The environment can have a significant effect on combat. For simplicity environmental effects are broken down into three categories: Cover, Light level, and Verticality.
7.1 Cover
Cover is any obstacle between an attacker and a target. Cover is expressed in three levels. Each increasing level of cover makes attacking a target more difficult.
| Cover | |
|---|---|
| Level | Effect |
| 1 | -1 to attacks |
| 2 | -2 to attacks |
| 3 | Total cover |
| NOTES | |
| Total Cover. Cannot be directly targeted by [ATTACK] or [TARGET] actions. Can still be a target in an area of effect. | |
To determine how many levels of cover are benefiting a target draw a line between the attacker and the target and count the number of obstacles between the two. Obstacles can be anything that blocks line of sight between the target and the attacker. Partial obstacles provide one level of cover, while total obstacles provide total cover. Some examples of partial obstacles are:
- Other creatures, including your allies
- Low walls or stones
- Trees and brush
- Peeking around a corner
Some examples of total obstacles are:
- A high wall or large boulders
- Being inside a building
- Dense brush
If you can draw an unbroken line between any part of the attacker to any part of the target the obstacle is partial cover.
7.2 Light Level and Vision
Light plays an important role in the battlefield. Many locations that player may find themselves in are poorly lit or not lit at all. Creatures and characters have different levels of vision, which allows them to see better in different lighting conditions.
Light conditions are broken into four levels:
- Dark. No light at all, completely pitch black. Typical for an unlit cavern, a moonless night, or a windowless room with no light source.
- Dim. Weakly lit, shadowy. Typical for candlelight, torchlight, or a moonlit night.
- Bright. Well lit. Typical for daytime or a well lit room.
- Radiant. Too bright, harsh lighting. Produced by some spells or midday sun in the desert.
Corresponding levels of vision are:
- Darksight. Sees comfortably in pitch black darkness.
- Dimsight. Sees comfortably in dim lighting.
- Normal sight. Sees comfortably in bright lighting.
Trying to attack a target in adverse lighting conditions imposes levels of cover. The table below breaks down the interaction between sight and lighting level.
| Light | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Level | Normal sight | Dimsight | Darksight |
| Dark | Total Cover | 1 | None |
| Dim | 1 | None | 1 |
| Bright | None | 1 | 2 |
| Radiant | 1 | 2 | Total Cover |
Darkness and Sanity Damage
Being attacked in the pitch dark is a terrifying experience. If you take Sanity damage while the combination of vision and light level grants total cover to all targets you are vulnerable to Sanity damage.
7.3 Verticality
Achieving a height advantage makes it easier to land attacks against your target. Conversely, attacking from below makes it more difficult to land your attacks.
- If you are attacking a target below you, add 1 to your attack roll.
- If you are attacking a target above you, subtract 1 from your attack roll.
7.4 Creature Size
Creature size is a trait that provides certain benefits and downsides. Typically creatures do not change size, but some spells or other effects may increase or decrease a creature’s size.
- [TINY]. Small enough to put in a pocket. A fairy, a typical fish, or a bird.
- [SMALL]. Much shorter than a typical human. A halfling, a medium sized dog, or a human child.
- [MEDIUM]. A typical human. An orc, a wolf, or a sheep.
- [LARGE]. Towers well over a typical human. Ogres, trolls, or lycans.
- [HUGE]. Much larger than a wagon. Giants, wyverns, or an adult dragon
- [COLOSSAL]. As big a house or larger. Elder dragons, sea monsters, or siege towers.
If a creature changes size, apply the effects from the table below. For each size above [LARGE], increase the magnitude of the effects by 1.
| Size | [TINY] | [SMALL] | [MEDIUM] | [LARGE] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Movement Speed | -1″ | -1″ | None | +1″ |
| Dodge Check DC | -2 | -1 | None | +1 |
| Health Check DC | 1 | None | None | -1 |
| Melee attack damage | -1 | None | None | +1 |
| [REND] on melee attacks | None | None | None | +1 |
| Range on melee attacks | None | None | None | +1″ |
If a creature attacks a smaller target, the difference in size counts as a vertical advantage.
7.5 Conditions
Some common combat conditions are discussed here:
- Blinded. The creature cannot make attacks at any range greater than 1″.
- Attacks hit on a 6+.
- Prone. A creature that on the ground.
- Melee attacks against the creature have +1 to hit, while the creature has -1 to hit.
- Surrounded. A creature is surrounded by two or more enemies.
- The enemies must be opposite of each other.
- Attacks against a surrounded creature have +1 to hit.
- Invisible. The creature cannot be seen.
- An invisible creature cannot be targeted by attacks at any range greater than 1″.
- An invisible creature cannot be targeted by a [TARGET] spell, but can still be effected by an area spell (such as [SPHERE] or [LINE] spells).
- Attacks within 1″ only hit on a 6+.
- An invisible creature has reroll 2’s on Stealth checks.
- An invisible creature has +1 to attacks against a target that cannot see it.
MAXIMUM Condition MODIFIERS
As always any roll will always succeed on a 6 and always fail on a 1. Condition modifiers cannot change this.
For simplicity, the maximum number of condition and environmental modifiers that can apply to any creature is two. In the case where multiple conditions apply, choose the largest negative and largest positive modifier and combine them to find the functional modifier.