5.1 Making Attacks

When you try to use an ability to affect an enemy, you will generally need to make at least one attack to see if the ability hits.

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.

5.1.2 Attack Results

There are four possible outcomes for an attack: a glancing blow, a miss, a critical hit, and a regular hit. You check the outcomes in that order. This means that if an attack misses, it cannot also get a critical hit, even if you have large accuracy bonuses that only apply to critical hits.

Glancing Blows

If you make a damaging attack with an attack result is 1 or 2 lower than the target’s defense, you get 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.

Misses

If your attack result is lower than the target’s defense, it is a miss. An ability that misses a target typically has no effect on that target. Some area abilities say they deal half damage on 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.

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.