickened spell requires only one at the cost of additional spell slots.
• Dodges are reactions outside the board. A parry spends an attack and occupies one slot during the tick.
• Make a Reflex duel only when the order of declared actions matters. With several participants, each rolls once and the results order every action.
• A character and controlled creatures can form a coordinated group. They act at the same instant with one Reflex roll but retain separate resources.

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A character moves while attacking, casting, or taking another action. Their Speed is the distance they can cover in one tick. The action determines how much of that movement is available: attacking allows full Speed, while casting normally allows half.

Measure distances in feet. The GM tracks positions mentally or with a sketch. When unsure whether a creature is within range or inside an area, rule in the defender's favor.

Speed

• The character's class gives their base Speed per tick, according to its speed grade and their level (see Using Classes). Creature profiles give their own Speed.
• Dexterity adds 2 ft per point, at every level and in every class.
• Race, size, feats, and spells can modify it as well. Muscular Speed adds Strength, Barbarian Bounds and Speed adds 20 ft, while Speed and Haste alter it magically.
• Jumping: horizontal distance = 1× Speed; height = ¼ Speed.
• Climbing and swimming use half Speed. Difficult terrain also halves Speed (see 12).
• A flying creature has two Speeds, one on the ground and one in flight. Its sheet lists both.

Movement Allowed by an Action

The following defaults apply during each tick.

Action during the Tick	Movement Allowed
Attack (melee, shot, or throw)	full Speed
Dodge or parry	full Speed
Cast a spell	half Speed
General action (drink, open, pick up)	half Speed
Stand up	all movement for the tick (see 8)
Long incantation, ritual, or concentration	none
Do nothing except move	full Speed and nothing else

A spell, feat, or creature technique can specify its own movement limit. Mobile Caster, for example, allows full Speed while casting. Moving without taking another action also allows full Speed; it does not increase the distance available.

Movement can be split around an action. A character can advance, strike, and move away during the same tick. Leaving an enemy's reach may trigger an opportunity attack, as described below.

Moving into an attack grants a damage bonus only when a feat or creature ability provides one, such as Skilled Rider, Sky Attack, or a griffin's dive.

Mounted Combat

A rider and mount naturally form a coordinated group. While the rider remains in the saddle, they share movement and position but remain two separate creatures.

Movement. The pair moves at the mount's Speed. The rider can move independently by dismounting or jumping from the saddle.

Being carried does not restrict the rider's actions. The rider can attack, shoot, or cast, including a Standard spell, while the mount advances at full Speed. The rider spends their own actions normally, while the mount retains its actions. The mount can therefore attack at the same instant its rider strikes or casts.

Position, Range, and Targets. Rider and mount occupy the mount's space, but each can be targeted and injured separately. Measure the rider's range from that space; a reach weapon extends it normally. The mount retains its own reach and threat range. An area effect covering their position can strike both.

Reactions. A mount's dodge carries its rider and spends only the mount's dodge. An attack aimed at the rider may still require a separate dodge or parry from them. Every coordinated reaction uses the rider's Reflex.

Opportunity Attacks. The pair's movement counts as a single exit from a threat range. The enemy chooses whether to target mount or rider, provided its reach can strike that target.

Mounted Charge. A charge requires traveling at least the mount's full Speed in a straight line before impact. Mount and rider can strike simultaneously. Each applies their own charge effect to their first eligible attack if they have an ability granting one; later attacks during the round receive no such benefit. If the mount is stopped, knocked prone, or forced from its path before impact, both lose the charge. Parrying the rider does not cancel the mount's attack, or vice versa.

Control. A trained mount performs familiar maneuvers freely. An unusual order, an untrained mount, or a situation that should cause panic may require a general action or a prescribed chance check. The GM considers training, danger, the bond with the rider, and the mount's Intelligence.

Being Unhorsed. If the mount falls, dies, strikes an obstacle, or stops abruptly, the GM prescribes the chances that the rider remains mounted, jumps and lands standing, or is thrown prone. Consider Speed, the rider's Dexterity and experience, the saddle, the mount's size, and the cause of the fall. Failure normally leaves the rider prone near the mount. The fall deals additional damage only when circumstances justify it: a collision, ravine, trampling, obstacle, or flying mount.

Example—A Mounted Charge. A rider with Skilled Rider travels 60 ft in a straight line on her Cerberan warhorse. She strikes with her lance while the horse attacks with its hooves. The group makes one roll using the rider's Reflex, increased by 25% for the impact. The rider's first attack and the warhorse's first attack each deal double damage. If a defender parries the lance, the hooves still land; later attacks during the round are no longer charge attacks.

Chases

When a pursuer is faster than their target, use the gap and their Speeds to estimate when they catch up:

Ticks to catch up = gap ÷ difference in Speed per tick.

The GM can announce the result without playing every tick.

Player: I run after him. GM: You move 50 ft per tick, he moves 30, and he has about thirty feet on you. You catch him before the street corner.

A pursuer moving at the same Speed or slower needs a shortcut, an obstacle, a mount, or a spell to close the gap. Resolve that approach with the prescribed chance check from 1.

Player: He's faster than me. I cut across the rooftops to land on him at the alley exit. GM: Good plan, but the timing is tight: 3 chances in 5.

When to Zoom In. Enter tick mode only when priority during the chase is contested: someone shoots, releases a spell, or closes a door (see 3). Otherwise, resolve the chase at scene scale and count nothing.

Ranges

Spell entries use named ranges:

Range	Distance
Touch	the caster must touch the target
Close	30 ft + 5 ft per CL
Medium	100 ft + 10 ft per CL
Far (or Long)	400 ft + 40 ft per CL
Global	no practical limit on the same plane

• Far and Long are synonyms in spell entries and use the same line.
• A distance written in the spell entry takes precedence over this table. Ray of Frost gives “Medium (80 ft),” so its range is 80 ft.

Ranged weapons have their own distances. The GM can adjust these benchmarks:

Weapon	Effective Range
Sling, thrown dagger	30 ft
Shortbow, light crossbow	300 ft
Heavy crossbow	400 ft
Longbow	600 ft, up to 1,000 ft for a powerful archer
Pistol	100 ft
Repeating pistol	100 ft
Musket	600 ft
Blunderbuss	30 ft cone

Within effective range, a shot lands unless dodged or parried. Beyond that range, the GM prescribes a chance roll or rules the shot impossible.

Reach and Threat Range

A combatant's threat range is the space their weapon or fists can reach without moving. Base reach depends on size:

Size	Base Reach
Medium	5 ft
Large	10 ft
Huge	15 ft
Gargantuan	25 ft
Colossal	40 ft

• Fists, short weapons, and one-handed weapons use base reach.
• Spears, pikes, halberds, and whips add +5 ft.
• Forced movement out of a threat range is involuntary and provokes no opportunity attack.

Some feats depend on who can reach whom. I Love to Fight requires at least two enemies who can reach the character without moving. The GM adjudicates reach for unusual weapons or anatomy.

Opportunity Attacks

A character with Opportunity Attack can make one melee attack per tick against an enemy voluntarily leaving their threat range. The feat specifies its timing and resolution. Forced movement does not trigger it.

Line of Sight, Line of Effect, and Cover

• Line of sight allows a character to choose a target. Without it, they target a point rather than a creature. See 4 for senses that replace sight.
• Line of effect is an uninterrupted path to the target. A solid wall blocks it; a grate, pane of glass, or smoke curtain may allow sight without passage. The GM decides.

Cover can help a character dodge or parry an attack, or block it entirely:

Cover	Effect
Light—an ally, slender trunk, smoke	+2 to the defender's Reflex duel
Substantial—a low wall, arrow slit, wall corner	+5 to the defender's Reflex duel
Total—a solid wall	the target cannot be targeted

If the target does not dodge or parry, the attacker makes a prescribed chance roll to find an opening instead of applying a Reflex bonus: typically 4 in 5 behind light cover and 2 in 3 behind substantial cover.

Cover does not protect against an area effect unless it is total.

Areas of Effect

Shape	Measurement
Radius	a sphere around an origin point declared by the caster
Cone	begins at the caster; its width at the far end equals its length
Line	5 ft wide along its full length
Emanation	centered on the caster and moves with them

• The caster needs line of effect to the origin point. The area then spreads from that point, and a solid wall stops it.
• Everything inside the shape is affected. Resolve damage and any Saves under Magic and the effect's own rules. The GM may allow a high-level character a Reflex Save to leave the radius.
• Allies inside the area are affected like enemies.
• When unsure whether a creature lies at the edge of an area, it is outside.

Altitude and Flight

Measure vertical distance like horizontal distance. A creature 100 ft directly above a character is 100 ft away for ranges and areas.

Levitate moves a creature up and down. Air Walk allows movement along slopes defined by the spell's level. Fly allows movement in any direction.

A flying creature is beyond melee attacks when it stays outside the enemy's reach. At 30 ft above the ground, it is safe from a human's axe, but within a colossus's 40 ft reach. Ranged weapons and spells can still reach it.

If flight ends because its spell is dispelled or expires, or the creature reaches 0 HP, the creature falls. Use Environment and Physical Hazards for falling damage. Feather Fall can protect it.

Attacking from the air follows the ordinary attack rules. A feat or creature ability may grant a benefit for a dive or leap.

Forced Movement

A spell, breath weapon, or giant's backhand can move a creature against its will.

• The effect states the distance. Forced movement does not spend the target's movement or cost an action.
• If pushed toward a real danger—a chasm, blaze, or spikes—the target makes a Reflex Save against the effect's DC to stop at the edge.
• A creature one size category larger than the effect allows moves half the distance; a creature two categories larger does not move.

Chapter Summary

• Movement accompanies actions and is measured in feet per tick.
• The action determines remaining movement: full Speed while attacking or dodging, half while casting unless a feat says otherwise.
• Chase = gap ÷ Speed difference. A slower pursuer needs a plan to catch the target.
• Ranges: Close 30 + 5/CL, Medium 100 + 10/CL, Far 400 + 40/CL, Global. A value written in the entry takes precedence.
• Reach by size: 5, 10, 15, 25, 40 ft; polearms add +5 ft.
• Voluntarily leaving a threat range can trigger an opportunity attack when the opponent has the required feat; forced movement never does.
• Total cover blocks targeting and protects against areas of effect.
• A flying creature can stay beyond melee reach. Falling deals 1d6 per 10 ft.

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An attack normally lands unless the defender avoids it. A dodge moves out of its path; a parry intercepts it with a shield or weapon. Both use a Reflex duel. If the attack gets through, subtract the defender's DR from its damage.

Basic Weapons

The tables give damage dice, critical multipliers, and handling for common weapons. The GM can adjust these benchmarks; exceptional weapons give their own values. Damage does not include Strength; add it as described in Weapon Damage below.

Melee Weapons

Weapon	Damage	Critical	Hands
Dagger, knife	1d4	×2	1
Shortsword, mace, hatchet, spear	1d6	×2	1
Longsword, flail, morningstar	1d8	×2	1
Battleaxe	1d8	×3	1
Staff, club	1d6	×2	2
Trident-staff	1d8	×2	2
Pike, longspear	1d10	×2	2
Greatsword	1d12	×2	2
Greataxe, maul	1d12	×3	2

Ranged Weapons

Weapon	Damage	Critical	Notes
Sling, thrown dagger	1d4	×2	—
Shortbow, light crossbow	1d6	×2	—
Longbow	1d8	×3	caps usable Strength (see below)
Heavy crossbow	1d10	×2	slow reload

Bow Strength. A mundane M1 bow can use no more than +5 Strength, even when its wielder is stronger. From M2 onward, a superior bow can use up to +10 Strength; this limit does not rise at M3, M4, or M5. Magical and ironwood bows always use the wielder's full Strength. These limits apply only to the attribute added to damage, not other bonuses from the weapon, character, or feats.

Shields. A shield primarily parries, but can strike for 1d2 when necessary. Its price and other supply costs appear in Adventuring Equipment.

Weapon Damage

A weapon deals its listed damage dice plus Strength, according to how it is wielded. Equipment, Crafting, and Materials gives material and quality bonuses.

Weapon Use	Strength Added to Damage
Thrown or ranged weapon (bow, thrown dagger)	1× Strength
One-handed melee weapon	1× Strength
Two-handed melee weapon	1.5× Strength
Firearm	none

Feats can increase these multipliers. Bows limit how much Strength they can use; see Bow Strength above.

Dexterity. When Dexterity exceeds Strength, use it for damage with the same multiplier. This happens automatically for a weapon suited to finesse. The GM decides when a weapon requires Strength, such as a heavy maul. Firearms add neither attribute.

Accuracy. An attack bonus from an item or feat adds to the attacker's Reflex roll when the target tries to dodge or parry.

Damage and Critical Hits

Roll the attack's damage dice and add its fixed bonuses. An axe dealing 1d12 + 8 rolls 1d12, then adds 8.

Roll a d20 alongside the damage. A natural 20 produces a critical hit. Multiply both the number of damage dice and the fixed bonuses by the weapon's critical multiplier: ×2 by default, or the value given by the weapon.

An axe dealing 1d12 + 8 with a ×3 critical rolls 3d12 + 24.

Apply percentage damage bonuses before the critical multiplier, unless the feat, spell, or item gives another order.

Subtract DR last, separately from each attack. Three attacks against DR 16 each lose 16 damage. DR reduces the damage of a critical hit in the same way.

Armor Categories

Armor reduces incoming damage by its Damage Reduction (DR). Subtract DR from each attack that reaches the wearer, then remove the remaining damage from HP.

DR does not distinguish blade from spell. Spell damage reaching the character is reduced in the same way, whether a parry has already blocked half or the full effect lands.

The category indicates how much of the body is covered. Each material gives the physical DR of medium armor; then apply the coverage factor. Functional armor always retains at least 1 DR after rounding.

Category	Physical DR Factor	M1 Iron DR	M1 Iron Price	M1 Steel Price	Time to Equip
Light	×0.5	1	10–15 gp	20–30 gp	3 ticks
Medium	×1	2	50 gp	100 gp	1 minute
Heavy	×2	4	250 gp	500 gp	10 minutes alone, 5 with help

These are benchmarks for functional M1 metal armor. Leather, reinforced cloth, wood, and bone have their own constraints; see Metals and Crafting Materials. Custom work and exceptional quality cost more. Mithril and adamantine have no fixed price: the GM considers purity, quantity, mine of origin, politics, and the object's history.

Light Armor

Light armor reduces neither Speed nor Reflex. It can generally be hidden under clothing, worn during a true rest, and used without unfavorable circumstances for stealth, swimming, climbing, or acrobatics. When prepared and accessible, equipping or removing it requires one general action during each of three ticks.

Medium Armor

Medium armor imposes no numerical penalty to Speed or Reflex. It does create an unfavorable circumstance when silence, flexibility, or swimming genuinely matters. Sleeping in it normally provides no true rest.

Heavy Armor

Heavy armor favors parrying and endurance over dodging.

• Its physical DR is twice the material's medium-armor DR.
• Speed decreases by 10 ft or 20%, whichever reduction is greater. Calculate this from Speed before armor, then round final Speed down to the nearest 5 ft.
• Reflex rolls to dodge take −5 or −20%, whichever penalty is greater. Apply the percentage to the total Reflex modifier before the d20. Attacks, parries, and other uses of Reflex are unaffected.
• It creates a strongly unfavorable circumstance for stealth, swimming, climbing, and acrobatics, and normally prevents true rest while worn.
• Against a weapon attack, it reduces the critical multiplier by 1, to a minimum of ×1. A ×2 critical becomes an ordinary hit; a ×3 axe critical becomes ×2. DR then applies normally.

For example, a Speed of 60 ft loses 12 ft rather than 10, then becomes 45 ft after rounding down to the nearest 5. A character with a +40 Reflex modifier takes −8 to dodge rather than −5.

Add magical DR after physical DR, using the table in Enchanting Magic Items. The armor category does not multiply this bonus.

Choosing a Defense

Choose one personal defense before the Reflex duel. A failed dodge or parry spends its resource; the target cannot then try the other against the same attack or group. An ally can interpose when a feat permits it.

	Dodge	Parry
Resource	One dedicated dodge	One attack token
Action Board	No slot	One free slot during the current tick
Requirement	Room to move	A suitable shield or weapon of sufficient level
Successful Defense	Avoids the attack	Stops a physical attack; blocks half a damage spell

Resolve the defense with a Reflex duel against the attacker. If the defender wins, apply the successful defense above. Otherwise, the attack lands normally.

Dodging

A dodge uses movement to avoid a perceived attack: an axe swing, a visible arrow, a thrown rock, or a trap triggered underfoot. Weapon level does not limit a dodge. Spend one dedicated dodge from the round's reserve.

Dodging requires room and working legs. A Prone character cannot dodge melee attacks through movement. When a character is Grappled, immobilized, pinned against a wall, or crowded by combatants, the GM refuses the dodge or allows a prescribed chance check. See Conditions for their other effects.

A character cannot dodge or parry an attack they cannot perceive; see Perception and Stealth. A dedicated dodge also cannot avoid a damage spell or area effect. Use Magic and the effect's rules for Saves, including an exceptional Reflex Save to leave an area.

Grouping Dodges

When many attacks arrive at once, the GM can resolve several dodges with one Reflex duel. The defender first declares how many dodges they spend. A win cancels one attack per dodge; a loss cancels none. The dodges are spent in either case.

A defender spending 5 dodges against 12 attacks cancels 5 on a win. Resolve the remaining 7 attacks separately, including damage, criticals, and DR.

Parrying with a Shield or Weapon

Declare a parry after the attack is announced, before the Reflex duel and damage. Spend one attack token and one free Action Board slot during the current tick. Several parries are possible in a tick if enough tokens and slots remain.

The equipment must be strong enough to intercept the attack:

Parrying Equipment	Highest Weapon or Spell Level It Can Parry
Shield	Its own level + 2
Weapon	Its own level + 1

A Level 8 shield can parry a Level 10 weapon. A mundane weapon can parry a Level 1 enchanted weapon. In either case, the defender must win the Reflex duel.

Use Deflect Projectiles to parry arrows and other physical projectiles. Firearms gives the equipment that can intercept bullets.

Grouped Attacks and Volleys

The GM can group attacks for one parry when they target the same creature, begin at the same time, arrive from similar directions, and can be intercepted by one movement. Declare the groups before rolling.

A line of archers firing together can form a volley. Archers surrounding a target form several groups according to direction. Melee attacks remain separate unless the position and movement allow a shared defense.

The group makes one Reflex duel against the defender. A successful parry blocks every attack in that group. On failure, resolve each attack separately with its own damage dice, critical d20, and DR. The shared defense roll does not produce a critical.

A shield can intercept a volley. A weapon needs a feat or property that permits it, such as Deflect Projectiles.

Parrying a Spell

Resolve the Reflex duel when the spell is released. Use the spell's level for the equipment requirement above.

A successful parry blocks half the damage, then DR reduces the remainder. This applies to both shields and weapons. Only spells that deal damage can be parried; spells such as Dominate, Hold, or curses resolve through their Saves.

An enchanted object's description can change these limits. A shield may block all fire damage, for example, or a blade may parry spells one level beyond the usual limit.

Grappling

Grappling uses the body to hold, trip, move, pin, or disarm an opponent. Resolve an uncertain technique with one prescribed chance check, from the attempting character's perspective.

The GM compares both combatants' Strength, Dexterity, size, and experience. Strength supplies force; Dexterity supplies footing and timing; size determines reach, weight, and possible holds. Experience includes level, class, feats, training, and character history. A class or feat granting more grappling experience gives level more weight in this comparison.

A stronger but less agile combatant may have even chances. A huge creature may be hard to hold but vulnerable to a trip that exploits its footing. The GM announces the chances under Prescribed Chance. Certain outcomes need no roll, and impossible maneuvers cannot be attempted. There is no preliminary Reflex duel.

A technique costs one attack and takes one tick, unless stated otherwise. Escaping a hold also costs one attack, with one escape attempt per tick. Releasing a hold is free.

Grapple Techniques

Hold. On success, the target becomes Grappled. The attacker keeps at least one hand or suitable limb occupied. The hold lasts until released or until the target succeeds on a prescribed chance check to escape.

Trip. On success, the target becomes Prone. If the attacker already holds the target, they can keep that hold by falling with them or maintaining suitable leverage. A trip alone does not hold the target.

Forced Movement. Requires a Grappled target. On success, move the target up to half the attacker's Speed and follow them. This movement provokes no opportunity attack. A passage too narrow for the target or a solid obstacle stops it.

Immobilize. Requires a Grappled target. On success, pin the target's entire body. They cannot move, take −5 on Reflex duels, and retain the Grappled restrictions. The attacker uses at least two limbs to maintain the pin and must use Forced Movement to move with the target.

Disarm. Grab the weapon or the limb holding it. On success, the target drops one chosen held object into its space. Disarming alone does not hold the target.

Chapter Summary

• Add Strength, or Dexterity for a suitable weapon, to weapon damage. Firearms add neither.
• A natural 20 on the critical d20 multiplies damage dice and fixed bonuses. Apply DR last to each attack separately.
• Choose one defense: a dodge spends one dedicated dodge; a parry spends one attack token and one Action Board slot. Both use a Reflex duel.
• A shield can parry up to two levels above its own; a weapon can parry one level above. A successful spell parry blocks half the damage before DR.
• A volley can share one parry. Each attack that gets through retains its own damage, critical d20, and DR.
• Grappling uses one prescribed chance check based on Strength, Dexterity, size, and experience. Each technique costs one attack and takes one tick.

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Hit Points (HP) represent a character's endurance, luck, and will to keep fighting. Wounds can leave them breathless, cut, or battered without reducing their ability to act. At 0 HP, they collapse and begin dying.

Health States

• Unharmed / wounded (above 0 HP): the character fights at full capacity. The GM describes their injuries without applying a penalty.
• Down and dying (0 HP or less): the character falls unconscious, cannot act, and deteriorates as described below.
• Dead (negative HP equal to 25% of maximum HP): a character with 60 maximum HP dies at −15 HP.

Dying

At the beginning of each turn, a dying character makes a DC 15 Fortitude Save. On a success, they stabilize. On a failure, they lose 10% of maximum HP.

An ally can spend a general action to tend the wound. The GM prescribes a chance of success based on the ally's experience, equipment, and the injury. Success stabilizes the character. Healing magic stabilizes them automatically.

A stable character remains unconscious but no longer loses HP from dying or makes these Saves. They need care and rest to recover. They regain consciousness when their HP rises above 0.

Conditions

A condition changes what a character can do or causes harm over time. Its duration and effects are given below or in the effect that causes it.

• Prone. Standing costs one tick's movement. While prone, a character takes −5 to Reflex duels and cannot dodge melee attacks through movement, though parrying remains possible.
• Grappled. The character's hands are neutralized. They cannot attack with a weapon or cast spells with gestures. Escape is resolved as a grapple movement; see the Martial Combat and Defenses chapter. One attempt is allowed per tick.
• Blinded. A character cannot dodge or parry what they cannot perceive. Resolve their attacks with a prescribed chance roll, typically 1 out of 4 to hit the intended target.
• Stunned. The character loses their next tick: no action and no secondary action.
• Paralyzed. The character can take no action or movement while the effect lasts. Will and Fortitude Saves remain possible when the effect allows them.
• Poisoned / diseased. The poison or disease defines its own DC, effect, and frequency. The standard pattern is a Fortitude Save on exposure, followed by one effect per tick or round until cured.
• Bleeding. Lose X% of maximum HP per round, typically 5%, until a general action or healing closes the wound.
• Gagged / silenced. The character cannot cast spells with verbal components.
• Nauseated. The character can take only one action of their choice per tick and no secondary action.

Fear

A frightened character fears one creature: the source named by the effect. They cannot attack it or willingly approach it, but can still fight others.

If the source comes within 30 ft, or the distance specified by the effect, the character must flee. Every tick, they take an action that allows full Speed and spend all of that movement heading away from the source. Casting a spell, taking a general action, or holding a ritual normally allows less movement. These actions are available while fleeing only if a feat such as Mobile Caster or Steady Hands raises their movement to full Speed.

A character who cannot flee—cornered, held, or out of room—automatically loses every Reflex duel against the source. They cannot dodge or parry it, or act before it.

Once the character reaches the required distance, they may attempt a new Will Save each round. The effect that caused the fear sets its duration.

Physical Poisons

A physical poison is a toxic substance with its own Fortitude DC, exposure method, frequency, and antidote. Its potency is independent of caster level. Dispel Magic cannot remove it. The Poison spell can amplify a dose used as its component.

A dose can be administered in five ways:

Exposure	Resolution
Ingestion	Full DC if swallowed.
Injection	Full DC if introduced directly into the blood.
Injury	Full DC, but only if at least 1 damage passes through DR.
Contact	−5 DC or −20%, whichever is the greater reduction.
Inhalation	−7 DC or −25%, whichever is the greater reduction.

Coating a slashing or piercing weapon requires a 2-tick general action and one dose. Application begins in the first tick and finishes at the end of the second. If interrupted, the dose is lost. Quick Application reduces this time for trained characters.

The dose remains on the weapon until it wounds a creature, is cleaned off, or dries after one hour. A parry, dodge, or DR that absorbs all damage prevents injection and does not consume the dose. One dose coats one weapon or three projectiles.

New exposure to the same poison prompts a new Save, but its effects do not stack. Keep the strongest consequence and renew its duration. Creatures without living biology are immune unless otherwise stated.

Harvest and preparation. A toxic gland, plant, or mineral gathered in the field is a raw ingredient. During a rest, a character who knows the recipe and has alchemical equipment can turn it into doses. If the outcome is uncertain, the GM prescribes a chance roll based on experience, the recipe, ingredient condition, time spent, and available equipment, such as an Alchemist's Kit. Failure may destroy the ingredient; particularly dangerous handling may also expose the alchemist.

The four reference preparations are Cerberus Nerve Venom, Drow Sleep, Black Flower Sap, and Suffocating Spores.

Treating poison. An Alchemical Antidote prepared from the correct ingredient immediately grants a new Fortitude Save with +5; success ends the poison. Remove Poison can neutralize the substance directly. Healing HP does not remove poison, but can keep the victim alive while a remedy is found.

Healing

• Rest. A night of rest restores a percentage of maximum HP; see Rest and Recovery.
• Magic. Each healing spell specifies how many HP it restores at the caster's CL.
• Alchemy. A healing potion is the Heal spell bottled. It restores what the spell would restore at the spell level and caster level used in preparation; see the Magic chapter. Drinking a potion is a general action.

Positive and Negative Energy

Positive energy repairs the living and burns the dead. Negative energy consumes living matter and sustains the dead. Neither allows a Save.

DR reduces the damage these energies deal, but does not reduce healing. A healing potion thrown as a grenade burns an undead; its armor reduces that damage.

Undead Bodies gives the traits, healing restrictions, and destruction rules for undead, partial undead, and liches.

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A spell shapes mana into an effect: flame, an illusion, a transformed body, or a protective wall. Its entry gives its casting time, components, range, duration, and what happens when it is cast. Learning spells and increasing their power happen through study and experience during play.

Paths of Power

A caster's source supplies the mana used for spells. The Mana book explains these sources and their place in the world.

Path	Users	Source and Properties
Red Mana	Humans	Produced by the body; abundant and constantly renewed, but difficult to stabilize
Divine Mana	Humans of the Ark and Clerics of Archon	Red mana harvested, stabilized, and supplied by the Partage
Blue Mana	Drows, Jax, monsters, Cerberan Psychics, and Monks of Kaz'Nakaram	Stable mana, normally cast without speech or gesture; produced by a body or Valerium, or converted from human red mana
Runes	Dwarves	Magic placed into objects; dwarves ordinarily cast no spells

Components

Components are what a caster does to reach, every time, the state that releases a spell. They depend on the path, not on the spell.

Path	Components
Arcane	Speech and gesture (V, S)
Alchemy	An ingredient (M), always; speech and gesture when the formula calls for them
Psychic	None: visualization alone
Divine	Speech alone (V)

Arcane. The wizard visualizes, speaks, and moves hands and body together. That union of the senses and the body makes the state easier to reproduce, and the formula easier to remember. Speech and gesture are a help, not a law: a caster can drop either through metamagic, usually for more mana (see Metamagic below). Silence, bound hands, or a gag stop an arcane spell only because they take away what the caster relies on.

Alchemy. The ingredient carries most of the visualization. A simple preparation asks for little else; a complex one asks for everything at once: ingredients, the alchemist's blood, visualization, gesture, and speech. When an entry names no ingredient, the GM decides how hard it is to find; an alchemist carrying a stocked kit is assumed to have it.

Psychic. Visualization alone. Silence, bound hands, and armor do not prevent it. Blue mana is easier to use and more stable than red mana, but far less abundant.

Divine. The priest speaks the liturgy. The Partage supplies the rest.

Stabilizers are not components. Some effects need matter to hold their mana in place: an onyx or an emerald for the undead, gold for an enchantment, a resurrection diamond for a return to life. The spell's own text names the stabilizer, and every path must provide it. Likewise, a spell that works on an object—the wood it hardens, the ink it moves, the water of the Partage—needs that object, whatever the path.

What a formula asks for, it pays back. Among spells of the same path and level, a spell that demands more—more components, a longer casting—is stronger, and a spell cast in a single tick is weaker. A ritual is the far end of that scale: a Level 5 ritual can rival a Level 6 or 7 spell cast alone.

Spell Memory

Magic leaves traces. When a person enters a room, they shed a few particles of red mana. These particles absorb fragments of the place around them: images, sounds, and emotions. Spell effects leave denser traces of the same kind.

Spell memory is the memory held by these particles. Divination can explore it through spells that gather or read them. A rich trace can preserve an illusion in great detail; a weak one may offer only a face, a cry, or the fear that filled the room.

Blue mana leaves a narrower and cleaner memory. It preserves the shape, direction, and intention of the Psychic act itself, but little unrelated scenery from the place around it.

DC and Saving Throws

A spell's entry states which Save resists it. Mind-affecting spells generally use Will; poison, transformation, and other bodily effects generally use Fortitude. Direct damage is resolved under Resolving Offensive Spells below.

Spell DC = 10 + CL/2 + INT, plus bonuses.

Use the spell's or class's magic attribute when it specifies another. Roll the Save with the defender's class progression: full level for a good Save, half level for a standard Save. Round the final result down.

Against an illusion, the Save occurs automatically once the character can perceive it. The GM rolls once at the beginning of the day and reuses that value. Undead follow their own resistance rules.

Spell Slots, Spell Actions, and Caster Level

A caster tracks three values:

Value	What It Measures	Where to Find It
Spell slots	The reserve available to cast spells, tracked separately at each spell level	The caster's source and class
Spell actions	How many spell tokens the caster can spend during a round	The class progression
Caster level (CL)	The power placed into a spell	The caster's source, class, and gains during play

Spending and Recovering Slots

Spell slots measure both mana and the mental effort of shaping it. The human red-mana baseline is 4 slots per spell level + ½ CHA: with +6 Charisma, a caster has 7 slots at each spell level. Other sources and classes use their own formulas; see Character Creation and Progression. Monks of Kaz'Nakaram call the same unit a Ki point.

Casting a Level N spell spends a Level N slot. A higher-level slot can pay for a lower-level spell, losing the difference. When a spell or feat requires additional slots, each must also be at least the spell's level.

Spent slots return through constant regeneration, rest, or meditation, according to the source. Rest and Recovery gives the rates; Reserves and Recovery explains slots reserved for ongoing effects.

Spell tokens and Action Board slots govern the time spent casting. Use Reactive Combat to place the spell's casting ticks on the board.

Caster Level and Spell Level

Caster level determines a spell's damage, range, duration, and other quantities that scale with CL. Each spell gives its formulas.

Every character begins at CL 1. Human red mana adds 1 CL per 2 points of Charisma, rounded down. Sources and classes can change this progression, and the GM awards further increases through play; see Character Creation and Progression.

To cast a particular spell version, the character must have learned that version and meet its minimum CL:

Spell Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Minimum CL	1	3	5	7	9	11	14	17	20	30

A Wizard at CL 10 who has learned only Level 2 spells casts those spells at CL 10. They must study higher-level versions to use them.

When creating a Level N Wizard or Cleric, their history normally provides mastery through spell Level N. They still need the required CL, known spells, and slots. The GM can set lower mastery for a powerful but inexperienced or uneducated character.

High CL also strengthens abjuration. A caster whose CL greatly exceeds an opposing effect can dispel or counter it without understanding its construction. Magical objects can be deactivated or destroyed under Enchanting Magic Items.

Casting Time and Interruption

Most spells take two ticks. Use the casting time in the spell's entry; Quicken Spell can shorten eligible spells.

Damage taken during casting can break the spell:

Mana	Damage That Interrupts Casting
Red or Divine	More than 25% of maximum HP
Blue	More than 35% of maximum HP

Count the damage taken over the casting. If it exceeds the threshold, the spell fails and its slot and action are spent. Otherwise, casting continues.

A mage with 80 maximum HP can take 20 damage while casting and finish the spell. At 21 damage, it fails. Resolve a Reflex duel when the order of an attack and the spell's release matters.

Maintaining a Spell through Concentration

A concentration spell remains active while its caster devotes attention to it. After casting, the caster spends one spell token per round to maintain the spell. That token occupies one Action Board slot during a tick chosen by the caster; the other two ticks remain available. Maintenance spends no new spell slot.

If no tick is devoted to the spell before the round ends, concentration breaks and the spell ends. During the maintenance tick, damage can interrupt concentration like an incantation: taking more than 25% of maximum HP ends the maintenance and the spell. Use the blue threshold of 35% when the maintained spell is powered by blue mana.

Each maintained spell requires its own spell token. A character maintaining two spells must devote two ticks per round unless a feat or power says otherwise. A spell can impose another rhythm or become autonomous at a higher level; its text then takes precedence.

The spell states when a target can attempt another Save. At Level 2, Hold grants a Will Save each tick while the caster spends one tick per round maintaining it.

Resolving Offensive Spells

A direct damage spell allows no Save. The target can interrupt the casting, reach cover, or attempt a parry with suitable equipment. A successful parry blocks half the damage; DR then reduces what reaches the target.

The GM may allow a high-level character with exceptional Reflex a Reflex Save to leave an area's radius. Use the spell's own rules for any additional effects or Saves.

Metamagic

Metamagic feats change a spell during casting: they can shorten its casting time, extend its duration, or alter its delivery. Most cost additional spell slots, paid along with the spell's own slot.

Feat	Additional slots	What it changes
Long Spell	+4	The duration rises one category
Quicken Spell	+3	A casting time of 2 or 3 ticks falls to 1
Delay Spell	+1	The effect lies dormant, then fires on its own
Form Cascade	+1	A broken Polymorph form gives way to another
Overcast	Higher-level slot	+50% base damage per level of difference
Additional Target	—	A single-target spell reaches several
Suspend Spell	—	A finished spell is held, then released later
Efficient Spell	−1	Close range falls to Touch

Efficient Spell is the only discount. It applies once per casting, however many feats modify that casting, and never reduces the cost below the spell's own slot.

Removing speech or gesture from an Arcane or Alchemy spell has no feat of its own. When a caster finds a way to do it, the GM prices it as metamagic: the spell becomes more complex, and therefore more expensive in slots. An alchemist who replaces an ingredient follows the same principle. Quicken Spell removes nothing: the caster performs every component, faster.

Meta-Spells

A meta-spell is a learned spell whose formula transforms, contains, or gives a new shape to another known spell. That other spell is called the source spell. For example, Elemental Wall turns elemental magic into a lasting wall, while Spell Trap holds a spell until its trigger occurs.

Learn a meta-spell like any other spell. Its entry states which source spells qualify, which levels they may have, and which spell slots are spent or committed. Unless the entry says otherwise, a meta-spell borrows only the parts of the source spell that it explicitly names.

Cooperative Casting

Several casters can cast one spell together. This is cooperative casting, or a ritual when extended over hours. One caster leads—the primary caster—while the others lend power.

The primary caster supplies the spell, its slot, components, and Intelligence. Helpers add caster level. Calculate the spell's DC with the combined CL and the primary caster's Intelligence.

Each helper must be within 5 CL or 20% of the primary caster's CL, whichever allows the larger gap. Round the percentage down. A CL 20 caster can accept a CL 15 helper; a CL 50 caster can accept a CL 40 helper.

Each helper adds 3 ticks to casting time, or 1 tick with Cooperative Caster. The primary caster pays the spell's slot; helpers spend time and remain vulnerable throughout casting.

A helper's contribution depends on their own caster level. Each value holds until the next threshold:

Helper's CL	Contribution
1 to 4	+1 CL
5 to 19	+2 CL
20 to 24	+3 CL
25 to 29	+4 CL
30 or higher	+5 CL, then +1 CL per interval of 5

The total contribution is capped at 50% of the primary caster's CL. A CL 20 caster can reach at most CL 30 through cooperation.

The primary caster must already be able to cast the spell alone. Use their own CL to check the minimum spell-level requirement before adding contributions.

If damage interrupts a helper, remove their contribution and continue at the reduced CL. If it interrupts the primary caster, the spell fails and the slot is lost. Use the interruption threshold for the mana being cast.

Example. Gérard casts Dominate at CL 20, INT +9, with helpers at CL 15 and CL 20. They contribute +2 and +3 CL, giving CL 25 and DC 31: 10 + 25/2 + 9, rounded down. The Standard spell takes 8 ticks: 2 for the spell, plus 3 per helper.

Alchemy

An alchemist mixes their blood with ingredients to prepare magical solutions. Alchemy provides healing that red magic handles poorly and effects made possible by the ingredients. An unstable preparation must be used immediately or lose its magic.

Casting through Alchemy

An alchemist prepares a spell by mixing its ingredients with their blood. Its entry names the ingredients, and the speech or gestures the formula needs (see Components above).

The casting time includes preparing and delivering the solution. A Standard Alchemy spell takes 2 ticks to prepare and drink, apply, or throw. Delivery occurs on the final casting tick, with no additional general action. If the solution is not delivered immediately, the spell is lost.

Quicken Spell can reduce that whole process to 1 tick. The casting can still be interrupted during that tick.

A potion stabilized through a long crafting ritual can be kept for later. Drinking or applying it takes a 1-tick general action. Quicken Spell affects live casting, not the use of a stored potion.

Gold stabilizes red and divine magic by preventing its particles from escaping. Use Enchanting Magic Items to preserve a potion or bind a spell into an object.

Crafting a Preparation

A known recipe, clean ingredients, enough time, and a suitable laboratory can make preparation certain. Otherwise, the GM prescribes the chance of success based on the alchemist's experience and Intelligence, knowledge of the recipe, ingredients, equipment, time, and working conditions.

An Alchemist's Kit, Master Alchemist's Kit, or Portable Alchemical Laboratory changes those conditions. A preparation may be risky with a traveling kit and routine in a laboratory.

Before rolling, the GM announces what failure risks: lost ingredients, fewer doses, an unstable preparation, accidental exposure, or wasted time.

Learning Magic

Learning a new spell typically takes one month of study during play. The GM should shorten or lengthen this time according to the spell's complexity, the caster's experience, and the available books or instruction. Gaining a character level does not teach spells automatically.

A Level 8 caster learning a Level 2 spell may need only a week or a few days, especially with a grimoire explaining the formula. Learning a higher-level version of a familiar spell also benefits from what the caster already understands.

Developing a new spell requires research and experimentation. For a Level 10 caster inventing an epic spell, even a full year may be a generous estimate of how quickly the work can be done. Archon readily spends 10–30 years developing a new epic spell. The GM sets a duration that fits the work, from a few days spent learning a familiar technique to decades spent creating something unprecedented.

There is no maximum number of known spells. A caster's repertoire grows with the time, means, and opportunities available to study.

A divine spell with an existing formula is generally learned faster than an arcane one. Its liturgy is stable, recorded, and designed for reproduction. Converting an arcane spell into a divine spell is considerable work: the formula must be redesigned for the mana of the Partage, stabilized, and transmitted. This research can take months or years.

Chapter Summary

• A spell's entry gives its effect, components, casting time, range, and duration.
• Spell slots track the reserve; spell tokens govern casting during a round; CL determines power. Their values depend on the caster's source and class.
• Spell DC = 10 + CL/2 + INT, unless another magic attribute is specified. The defender uses their class's Save progression.
• Casting requires knowledge of the spell version and its minimum CL.
• Damage exceeding 25% of maximum HP during casting interrupts red or divine magic; blue magic uses 35%.
• Damage spells allow no Save by default. Cover, interruption, and parrying can protect the target; DR reduces the damage that gets through.
• Cooperation adds CL and casting time. The primary caster must already be able to cast the spell alone.
• Learning a spell typically takes one month of study. The GM adjusts this to the spell, the caster's experience, and available instruction. Inventing a new spell can take years, especially at epic levels.

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Osseur and Séra confront Maelis in a harbor warehouse. Her bodyguard Brant stands between them. This scene follows one round, from the first arrows to Maelis's escape behind a magical wall.

The Combatants

Osseur starts 60 ft from Maelis, with Brant halfway between them. Séra watches from a catwalk 80 ft from Maelis. Scattered crates provide light cover, but leave a clear route across the floor. Everyone has their weapons or casting materials ready.

	Séra	Osseur	Maelis	Brant
Class and Level	Rogue 5	Barbarian 3	Wizard 5	Fighter 4
STR / DEX	+4 / +9	+10 / +8	+4 / +5	+6 / +7
Maximum and Starting HP	128	240	96	120
Reflex	+14	+11	+10	+11
DR	2, leather	2, leather	4, enchanted robe	2, iron mail
Weapon	ironwood shortbow, 1d6+9, ×2	greataxe, 1d12+19, ×3	—	battleaxe, 1d8+7, ×3
Attacks	10	6	3	4
Spell Actions	2	2	3	2
Dedicated Dodges	3	2	1	1
General Actions	10	3	4	4
Slots per Tick	4	2	2	2

Osseur's axe adds 15 from his two-handed grip and 4 from Osseur's Fighting Style. Séra's ironwood bow uses her full Dexterity. Brant carries a Level 2 shield and has Opportunity Attack and Deflect Projectiles.

Maelis casts red magic at CL 8. She knows Fireball 1, Elemental Wall 2, and Hurl Rock 1, and has Quicken Spell. She begins with at least two Level 1 slots and four Level 2 slots available. Damage exceeding 24 HP during a casting interrupts her spell.

The GM uses the +5 declaration bonus. All critical d20s in this example fall below 20, so damage uses the ordinary dice and bonuses. The GM resolves the arrows separately.

Tick 1 — Arrows during Casting

Séra: Three arrows at Maelis. Maelis: I cast Fireball at the catwalk and move behind the crates. Osseur: I advance toward Brant. Brant: I hold my ground.

Séra declares first and gains +5. Her three shots spend three attack tokens and occupy three of her four slots this tick.

Maelis begins Fireball, spending one spell-action token and one Action Board slot. Her Speed is 45 ft: 35 from her class and 10 from Dexterity. Casting allows half of that movement; she moves 15 ft sideways behind scattered crates. They provide light cover, adding +2 when she defends against Séra's arrows.

Osseur advances 30 ft to Brant. His Speed is 66 ft, so he can cover that distance and stop. The GM resolves these movements before the arrows. No priority duel is needed between the shots and Fireball's release: the spell finishes next tick.

• First arrow: Maelis spends her only dodge. Séra rolls 11 + 14 + 5 = 30; Maelis rolls 14 + 10 + 2 = 26. The arrow hits. Its d6 rolls 4: 4 + 9 − 4 DR = 9 damage.
• Second arrow: Maelis has no dodge left. The GM gives Séra 4 chances in 5 to find an opening through the light cover. The chance roll succeeds. The d6 rolls 2: 2 + 9 − 4 = 7 damage.
• Third arrow: Another successful cover check lets the arrow through. Its d6 also rolls 2, dealing 7 damage.

Maelis has taken 23 damage and has 73 HP left. Fireball continues: she has not exceeded 24 damage. Another 2 damage before release would interrupt it.

Tick 2 — Fireball's Release

Osseur: I pass Brant and strike Maelis. Séra: Three more arrows. Maelis: I release Fireball.

Osseur declares first for +5. Maelis is within his remaining approach distance: he can move his full Speed while attacking. Leaving Brant's reach will trigger an Opportunity Attack.

This time, priority matters. Any arrow that reaches Maelis before release will interrupt Fireball. The three combatants roll:

Combatant	Roll	Total
Maelis	17 + 10	27
Séra	12 + 14	26
Osseur	9 + 11 + 5	25

Maelis releases first. She spends her second spell-action token and its board slot. Fireball 1 at CL 8 deals 8d12, rolling 52 damage, in a 20 ft radius on the catwalk. Séra has neither total cover nor equipment to parry it. Her dodges cannot avoid Fireball. DR 2 reduces the damage to 50, leaving her at 78 HP.

Séra fires. She spends three more attack tokens and board slots. Two of her three cover checks succeed. Those arrows roll 5 and 3 on their d6s, dealing 10 and 8 damage after Maelis's DR. Maelis falls to 55 HP. Fireball has already been released, so these wounds cannot interrupt it.

Osseur passes Brant. Brant uses Opportunity Attack before Osseur leaves his reach. It costs no attack token or board slot. Osseur keeps his dodges and takes the blow: 5 on the d8 + 7 − 2 DR = 10 damage, leaving 230 HP.

Osseur reaches Maelis and spends one attack token and one slot. The crates do not cover her from this direction, and she has no dodge left. His axe rolls 8: 8 + 19 − 4 = 23 damage. Maelis has 32 HP left.

Tick 3 — A Wall of Stone

Osseur: I strike again. Maelis: A quickened stone wall between us. Then I retreat. Séra: If the wall blocks my shot, I shoot Brant twice.

Maelis casts Elemental Wall 2, using Hurl Rock 1 as its source. Quicken Spell reduces its casting time to one tick. She spends her last spell-action token and one board slot. The casting costs one Level 2 slot for the wall, one Level 1 slot for the source, and three additional Level 2 slots for Quicken Spell.

Osseur declared first. He rolls 8 + 11 + 5 = 24, against Maelis's 9 + 10 = 19. His attack lands before the wall forms. The axe's d12 rolls 2: 2 + 19 − 4 = 17 damage, leaving Maelis at 15 HP.

The quickened spell can still be interrupted, but these 17 damage do not exceed her threshold of 24. Damage from the previous casting does not carry into this one. The wall rises across the passage, blocking both Osseur and Séra's line of fire. Maelis retreats 15 ft behind its total cover.

Séra takes her two announced shots at Brant. He declares a separate shield parry against each, spending two attack tokens and both board slots this tick. Deflect Projectiles adds 25% to his Reflex roll, rounded down:

Arrow	Brant's Parry	Séra's Attack	Result
First	(18 + 11) × 1.25 = 36	6 + 14 = 20	Parried
Second	(3 + 11) × 1.25 = 17	13 + 14 = 27	Hits

The second arrow's d6 rolls 4. Brant takes 4 + 9 − 2 = 11 damage, leaving 109 HP. Séra has spent eight of her ten attacks this round.

End of the Round

Combatant	HP Remaining
Séra	78 / 128
Osseur	230 / 240
Maelis	15 / 96
Brant	109 / 120

Action reserves and dedicated dodges refill for the next round. Maelis's spent spell slots remain spent. The stone wall separates her from Osseur, while Séra and Brant still have a clear line of fire between them.

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A full night of sleep or meditation restores HP and helps a caster recover spell slots. Some mana sources also regenerate constantly, whatever the character is doing.

True Rest

After a full night of sleep or meditation, recover 10% of maximum HP per night, or 20% with treatment, a bed, a healer, or a safe and comfortable environment. Reset every ability usable per day or per long rest.

Recovering Spell Slots

Spell slots recover according to their mana source. A Cerberan Psychic converts human red mana into blue mana and shares its constant regeneration. Drows recover only through meditation. A Monk's implant regenerates slowly, with faster recovery during rest or meditation.

The percentages below apply to the base maximum slots at each spell level.

Source	Constant regeneration, per hour	True rest or meditation, per hour	Notes
Human red mana, including Cerberan Psychic conversion	10%	20% during true rest	True rest fills an empty reserve in 5 hours.
Divine mana	15%	25% during true rest	Requires supply from the Partage. True rest fills an empty reserve in 4 hours.
Blue Mana	—	Drows: meditation, 10% on the surface, 20% underground	Drows recover up to 50% of maximum per day. Other creatures follow their profiles.
Valerium	2.5%	5% during true rest; 50% during meditation	Monk implants: all recovery combined restores up to 50% of maximum Ki per day.

A Cleric who prays or meditates while immersed in a Bassin's Partage water recovers divine slots 1.5 times as fast: 22.5% per hour, or 37.5% during true rest. See Divine Mana for the continuous supply and access to red mana.

Psychic creatures follow the recovery rules in their creature template, or the GM's ruling. See Blue Mana for these sources and their casting rules.

Calculate recovery separately at each spell level over the total elapsed time at the applicable rate, then round down once. A human red-mana caster with 7 slots at a level recovers 7 × 20% × 3 = 4 slots after three hours of true rest.

Reserved slots count toward the base maximum used for this calculation, but remain occupied by their ongoing effects. Recovery fills only the available capacity. See Reserves and Recovery for spent slots, reserved slots, and mana sources.

Interrupted Rest

During combat or a prolonged watch, slots recover at their constant regeneration rate. The GM judges how much of the night counts toward true rest: “You slept poorly; count half.”

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Falls, fire, drowning, and extreme temperatures can injure a character or force them to find another route. The GM uses the benchmarks below to set damage and Saves. A 60-foot fall deals 6d6 damage, whether the character is a peasant or an epic hero.

Damage Benchmarks

Hazard	Effect
Falling	1d6 per 10 ft. The character falls prone; when landing on their feet is plausible, a DC 15 Reflex Save lets them remain standing.
Ordinary fire (torch, bonfire)	1d6 per tick of exposure.
Inferno or bed of embers	3d6 per tick; a Reflex Save allows a quick crossing.
Drowning or suffocation	The character lasts CON minutes, then makes a DC 10 Fortitude Save each round, with the DC increasing by 5 per subsequent roll. Three failures leave them dying.
Unprotected extreme cold	DC 12 Fortitude Save each hour. On failure, lose 10% of maximum HP and take a cumulative −1 to physical rolls.
Extreme heat	Same as extreme cold.
Acid, lava, natural lightning	2d6 to 10d6 per tick, according to intensity. The GM announces the damage before the player commits.

Movement in Difficult Conditions

• Difficult terrain, such as scree, swamp, or deep snow, halves Speed.
• Climbing and swimming use half Speed. In poor conditions, the GM prescribes a chance roll; in good conditions, no roll is needed.
• Jumping covers up to 1× Speed horizontally or ¼ Speed vertically. Feats and magic can change these ratios.

See Movement, Space, and Ranges for movement during actions.

Other Hazards

For a hazard not listed here, the GM sets the chance of failure and its consequences. Announce both before the player commits. Use Perception and Stealth to determine whether a character notices a hidden danger.

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This chapter covers supplies, firearms, crafting, and materials. Martial Combat and Defenses gives common weapon tables, armor categories, and the rules for using them in combat.

Firearms

Ordinary Cerberus firearms are dwarven powder weapons, generally muzzle-loaded and built for one shot before reloading. Rare repeating mechanisms are exceptions. They are expensive, loud, and slow, but place considerable power in the hands of someone without a warrior's Strength or an archer's Dexterity. Dwarven merchants often carry them; Askenon closely guards their mechanisms and powder.

M1 Weapon	Damage	Critical	DR Ignored	Range	Capacity	Reload	Price
Pistol	2d8	×3	8	100 ft	1	2 ticks	100 gp
Repeating Pistol	2d6	×3	6	100 ft	4	1 tick/chamber	400 gp
Musket	3d10	×3	16	600 ft	1	3 ticks	200 gp
Blunderbuss	2d8	×3	8	30 ft cone	1	3 ticks	250 gp

Firing spends one attack token, one Action Board slot, and one loaded charge. Strength and Dexterity do not add to damage. Use the normal Reflex modifier when the shot is dodged or parried. Enchantment and quality bonuses add to damage normally.

Reloading. Reloading is a general action spanning several ticks. Every stage spends one general action token and one slot under Reactive Combat. Stages must follow without interruption: prepare powder and ball, insert them, then ram and prime the mechanism. A pistol combines the last two operations and therefore needs only two ticks. Interrupting a stage loses the current reload, though not necessarily all ammunition; the GM decides what was spilled or damaged.

A character carrying several loaded pistols can draw another instead of reloading.

Repeating Pistol. This complex dwarven weapon has four chambers that its mechanism rotates before the barrel. It fires four times before becoming empty, with each shot spending an available attack token and slot. Each chamber reloads separately with a 1-tick general action; the wielder need not wait until all chambers are empty. With two general action tokens and two free slots, two chambers can be prepared during one tick.

Resolve each bullet separately, including its critical d20 and DR.

Blunderbuss. Its shot fills a 30 ft cone and strikes every creature inside, including allies. Each target chooses and resolves a separate defense; damage, critical d20, and DR are also resolved separately, once per target.

Parrying a Bullet. A primarily metal shield can intercept a firearm shot using normal parry rules. A large metal blade wielded in two hands—a greatsword or similar weapon—can also do so, but the defender has disadvantage on the Reflex duel. A small weapon, wooden weapon, or bare hand cannot parry a bullet. This restriction applies to firearms; arrows and other projectiles still follow Deflect Projectiles.

A successful parry stops the projectile entirely. When several shooters form a coherent volley, the grouping rules from Martial Combat and Defenses apply. The shield must cover the direction of every grouped shot.

Unreliable Powder. A maintained firearm loaded with dry powder requires no routine misfire roll. If powder is wet, the mechanism damaged, the charge improvised, or the chamber deliberately overloaded, the GM instead announces a prescribed chance check before the shot and states the consequences of failure:

Result	Outcome
Hang Fire	The primer burns without igniting the charge. The shot fails; resetting costs a 1-tick general action, after which the shot can be attempted again.
Misfire	The charge is lost. The weapon must be fully reloaded.
Jam	The mechanism locks. The weapon cannot fire until dismantled: ten minutes, tools, and skilled hands.
Burst Chamber	The weapon is destroyed, and its wielder takes the model's damage without DR to hands and face.

The GM chooses according to the fault. Wet powder or a misplaced primer causes a hang fire or misfire. A dirty, dropped, or forced mechanism jams. A chamber bursts only from a deliberately excessive charge, a fatigued weapon, or improvised manufacture—and never without warning the shooter of the risk.

Firearm Quality

Machining precision, chamber sealing, and tolerance for a stronger charge make quality especially important. For a firearm, this progression replaces the ordinary weapon quality damage bonus rather than adding to it. Price multipliers remain those of M1 to M5.

Quality	Added Damage	Additional DR Ignored	Suggested Price
M1	—	—	×1
M2	+5	+4	×2
M3	+10	+8	×5
M4	+20	+16	×10
M5	+40	+32	×25

Fixed damage is multiplied on a critical. An M5 pistol deals 2d8 + 40, ignores 40 DR, and normally costs 2,500 gp; an M5 musket ignores 48 DR. Penetration does not distinguish physical DR from magical DR.

Enchanting a Firearm. An enchantment adds its fundamental bonus to damage and nothing else: it never grants penetration. Ignored DR comes from machining—the chamber's caliber, seal, and supported charge—and only quality raises it. A power designed with the GM can be an exception, but must be written on the weapon sheet like any other enchanted effect.

Humans enchant almost all such weapons. Askenon builds the mechanism, Cerberus applies red magic, and the fortune in gold demanded by the ritual adds to the weapon's already considerable price. No one controls both halves alone. Runic firearms exist, but the rune caste makes few and almost never sells them. A rune-marked pistol belongs to a dwarven hero or is the spoils of a theft remembered for years.

Ammunition. One pistol charge—powder and ball—costs 5 sp. A musket or blunderbuss charge costs 1 gp. A repeating pistol uses one pistol charge per chamber. Special powder, adamantine projectiles, and experimental ammunition are not included.

Price and Availability. Powder, plans, and advanced mechanisms are Askenon military and trade secrets. Buying even a simple pistol may require a contact, favor, smuggler, or authorization. An M4 or M5 firearm may require an exceptional commission or be unavailable at any price.

Special Manufacture. Rifling that increases range, a waterproof mechanism, double barrel, compact weapon, cartridge that accelerates reloading, or reinforced chamber are nonmagical crafting projects. The player describes the effect with the GM, who prescribes the chances based on the artisan's experience, Intelligence, tools, plans, available time, and desired quality. A property producing a magical effect follows enchantment rules.

Cannons. A cannon follows the same principles but is siege equipment rather than a personal weapon. Damage, crew, loading time, and area depend on size; the GM sets them for the scene. A true cannon ignores at least 32 DR before quality and can damage fortifications. Valerium cannons have their own operating rules and risks.

Exploding Powder

Black powder can explode when flame, sparks, or electricity reaches a confined quantity. A loaded weapon does not explode merely because it is struck: its container must be pierced, opened, or exposed to an event capable of igniting the charge. When uncertain, the GM announces a prescribed chance check before determining whether the powder catches.

Powder Quantity	Damage	Radius
Powder horn or personal reserve	2d8	5 ft
Small barrel	6d8	15 ft
Large barrel or military reserve	10d8 or more	30 ft or more

DR applies normally, and the explosion cannot produce a critical. There is no standard Save to reduce its damage: every creature in the radius is struck. At the GM's discretion, a high-level character with exceptional Reflex may try to leave the area under the general rule; success avoids rather than reduces the explosion. An explosion ignites exposed powder in its radius and can cause a chain reaction.

Lighting a fuse takes a 1-tick general action. The character preparing it states whether it burns for one, two, or three ticks; an improvised or wet fuse may require a prescribed chance check. Carrying powder in closed containers is normally safe.

Destroying an Object or Structure

To break an object, declare the intended result. If the outcome is uncertain, the GM prescribes the chance of achieving it: splitting a shield, breaking a weapon, tearing out a lock, opening a breach, or collapsing a beam. One roll covers both striking the right point and overcoming the material.

In combat, deliberately targeting a carried weapon, shield, armor piece, or other specific object spends one attack and one tick slot. It always requires a prescribed chance check, even when an ordinary attack would have struck the wielder. The GM considers:

• the object's size and movement;
• its wielder's Reflex, position, and experience;
• the attacker's Strength and experience;
• both objects' shape, quality, material, and enchantment;
• the angle, footing, and actual force of the blow.

Before rolling, the GM states what success achieves. Depending on plausibility, success may chip, deform, disable, or completely destroy the object. Failure spends the attack without harming the wielder. A feat or technique can explicitly state another consequence.

Outside combat, no roll is needed when the result is certain. Given enough time, an axe breaks a wooden door and equipped workers open an ordinary wall. Roll when time, noise, tools, or resistance make the result uncertain. A massive structure may require a cannon, explosives, suitable tools, or several stages of work.

Adamantine Destroys. Its density, hardness, and weight radically change the prescription. An adamantine weapon against wood, iron, steel, or stone makes the chances far more favorable and enables destruction a mundane weapon could not attempt. Against a stationary, sufficiently thin object, success may be automatic. The GM considers tool size, displaced mass, and the scale of the intended result.

Conversely, a true adamantine object is almost impossible to destroy. Another adamantine weapon, epic creature, high-level magic, or comparably violent event may damage it; an ordinary tool simply receives no chance. Compare enchanted objects in the same manner: adamantine does not automatically cancel a superior enchantment but remains a major physical advantage against the material supporting it.

Adventuring Equipment

Choose starting equipment under Character Creation and Progression. Use the prices below when buying supplies, replacing equipment, or bargaining in town.

Economic benchmark. A day laborer—lumberjack, porter, or servant—earns about 2 gold pieces (gp) per day. Smaller purchases use silver pieces (sp) and copper pieces (cp): 1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp. Read every price against that wage: a 1 gp rope costs half a day's labor.

Adventuring Gear

Item	Price	Item	Price
Backpack	1 gp	Hemp rope (50 ft)	1 gp
Bedroll	1 sp	Silk rope (50 ft)	10 gp
Blanket	5 sp	Grappling hook	1 gp
Tent (2 people)	10 gp	Pitons (×10)	1 sp
Torch	1 cp	Waterskin	2 sp
Candle	1 cp	Dry rations (1 day)	5 sp
Hooded lantern	7 gp	Crowbar	2 gp
Oil flask	1 sp	Hammer, shovel	1-2 gp
Flint and steel	1 gp	Healing kit (bandages)	5 gp
Polished steel mirror	10 gp	Manacles, padlock	15-20 gp
Blank grimoire	15 gp	Ink (vial) and quill	8 gp

Lodging, Food, and Services

Service	Price	Service	Price
Mug of beer	4 cp	Private room for the night	2 gp
Simple meal	3 sp	Stabling per night	5 sp
Good meal	5 sp	Hot bath	1 sp
Common-room floor for the night	5 sp	Ship passage per day	1 gp

Mounts and Transport

Animal / Vehicle	Price	Animal / Vehicle	Price
Donkey, mule	8 gp	Riding horse	75 gp
Pony	30 gp	Warhorse	200 gp
Saddle and harness	10 gp	Cart	15 gp

Mundane Weapons and Armor. As a benchmark, a simple weapon such as a dagger or club costs 1-2 gp, a common martial weapon such as a sword, axe, or bow costs 10-40 gp, and a shield costs 7 gp. Armor prices appear in Armor Categories. Even the weakest enchantment escapes this scale and costs thousands of gp (see 16).

Alchemical Projectiles

Throwing an alchemical bomb, ampule, or vial takes a 1-tick general action. It targets a visible point within 30 ft and shatters there. This is not an attack: it spends no attack token and can never produce a critical. Beyond 30 ft, the GM may allow the throw with a prescribed chance check and choose the landing point on failure.

The item's DC is the difficulty of the Save against its effect: Reflex to turn away or escape spreading material, Fortitude to resist an impact, gas, or toxin, and Will only when the preparation genuinely attacks the mind or deceives the senses. A projectile without a DC simply changes the environment.

A physical projectile's ingredients give it fixed power. Alchemical spells instead scale with caster level. Common preparations include:

Projectile	Primary Effect
Acid Flask	burns and corrodes nonmagical DR
Incendiary Grenade	creates a persistent area of fire
Shrapnel Grenade	projects fragments in every direction
Smoke Grenade	blocks lines of sight
Spider Resin	sticks feet, a door, or an object
Blinding Salt	blinds for one tick
Thunderstone	blocks hearing and verbal components
Suffocating Spores	causes nausea and prevents speech

Smoke, wind, water, fire, and cover interact with these effects normally. A player can invent a use not anticipated by the item entry; the GM resolves it through the fiction and, when needed, a prescribed chance check.

Metals and Crafting Materials

A weapon or suit of armor first has the physical properties of its material. Iron, steel, wood, bone, mithril, and adamantine do not produce the same object even when an artisan gives them identical shapes. Material can modify DR, damage, Reflex, or how the object interacts with its environment.

Material and enchantment are separate, cumulative layers. Armor's physical DR adds to its enchantment DR, and other material properties remain active. Dispel Magic can suppress or destroy an object's magic, but never turns mithril into iron or removes its physical and natural advantages.

Several objects made from the same material do not stack the same roll bonus repeatedly unless their entries explicitly allow it. A mithril weapon and mithril armor therefore do not grant +10 to the same Reflex duel. The properties below also require a genuine piece of equipment: a shard, coin, or decorative jewel does not protect like armor.

Craftsmanship Quality

Quality measures workmanship. Its bonuses add to the object's material properties and remain if an enchantment is dispelled.

Every nonmagical crafting project targets a quality from M1 to M5. M1 represents a functional object made by a competent artisan. Each subsequent rank adds +2 weapon damage or +1 physical armor DR.

Quality	Workmanship	Added Weapon Damage	Added Physical DR	Suggested Price
M1	Functional	—	—	×1
M2	Fine	+2	+1	×2
M3	Superior	+4	+2	×5
M4	Masterwork	+6	+3	×10
M5	Masterpiece	+8	+4	×25

A weapon's bonus is part of its fixed damage and follows critical rules normally. An armor bonus is added after the coverage factor, so heavy armor never doubles quality. Magical DR is added afterward. For example, M3 heavy steel armor has 4 × 2 + 2, or 10 physical DR, before enchantment.

Price multipliers are benchmarks rather than a universal catalog. They represent labor, material lost to trials, experimentation, and the rarity of artisans capable of the required rank. Actual price always depends on region, commission, and access to a proper workshop.

Crafting a Nonmagical Object

Before beginning, the artisan declares the shape, material, and target quality. The GM prescribes the chances of success based on:

• Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence relevant to the work;
• the experience of the artisan and assistants;
• available tools, forge, plans, and models;
• the material's difficulty and target quality;
• time invested and material sacrificed during trials.

M4 may need a master workshop, weeks or months of work, and specialized assistants. M5 can become a life's work, require a lost technique, or depend on exceptional circumstances. The GM can declare the project impossible until those conditions are met.

On failure, the GM chooses a consequence proportionate to the announced risk: no progress, lower quality, additional delay, a correctable flaw, or loss of some materials. An ordinary repair restores function, but only an artisan capable of the object's quality can guarantee preservation of every bonus.

Iron

Iron is common, easy to work, and simple to repair. An iron weapon deals the normal damage for its shape. Medium iron armor has 2 physical DR before quality and enchantment.

Ordinary iron can reach M3. Iron objects beyond this limit rely on exceptional ore, treatment, or technique and are considered separately by the GM. Iron oxidizes more readily than steel and endures long campaigns poorly without maintenance, but remains the metal of armies, villages, and field repairs.

Steel

Steel holds an edge longer, withstands repeated impacts better, and permits much more precise work. A steel weapon also deals the normal damage for its shape; its advantage lies in durability and the qualities a master can achieve. Medium steel armor has 4 physical DR before quality and enchantment. M1 heavy steel armor therefore has 8 physical DR.

Steel can reach M5. At equal shape and quality, a steel object costs about twice as much as its iron equivalent. This remains a benchmark: where ore and blast furnaces are plentiful, the artisan's work may matter far more than the metal difference.

Ordinary Wood

Wood makes bows, staffs, clubs, hafts, shields, and plate or lamellar armor. The GM decides which weapon shapes suit the material. An appropriate wooden weapon deals normal damage for its shape.

Property	Effect
Light Armor	DR 1
Medium Armor	DR 2
Heavy Armor	DR 4
Maximum Quality	M3
Buoyancy	Wood floats and makes recovery from water easier
Insulation	When dry, halves remaining electrical damage

Insulation requires armor, a shield, or cover made primarily from wood. A simple wooden handle does not protect its wielder. Apply all DR first, then halve the remaining electrical damage and round down. Soaked wood loses this property until dry.

Ordinary wood grants no DR against fire. Sustained exposure can ignite or warp it and destroy its quality; the GM considers intensity, duration, and whether the object can be extinguished or repaired.

Ironwood

Ironwood is wood transformed by magic. It retains its grain and buoyancy but becomes as hard as metal, rotproof, and impossible to ignite with ordinary fire. The magic sustaining this transformation can still be dispelled until it permanently settles into the material.

Property	Effect
Light Armor	DR 2
Medium Armor	DR 4
Heavy Armor	DR 8
Maximum Quality	M5
Ironwood Bow	Uses the wielder's full Strength without a cap
Insulation	Halves remaining electrical damage even when wet
Resilience	Does not burn or rot and still floats

Ironwood retains shapes compatible with wood: bows, staffs, clubs, hafts, shields, and lamellar armor. Ironwood describes how to create and maintain it, and how the transformation becomes permanent. The artisan's skill, tools, and project determine its M quality.

Leather and Reinforced Cloth

Leather, fur, padded layers, and woven fibers make armor that is easiest to wear discreetly. They can also produce a sling, whip, or other appropriate flexible weapon, dealing normal damage for its shape.

Property	Effect
Light Armor	DR 1
Medium Armor	DR 2
Heavy Armor	Impossible with ordinary materials
Maximum Quality	M3
Insulation	When dry, halves remaining electrical damage

Light leather or cloth armor receives all ordinary benefits of its category: it can be hidden, worn while resting, and does not hinder movement. Medium armor made from many layers remains hotter, thicker, and unfavorable for swimming. Soaked material loses insulation until dry. Cloth can burn and leather can char; like wood, their DR does not apply against fire.

Hide, fur, membrane, or silk harvested from a remarkable creature can exceed these limits and receive an effect chosen by the GM, like the bone, horn, and shell below. Dragonhide armor or monstrous silk is not treated as ordinary leather or cloth.

Bone, Horn, and Shell

Long bones become spikes, clubs, or hafts; horns make short blades and composite bows; shells and broad bone plates make shields or armor. Common animal material uses these values:

Property	Effect
Light Armor	DR 1
Medium Armor	DR 2
Heavy Armor	DR 4 if the creature provides sufficient plates
Maximum Quality	M3

The harvested creature can completely change the result. The GM may increase DR, permit M4 or M5, and give the object one effect inspired by the creature: elemental resistance from dragon armor, protection against petrification from a basilisk, abnormal repair from troll hide, or a similar property. The GM considers the creature's age and power, the harvested part and its condition, available quantity, and the artisan's skill.

The harvested pieces must be preserved, cleaned, cut, and assembled with the crafting prescribed chance check. Failure may lose the desired property without destroying all the material.

Composite Objects

For an object made from several materials, use the part that performs the task. For an attack, the material that actually delivers the blow—blade, point, mass, or projectile—determines damage and penetration. For armor, shields, or cover, the material forming most of the protective surface determines DR and resistances. A wooden handle does not insulate a steel sword, while an adamantine arrowhead is sufficient because it strikes the target.

Mithril

Mithril is a light, silvery metal that guides its wearer through movement. A warrior in mithril armor can move faster than an unarmored person, as though the metal reacts to danger first.

Property	Effect
Light Armor	4 physical DR and +5 Reflex
Medium Armor	8 physical DR and +5 Reflex
Heavy Armor	16 physical DR, +5 Reflex, and critical reduction
Mithril Weapon	+5 Reflex when attacking or parrying with it
Mithril Shield	+5 Reflex when parrying with it
Poison Resistance	Armor or a significant protective piece grants +3 on Fortitude Saves against poison
Stacking	Mithril bonuses do not stack with one another on the same roll but stack with enchantments

Mithril armor ignores the Speed and dodge reductions of its category, then grants its own +5 Reflex. Heavy mithril armor remains a complete shell: it cannot be concealed beneath clothing, still takes time to equip, and retains unfavorable circumstances from its bulk when swimming, squeezing through spaces, or sleeping.

The Purifying Metal. Pure mithril destroys physical poisons that touch it. A dose placed on the metal is neutralized even when amplified by Poison: when the substance carrying the magic disappears, the amplification collapses with it.

This purification provides the following protection:

• parrying with a mithril weapon or shield destroys poison applied to the opposing weapon;
• a poisoned weapon striking mithril armor loses its dose before poisoning the wearer, even when damage passes through DR;
• a mask or helmet designed to pass inhaled air over mithril neutralizes poison before it reaches the lungs.

Ordinary mithril armor does not purify an entire cloud by itself; vapor can circulate around it. The wearer still gains +3 on the Fortitude Save. Mithril does not remove poison already inside the body, restore lost HP or attributes, or neutralize disease, acid, or curses.

Purifying Water. A pure mithril object placed in a waterskin, pitcher, or cauldron neutralizes poison in about one minute. Armor or a helmet left in a poisoned well can make the water drinkable, but a large volume takes more time. The GM considers poison quantity, water volume and circulation, and the mass and exposed surface of mithril.

Fed Mithril. Mithril does more than destroy poison: it draws strength from it. When mithril armor absorbs a true toxic dose, directly or through a protective piece in the same set, its surface tightens, fine scratches vanish, and its veins brighten. It gains +5 physical DR until the next true rest. Several poisons do not stack this bonus. A trace or heavily diluted toxin is insufficient; armor immersed in a genuinely poisoned well is always fed.

Acclimated Mithril. Years of exposure or an exceptional toxic event can make this reinforcement permanent. Acclimated armor gains +5 physical DR regardless of category: medium armor rises from 8 to 13. A new poison can still feed it for a temporary 5 additional DR, reaching 18 in this example. Equipment normally acclimates only once. Further acclimation requires an artifact or exceptional history established by the GM.

Mithril in the World. The largest known veins lie in Kaz'Baba, the dwarven realm of mithril. Its smiths do not merely speak of smelting it; they say they cultivate it. Some pieces rest in toxic pools between two stages of forging. The water emerges clean and the metal denser. Ancient armor can carry the memory of poisons lost for generations.

Mithril is also political. Askenon controls its extraction, while Cerberus controls much of its enchantment. Gold and mithril cross the sea in one direction, while potions, enchantments, and war beasts travel in the other. The metal has already changed history: during the war against Vlad Varanov, the dwarves supplied the mages of Cerberus with enough mithril for three suits of armor.

Jumping into the Wine. At a reception, Portin dropped his mithril beard pencil into a barrel of costly wine. The metal began neutralizing the alcohol, and he jumped in to retrieve it. The wine was ruined anyway. Dwarves now say “jump into the wine” when an attempt to repair a mistake makes it worse; merchants have carried the expression across the sea.

Adamantine

Adamantine is a black metal that reflects almost no light. Its density defies an object's proportions: a sword weighs like a siege ram, armor like a fortress gate. It is incredibly heavy, dense, and hard.

Property	Effect
Light Armor	8 DR; minimum +10 Strength
Medium Armor	16 DR; minimum +15 Strength
Heavy Armor	32 DR; minimum +20 Strength
Small or One-Handed Weapon	minimum +10 Strength; doubles damage dice
Two-Handed Weapon	minimum +15 Strength; doubles damage dice
Shield	minimum +15 Strength
Light Penetration	a light weapon or projectile ignores 8 DR
Medium Penetration	a one-handed weapon ignores 16 DR
Very Heavy Penetration	a two-handed weapon ignores 32 DR
Quality	can reach M5; quality bonuses stack normally

Extreme Mass. The wielder's current Strength must meet the listed minimum. A creature below it can move the object with levers, a cart, or help, but cannot attack or parry properly with the weapon. Armor can be placed on such a creature but immobilizes it enough to make combat impossible. Dexterity never replaces Strength for this requirement; once met, Dexterity can replace Strength for damage when the weapon and technique normally permit it.

Ingots themselves require rails, cranes, and crews. Discovering a vein is not enough to steal it; the ore must still be removed from the mountain.

Weight in the Impact. An adamantine weapon retains its length, reach, number of hands, and threat range but rolls twice its damage dice: 1d8 becomes 2d8. Apply this after changes from the size of the weapon or wielder.

Its mass also adds fixed damage according to use:

Category	Examples	Added Damage
Light	Dagger, knife, arrowhead, bolt, light projectile	+5
Medium	Sword, mace, axe, or other one-handed weapon	+10
Very Heavy	Greatsword, greataxe, maul, pike, or other two-handed weapon	+20

Strength, quality, and enchantment bonuses add after dice and mass. All fixed bonuses follow the critical multiplier normally. An M3 adamantine longsword therefore deals 2d8 + 10 + 4 + attribute before other effects. An adamantine arrowhead gives the entire attack doubled dice, the +5 bonus, and penetration even when the bow uses another material.

Piercing Matter. When an adamantine weapon or projectile applies DR, it ignores 8, 16, or 32 points according to the mass category in the damage table: light, medium, or very heavy. Apply this to total DR down to a minimum of 0, without distinguishing physical armor, natural shell, cover, or magical protection. A target with 20 physical DR and 24 magical DR has 44 total DR; it applies 36 against an adamantine arrow, 28 against a sword, and 12 against a maul.

Near-Absolute Hardness. Ordinary weapons, falls, common tools, and mundane acid normally cannot break or permanently deform true adamantine. High-level magic, an epic creature, or another adamantine object can still damage it. Working or repairing it requires a forge, tools, and technique capable of overcoming that hardness.

Adamantine Vigil. In light, adamantine remains matte black. When no outside light reaches its surface, its edges and veins emit a cold white glow. Its own light does not end this state.

Exposed Adamantine	Illuminated Radius
Fragment, rivet, or small tool	5 ft
Weapon or shield	15 ft
Armor	30 ft
Large structure	Based on size, at the GM's discretion

Creatures inside the vigil's radius see normally. Darkness returns immediately when the adamantine moves away. Completely covering the metal blocks its light, allowing the wielder to hide it deliberately.

The glow neither harms nor automatically blinds drow; it simply removes their advantage from fighting in darkness. Adamantine grants no special resistance to lightning or electrical damage.

Adamantine in the World. Dwarves mine it for weapons and armor, but also for mining tools, counterweights, fortress anchors, vault doors, and siege projectiles. Adamantine rivets mark their most valuable tunnels: an extinguished lamp does not doom the miners, and a drow incursion cannot turn those galleries into absolute darkness.

A vein sometimes reveals itself simply. Prospectors extinguish their lanterns and wait. If white lines appear in the black rock, they have found adamantine. They must then find a way to move it.

Chapter Summary

• Weapon shape gives damage dice, critical multiplier, and handling. Material, quality, and enchantment modify those values.
• Firearms add no Strength or Dexterity to damage. Each shot uses one loaded charge; reloading uses general actions. Their quality table gives damage and penetration.
• Armor category determines physical coverage and movement restrictions. Add quality after the coverage factor, then add magical DR.
• M1 to M5 gives ordinary weapons +0 to +8 damage and armor +0 to +4 physical DR.
• Wood, leather, and cloth insulate against electricity when dry. Ironwood also insulates when wet. Ordinary wood, leather, and cloth provide no DR against fire.
• Mithril improves Reflex, neutralizes poison on contact, and gains DR when fed poison.
• Adamantine requires Strength, doubles weapon dice, adds damage, and ignores DR. In darkness, it emits light.
• Crafting begins with a chosen shape, material, and quality. The GM prescribes the chance of success and the consequences of failure.
• Targeting carried equipment in combat costs one attack and one Action Board slot, resolved with a prescribed chance roll.
• Alchemical projectiles use a 1-tick general action. Their item entries give effects and Saves.

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A creature template describes the body created by Summon or taken through Polymorph. Its profiles give the available forms, their minimum spell levels, and their physical abilities. Both spells use the same profiles.

Choosing a Profile

Choose a known profile whose minimum level is no higher than the level of the spell being cast. The creature's page gives this requirement. Size is one part of it: a large, simple body may be easier to create than a small creature with flight, spells, or complex powers.

Each creature pattern must be learned through play. Studying a species, finding a teacher, or examining a rare specimen can require as much work as learning a spell. A learned pattern works for both Summon and Polymorph if the caster knows both spells.

The chosen profile supplies size, attack dice, action reserves, dedicated dodges, DR, Reach, special movement, racial magic, and unique traits. Higher profiles may improve these values; use the profiles provided on the creature's page.

Calculating the Body

Record the complete Spell DC when the spell takes effect, including temporary CL increases and other active modifiers. Use it with the chosen profile's multipliers:

Value	Calculation
STR	Spell DC × Strength multiplier
DEX	Spell DC × Dexterity multiplier
Effective CON	Spell DC
Maximum HP	HP per STR × calculated STR

Round each result down. These values remain fixed while that summoned body or Polymorph casting lasts, even after a temporary bonus to the original DC ends. Natural creatures use their own attributes and level.

A Level 2 Black Wolf profile has a ×0.35 STR multiplier, ×0.65 DEX multiplier, and 6 HP per STR. With Spell DC 20, it has STR 7, DEX 13, effective CON 20, and 42 HP.

For physical attacks and grappling, use these attributes under Martial Combat and Defenses. Add STR or DEX to the profile's attack dice as appropriate for the attack.

Ground Speed is 30 ft per tick + 2 ft per DEX, unless the profile gives another value. The wolf above moves 56 ft per tick. Flying, swimming, burrowing, and supernatural movement use the profile's rules.

Saves and Ability DCs

Use the recorded Spell DC and calculated DEX for the body's defenses:

Value	Summon	Polymorph
Reflex modifier	Calculated DEX	Calculated DEX
Fortitude modifier	Recorded Spell DC	Recorded Spell DC
Will modifier	Recorded Spell DC	The transformed creature's original Will modifier
Breath Weapon and other racial ability DCs	Recorded Spell DC	Recorded Spell DC

A template can specify an exception. Polymorph retains the original Will because the transformed creature keeps its own mind. Record the finished values on the creature's sheet when the spell takes effect.

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An undead is a dead body animated by magic. It produces no red mana, so Harvest and the Partage cannot reach it. A mage who becomes undead loses the mana he held while living and never recovers any.

Scipion's unusually stable formulas allow many undead to last forever.

Necromancy creates undead and partial undead.

The Undead

When the brain is gone, magic drives the entire corpse.

• No Fortitude. An undead has no Constitution or Fortitude Save. It is immune to poison, disease, exhaustion, suffocation, extreme temperatures, and bleeding. It does not eat.

• No mind to reach. It is immune to magic that acts on a mind—fear, charm, domination, sleep. Against magic that reshapes its body, it uses the spell DC of the necromancer who raised it in place of a Will Save.

  Undead Resurrection and Create Undead King instead preserve the mind. Their subjects resist mental magic with their own Will Save.

• Borrowed senses. Magical sensors replace its eyes and ears.

• A stronger body. It feels no pain and is generally stronger and better armored than it was in life.

The Partial Undead

Faint Current runs just enough negative energy through a fresh, whole corpse to preserve what its body and brain could already do.

The corpse can be dead for no more days than the necromancer's caster level.

• It keeps its memories, its skills, and its way of fighting.
• It eats and drinks.
• It keeps its Constitution, its Fortitude Save, and its own Will Save.
• It produces no mana.
• It stands permanently at +2 to all six attributes. The current running through it is the same filament as Graveworld Boost, never switched off.
• Both energies burn it, and neither one heals it.

A partial undead recovers HP only through rest and regeneration magic. Potions do not work, and Heal damages it.

What Destroys an Undead

An undead is destroyed at 0 HP, with no dying state or negative margin.

A partial undead goes down and dying at 0 HP, follows the usual dying and stabilization rules, and can be stabilized by hand. No spell can heal it while it is down.

Either kind also falls when the spell animating it is dispelled.

Spells Requiring Two Saves

When a spell calls for both Will and Fortitude, an undead missing one of those Saves has no defense against that part of the spell. An undead can resist the Will effect of Telekinesis, but not its Fortitude effect.

Dispelling an Undead

Gold seals an undead like any enchantment (see 16). A gem, usually an emerald at 200 gp, attracts negative energy and makes it 25% harder to dispel once set during creation.

Setting an emerald into a partial undead increases its Dispel DC by 25%.

The Lich

A lich keeps its vital organs alive inside a vessel of solid gold, hidden elsewhere. They produce red mana, which it draws into its undead body; if they are destroyed, it can no longer cast.

A lich recovers slots through meditation (see 11). It uses the bestiary entry for its body and keeps its mind, caster level, and learned formulas.

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Enchanting binds a spell into an object. A blade can carry lightning, armor can protect its wearer, and a ring can hold a teleportation spell. Any known spell can become an enchantment; the player and GM define how the object uses it.

Gold keeps red and divine magic from escaping the object. Psychic enchantments instead remain active through reserved spell slots. Dwarven runes draw power from their surroundings through engravings, as described below.

The Fundamental Bonus

An enchantment adds damage to a weapon or magical DR to armor, according to its level. It grants no Reflex bonus.

Enchantment Level	Fundamental Bonus
1–2	+4
3–4	+8
5–6	+16
7–8	+32
9	+64
10	+128

Apply a weapon's bonus under the normal damage and critical rules. Add armor's magical DR after its physical DR. An item receives the fundamental bonus once, even if it holds several enchanted powers.

A shield's level determines what it can parry; it gains neither DR nor Reflex from this bonus. Other objects use the effects of their bound spells.

Recording an Item

Record these values when the enchantment is created:

Value	Meaning
Item Level	Normally the highest spell level bound into the item, up to 10. The GM assigns a level to a custom effect. Nonmagical items are Level 0.
Item CL	The caster level used in the ritual. It measures the magic bound into the item and its resistance to abjuration.
Effect DC	Required when a power calls for a Save or another roll. Record the DC and the roll used to resist it.

Item Level sets the fundamental bonus, the strength of the item's powers, and its parrying limits. Item CL must be recorded for every enchantment.

The description gives the power's action cost, range, targets, duration, trigger, uses, and recovery as needed to use it in play.

Material and Craftsmanship

Material, M1–M5 craftsmanship, and enchantment combine under Equipment, Crafting, and Materials. Enchanted mithril armor keeps its physical DR, Reflex bonus, and poison-cleansing properties, then adds magical DR. Dispelling the enchantment leaves the material and workmanship intact.

Craftsmanship quality does not set a fixed limit on the number of enchanted powers.

Designing the Item

Describe the desired effect, then choose the known spells that can produce it. Agree with the GM on how the item works before starting the ritual.

A lightning blade might strike with lightning on every blow, release it on command, or discharge only on a critical hit. A teleportation weapon might transport its wielder, its target, or itself. Define the action, range, frequency, and conditions for the chosen power.

A continuous effect or one triggered by every attack generally demands more gold, time, materials, and skill than a power with limited charges or a narrow trigger. The GM judges the project as a whole. Several powers can share an item, with each additional effect making the ritual more demanding.

Enchant provides a temporary infusion of raw magic. A permanent custom item instead requires the spells that produce its desired effects; knowing Enchant is not a prerequisite.

The Enchantment Ritual

The enchanter needs the required spells, a suitable object, and a long ritual. An unusual power may also require research, plans, or rare materials. The extended ritual allows more power for the spell slots spent.

Casters of comparable power can work together under Cooperative Casting. Helpers increase the ritual's CL within those rules, including the +50% ceiling.

Gold. The GM sets the amount: higher CL requires more gold. Red and divine enchantments bound with gold remain independent of their creators. Level 9 and 10 items can demand more wealth than a kingdom's treasury. Cerberus obtains much of this gold through trade with dwarves, who buy enchantments and potions in return.

Psychic maintenance. Gold has no effect on blue mana. A Psychic maintains each object by reserving the required spell slot under Enchant. Reserves and Recovery explains how reserved slots affect the available reserve.

Finish the ritual with a prescribed chance roll. The GM considers the enchanter's Intelligence, Charisma, experience, and CL; spells and helpers; the object's quality and materials; tools, location, time, and the desired power.

Before rolling, the GM announces what failure risks: gold, materials, time, reduced power, an unstable enchantment, or a magical complication. Failure may cost part of the project rather than destroying it entirely.

Dispelling an Enchantment

An abjurer opposes the item's magic with a caster level check:

1d20 + abjuration CL against 1d20 + Item CL.

Abjuration Result	Effect
Exceeds the item's result by 25%	Disables its magic for 1d3 rounds
Exceeds the item's result by 50%	Permanently destroys its enchantments

The abjuration spell must support the intended effect. Dispel Magic gives the spell levels needed to disrupt or destroy an item and the rules for area dispels.

The check affects all enchantments on the item together. Disruption silences every magical power; destruction removes them permanently. Material, craftsmanship, and ordinary functions remain intact.

Breaking the object itself is a GM ruling. An abjuration unmakes the magic; the steel, the stone, and the wood are another matter. Whether a blade snaps, a shield melts, or the vessel carrying a rune is shattered depends on what it is made of, what is brought against it, and how much time and force the attempt is given. Use a prescribed chance roll when the outcome is genuinely uncertain (1).

Some tables will want to play these attempts out rather than narrate them. Two benchmarks make that easier.

An ordinary object answers to its material and to what strikes it. A rope parts under a blade and shrugs off a mace, ice shatters where oak splinters, and adamantine turns nearly everything aside (13). A GM rarely needs a number here.

A magic item should be very hard to break. For scale, treat a level 7 enchanted weapon as enduring twice the hit points of a level 9 Barrier behind the damage reduction of a level 9 Mage Armor: 320 HP per point of its Item CL, behind DR 64. Move up or down with the item's level. Reaching those numbers should take a siege engine, a dragon, or a working built for the purpose—never a lucky blow.

Dwarven Runes

A rune is an engraved form that draws power from its surroundings. Its lines channel that power into an effect for as long as the vessel endures. Dwarves make these objects through careful design and engraving.

A runic item has a level from 1 to 10. That level measures the complexity of the rune, and sets the Item CL it opposes to abjuration: the minimum caster level of the matching spell level, plus 5.

Rune level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Item CL	6	8	10	12	14	16	19	22	25	35

A rune's listed level is the least its form requires. A more accomplished engraver can cut the same form at a higher level: the effect does not change, only the Item CL that defends it. A common battle rune from a master's hand does exactly what a journeyman's does, and no abjurer of ordinary power will silence it.

A rune requires no gold and no maintenance, and no abjuration ends one for good. An abjurer who beats its Item CL by 25% silences the rune for 1d3 rounds; by 50%, for 1d6 days. The form stays cut in the metal either way, and the power returns. To end a rune permanently, destroy the rune or its vessel.

A rune of power grants the fundamental bonus for its level from the table above. Other runes give the effects described on their sheets.

Runes and Enchantments

Runes and enchantments cannot coexist on the same item. Choose the path before work begins; it remains the item's path for its entire existence. Dwarven smiths sometimes sell uninscribed weapons so their buyers can enchant them.

Designing and Engraving

Two castes work together to create a rune. The rune caste designs its form and calculates the relationships between its lines. The forge caste prepares the vessel and carves the design into it. The item must be M2 quality or better.

The art is secret, mastered by few dwarves. Admission to the tradition requires more than studying a finished object or copying a symbol from a book. An outsider learning it would need exceptional access earned through play.

Player and GM design a new rune together. Once the character has the required knowledge, the inscription ends with a prescribed chance roll based on experience, Intelligence, tools, invested time, the vessel's quality and material, and rune level.

One rune is normal. Two require an M4 or better vessel, with both forms designed together. Three-rune objects are legendary works; finding one or uncovering its manufacture can be an adventure in itself.

Conditional Runes

Some runes awaken through a state in their bearer: fury, hatred, fear, flowing blood, or approaching death. They remain inert until that condition supplies their power.

A few are called demonic, said to come from a smith's corrupted dreams. Their power greatly exceeds what their level normally permits. Dwarves who know these forms distrust them and what they might consume.

Finding Magic Items

Magic items are found, earned, or commissioned. There are no magic-item shops. Commissioning a Level 3 or higher item means finding a named enchanter and meeting their personal demands. A gold-bound item also needs a patron wealthy enough to fund it. Give each item an origin that can be told in one sentence.

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The GM describes the world, portrays its inhabitants, and judges uncertain outcomes. These techniques help answer unexpected questions, prepare opponents, and guide a campaign as the characters grow stronger.

Questions about the World

A player asks whether an inn has a stable, a warehouse contains rope, or a village has a healer. Answer from what is already established. When the answer is uncertain, use a prescribed chance roll.

Player: Does this inn have a stable with horses? GM: One chance in two. Roll 1 on a d2 and it does.

Use the surroundings and the player's reasoning to set the odds. Horses tied outside make a stable more likely. An inn already described as a coaching house needs no roll. Announce the chance before rolling, then record the answer as part of the setting.

A failed roll answers the question: there is no stable. It adds no unrelated trouble, such as making the innkeeper suspicious.

Social Interactions

Play conversations through what the characters say and do. Their attributes, backgrounds, and behavior influence how NPCs respond. Use a prescribed chance roll when the outcome is uncertain; Cerberus has no separate Diplomacy, Bluff, or other social skills. Perception and Stealth covers physical disguises.

A barbarian with +8 Strength looks imposing before speaking. A scholar may receive a more detailed explanation, while a local recognizes the host's customs. Use the following reactions as examples, adapted to the NPC and the situation.

Attribute	Response to a High Value	Response to a Low Value
Strength	respect, requests for demonstrations	underestimated physical ability
Dexterity	admiration, delicate tasks entrusted	concern about tasks requiring precision
Constitution	endurance respected, physical challenges offered	offers of rest, concern for health
Intelligence	detailed explanations, opinions sought	simpler explanations, extra patience
Wisdom	advice and judgment sought	hesitation to entrust important decisions
Charisma	attention, openness, readiness to trust	more effort needed to gain confidence

Background also changes a reception:

Background	Possible Response
Noble	titles respected, conduct expected, access to influential circles
Humble	kinship with commoners, distrust from elites
Military	shared language and respect among soldiers
Religious	reverence from believers, skepticism from others
Criminal	underworld contacts, suspicion from authorities
Foreign	curiosity, suspicion, or misunderstood customs
Local	easy introductions, familiar customs, expectations of loyalty

Show these differences through the NPC's tone, vocabulary, posture, what they reveal, and what they offer or request. Keep reactions consistent and explain this approach to the players. Give each character opportunities to contribute, including those whose low attributes make some encounters harder.

Building Martial NPCs

Give the opponent a role in the encounter, then build a sheet that supports it:

1. Choose class and level for HP progression, Saves, Speed, and action reserves.
2. Assign attributes that fit their body and history. An aging swordmaster and a giant can have comparable experience with very different Strength.
3. Choose equipment from their wealth, culture, rank, and employer. Give an enchanted weapon an origin.
4. Choose two or three useful techniques. A shield guard, mounted hunter, grappler, and assassin should offer different fights.
5. Represent weapon training with a fighting style when appropriate. Basic Fighting Style supplies damage progression for a trained combatant who lacks a stronger named style.

Record Basic Fighting Style as a feat when chosen. Players can earn it through training, and casters can learn it when their history includes weapon practice. Use its entry for class grades and interaction with named styles.

Compare an ordinary attack with the party's DR. A poorly equipped soldier may be unable to hurt an armored hero. For an opponent intended to threaten that hero, choose a fitting means: greater Strength, better equipment, a fighting style, grappling, or control of the terrain.

Building an Encounter

Start with who is present and what they want. Choose their equipment, positions, and response to danger before estimating the encounter's difficulty.

A few details are enough:

• an objective: rob, kill, capture, delay, or frighten;
• equipment and fighting style;
• two or three useful battlefield positions;
• discipline and the point at which the opponents flee;
• a memorable face, voice, or habit.

Highwaymen with horses create a different encounter from thieves firing crossbows out of windows. Easy fights also have their place: old enemies overcome quickly show how much the characters have grown.

Estimating Power

Compare damage, DR, action reserves, Reflex, spells, and terrain. Level alone gives an incomplete estimate, especially when characters have gained unusual powers through play.

Six Level 1 bandits may challenge three Level 2 or 3 characters. Prepared positions and scattered players favor the bandits; one well-placed area spell may defeat them. After the fight, note what decided it and use that experience when preparing the next.

Counting Damage Upward

When an opponent's HP total is difficult to estimate, the GM can add damage taken instead of subtracting it from a fixed maximum: 38, then 71, then 119. After seeing a few representative attacks, choose the threshold at which the opponent dies.

For comparable creatures, the first defeated opponent establishes the threshold for the others. Once set, keep it, including when a critical hit reaches it sooner than expected.

For a boss, observe a few exchanges before settling the total. Descriptions such as “gravely wounded” or “nearly fallen” should agree with the damage still required to defeat them.

Bandits

A numerous group of low-level opponents gives players opportunities to use multiple attacks and area spells. It lets the GM play tactically, using numbers, positions, and coordinated attacks. Resolve detection when needed, play any threats or negotiation, establish positions, then begin combat. Flight, surrender, or capture can turn the fight into a new scene.

Ordinary bandits usually have no magic. Experienced ones may still spread out, shoot from cover, use smoke, interrupt casters, or rush them in melee. Organize coordinated groups by position: archers, close fighters, and flankers can act as separate groups.

A Boss

A boss is stronger than any individual party member. Together, the players can surround them, spend their defenses, and create openings for one another.

A martial boss is a useful first example: a charge, parry, grapple, or heavy blow makes their intentions easy to follow. Add more complex opponents as the table becomes comfortable managing their abilities.

Keep portraying the opponent during combat. They can taunt, bargain, react to a technique, or reveal something when defeated.

Counterparts

An opposing party has distinct classes, feats, spells, and roles. A Barbarian, Rogue, and Wizard might face a Fighter, Cleric, and Inquisitor.

These encounters need more preparation, especially at high levels. Two approaches help set their difficulty:

• Give weaker opponents effective tactics and use their abilities fully.
• Give opponents power close to the heroes', with limited information, hesitation, or competing objectives that affect their decisions.

An enemy may protect an ally, save a spell for later, panic, or misread the party's plan. Let their behavior follow their knowledge and motives.

An Ambush

An ambush begins with a hidden threat. If noticing it is uncertain, prescribe the chance that someone detects the danger. Detection can lead to maneuvering, negotiation, or an ordinary fight.

On failure, use Attacking from Hiding to resolve the opening attacks. If several characters are equally exposed, the GM may choose the first target at random. Give attention to nearby cover, escape routes, and positions the survivors can use to recover from the first blows.

Guiding Character Growth

Advance characters through their experiences under Character Creation and Progression. Levels can rise slowly while training, discoveries, and rewards develop individual abilities.

For a caster, distinguish three kinds of progress:

Progress	Effect
Character level	Advances the class's HP progression, action reserves, Saves, and other features
Caster level	Strengthens known spells and meets power requirements for higher spell levels
Study	Teaches a new spell or a higher-level version

Increasing CL strengthens known spells without teaching new ones. It can still change encounters substantially through damage, range, or duration; consider which spells the character already uses.

Use Learning Magic to set study time. One month is typical for learning a spell, with shorter or longer periods according to the spell, experience, and available instruction. Researching a new epic spell can take years.

Related Rules

Topic	Chapter
Prescribed chance rolls	Base Resolution
Environmental hazards	Environment and Physical Hazards
Rest and recovery	Rest and Recovery
Magic-item rewards and commissions	Enchanting Magic Items
Detection and surprise	Perception and Stealth