Quick Reference

Each combat round follows this sequence:

The enemies always go first. The Enemy Tactical Phase opens every round, with or without an enemy leader. Monsters name their maneuvers and declarations where the table can hear them, and the players then pick knowing what is coming. A harmful maneuver does not resolve here: it waits for that monster's own turn, where it takes the place of one of its attacks (Part 7B).

Vigor is full at the start of the fight and regenerates or drains at the start of each combatant's own turn, not in the tactical phase (see Vigor, section 2).

d8 + Mind die

Critical: Initiative is rerolled at the end of each round, not just once at start.

Each turn you get:

• ONE action - Attack, resolve a Declared Maneuver, Dodge, Sprint, Help, etc.
• ONE movement - 30 ft, can split before/after action
• ONE reaction - Opportunity attack or triggered ability

NO bonus actions. Abilities either replace your action, cost nothing, or use your reaction.

These require NO declaration. Decide and execute on your turn. Cannot be disrupted.

• Base: 30 feet per turn
• Splitting: Can move before and after your action
• Sprint: Use your action to move an additional 30 feet (total 60 feet)
• Difficult Terrain: Costs 2 feet per foot moved

• Limit: ONE reaction per round
• Opportunity Attacks: When an enemy leaves your reach without disengaging
• Triggered Abilities: Some abilities trigger on specific events

Opportunity Attack: When an enemy you can see leaves your reach without taking the Disengage action, you may make one melee attack against them as a reaction.

Attack Roll:

d20 + stat modifier (from martial or mystic tree) + weapon bonus vs AC

Which stat? Your martial or mystic tree's associated stat:

• Body trees (Brawler, Guardian, Titan, etc.)
• Cunning trees (Assassin, Skirmisher, Opportunist)
• Mind trees (Swordmaster, Tactician, Wizard)
• Sense trees (Aspect Warrior, Stalwart, Druid)
• Heart trees (Commander, Champion, Invoker)
• Fate trees (Fortunate, Destined, Inquisitor)

Untrained (no martial or mystic tree): Use Body modifier (melee) or Cunning modifier (ranged). No tactics, no tree effects.

Armor base + Sense modifier

Tier is NOT added to AC. Unarmored is 10 + Sense. Light armor 11 + Sense (full Vigor); Medium armor 12 + Sense (-1 Vigor cap); Heavy armor 13 + Sense (-2 Vigor cap); a Shield is +1 AC. Heavier armor raises AC but its rigidity shrinks your Vigor shield: light armor and Sense-based dodging keep your full shield, plate trades some away for protection. Armor no longer taxes Stamina; its cost is Vigor.

Melee

Reach is 5 feet unless weapon or ability says otherwise

Ranged

Each weapon lists its normal range and long range

• Normal range: No penalty
• Long range: Disadvantage on attack
• Beyond long range: Cannot attack

Cover: Provides +2 AC (half cover) or +5 AC (three-quarters cover)

Firing Through Allies: Ranged weapon attacks (bows, thrown weapons, etc.) are affected by creatures in the line of fire:

• 1 creature in the way: Disadvantage on attack. On a natural 1, you hit that creature instead of your target.
• 2+ creatures in the way: Cannot attack that target.
• Mystic attacks and spells: Not affected by this rule.

The die ladder is always the standard one: d4 / d6 / d8 / d10 / d12 for Tiers 1-5.

• Major hit = roll your Tier die. The target takes that much Damage.
• Major critical hit = roll TWO Tier dice (a natural roll in your crit range).
• Minor hit = flat points equal to Tier. No roll. Minors are the metronome: steady, predictable pressure.
• Minor critical hit (natural 20 only) = roll the Tier die, floored at the flat value. A crit is never worse than a normal hit.
• Some abilities add points, deal Vigor damage, or attach conditions. Flat riders ("+1 point on a hit") stay flat.
• Only the largest flat rider applies to a hit. When more than one would add points to the same hit, use the largest and ignore the rest.
• A hit rolls at most one extra Tier die, however many abilities offer one.

When a Major MISSES with a weapon attack or mystic attack, they may deal Vigor damage to one target within the attack's range. Body sets how much:

• Positive Body die (Body 12+): roll the Body die and deal the result as Vigor damage.
• No Body die (Body 10-11): deal a flat 1 Vigor damage.
• Negative Body die (Body 9 or less): nothing; no Glancing Blow.

The default target is the one you missed, but any target within the attack's range is legal. A miss still grinds shields; Body sets how hard.

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.

Hits keep a descriptor from their source (slashing, fire, psychic, holy...).

• Resistance: hits of that type deal 1 less point (minimum 0).
• Immunity: hits of that type have no effect.
• Vulnerability: hits of that type deal 1 more point.

Every point of Damage moves through three layers, in order:

1. Vigor - the shield. Absorbs Damage first, 1 point per point. Vigor damage stops here: it never spills past this layer.
2. Vitality - the pool. Each point of Damage past Vigor removes 1 Vitality.
3. Wounds (players only) - a hit that takes you to 0 Vitality or past it costs a wound: a lasting injury, rolled on d20 plus however far past 0 the hit reached (31 or more kills you). You catch a Second Wind, staying conscious and fighting with your Vitality AND Vigor both back at full, and the rest of that hit is negated. With no wound left to spend, you die.

What it is: A shield of battle focus and fighting spirit. Each point negates one incoming point of harm.

Cap: Tier + your Heart modifier (minimum 0). Heart sets how large your shield can grow. A negative Heart modifier can leave a low-Tier character with little or no shield; a high Heart makes for a deep one.

Generation:

• Start every combat with full Vigor (= your cap)
• At the start of each of your turns in combat, regain Vigor equal to your Heart modifier, up to your cap. There is no roll. At Heart 10 or 11 you regain nothing
• With a negative Heart modifier you lose 1 Vigor at the start of each of your turns instead. Outside combat nothing drains
• NPCs differ (Part 7B): a Major or Sovereign regains 1 if its Heart modifier is positive and loses 1 if it is negative. Minors and retainers do not regenerate
• Vigor from abilities (Fortify rolls your Tier die, Rally, tree effects) still respects the cap

Special:

• Losing Vigor does NOT trigger disruption of Declared Maneuvers. A hit the shield absorbs entirely cannot disrupt anything
• Only Vitality loss (a hit past your Vigor) counts for disruption, and one such hit means one check however many Vitality it cost

What it is: Your capacity to keep fighting while hurt.

Vitality = 3 + Tier

Each point of Damage past your Vigor removes 1 Vitality. Vitality is battle damage: it returns in full on a Rest, and a Recovery can trade 2 Stamina for 1 Vitality.

A wound IS a lasting injury. Vitality is battle damage that returns on a Rest; a wound is what a hit costs you when it takes you to 0 Vitality or past it (you are hurt but standing, and both pools refill: see Second Wind above). You can carry wounds equal to your Tier + 1; with no wound left to spend, you die.

A wound carries no penalty to your rolls, except a poison wound (below). What it costs you is a slot, and a slot is a life. Carrying wounds does not make you worse at your job; it makes you closer to the end.

A lost part stops what it stops. The GM rules what you can no longer do without it. Restore the Maimed gives it back.

A character dies the moment they would take a wound and have none left to spend, or rolls 31 or more on an injury roll. There is no dying state, no death timer, and no stabilization: the wound track IS the countdown, and it is visible to everyone at the table.

What this means in play:

• Help has to arrive before the killing blow, not after it
• Clearing a wound (Treatment or wound-removal magic) gives back a slot, and a slot is a life
• A character at capacity should be played like it: they are one hit to 0 Vitality from the end

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.

Every Declared Maneuver carries a tier from 1 to 5. The DC it sets and the Stamina a failed check costs are in Tier DCs.

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).

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.

Tier determines:

• Dice pool size (add Tier dice to skill/checks)
• Successes needed on a check: set by the tier of the task (1-5), not by your own Tier
• Attack rolls (d20 + stat modifier + weapon bonus, no Tier)
• Saves (d20 + stat die + Fate die + Tier)
• Vigor cap (Tier + Heart modifier)
• Damage on a hit (your Tier die: d4 / d6 / d8 / d10 / d12 for Tiers 1-5)

Roll [Stat modifier + Tier] d6s. Count successes:

• 1: Lose 1 stamina, gain 1 Fate point. With no stamina to lose, a 1 costs nothing and pays no Fate
• 2-4: Nothing
• 5: Success
• 6: Success + roll another die (explosion)

Need successes equal to the tier of the task to pass, not your own Tier. The GM names the task's tier, from 1 (Basic) to 5 (Legendary), using the Check Tiers table (section 3). Where a rule or an ability gives its own number of successes, use that.

Negative Stats: If your stat modifier is negative, roll only Tier dice and successes require a 6. A +0 modifier is not a penalty: at a stat of 10-11 you roll your [0 + Tier] pool and succeed on 5+ as normal.

Fate Points: Spend 1 Fate point before rolling to add 1 die to your pool. Can spend multiple, but commit them all before you roll, then roll the bigger pool. You begin every session with 3: this is your session Fate, and what is left of it when the session ends is gone. Fate you gain in play, from 1s on checks and from the GM's awards, is earned Fate. Both spend the same way, and session Fate is spent first.

What Fate buys:

• Dice on a check: 1 Fate adds 1 die to your pool, spent before you roll
• Throne abilities: 1 Fate for a Base ability, 3 for an Improved one
• Stamina: In a Recovery, 1 Fate buys 1 Stamina (section 4)
• Rerolls: 1 Fate point rerolls any d20 you roll, and the new roll stands, with the same modifiers and nothing added. It works on attack rolls, saves, ability tests, disruption checks and injury rolls. Only the d20 is rolled again, and the other dice you rolled stand. At advantage or disadvantage you roll both d20s again and keep the higher or the lower, as before. You can pay again to reroll the new roll

Only player characters have Fate points: the d20s you roll for a retainer or a follower cannot be rerolled with them.

Destiny: At a Rest, the earned Fate you have not spent becomes Destiny. Destiny is spent in downtime (Part 8): gaining a level costs at least 1, and Destiny buys bonuses to the Adventure roll. You do not have to spend it unless you are gaining a level. It resets to 0 when you gain a level, not when downtime ends. It cannot be spent as Fate.

GM Option - Narrative Consequences: When a player rolls 1s on a check, the GM can replace the standard stamina cost with a more fitting narrative consequence instead. The "1" represents something going wrong - this could be stamina loss, or it could be a broken lockpick, a torn rope, alerting a guard, or any other setback appropriate to the situation. The player still gains the Fate point. This keeps the fiction dynamic and responsive to context.

Roll d20 + the save stat's die + your Fate die + your Tier, plus any bonus, against the DC. Player characters and Minors add their Tier. A total equal to the DC passes.

DC by effect tier:

Key Differences from Checks:

• A save is one d20 roll, not a dice pool. There are no successes to count, no 1s to pay stamina for, no dice to buy, and no buyout: a failed save cannot be bought with stamina (saves are reactive, not active effort)
• Fate rides along on every save. On a Fate save you roll the Fate die once as the save stat; it is not added twice
• Fate buys no dice for a save, but 1 Fate point rerolls its d20 like any other (What Fate buys, above). The save stat's die and the Fate die you rolled stand
• Advantage: roll 2d20 and keep the higher. Disadvantage: roll 2d20 and keep the lower. Both at once cancel. Exhaustion forces disadvantage on every save

The Six Saves:

• Body: Poison, disease, exhaustion
• Mind: Illusions, arcane effects, knowledge-based deceptions
• Sense: Divine/primal magic, curses
• Heart: Fear, despair, domination
• Cunning: Dodging, traps, feints, misdirection, pickpocket attempts
• Fate: Death effects, destiny manipulation

Advantage and disadvantage work one way on a dice pool and another way on a d20.

On a dice pool check:

• Advantage: Succeed on 4+ (50% per die)
• Normal: Succeed on 5+ (33% per die)
• Disadvantage: Succeed on 6 only (17% per die)

On a d20 roll (attack rolls, saves, ability tests, disruption checks):

• Advantage: Roll 2d20 and keep the higher
• Disadvantage: Roll 2d20 and keep the lower

If you have both, they cancel (normal). Multiple sources don't stack.

You can still use abilities that cost no Stamina. An ability with a Stamina cost needs the Stamina: with none to spend, it is simply unavailable. The ladder below covers failed checks only. However:

On a failed check:

• Normal: Spend stamina to succeed
• At 0 stamina: Failure causes exhaustion instead, even if you would have spent more stamina than you have.
• At 0 stamina with exhaustion: Failure costs 1 Vitality, however much stamina you would have spent. Vigor does not absorb it, and if it takes you to 0 Vitality it costs a wound like any other hit.

Exhaustion Effects:

• Roll all checks, attack rolls, tests, and saves at disadvantage

Recovering from Exhaustion:

• Rest: Removes exhaustion

Critical: Stamina does NOT recover from Recoveries beyond the Fate exchange below. Only rests restore stamina freely.

Requires:

• 8 hours of rest
• 1 ration consumed
• Relatively safe location (when traveling, a Sheltered or Secured camp, or a living settlement: see Camp in section 6)
• No more than one Rest a day

Benefits:

• Restore ALL Vitality
• Restore ALL Stamina
• Remove exhaustion
• Remove non-permanent conditions
• Earned Fate you have not spent becomes Destiny (see Destiny in section 1)
• Under a healer, one light wound closes (below)

A Rest by itself closes no wound. A healer with proper tools can close one light wound per patient over a Rest: Healing 2 for Severity 1, Healing 4 for Severity 2. A middle wound takes a month of downtime and the worst a litany (see Lasting Injuries in section 5).

Spend resources to patch up:

• 1 Fate: Recover 1 Stamina
• 2 Stamina: Restore 1 Vitality
• 1 Stamina: Reduce Attunement by 1 (Druid)

Vigor refills automatically at the start of each combat.