Triggering a Critical Hit
Critical Hits do double damage.
A Critical Hit occurs under these conditions:
- Natural 20: Rolling a natural 20 on an attack roll.
- Restriction: Does not apply to spell attacks, only regular attacks (e.g., weapon strikes).
- AC + 10: Rolling equal to or greater than the target’s Armor Class + 10 on an attack roll.
- Restriction: Does not apply to spell attacks, only regular attacks.
- Elemental Weakness: Successfully exploiting the target’s Elemental Weakness.
- Applies to: Both regular attacks and spell attacks.
One More
Successfully landing a Critical Hit grants the attacker one additional Action on their current turn. This Action is a standard Action and can be used for any activity that normally costs an Action. It is not a free action, reaction, or special “Hasted” action.
You can use the Action yourself, or you can choose to Pass the Baton to an ally.
Knockdown (Prone/Downed) Status
Characters who are critically hit are knocked Prone (also referred to as “Downed”). Any sustain spells will be disrupted.
Rules for Downed Enemies
- While Prone, an enemy cannot suffer another Critical Hit. Exploiting weaknesses or rolling high against their AC will only result in normal damage while they are Downed.
- Standing Up requires the enemy to spend 1 Action.
- Critically Hitting a Downed Enemy: May cause them to stand up if they succeed on a Fortitude save. See Difficulty Classes for how DCs are determined.
- Resistance to Repeated Knockdowns: Each time an enemy is knocked down within the same encounter, they gain a cumulative +2 bonus to their Fortitude saves against subsequent effects that would knock them down.
Player Character Differences
Players handle critical hits and knockdowns differently:
- When an enemy critically hits a player, the player is not automatically knocked Prone. Instead, they must immediately roll a Fortitude save to resist being knocked down. See Saving Throws against Spells for the DC
- Luck Bonus: Add a flat bonus equal to the player’s Luck stat to this Fortitude save roll. There is no hard cap on this bonus.
Save Outcomes:
- ❗ Critical Success: Avoid being knocked down AND automatically succeed on the next Fortitude save against being knocked down in this encounter.
- ✅ Success: Avoid being knocked down.
- ❌ Failure: Knocked Prone/Downed.
- 💔 Critical Failure: Knocked Prone/Downed and become Frightened II.
Standing Up (Player):
- Costs 1 Action for the player to stand up themselves.
- An adjacent ally can use 1 Action to help the downed player stand up.
- Passing the Baton to an adjacent downed ally helps them stand up and grants them the passed Action. (This does not apply if the ally is Dying or Dead).
- Players also gain the cumulative +2 Fortitude save bonus against further knockdowns in the same encounter each time they are knocked down.
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- Related: Elemental Affinities, Stats, Baton Pass, Difficulty Classes