Combat

## The Engage Trinity

Combat is governed largely by three aspects: Finesse, Power, and Defense. When using the Engage Action in combat, the player must declare before rolling in which order they will distribute the focus on each aspect in their attack, ranking Finesse, Power, and Defense from lowest to highest. Then, the player rolls three d20 dice and assigns the rolls from lowest to highest.

*Finesse* determines a character's ability to circumvent defenses and accurately land strikes in gaps of armor, slipping past a parry, or hitting a fast moving target properly. You add your Dexterity stat to your *Finesse* roll. The *Finesse* roll is opposed by the target's *Defense* value, which can come from the *Defense* roll or passive bonuses such as Plate Armor. Your *Finesse* score on an Engage is equal to (*Finesse* roll+Dexterity Stat). Some weapons have a *Finesse Bonus* noted in the weapon's description. This value can be added to the *Finesse* roll.

*Power* determines a character's ability to inflict damage with their strikes, including raw power behind the strike, or technique such as a properly performed cut at an important body part. The *Power* roll is opposed by the target's *Toughness* value, which is a solid value that is not rolled for. The base damage dealt with an attack that hits normally is (*Power* roll+ Vigor Stat + Weapon Damage), with the target's *Toughness* stat subtracted from the score.

*Defense* determines a character's ability to deflect, evade, and parry blows. The *Defense* score opposes the *Finesse* roll of the opponent. Your *Defense* Score is equal to (*Defense* roll+Dexterity *or* Vigor). Your *Defense* score remains until the start of your next turn, at which point you either need to roll a new *Defense* with an Engage action, or be left more vulnerable with your Static Defense value.

*Static Defense* determines a character's ability to evade attacks when they aren't actively parrying and deflecting with their weapon. This value by default equals 10+Dexterity, but can accrue bonuses with Shields, Movement, Actions, and Feats.

Some Armors provide a passive Static Defense value, often lower than a rolled *Defense* score. If an attack would hit through your *Defense* roll but not through the Armor's Static Defense, it provides a *Toughness* boost. Only Armor in the Plate Armor category provides Passive Defense, and the *Toughness* boost is high.

*Toughness* is a trait that is not rolled with the Engage Action, but is a static value on a character. Your Toughness stat is equal to 10+Vigor, but certain Armors and Feats may provide Toughness bonuses.

Engage Actions

## Degrees of Success

Whether a hit, save, or ability check succeeds is not a purely binary occurrence, and rolls might produce different effects on various degrees of success. The degrees of success depend on how much lower or higher your roll is compared to the Save DC, Defense Score or Skill DC. The degrees of Success are as follows:

*Critical Success:* When you exceed the treshold by 10 or more.

*Success*: When you reach the treshold (equal or above by 9 or less)

*Failure*: When you fail to reach the treshold by 1 to 9.

*Critical Failure*: When you fail to reach the treshold by 10 or more.

On an Engage, a Critical Hit is scored on a Critical Success determined by your *Finesse* Score against the target's *Defense* score. On a *Critical Hit* you first calculate damage as usual, and then double it. Many weapons have a *Crit Rider* effect that is triggered with a *Critical Hit*, such as the *Brutal, Concussive, Trip, Rend,* and *Knockback* traits.

On an Engage, a Critical Failure is determined if your *Finesse* Score fails to meet the *Defense* score by 10 or more, which triggers an Opportunity Attack.

A Success on an Engage simply allows the attack to hit as normal, and a Failure causes it to miss.

## Attacks of Opportunity

Attacks of Opportunity are attacks made outside of your regular Engage action. As a rule, Attacks of Opportunity consist of two d20 rolls: *Finesse* and *Power*, with no Defense roll attached like a regular Engage. Attacks of Opportunity are provoked when an entity moves outside of your Melee Engage range, uses no Engage actions on its turn while in your Melee Engage range, or Critically Fails its *Finesse* score against your *Defense* score. Attacks of Opportunity can be prevented in several ways, like certain Movement options that provide penalties on AoO's against you, or prevent them from triggering entirely. Some feats may give other ways of countering Attacks of Opportunity.

## Hit Points, Healing , and Death

Your character has an amount of Hit Points determined by its Archetype and Vigor stat, possibly supplemented with some Feats. Your pool of Hit Points determines your character's ability to keep going in combat, representing their physical endurance, stamina and physical state. Your upper half of Hit Points is easily recoverable; it represents regaining your stamina after intense battle, and patching up surface wounds. Effects that heal HP, such as Medicine skills, healing Miracles, Spells, and Potions, all have a trait that shows whether they perform Lower or Higher healing. Lower Healing only heals the upper half of HP, while Higher Healing also heals the base half. If your HP is below half, Lower Healing only heals half as much and cannot heal more than half of your total HP. Resting heals only for Lower Healing, unless you and at least one other character uses Rest Actions for Treating Wounds.

When you reach 0 HP, you enter a state of Dying