Attacking#

Hitting what you swing at

Roll a d20 and add your Dexterity modifier and your training with the weapon. Meet or beat the target’s Defense and you hit. A roll in your weapon’s critical range hits harder, a natural 20 always hits and buys you a feat, and a natural 1 always misses and goes wrong.

The attack roll#

To hit, roll a d20 and add these:

Your Dexterity modifier

Quick hands land more blows, whatever the weapon.

Your training

The efficacy of the proficiency that lets you use the weapon, divided by 10 and rounded down: 0 for a beginner, 10 at 100. With a weapon you have no proficiency for, take 5 off instead.

Anything that adds to hit

Spells, stances and shouts that say so, like a page's attack shout (+5).

Meet or beat the target’s Defense and you hit. A creature’s Defense is the AC on its Creatures entry. Each point you add is 5% more to hit.

Why your level doesn’t add

Your level never adds to an attack roll. You get better at hitting through training and Dexterity, while creatures get harder to hit as their level rises. A level 60 creature has AC 20, and a level 60 character with Dexterity 18 and 100 efficacy hits it three times in four.

Bows and thrown weapons#

A shot or a throw is an attack roll like any other, at anyone you can see. Spend a turn aiming first and add 2.

Arrows and thrown weapons get past parries, shields and dodges: against a shot, a target’s Defense is only their Natural AC and Dexterity modifier.

An arrow or thrown weapon that hits breaks half the time. One that misses can be picked up again four times in five.

Critical blows#

Every weapon has a critical range on the d20, the rolls that are critical if they hit. A 5% weapon crits on a 20, a 15% one on 18 to 20, and a halberd’s 50% on anything from 11 up. The Weapons tables give each weapon’s chance, and this table sorts them by range.

A critical rolls the weapon’s damage die, multiplies it by the weapon’s multiplier and adds its critical bonus, then adds your Strength modifier, craftsmanship and magic as any hit does. A broadsword (1d8, ×2, +3) that rolls a 5 does 13 before the rest. Bare hands and natural attacks crit only on a natural 20, for double the die.

A natural 20#

A natural 20 always hits, whatever the Defense, and it’s always a critical. It also buys a feat: one thing more on top of the hit, against the foe or one beside it, with no roll and no cost. Pick one, or ask the storyteller for something better.

Knock them down

They fall, and spend their next turn getting up.

Take their weapon

It flies out of their hand. They fight bare-handed until they spend a turn picking it up.

Drive them back

They stagger out of reach. The friend they were fighting gets free, or they go over the edge they were standing at.

Stagger them

They lose their next turn.

The impossible

Cut the rope the bridge hangs from, leap onto the beast's back, split the shield and the arm behind it. The storyteller says yes, or offers something close.

A natural 1#

A natural 1 always misses, and something goes wrong. Roll a d6. Most of these cost you your footing rather than your health, so a 1 is always a bad moment but seldom the end of you. The 6 is the one the table talks about afterwards.

Once a round

A character fumbles at most once a round, and any other natural 1 that round just misses. Otherwise a fighter with four swings would fumble four times as often as a beginner.

Damage#

When you hit, roll the weapon’s damage die and add what fits the blow:

A weapon in hand

Your Strength modifier, the weapon's craftsmanship and any magic that adds damage.

A bow

Your Dexterity modifier in place of Strength.

A thrown weapon

Your Strength modifier, as in hand.

Bare hands

Your race's unarmed die, or your class's if it fights bare-handed, and your Strength modifier. A class that fights bare-handed never loses anything for low Strength.

The off hand

A blow from the weapon in your off hand does half.

Craftsmanship adds from 0 for trash to 11 for masterwork.

Then the target’s armor takes its share. Their AC against the blow’s kind of damage, divided by 10, is the percentage it takes off, rounded down and never more than 90% (Armor). A blow always does at least 1. A creature’s hide is already in its AC, so creatures take damage whole.

More than one blow#

Most characters swing once a turn. Extra attacks from your class add more: at the start of your turn, roll a d20 for each one you have, and each roll that makes its number is another swing, at the same foe or another in reach.

With a weapon in your off hand and the dual wielding proficiency, roll a d20 for it too: on 8 or more you swing it as well, for half damage. Haste gives one more swing, no roll needed.

The level each class learns each extra attack at:

	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth
Headhunter	7	18	32	60	82
Page	14	30	45	68	·
Plainsman	7	18	32	60	82
Pickpocket	15	32	65	·	·
Woodsman	14	30	45	68	·
Mageling	30	52	·	·	·
Elementalist	15	27	50	75	·
Runescribe	16	30	45	66	·
Gravedigger	30	65	·	·	·
Priest	24	47	·	·	·
Hermit	24	47	·	·	·
Minstrel	20	37	·	·	·

Rolling a blow#

Give the roller your attack bonus, the target’s Defense, your weapon and what you add to its damage. It works out the odds, then rolls the blow the way the game would tell it.