Maneuvers & Deeds

One tactical pick per round, what a hit can interrupt, and how spells are declared.

Types of Special Actions

There is ONE tactical choice per round: your Maneuver. Some maneuvers carry the Declared tag.

Quick Reference:

• Basic Action = decide on your turn, can't be stopped (Attack, Dodge, Sprint, etc.)
• Instant Maneuver = pick early, happens immediately, flat Stamina cost, can't be stopped
• Declared Maneuver = pick early, resolves on your turn, CAN be disrupted. Spellcasting is the big one: casting a spell IS your Maneuver for the round. Sustaining a Focus spell on a later round is your Maneuver for that round too

Maneuvers

Picked in the tactical phase. Limit: ONE Maneuver per round, total. A Declared Maneuver (including any spell) consumes the same pick, and so does sustaining a Focus spell.

A Maneuver is chosen in the round's tactical phase and lasts until the end of that round unless its entry says otherwise. It does not expire when your turn comes round again; Defend keeps its +2 AC against everything that swings at you before the round closes.

Universal Maneuvers (Available to Everyone)

Core Maneuvers (always solid defaults):

Situational Maneuvers (specific tactical uses):

Tree-specific Maneuvers include: Rage, Takedown, Bestial Maneuver, and others (see tree descriptions). All martial tree maneuvers are instant.

Declared Maneuvers

Announced in the tactical phase, resolved on your turn. CAN be disrupted if you lose Vitality before your turn.

What is Declared:

• Spellcasting (Wizard, Invoker, Druid) - tier = spell tier
• Prayer invocation (Prophet) - the Faith roll fires at declaration; tier = successes (stamina can buy up to your Tier)
• A handful of abilities marked (Declared)
• Psions and Martial Artists never declare (spontaneous)

Unresolved Declared Maneuvers are lost at end of round.

Declaration Tiers

Every Declared Maneuver has a tier (1-5) that sets its disruption DC and Stamina cost on failure:

Disruption

When you lose Vitality (a hit past your Vigor) before resolving a Declared Maneuver, make a disruption check:

Roll: d20 + relevant stat die + Tier vs DC (by declaration tier).

Success

Maintained, no cost

Failure

Spend Stamina equal to the tier to maintain, or lose it

Multiple hits: One check per hit that costs you Vitality, no matter how many points that hit cost. Three separate hits past your shield are three checks; one hit that takes three Vitality is one check.

Important: A hit your Vigor absorbs entirely cannot disrupt anything. Only a hit that reaches past the shield and costs you Vitality calls for a check. Declaring paints a target on you; your shield is what stands between your spell and their steel.

A Focus spell you have up is checked the same way (see Spellcasting).

Checks & Creative Actions

A Check is any active attempt, whether using trained abilities from skill trees or improvised creative actions. All checks use the dice pool system (see section 1).

What Triggers a Check:

• Using skill tree abilities
• Martial/mystic tree signature actions
• Throne abilities used creatively
• Any creative action outside normal combat rules

Check or save? A failed check can be bought out with stamina (section 4). A failed save cannot. The GM calls for saves outside combat as well as in it.

Check Tiers

Every check has a tier from 1 to 5. The tier belongs to the task, not to whoever attempts it, and it is the number of successes the check needs.

Deeds

What Are Deeds?

Deeds are narrative, interpretive actions from martial trees with flexible outcomes. Unlike tactical abilities (which give precise mechanical bonuses), deeds describe what your character can do in fiction.

Every martial tree grants two: its initial deed at rank 1 and its ultimate deed at rank 5.

What a Deed costs. An initial deed costs stamina equal to the tier you call: name a tier, up to your own Tier, and pay that much. An ultimate deed always costs 5 stamina and can be used once per encounter.

Why Martial Trees Have Both Deeds AND Tactical Abilities

The tactical abilities establish a baseline for power. When you know what one Vitality, one Vigor point, or +1 crit range is worth, you can measure deed effects against those concrete benchmarks. They are a guide for the table's call, not a fixed effect.

A Tier 2 deed should accomplish something roughly equivalent to a low-tier tactical effect. A Tier 4-5 deed should match an Ultimate. Tactical abilities are the ruler. Deeds are what you measure.

A martial Deed is a narrative tool, and what it does is up to interpretation. The tier of an initial deed is the tier you call. It sets the size of the effect on the Check Tiers table above, Basic at 1 up to Legendary at 5, and it cannot be higher than your own Tier. A Tier 3 character can spend 3 stamina for a Greater effect. An ultimate deed is tier 5, a Legendary effect, and needs Tier 5 to call. A martial Deed is not a check, so nothing is rolled and no Fate is earned.

Spellcasting

In-Combat Spellcasting

Declare

In the tactical phase. Casting is your Maneuver for the round (no Defend, Fortify, or Empower on a casting round).

Resolve

On your turn

Disruption

Can be disrupted by Vitality loss (see Declared Maneuvers above).

No check required - declare and resolve. Disruption is the risk.

What spells do: see the Magic Conversion table at the start of Part 4. A damaging spell deals the fixed number printed in its own entry on a failed save, 1 Vigor damage on a save (each target, for area effects). Healing heals Vitality equal to its tier, refills Vigor, or removes wounds (a wound is a lasting injury; removing one heals a real injury).

Sustaining a Focus spell: A spell with Duration: Focus lasts only while you sustain it. In each round after the one you cast it in, sustaining it is your Maneuver for the round, so on that round you cannot also declare a spell, Defend, Fortify, or Empower. You can sustain only one Focus spell at a time. Psions use their own Sustain rule (Part 4).

When a Focus spell ends: If you do not sustain it on a later round, it ends at the end of that round. Casting another Focus spell ends the one you have up as soon as the new spell takes effect. You can also let a Focus spell go at any time, which takes no action unless its entry says otherwise. While a Focus spell of yours is up, each hit that costs you Vitality calls for a disruption check at the spell's tier, exactly as for a Declared Maneuver: on a failure, spend Stamina equal to the spell's tier or the spell ends.

Out-of-Combat Spellcasting

When casting spells outside of combat, use the d20 system:

Roll: d20 + casting stat die + Tier vs DC (Tier 1-5: DC 11/13/15/17/19).

Success

Spell works, no Stamina cost

Failure

Spend [Spell Tier] stamina to succeed, or spell fails

Fate Points: 1 Fate point rerolls the d20 of the ability test, and the new roll stands, with the same modifiers and nothing added (see What Fate buys in section 1).

Spellcasting by Class

Wizard (Mind)

spellbook + preparation + interpretations. Declares.

Prophet (Faith)

prayers roll Faith dice, successes set the tier; litanies ride the shrinking litany die. Declares.

Druid (Sense)

aspects + attunement. Declares.

Invoker (Heart)

patron magic, all spells known. Declares.

Psion (Cunning)

manifests on their turn, never declares, keeps their Maneuver, immune to disruption. Not magic; unaffected by anti-magic.

Martial Artist (Body)

jutsus and primal spells, spontaneous, never declares.

Mystic Attack

All mystic trees except Martial Artist gain access to a basic ranged attack:

Mystic Attack: 120 ft range

• Attack: d20 + casting stat modifier vs AC
• On hit: roll your Tier die and deal that much Vigor damage (d4 at Tier 1 up to d12 at Tier 5). A critical hit rolls two Tier dice. Damage type appropriate to your class.
• Vigor damage never touches Vitality and never wounds, against anything. But a Minor's whole pool IS Vigor, so against Minors it is simply damage: the mystic attack grinds Major shields and clears mooks. Real damage against Majors comes from your spells.
• A missed mystic attack triggers your Glancing Blow (section 2) like any weapon attack.
• No declaration required. This is a standard attack action.