Potestas: a D&D3E supplement

Combat

Attack Roll: An attack roll represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. You roll 1d20, add your attack bonus. If your total equals or exceeds the target's defence bonus plus 10, your attack hits and does damage.

• Your attack bonus with a one-handed or two-handed melee weapon is base attack bonus + Strength modifier + size modifier.
• Your attack bonus with a light melee weapon or a ranged weapon is base attack bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier (+ range penalty for ranged weapons).
• Your defence bonus is your base defence bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier + armour defence bonus + shield defence bonus.

Damage: A successful attack deals damage equal to the weapon's damage plus additional damage (such as Str bonus or weapon enhancement bonus) plus bonus damage (such as sneak attack or energy damage). If there are penalties, they cannot reduce the damage below 1 point: a successful attack always does some damage, though the target's damage reduction can negate that damage.

Weapon Damage: Each weapon has a base damage. For weapons designed for Medium creatures, that damage falls between 1 and 6 points. On a critical hit, weapon damage is multiplied by the weapon's critical multiplier.
Strength Bonus Damage: When you hit with a melee or thrown weapon, including a sling, you add 1 point of damage for each +1 Str bonus. When fighting with more than one weapon or with a two-handed weapon, you add an extra 1 point of damage for each +2 Str bonus. On a critical hit, strength bonus damage is multiplied by the weapon's critical multiplier.
Enhancement Bonus Damage: A magic weapon confers 1 point of damage for each +1 enhancement bonus. Any other magic effects that increase weapon damage also confer 1 point of damage for each +1 bonus. On a critical hit, enhancement bonus damage is multiplied by the weapon's critical multiplier.
Bonus Damage: Bonus damage is not increased by a critical hit.

Injury: Subtract the target's damage reduction (usually from armour, but sometimes from other abilities) to determine how much damage actually affects the target. If the target takes at least 1 point of damage, the target must make a Fortitude save with a DC of 15 + total damage divided by five (rounding down any remainder). Success means the wound has little effect on the target. Failure means the target must take a wound, and may be disabled or staggered.

Wound: You have suffered some minor injury. Every wound imposes a cumulative -1 penalty on all Fortitude saves to resist lethal and nonlethal damage.
Nonlethal Wound: You have suffered some minor buffeting. Every nonlethal wound imposes a cumulative -1 penalty on all Fortitude saves to resist nonlethal injury. Nonlethal wounds have no effect on Fortitude saves to resist lethal damage.
Disabled: You have been badly injured. You may only take one move or one standard action each turn. Performing a standard action, moving at more than half speed, performing any other strenuous action, or taking another wound worsens your condition to dying (see below).
Staggered: You have been badly pummelled. You may only take one move or one standard action each turn. Performing a standard action, moving at more than half speed, performing any other strenuous action, or taking another wound or nonlethal wound worsens your condition to unconscious (see below).
Unconscious: You have been knocked out. You fall to the floor, helpless and incapable of action. Additional nonlethal wounds have no effect on you. When you recover one nonlethal wound, you become conscious.
Dying: You are unconscious and close to death. An additional wound will kill you. Each round on your turn, you must make a Fortitude save with a DC of 10 (+1 for each round you have been unconscious), and any penalties for wounds apply to this saving throw. If the result of the saving throw makes you stable, you are no longer dying.

Full Attack Action: Characters who fight with more than one weapon or with a double weapon, who make a hurried attack, or who have iterative attacks must use a full-round action to get the benefit of those additional attacks on their chosen target. You can choose to attempt any combination of these three options as part of a full attack action. You must declare a full attack at the beginning of your action, before you roll your attack. You may take a 5-foot step before or after (but not during) your full attack.

Hurried Attacks: A character may choose to make a hurried attack. The character makes one attack roll with a -4 penalty (the Rapid Shot and Rapid Strike feats reduce the penalty to -2, as does the Haste spell). If the attack roll succeeds, the character hits the target twice instead of once. Each attack is applied separately against the target's damage reduction, and may cause separate injuries. If the attack roll is a critical threat and the critical is confirmed, both attacks are considered criticals.

Iterative Attacks: A character may hit the target more than once. For every 5 points by which the attack roll succeeds, the character hits the target an additional time. Each attack is applied separately against the target's damage reduction, and may cause separate injuries. If the attack roll is a critical threat and the critical is confirmed, only the first attack is considered a critical.

Multi-Weapon Fighting: A character may fight with a weapon in every hand (usually four for Taboti and two for other races) or with a double-headed weapon. The character makes one attack roll with a -4 penalty, or -6 if all the weapons are one-handed weapons (the Multi-Weapon Fighting feat reduces the penalty to -2 or -4 respectively). If the character does not have the same attack bonus with every weapon wielded, the attack roll must be made with the lowest attack bonus. Likewise, the attack uses the lowest critical threat range of the weapons wielded. If the attack roll succeeds, the character has hit the target with all weapons wielded, causing damage equal to the weapon damage for all weapons plus additional damage plus bonus damage. Although the character has used more than one weapon on the target, the attack is applied once against the target's damage reduction, and may cause only one wound. If the attack roll is a critical threat and the critical is confirmed, the damage multiplier of the weapon with the lowest mulitplier is used.

Example: Ivanior (who has the Multi-Weapon Fighting feat and Str 14) decides to make a multi-weapon attack using his +3 rapier (usually +15 attack bonus) and +1 dagger (usually +13 attack bonus). Ivanior makes an attack roll with a -2 penalty using his dagger attack bonus, for a total of +11 attack bonus. The attack hits the guard by less than 5, causing damage equal to 3 (rapier) + 2 (dagger) + 3 (+2 Str bonus) + 3 (+3 enhancement bonus on rapier) + 1 (+1 enhancement bonus on dagger) = 12 points. The guard must now make a Fortitude save with a DC of 17 (15 + 12/5 rounded down) or take a wound.

Coup de Grace: You can coup de grace a helpless creature that is adjacent to you with a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity. You automatically inflict one critical hit. The target must make a Fortitude save as normal, except the result of the save is worse than usual.

Unarmed Fighting: All characters are proficient with nonlethal unarmed strikes, and may make such attacks with no penalty. They may if they wish make lethal unarmed strikes, but at a -4 penalty for not being proficient. The Weapon Group (Unarmed Strikes) feat gives a character proficiency with lethal unarmed strikes, removing the -4 penalty. Attacking unarmed provokes an attack of opportunity from armed opponents unless you have the Weapon Group (Unarmed Strikes) feat. Unarmed strikes are considered light weapons, but you can use your Strength modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier on attack rolls if you wish.

Sharing a Square: You can end your movement in a square with a helpless or willing creature. Moving into a shared square counts as if it were 2 squares. While sharing a square, both creatures are considered to be squeezing (-4 attack, -4 defence). A character who uses a ranged attack against one of the creatures must roll randomly to see which of the creatures is struck. The two creatures do not provide each other with soft cover for the square they occupy.

Ignoring Flankers: You can disregard attacks from an opponent flanking you. When you do, that opponent doesn't get the +2 flanking bonus when attacking you and that opponent does not provide a flanking bonus to any of its allies. Ignoring a flanker, however, provokes an attack of opportunity from that flanker, and you lose your Dexterity bonus to defence against that flanker. You do, however, continue to threaten that flanker.

Soft Cover: Soft cover provides a +4 bonus to defence against ranged attacks, but not against melee attacks.

Natural Healing: Characters heal 1 wound for each 8 hours spent resting, or 3 wounds for a full day's rest. Nonlethal injuries heal more quickly: characters heal 1 nonlethal wound for each 20 minutes spent resting, or 3 nonlethal wounds for a full hour's rest. Any significant interruption during the rest period prevents the character healing.

Lethal and Nonlethal Damage: Characters can use a weapon that usually does lethal damage to do nonlethal damage, and vice versa, by taking a -4 penalty to hit. If the attack roll misses the target but would have hit the target if this penalty had not been applied, the weapon hits and does its usual type of damage.

Damage Reduction: Some creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or to ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable. For more mundane creatures, armour can prevent some or all of a weapon's damage. Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even nonmagical fire) ignore damage reduction. The numerical part of a creature's damage reduction is the number of points of damage the creature ignores from normal attacks. Usually, but not always, a certain type of weapon can overcome this reduction. This information is separated from the damage reduction number by a slash. Damage reduction may be overcome by silvered steel, by magic weapons, or by certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning). If a dash follows the slash then the damage reduction is effective against any attack that does not ignore damage reduction.

Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury type poison, a monk's stunning, and injury type disease. Attacks that deal no damage because of the target's damage reduction do not disrupt spells. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or death attacks. It does not affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.

Hardness and Objects: All objects, including animated objects, have hardness. Hardness is like damage reduction, except it works against all damage, not just weapon damage, and some types of energy are not very effective against hardness. Wood has 5 hardness, stone has 8 hardness, and steel has 10 hardness. An object that takes damage past its hardness must make a Fortitude save to resist being damaged or destroyed. A mundane object has a base Fortitude save of +0, while the base Fortitude save of a magic object is determined as if it had the Improved Save Focus feat, using its Magic Power in the place of character level. An attended item makes saving throws as the character if the character has a better Fortitude save. In addition, the object gains a bonus equal to its hardness, +1 for each additional inch of thickness beyond the first.

Each time the object takes a wound, it is damaged and takes a cumulative -1 penalty on future saves to resist injury, just like a character. If the object is disabled, it is destroyed.

Falling Damage: Falling causes 4 points of bludgeoning damage for every 5 feet of velocity the creature has when it hits the ground. It takes one round (six seconds) to reach maximum velocity, and the creature will actually fall 630 feet in that time. The following table matches the hits of damage to the minimum distance fallen.

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