Combat & Injury

Heads and bodies are harder to hit and deal more damage. Limbs, wings, and tails are easier to hit and deal less. A hit to the head of a humanoid, rat, wolf, bat, or snake adds 10 percentage points to its stun chance. Creatures without a silhouette of their own use the humanoid parts.

A hit on the targeted limb that deals more than 20% of the enemy's maximum Health in one blow has a 5% chance to sever it. Heads and bodies cannot be severed. A severed limb weakens the enemy for the rest of the fight, is noted on its card, and cannot be targeted again. Penalties from several severed limbs add together, up to a 90% reduction of any one stat.

A landed hit on a humanoid's arm that does not kill it has a separate 5% chance to disarm it. The dropped weapon or shield falls onto an empty slot on the board.

Every player attack draws from stamina. A character with low stamina may still see the enemy, still hold a weapon, and still want to fight, but the body has less room to pay for another committed strike.

Once the attack is paid for, combat resolves through the ordinary attack rules: the relevant attack stat decides whether the hit lands, and the target's defenses reduce the damage that gets through.

Weapons, enchantments, creature stats, and spell effects can add fire, ice, acid, holy, or dark damage. Elemental damage on an equipped melee weapon applies only to melee attacks; ranged attacks use the ranged weapon and the character's own elemental strength. Matching elemental defenses mitigate these values independently of ordinary physical defense.

Parry, Sidestep and Brace are used on your last Action Point and hold until your next turn. Only one guard can be up at a time, and none can be raised while hasted.

Each one costs stamina or mana, and some wear your gear or can fail. A failed Trip or Dirty Trick leaves you open to a counter-attack.

A knocked-down enemy loses its next turn. Knocking it down again while it is down does not keep it there longer. The undead cannot be knocked down.

A technique used on an enemy reveals you to it, just as an attack would.

Afflictions are illnesses and lingering conditions such as Bleeding. They can come from hostile attacks, hazards, disease, environmental exposure, or special card rules. Persistent wounds are recorded separately so each wound can keep its own location, treatment, and recovery.

Combat harm and survival harm can overlap. A wounded player who is also hungry, thirsty, choking on smoke, or carrying an affliction is not facing one system at a time. The dungeon's danger is cumulative.

Because attacks cost stamina and injuries can come from the room itself, leaving a fight, resting, drinking, curing an affliction, or changing rooms may be the correct combat action even when no attack is made that turn.

A critical hit raises the wound by one severity band, to a maximum of severity 3. The injury chance then uses that raised severity.

If the struck body part is covered by an equipped, unbroken piece of armour, the injury is always a Bruise. No Deep Wound, Fracture, Eye Injury, or Missing Limb can occur there. Rings and amulets are not armour.

A body part holds a single Bruise. Another armoured blow to a bruised part deepens that Bruise to the higher of the two severities and restarts its 12 turns. Injury penalties never reduce maximum Health below 1, so armour can be battered but never bruises a character to death.

On an unarmoured part, a successful injury roll normally produces a Deep Wound. Depending on the body part and blow, it may instead become a Fracture, Eye Injury, or Missing Limb.

Bleeding and other periodic harm cannot create another wound. Enemy spells and ordinary survival damage also remain outside the persistent-wound roll.

Deep Wounds and amputations create their own Bleeding condition. Bandaging one wound stops only the bleeding linked to that wound. Fractures must be secured with a splint or suitable magic.

An untreated wound receives its first turn without an infection check. From the following world turn onward it can become infected. Infection reduces maximum Health by the injury's severity and stops natural healing.

A scar cannot bleed or become infected, and bandages, antiseptics, splints, and healing care all pass it over without being spent. Only a scar remedy removes one.

A remedy that also treats open injuries always treats the open injury first. Select the scar on the Body and Conditions screen to target it directly.

A stabilized, uninfected injury gains 1 healing progress each world turn. Healing care adds 2 progress immediately. Deep Wounds require 6; Fractures and Eye Injuries require 10; Bruises require 12 and need no stabilization.

Bruises never scar. When any other severity 2 or 3 injury finishes healing, it has a 15% chance to remain as a permanent scar. The scar keeps none of the wound's combat penalties, but it costs 1 maximum Health for as long as it remains. A scar on the face costs a further 1 Charisma. Scars stack, though maximum Health never falls below 1, and Charisma never falls below 1.

Gives -20 Melee, -25 Ranged, and -1 Strength. Two-handed weapons are disabled. With one functional arm, only one weapon, ranged weapon, or shield can be equipped at a time.

Gives -20 Dodge and -2 maximum Stamina. Run stance is disabled until function is restored.

The character's humanoid body map marks regions as intact, injured, disabled, missing, or replaced. Select a region to filter its wounds. Active wounds, permanent wounds, and ordinary afflictions appear in separate lists with effects and care guidance.

The body rules can recognize a replacement made for a specific missing limb and restore its function while preserving the amputation in the character's history. Replacement-limb cards and recipes are not yet part of the playable catalogue.