Critical Hits

This article provides an in-depth explanation of critical hits.

## Critical Protection

By default, a character has a critical threat range of 14 to 20. That is to say an opponent scores a critical hit on a natural roll within this range when attacking the character in question. This range is increased or decreased depending on a variety of factors. An important thing to note is that bonuses **decrease**the critical range (making critical hits less likely), and penalties **increase**the critical range (making critical hits more likely).

1: In these cases, the range is still limited to a natural 20. The numbers above 20 simply make calculating reductions easier. For instance, a character has a +9 (23) against piercing attacks, and an opponent's Skill and weapon allows them to reduce the protection by 5. A player simply needs to subtract 5 from 23 in order to get 18: the minimum they would need to roll in order to score a critical hit.

A character's critical protection is calculated in the following order:

1. Armour
2. Skill
3. Other bonuses and penalties
4. Opponent's Skill, bonuses and penalties

### Armour

Because there is a limit to how much critical protection armour can give, it is calculated first.

Default critical hit protection limits
 Pierce
 Impact

These limits can be increased through the effects of Hard Helm and Extra Protection .

Hard limits on the amount of critical protection armour can offer

 Pierce
 Strike

1: A character with a slash critical protection of +7 or higher is immune slash critical hits. If a character is fully immune to slash critical hits due to their armour, no amount of skill can make them vulnerable.

If a character is not wearing a helmet, their critical threat range defaults to 12-20, and they incur additional penalties.

### Skill

A character's Critical Protection is increased by their Skill modifier. Unlike armour, the bonus to Critical Protection for Skill is theoretically unlimited.

For example, an unarmoured character with a Skill of 16 (+3 modifier) would have a critical threat range of 17 to 20.

### Opponent

After determining a character's Critical Protection, it is further modified by the attacker's abilities.

#### Scale Bonus

First, determine a character's Scale Bonus. A scale bonus is the bonus given to a weapon's damage and critical threat range from its scaling, before applying a bonus for wielding two-handed.

For example: A character has 14 strength  and 14 dexterity (+2 modifiers), and is weilding a longsword, which equally scales off both strength and dexterity. The scale bonus would be +4.

#### Total

This bonus is limited by the attacker's Skill modifier. If the above character had 16 Skill (for a +3 modifier), they would recieve a +3 to Critical Hits, meaning their target's critical threat range would be increased by 3.

## Critical Effects

When a critical hit is scored, a number of things happen:

* This attack ignores the damage reduction offered by armour.
* The damage dice are rolled twice, and the higher result is taken. For one-handed weapons, the scaling modifier is multiplied by two. For two-handed weapons, the scaling value is multiplied by three.
* For every three points of damage inflicted (rounded down), the target receives one point in either Bleed, Fracture, or Wound, depending on whether the attack deals Slashing, Strike, or Piercing damage, respectively.

### Slashing

Bleed is inflicted by critical hits made with attacks that deal slashing damage. During upkeep, a character loses one hitpoint for each point in Bleed they have.

### Piercing

Wounds are inflicted by critical hits made with attacks that deal piercing damage. For each point in Wound, a character's maximum hitpoints are reduced by 2.

### Strike

Fractures are inflicted by critical hits made with attacks that deal strike damage. For each point in Fracture, a character takes a cumulative -2 to base initiative.

### Spike

For the purpose of determining critical threat range, apply the target's Pierce Protection.

On a critical hit, roll 1d8. If the equipment occupying the armour slot corresponding to the die result posesses the Plate keyword, a puncture is inflicted on that piece of equipment. Otherwise, treat the critical as if it were made with a strinking weapon.

Puncture is a condition which applies to pieces of armour with the *plate*keyword. Whenever a character wearing a piece of armour with this condition takes an action other than moving or turning, the following occurs:

* The character takes 1d4 points of damage, minus their Padding rating.

This is applied for *each*piece of equipment the character is wearing.

### Head Trauma

A character is at risk of head trauma whenever any of the following occur:

* A character who **is not** wearing a helmet is subject to a critical hit
* A character who **is** wearing a helmet is subject to a critical hit scored on a natural 20 with a **non-slashing** attack

In these cases, the attacker rolls 1d8, as if they were rolling for the effects of Spike. On a roll of 2 through 8, the critical hit applies normally. On a roll of 1, however, additional effects apply. The defending character must roll 1d20.

* If they roll equal to or under their Constitution score, they are stunned until the following upkeep
* If they roll over their Constitution score, their hitpoints are reduced to -1, and must roll again.
* If they roll over their Constitution score a second time, the charcter dies.