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5.14 Using Abilities

5.14.1 Magical and Mundane Abilities

Every ability is either magical ✨ or mundane. Magical abilities use Willpower to determine their power, while mundane abilities use Strength. If an ability has a ✨ next to its name, it is magical. Otherwise, it is mundane.

Some magical abilities can have effects that are mundane. If so, they will be described as mundane explicitly, and you use your mundane power instead of your magical power with the ability to determine its effects (see Ability Power). For example, the twisting claw spell causes you to make a mundane strike. That strike would use your mundane power, and it would be unable to affect intangible creatures. A monk with the ki energy ability would be able to convert that strike to be magical ✨ instead of mundane, just like they can convert any other mundane strike.

5.14.2 Ability Range

Many abilities only work within a particular distance from you. This maximum distance is called the ability’s range. There are five common ranges: Short (30 ft.) range, Medium (60 ft.) range, Long (90 ft.) range, Distant (120 ft.) range, and Extreme (180 ft.) range. Any ability with a range requires both line of sight and line of effect unless otherwise noted.

5.14.3 Ability Power

Many abilities reference your “power” without further explanation. That always means “your power with this ability”, which depends on whether the ability is magical ✨ or mundane. If you are using a magical ✨ ability, you use your magical power. Otherwise, you use your mundane power. For context about how your power is calculated, see Power.

5.14.4 Ability Choices

Most abilities require choices, such as which creatures or areas are affected. Some abilities also require choices unique to the ability, such as the weather pattern for control weather. You make all of these choices when you start using the ability, before resolving any part of its effects. For rituals, you make these choices when you start performing the ritual, not when you finish performing it.

5.14.5 Ability Usage Components

Some abilities require verbal components, somatic components, or both. To provide the verbal component for an ability, you must speak in a strong voice with a volume at least as loud as ordinary conversation. To provide the somatic component for an ability, you must make a precise series of movements with at least one free hand. These movements involve moving your arm in addition to your fingers, making them hard to conceal.

You cannot start using an ability without all required components. If you lose those components before the ability resolves, it fails with no effect.

5.14.6 Functioning Like Other Abilities

Many abilities say they “function like” some other ability, often with some noted changes. Except as otherwise noted, they retain all of the original effects and targets of the original ability. However, they do not have the same rank upgrades as the original ability, if any.

If you have any bonuses that specifically affect the original ability, those also affect abilities that function like it. For example, a Tactician fighter using the dogpile battle tactic gains a +2 accuracy bonus with the grapple ability. That accuracy bonus would also apply to the strangle maneuver, since that maneuver says it functions like grapple.

5.14.7 Touch Range

Some abilities affect creatures or objects that you touch. You can generally touch an adjacent creature as long as you have a free hand, even if it is an enemy, though this has no mechanical effect unless an ability says it does. Some creatures cannot be touched, such as incorporeal and intangible creatures.

5.14.8 Noticing Abilities

Using an ability normally requires some obvious effort or action on your character’s part. You can decide how your character uses abilities to fit their style and the tone of the game you are in. For example, one character might dramatically shout the names of their attacks, while another character might make trace runes in the air to cast their spells. A single character could also have multiple styles for their different abilities. The only general requirement is that it must be obvious to a casual observer that you are doing something, unless the ability is specifically Subtle.

Similarly, abilities normally have visual and/or auditory effects when used. You can also decide the style of these effects, with the requirement that they must obviously be the result of your character using an ability.

Spells and rituals have additional requirements that make them easier to notice and harder to use (see Spell and Ritual Mechanics).

5.14.9 Ability Targeting

Primary and Secondary Targets

Some abilities that affect multiple targets distinguish between their primary and secondary targets. For example, the chain lightning spell affects secondary targets within a small radius around a primary target. If an ability does not mention secondary targets, all of its targets are primary targets.

Unless otherwise specified, abilities have the same effect on their primary and secondary targets. However, line of effect for secondary targets is always measured from the primary target, rather than from the ability’s source. Line of sight is still measured from the ability’s source. This can allow you to hit secondary targets behind walls if you can still see them or otherwise target them, and if there is no obstacle separating from the primary target.

Adding Extra Targets

Many abilities are written as if they only affect one creature, so they use “the target” and similar wording in their descriptions. Through the use of Sweeping weapons, chaining spells, and other effects, it’s possible to make those abilities affect multiple targets. Unless the ability specifically differentiates between its primary and secondary targets, each target is affected in the same way as a single target would be. You can’t add a creature as an additional target if they were already targeted by the ability.

Invalid Targets

You can always attempt to use a targeted ability on an invalid target. For example, you can try to cast a healing spell on a rock if you want, even if the healing spell only affects living creatures. If the target is still invalid when the ability resolves, the ability has no effect on that target. However, it still affects any other targets of the ability normally.

Targets In Unknown Locations

You can try to use a targeted ability even if you don’t know exactly where your intended target is. To do so, describe your intended target, such as “the creature hiding somewhere in those bushes”, and choose a 5-foot square. If your chosen square contains your intended target, your ability has a 50% miss chance. At the GM’s discretion, choosing the wrong square or missing due to the miss chance may have unintended consequences, such as affecting a different valid target.

Targeting Proxies

Some effects allow you to use a creature, object, or location as a targeting proxy when using abilities. Unless otherwise stated, you must have both line of sight and line of effect to a targeting proxy to use it. When you use an ability through a targeting proxy, you determine the ability’s targets as if you were in the targeting proxy’s place. This affects line of effect for the ability, but not line of sight, since you still see from your normal location. As a result, the ability’s maximum range is measured from the targeting proxy rather than you. Cones and similar areas that would normally originate from you instead originate from the targeting proxy.

Abilities that require touch can be used through a physical targeting proxy. However, you can’t cause the proxy to move, so this only works the target is already touching the proxy.

Using a targeting proxy only changes the ability’s targets and area, not its effects. If an ability’s effects refer to “you” or “your location”, that still refers to you, not the targeting proxy.

5.14.10 Area Shapes

Cone: A cone extends from the point of origin in a quarter-hemisphere, up to the given length. A square is affected by a cone if it is within the cone’s 90 degree arc and all of the square’s points of intersection are no more than the cone’s length away from the cone’s point of origin.

Cylinder: A cylinder extends out from the point of origin in a circle, up to the given radius. Cylinders also have a specific height. Unless otherwise specified, a cylinder’s height is the same as its radius.

Line: A line extends from the point of origin in a straight line, up to the given length and width. Unless otherwise specified, the height of a line-shaped ability is equal to its width. The affected squares are chosen such that they stay close to the chosen line as possible. All squares affected by a line must be contiguous, so every square is adjacent to another affected square, treating diagonals as adjacent.

If a line-shaped effect has its area increased, only the length of the line increases unless otherwise noted. Its width and height are not affected. Vertical lines use “length” to refer to the vertical dimension, and “width” and “height” to refer to the two horizontal dimensions.

Sphere: A sphere extends from the point of origin in all directions. Any ability which only specifies a radius for its area is sphere-shaped.

Wall: A wall extends out from the point of origin in two dimensions equally, up to the given total length and height. A wall’s height is equal to half its length, to a minimum of 5 feet high. Narratively, all walls have a nonzero width. Mechanically, walls are considered to have no width and simply occupy the boundary between squares.

All squares affected by a wall must by contiguous, so every square is adjacent to another affected square, treating diagonals as adjacent.

The entire wall is considered to be a single object, and is attacked and destroyed as a single unit. All of a wall’s defenses are 0, but like other objects, they are immune to critical hits. Most abilities that create walls indicate how many hit points the wall has. If an ability does not specify a wall’s hit points, it does not have hit points and cannot be destroyed with damage.

If you create a wall within a space too small to hold it, it fills as much of the space as possible, starting from the middle of the chosen space. This can allow you to completely block off small tunnels.

Walls can normally be created within or adjacent to occupied squares, but not within solid objects. If a wall has hit points, it cannot be created inside the space of a single creature, but it can be created between two adjacent creatures. Walls without hit points can be created within the space occupied by a single creature, since they do not have physical substance.

Area Types

There are three common area types. If an area’s type is not mentioned, it is a burst.

If a burst or emanation is centered on a creature, it normally includes that creature. However, if it is centered on the creature using the ability, that creature can choose whether they are included when they use the ability.

Shapeable Areas

Some areas are shapeable, which means that you can change their shape within some constraints. What exactly it means for an area to be shapeable depends on the area’s original shape. In all cases, a shapeable area must still be a single contiguous shape that includes the area’s point of origin.

For example, you could convert a shapeable sphere into a cube or square, as long as the cube or square would fit entirely within the original area affected by the sphere.

5.14.11 Impossible Abilities

When you try to use an ability in an impossible way, it simply fails with no effect. This can happen if all targets are invalid, such as if you attempt to use an ability that only affects creatures on an object. An ability that has a mixture of valid and invalid targets will generally affect the valid targets normally while ignoring the invalid targets. However, if the ability changes its effects based on the number of targets or otherwise would rely on the invalid targets for its choices, such as a spell that swaps the positions of multiple creatures, the entire ability fails.

5.14.12 Combining Effects

Abilities do not generally affect the way another abilities function. However, sometimes multiple effects can be in conflict on a creature. If one effect makes another effect irrelevant or impossible, the latter effect is ignored. If two effects both conflict with each other, the most recent effect takes precedence, and the other is ignored. Unless otherwise noted, two different uses of the same ability are always considered to be conflicting with each other.

All abilities will still have as much of their effect as possible. It is possible for an ability to be partially effective in this way.

5.14.13 Suppressing Abilities

Abilities can be suppressed by effects such as the suppress magic spell. While an ability is suppressed, it has no effect. However, if it stops being suppressed, its effects continue as if they had not been interrupted.

5.14.14 Ability Tags

Many abilities have tags that describe the nature of the ability. Many of these tags have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how the ability interacts with spells, other abilities, unusual creatures, and so on. For a list of ability tags, see Ability Tags.

5.14.15 Dismissal

When an ability is dismissed, all of its lingering effects immediately end. Any magical ✨ ability with a duration can normally be dismissed, but mundane abilities cannot be dismissed. You can dismiss an ability as a free action that requires only mental effort.

5.14.16 Rank Upgrades

Many abilities automatically become more effective as your rank with a relevant archetype increases. Some abilities from feats have similar wording, but increase their power based on your level rather than your rank. Rank upgrades and level upgrades are always optional, so you can choose to use the ability as if your rank or level was lower.

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