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Cover and Elevation

Realm of Strife™ > Cover and Elevation

Often there are many natural and man-made obstacles and terrain features on a battlefield that can be used to gain an edge over an opponent. Cover is using features to increase your defensive capabilities while elevation increases your offensive capabilities.

Cover Bonuses

Type Melee (physical damage) Ranged (physical damage)
Light Cover (Shrubs, Hedge, Fence) +2 AC +5 AC
Medium Cover (Trees, Wagons, Barrels) +5 AC +10 AC
Heavy Cover (Boulders, Walls) +10 AC +15 AC

GM discretion in specific situations over rules

Elevation Bonuses

Elevation bonuses are to hit modifiers applied for having an elevation advantage over your target. They typically only apply to ranged hit modifiers unless you possess a weapon or attack with the Reach attribute, or are jumping off something to attack a foe in melee (see Attacking from Above). The “Slightly Elevated” option is an exception and applies to both melee and ranged hit modifiers.

The hit modifier for elevation bonuses is equivalent to +1 to hit per 1/2 vertical inch above the target, up to a maximum of +10 to hit.

Example Approx. height (meters) Approx. Height (feet) Approx. Tabletop Equivalent Hit modifier
Slightly elevated (i.e. standing on a table) 1m 2.5′ 1/2 +1 to hit
Half way up a 1 story staircase 1.5m 5′ 1″ +2 to hit
Second story balcony/window 3m 10′ 2″ +4 to hit
Battlements on a wooden palisade 4.5m 15′ 3″ +6 to hit
Third story balcony/window 6m 20′ 4″ +8 to hit
Large castle wall, flying high overhead 7.5m or higher 25′ or higher 5″ +10 to hit

Plunging Attacks

In some situation a character may be able to drop or jump down from above to attack a foe in close combat. In these cases grants hot modifiers as listed above and roll for fall damage as normal, however where a successful agility test instead inflicts +1 damage per full vertical inch dropped (up to a maximum of +6 damage), then modified by the creature size of the attacker 

Example: A halfling assassin is perched in a balcony 4″ above an unsuspecting foe. The assassin jumps off the balcony and attempts to drive his short sword into the targets back. Despite the distant of the fall he manages to pass his agility test (even with -9 disadvantage), so instead of taking 4d6-2 fall damage (4″x1d6 with -2 for the size modifier for being a small race), the halfling instead adds +2 damage (4-2=2 for the small race size modifier) to the short swords damage if it hits (with +4 to hit from the elevation bonus). Therefore the overall modifier for the plunging attack is +4 to hit and +2 damage.