Character stats are a measure of the physical, mental, and emotional attributes of your character. Most character stats have both an Active Use and a Passive Use. Active Uses typically result in Stat Test or Stat Roll-offs, while Passive Uses generally modify other elements of your character or are used to calculate resources for various class mechanics. There are ten main character stats, however movement can in some ways also be considered a character stat, and is therefore included here. Character stats are a number between 0 and 20, and cannot naturally exceed 20.
Contents
Character Stats
Strength
Strength (STR) is a relative measurement of physical strength in relation to the size of the character or creature. As a relative measurement, its important to note that a human with strength 20 is not equally as strong as Dragon with Strength 20.
Active Use: lifting, carrying, or moving heavy objects; physically over-powering or restraining a target; physical intimidation of a target; smashing/breaking physical objects; etc…
Passive Use: Melee physical damage modifier, range for thrown weapons, backpack carrying capacity, Vigor class resource
| Strength | Combat Modifier |
| 20 | +3 melee/thrown physical damage |
| 18-19 | +2 melee/thrown physical damage |
| 15-17 | +1 melee/thrown physical damage |
| 8-14 | no modifier |
| 4-7 | -1 melee/thrown physical damage |
| 1-3 | -2 melee/thrown physical damage |
Agility
Agility (AGIL) is a broad measurement of a variety of physical attributes such as fine motor skills, dexterity, coordination, balance, and hand-eye coordination.
Active Use: climbing up or down difficult terrain; jumping over large gaps; squeezing through a tight space in a hurry; careful placement of a an object to avoid triggering an alarm or trap; complex physical actions such as rolling behind cover and picking up a weapon at the same time; etc…
Passive Use: Physical Melee hit rating, physical melee critical hit rating, Stealth resource
| Combat Modifier | Formula |
| Physical melee hit rating | Agility-10 = +/- to hit |
| Physical melee crit rating | Agility/3 = Melee Crit % |
Stamina
Stamina (STAM) is a stat that encompasses physical attributes such as endurance, fortitude, mass (also relative to size), health, toughness, and hardiness.
Active Use: using your size to block or impede someone’s movements; resistance to succumbing to illness (i.e. puking after eating rotten food); running past the point of exhaustion; etc…
Passive Use: Flat portion of HP per level (see Class Codex for details on Level ups), used to Calculate Elemental & Natural Resistance (see Resistance section); Fury class resource
Intellect
Intellect (INT) is a measure of a variety of mental attributes pertaining to knowledge, reasoning, and IQ; often thought of as book smarts. Intelligence relies upon careful preparation and diligent studies undertaken outside of high pressure environments or situations (i.e. combat), though this does not mean that the knowledge gained can not be of use in these situations.
Active Use: Knowing an adversary’s weaknesses as a result of having studied a textbook on their anatomy; interpreting the crude language and gesturing of a primitive race; solving a difficult riddle or puzzle; predicting the liekly target of a group of rampaging Ogres; etc…
Passive Use: Spirit hit rating; Spirit critical hit/success rating; used to calculate Arcane & Mental Resistance (see Resistance section); Modifiers to Spirit class resource
| Combat Modifier | Formula |
| Spirit power hit rating | Intellect-10 = +/- to hit |
| Spirit power crit rating | Intellect/3 = Spirit Crit % |
| Intellect | Spirit class resource modifier |
| 19-20 | +3 Spirit per level |
| 16-18 | +2 Spirit per level |
| 11-15 | +1 Spirit per level |
| 7-10 | no modifier |
| 0-6 | -1 Spirit per level |
Wisdom
Wisdom (WIS) is a measure of a variety of mental attributes pertaining to judgement, discernment, intuition, wit, and common sense; often thought of as street smarts. Wisdom relies upon experience gained successes in the field or from learning from past mistakes, allowing for snap decision making in the heat of battle or under other high pressure situations.
Active Use: Deciding to switch targets when it becomes apparent that you lack the ability to hit a heavily armored target with a small blade; learning the true intentions of an organization whose actions contradict their supposed purpose; trusting the instinctual “feeling” that a demonic presence is at work; etc…
Passive Use: Faith hit rating; Faith critical hit/success rating; used to calculate Natural, Demonic, and Mental Resistances (see Resistance section); Modifiers to Faith class mechanic
| Combat Modifier | Formula |
| Faith power hit rating | Faith-10 = +/- to hit |
| Faith power crit rating | Faith/3 = Faith Crit % |
Avoidance
Avoidance (AVD) is a measure of the natural or trained reflex to avoid incoming attacks, damage, or other negative consequences. It also encompasses the ability for a character to avoid detection or to make itself less noticeable to a potential enemy. As such it is extremely useful for Stealth classes, or even a fragile back rank healer.
Active Use: avoiding slower moving projectiles such as falling rocks or a net trap; falling back out of harms way after an explosion goes off; attempting to remain unnoticed in a crowd of people, etc…
Passive Use: used to calculate Dodge (a Defense ), increases resistance to most projectile based Spirit/Faith powers
Perception
Perception (PER) is a measure of the ability to physically regard, understand, interpret, or become aware of something, through the senses. It encompasses a variety of senses such as sight, hearing, smell, and even other more extraordinary sense such as a bats sonar capabilities.
Active Use: Detecting hidden/stealthed targets; searching for a small object on the battlefield (such as when retrieving arrows after combat); advanced warning of an enemy presence to prevent an ambush; etc…
Passive Use: Physical ranged/thrown hit rating, physical ranged/thrown critical hit rating
| Combat Modifier | Formula |
| Physical ranged/thrown hit rating | Perception-10 = +/- to hit |
| Physical ranged/thrown crit rating | Perception/3 = Ranged Crit % |
Resolve
Resolve (RES) is a relative measure of attributes pertaining to willpower, discipline, command, and resilience in the face of psychological stress or trauma, and a generally willingness to fight on even against insurmountable odds.
Active Use: Resistance to naturally occurring sources of fear or terror; attempting to push through the pain of a broken limb to continue marching; standing and fighting against an Orcish Warband when all your allies are unconscious/wounded; etc…
Passive Use: used to resist Focus loss when taking damage (see Focus class mechanic); used to calculate Holy and Demonic Resistances (see Resistance section)
Initiative
Initiative (INIT) is a measure of the ability to assess a situation to quickly act, react, or take charge, often before others. Though it can be a trained or learned attribute, it is most often an instinctual reflex. Initiative can also be thought of as the speed at which the brain processes incoming information and causes the body to react.
Active Use: Establishing Turn Order at the beginning of a battle; Overcoming an opponents Ward-off; snap out of turn reactions to select opponent skills/abilities; determining a quick reaction to an unexpected event
Passive Use: Movement modifiers; modifiers to Riding Skill;
| Initiative | Movement Modifier |
| 18-20 | +1 Movement |
| 4-17 | no modifier |
| 1-3 | -1 Movement |
Charm
Charm is a measure of a variety of attributes that can include physical appearance but also things such as people skills, charisma, and non-threatening powers of persuasion.
Active Use: sweet talking a guard into allowing you to pass; trying to get a merchant to lower the price of their goods; attempting to give a rousing speech to encourage local peasants to take up arms with you in defense of their village; etc…
Passive Use: modifiers to a variety of Secondary Skills such as Haggler
Movement
Movement (MOVE) is not a true character stat as it is never used to take a Stat Test to Stat Roll-off, nor is it rolled for during Character Creation. However it used to determine how many in-game inches you can move during the movement phase of combat. The base movement stat is always 4, modified by race.
Resistance
Character stats are also used to calculate Resistance to a variety of damage types, as follows:
| Resistance Type | Calculated From | Common Uses |
| Arcane Resistance | Intellect x2 + Racial Modifier | Resisting Arcane magic |
| Elemental Resistance | Stamina x2 + Racial Modifier | Resisting Elemental magic or environmental effects (fire, heat, cold, wind, etc…) |
| Natural Resistance | Stamina + Wisdom + Racial Modifier | Resisting Natural magic or natural effects (illness, toxins, poison, alchohol, etc…) |
| Holy Resistance | Resolve x2 + Racial Modifier | Resisting Holy or other divine powers |
| Demonic Resistance | Wisdom + Resolve + Racial Modifier | Resisting Demonic powers or possession |
| Mental Resistance | Intellect + Wisdom + Racial Modifier | Resisting Psionic powers or mental attacks |
Defense Stats
Defense stats are typically calculated values based on Character Stats, Armor, and associated modifiers. Defense is mostly used in relation to physical damage, however it can in some situations also effect other damage types as well as impacting combat modifiers.
| Defense Stat | Description & Common Uses | Formula |
| AC | Armor Class: main defense stat rolled against by opponents attacking you with physical damage | = Armor + Dodge |
| Armor | Contributes to AC | SUM of all Armor Values on equipped armor |
| Dodge | Contributes to AC and can be rolled against like a Character Stat when a GM wishes to modify Avoidance for Stiff armor. Aadded to Resistance for most LoS projectile-like Spirit/faith powers | = Avoidance – Stiff |
| Noisy | Noisy armor disturbs or conflicts with some class mechanics. -1 to hit & -1 crit (per piece) with Focus, Spirit, Faith. Reduces Stealth by 3 per piece & moving while hidden increases your chances of detection (+1 Advantage to opponents Perception per piece). Stacks if layering | SUM of all Noisy modifiers on equipped armor |
| Stiff | Stiff armor reduces Agility & Avoidance and any associated bonuses (-1 each per piece). Stacks if layering. | SUM of all Stiff modifiers on equipped armor |
| Double Layers | Top Layer armor over Base Layer OR Mid Layer over Base Layer only (Top over Mid not allowed). Reduces chance to hit and crit with physical attacks (-1 per slot where a double layer exists) | SUM of all Double Layers on equipped armor |
| Triple Layers | Top Layer armor with Mid Layer over Base Layer. Reduces movement & chance to hit and crit with physical attacks (-0.5 move & -2 hit/crit% per slot where a triple layer exists). Stacks with penalties from Double Layer. Dwarves are exempt from the movement penalty due to their “Implacable” racial passive | SUM of all Triple Layers on equipped armor |
Stat Tests
Stat Tests can be considered the Active Use of Character Stats to overcome environmental obstacles, problem solve, or push forward narrative actions. When any kind of stat test is required (i.e. roll vs “stat”) you must roll equal to or less than the stat, on a D20, to be successful. Note that a roll of 20 is always a fail even when the stat is equal to a natural 20 (or higher than 20 through buffs/enchants/etc). In some cases stat tests may involve several consecutive rolls or averaging two or more stats into one roll.
All stat tests are forced at the discretion of the GM as required by the task at hand. However as a guideline, stat tests should only be used if the task is difficult enough to warrant a chance of failure and/or where failure would result in a tangible consequence.
Example: walking through a field with even and level ground would rarely if ever require an Agility test, but climbing up a weathered rope ladder would likely require an Agility test, as the chance of a misstep is possible, and doing so could cause fall damage.
Likewise if a task is completely inappropriate or effectively impossible, the GM may decide that even a successful stat test would not make it possible.
Example: a human could not under any normal circumstances run though the thick stone walls of a castle, though it may be amusing to see them try (and take collision damage)… therefore a successful Strength test would have no effective use and could simply be skipped by the GM
When stat tests are required in combat they are generally treated as instants, especially if they require some sort of physical action (i.e. a strength test to shove past a barrel that’s blocking a hallway while on the way to attack someone).
Stat Roll-Off
When two individuals are competing against each other to achieve an Active Use of one of their Character Stats, a separate type of stat test called a stat roll-off may be required. A good example of the difference would be a single individual attempting to lift a large rock would require a Strength stat test where as two individuals competing in an arm wrestle would require a Strength stat roll-off. In some instances a stat roll-off might involve each individual using a different stat such as when attempting to tame certain animals.
Regardless of which stats are involved when a stat roll off is required, each of the individuals rolls a D12 and adds that to the stat in question. The individual with the higher number wins the roll-off. In the event of a tie it is considered a stalemate, which could necessitate another roll depending on the situation. All stat roll-offs are subject to the discretion of the GM as required by the activity at hand. When stat roll-offs are required in combat they are generally treated as instants for the individual that started the process requiring the roll-off, especially if they require some sort of physical action (i.e. a strength roll-off to wrestle past an enemy that is blocking a hallway while on the way to attack someone else).
Some Examples of Possible Stat Roll-Off Scenarios
| Stats | Possible Scenario |
| Strength vs Strength | arm wrestle, wrestling match, actively attempting to prevent someone from getting by you |
| Strength vs Stamina | trying to forcibly move someone that refuses to move |
| Charm vs Wisdom | trying to sweet talk a noblewoman into leaving the bar with you so that you can rob her blind in the back alley |
| Stamina vs Stamina | a long distance foot race between two individuals with relatively equal movement stats |
| Intellect vs Intellect | a battle of wits, a riddle contest (though something like this could also just be facilitated through role playing elements set out by the GM) |
| Avoidance vs Perception | a non stealthy trying to sneak past a guard while his back is turned |
| Initiative vs Initiative | a test of reflexes (such as with a Ward-off) |
| various vs Resolve | intimidation and/or persuasion |
As with stat tests, if a GM decides that a particular contest is so one sided as to not be worth even rolling (i.e. a Giant arm wrestling a Halfling) they may simply determine an appropriate outcome.
Advantage and Disadvantage
Stat rolls are assumed to represent attempting to do something under normal conditions and are therefore unmodified. However, in some situations a GM may decide that a particular activity requiring a stat test or stat roll-off is more or less difficult than normal. In these cases GMs may assign advantage (less difficult) or disadvantage (more difficult) to the dice rolls at their discretion, such as “you’re nursing a serious hangover so I’m going to give you -3 disadvantage on the agility test to jump from one moving wagon to another”. This could also be denoted by a particular skill or ability, such as “cause X effect if passing an agility test, with +1 Advantage per rank of the skill”.
GMs may also wish to grant advantage as a means of rewarding a particularly clever or creative approach to a problem, such as character describing in detail how thoroughly they searched the room for hidden treasures. Conversely, disadvantage could be used as a means of penalizing a poorly thought-out plan or as a subtle nudge that maybe a different approach would bear better results.
Because the mechanics of stat tests and stat roll-offs are different, the modifiers for advantage and disadvantage are applied differently for each.
- Stat tests: advantage or disadvantage effectively acts as a temporary increase or decrease to that stat for the task at hand (i.e. a -2 Disadvantage for a Wisdom test reduces a characters Wisdom from 14 down to 12, for the duration of that task)
- Stat Roll-offs: advantage or disadvantage is applied directly to your d12 dice roll (i.e. +1 Advantage for an Initiative vs Initiative stat roll-off, grants the instigator of the stat-roll off 1d12+1 added to their Initiative stat)
The amount of advantage or disadvantage applied is at the GMs discretion, however when constructing a campaign the table below can provide a general guideline. It can also be used to convert from other gaming systems such as 5E SRD.
| Relative Difficulty | +/- |
| Very Easy | +10 Advantage |
| Easy | +5 Advantage |
| Normal | no modifier |
| Moderate | -5 Disadvantage |
| Hard | -10 Disadvantage |
| Very Hard | -15 Disadvantage |
| Nearly Impossible | -20 Disadvantage |
Note: If converting from 5E SRD, use a conversion of: 10 – DC = RoS +/-
Advantage and disadvantage modifiers are a very useful tool for GMs to improvise when the rule set simply can’t address every circumstance that might occur in an adventure. However, when used in an improvisational manner, GMs should typically only grant between 1 and 3 points of advantage or disadvantage, and certainly rarely higher than 5. GMs that go beyond these limits too frequently may leave players feeling as though their stats, and their decisions, don’t really matter.
Example: Climbing a rope would normally require a character to pass an agility test. However if an unexpected rain storm has made that rope slick, the GM may decide that this is more difficult than normal, and therefore apply -3 disadvantage to the Stat roll. Likewise if someone has tied knots in the rope to make it easier to climb the GM might choose to apply +2 advantage to the roll.
Additional caution should be exercised when using advantage and disadvantage to indicate a leaning one way or the other during a stat roll-off, as the stat difference between the two characters involved is already taking into account a measure of advantage and disadvantage. Advantage and disadvantage may however still be appropriate to use in a stat roll-off if there is a difference in the size of the participants (see Creature Sizes).
Example: If two human barbarians are having a wrestling match, and one is obviously more muscular, this theoretically should already be taken into account by the relative difference in their Strength stats, therefore no advantage or disadvantage is required. However if the same human barbarian is wrestling an ogre, the human may be given -2 disadvantage due to the size difference.
On a stat test, advantage can be treated as adding to the characters Stat value, though would also be equivalent to reducing the d20 roll by that amount. Disadvantage would be to reduce the characters Stat value by that amount, or equivalent to increasing the d20 stat roll. Whichever way you choose to apply it, advantage ALWAYS makes success more likely, while disadvantage makes success less likely.
Assisted Stat Tests
At times a character may find a particular task is beyond their ability to complete, or so unlikely as to not be worth the risk of failure. In cases such as this, players may choose to work together, with one or more player character assisting the character that is attempting the stat roll. The GM can deicide whether or not this is appropriate in any given situation. For example, it would be appropriate to allow a second character to assist with a strength test for pushing open a heavy door. However, if their was a complex latching mechanism on that door which required agile hand movements to open, it would be unlikely that a second set of hands would make the required agility test any easier.
When a valid assisted stat test is taken:
- add half of the assisting characters stat (rounded down) as advantage to the character who is leading the effort.
Example: A minotaur (with strength 15) and an halfling (with strength 10) are attempting to get through a heavy door built by giants. Though the latch is simple enough, it is 10 feet up and only the Minotaur can reach it. So he attempts to open the latch and then push on the door. Because the door is so heavy the GM decides to apply -5 Disadvantage to the minotaur’s strength test. He rolls a 14, which normally would be sufficient, but due to the disadvantage this results in a failure. Trying a second time the halfling puts his back into it as well, granting 1/2 of his 10 strength as advantage. This +5 advantage cancels out the -5 disadvantage, and the minotaur this time rolls a 13. With the halflings help they are able to open the door, and for the rest of the campaign the halfling can now freely mock his minotaur friend for not being able to open doors without him.