5.1 Making Attacks
5.1.1 Attack Rolls
To make an attack, roll 1d10 and add your accuracy with the attack. Each attack specifies one or more relevant defenses which are used to avoid the attack. There are four defenses: Armor, Fortitude, Reflex, and Mental. Most attacks are made against exactly one defense, which is indicated in the attack’s description.
Exploding Attacks
When you make an attack roll, if you roll a 10 on the d10, the die explodes. That means you roll it again and add both values to determine your total. If you roll a 10 on the extra roll, you keep rolling until it stops exploding and add all of the rolls together.
The number you need to roll to explode is called your explosion target. It is normally 10, but some effects can reduce your explosion target. For example, if your explosion target is reduced by 2, you explode when you roll an 8, 9, or 10. Effects which reduce your explosion target do not affect bonus dice rolled for exploding attacks.
5.1.2 Attack Results
There are four possible outcomes for an attack: a critical hit, a regular hit, a glancing blow, and a miss.
Critical Hits
If your attack result is at least 10 higher than the target’s defense, your attack is a critical hit against that target. Unless otherwise specified, all damaging attacks deal double damage on a critical hit. Some non-damaging attacks also have special effects on a critical hit.
For every additional increment of 10 by which you beat the target’s defense, the effect of a critical hit is repeated, if applicable. For example, if you get a double critical with attack that has a critical hit effect of “The condition must be removed an additional time.”, the condition must be removed two additional times. As normal, two doublings become a tripling, so a double critical hit with a damaging attack would roll triple the damage dice.
The damage multiplier from a critical hit is multiplicative with all other damage modifiers, including attacks that say they deal double damage. Typically, you roll damage dice twice for a critical hit and sum both results, along with doubling any flat modifiers. If this would require you to roll an inconveniently large number of dice, you can just multiply the result from your normal damage dice instead.
Regular Hits
If your attack result is at least as high as the target’s defense, but less than 10 higher than that defense, your attack is a regular hit against that target. It has its normal effect.
Glancing Blows
If your attack result is 1 or 2 lower than the target’s defense with a damaging attack, your attack is a glancing blow against that target. Unless otherwise specified, all damaging attacks deal half damage on a glancing blow. They also do not have any special effects other than immediate damage, unless those effects would also happen on a miss. Non-damaging attacks cannot cause glancing blows.
A glancing blow is neither a hit nor a miss. However, some abilities trigger on both glancing blows and missed attacks, such as a hardblock shield.