Status Effects

Status effects are divided into three broad categories — Afflictions, Conditions, and Injuries. There are also a few effects related to character death that don’t fit into the other categories.

 

Afflictions

Afflictions can last until they are cured, either naturally or through some type of intervention. They usually don’t have a set duration.

  • Anti Magic: While under the Anti Magic affliction, all magic ceases to function. Spells can’t be cast, magical items lose any magic effects, and Mana becomes 0. Anti Magic, unlike most afflictions, exists in an area. Once you move out of the area of Anti Magic, you’re no longer affected.
  • Curse: Curses cause long term effects that are varied and occasionally unpredictable. They’re often spiritual or magical in nature, and they can usually be cured by powerful magic, artifacts, or rituals.
  • Dehydration: You haven’t had water in some time or you’ve been the target of some spell that sucked the liquid from your body. Intelligence and Will rolls you make automatically fail.
  • Disease: Diseases are illnesses that can be cured magically or over time. Powerful restorative magic can heal them as well as the body’s immune system. Certain magical diseases require magical remedies in kind.
  • Dismemberment: The loss of a hand, foot, limb, tail, or some other vital appendage will often require the strongest of magic to restore. Often, recipients of dismemberment can live a full life, suffering unique penalties but allowing for prosthetics that will bridge the gap. If one’s head is dismembered, the result is death, generally speaking. Losing an appendage that grants a natural attack prevents the use of that attack.
  • Poison: You’ve become poisoned by a toxin or animal bite, and a wound is inflicted immediately and again each minute at the start of your turn. Each time a wound would be inflicted, you can make a Vigor Defense roll against a target number determined by the power level of the poison. Upon success, the poison effect ends and the wound isn’t inflicted. Abilities and spells that cause poison can have secondary effects that occur when the target sustains a wound from the poison.
  • Starvation: You haven’t eaten in many days, or your body has been torn by powerful magic that simulates hunger. All Strength and Agility rolls you make automatically fail.
  • Suffocation: You’ve been unable to breathe for several minutes now, or some power has ripped the air from your lungs. You’re going to die very soon unless you can catch your breath.
  • Stone: You’ve been turned into a stone statue. Your Armor becomes 50 and you gain 50 to all Resistances. You’re permanently Stunned.
  • Toxify: As Poison, but additional wounds are inflicted each turn instead of each minute.

 

Conditions

Conditions are short term status effects that inflict Counters of the same name. Counters determine the duration of the effects, and you lose one counter of a given type at the end of your turn. There are no limits on the number of specific counters you can have. You might have 3 Fear counters at the same time that you have 1 Exhaust counter and 8 Slow counters. Be sure to deduct one of each at the end of every turn. Counters can be represented by physical objects such as beads or tokens, or they can be represented by individual dice. Twenty-sided dice of various colors make good candidates.

  • Blind: A blind unit has its vision clouded to a degree where sight is useless. You can’t target anything beyond melee range without special training. Additionally, your Accuracy becomes 0. Blind can be both a permanent affliction and a temporary condition that’s signified by Blind counters.
  • Charm: You fight on the side of the unit that charmed you. The charmer determines what you do, but you’re limited to only Moving and Attacking with basic attacks.
  • Deafen: While deafened, you are unable to hear anything except a ringing sound and muffled vibrations. Spells cost twice as much Stamina to charge, as you must take additional care in their casting. Additionally, rolls that rely on hearing automatically fail. Deafen can be both a permanent affliction and a temporary condition that’s signified by Deafen counters.
  • Dominate: As Charm, but your full suite of attacks, abilities, spells, and other actions are available for the dominated unit to use.
  • Exhaust: While exhausted, you spend twice as much Stamina on every action.
  • Fear: While feared, you must spend 1 Stamina to move your full speed in a random direction on your turn determined by rolling 1d8. A result of 1 is north, and each subsequent number is clockwise from there, including diagonals. While the effect persists, you can take no other actions.
  • Immobilize: While immobilized, you can’t use Move actions of your own accord, and you can’t be submitted to forced movement.
  • Petrify: You’re slowly being turned to stone. When you reach a number of Petrify counters equal to your Health, you’re turned to stone. Each Petrify counter reduces your Speed by 1. See the Stone affliction above.
  • Sever Magic: Your Mana is 0 while under this effect.
  • Silence: Spells can’t be cast unless they can be cast silently. Silence can also affect an area, as Anti Magic would. In such a case, it’s considered an affliction and leaving the area will remove the effect.
  • Sleep: The unit falls unconscious. A Sleep counter is removed for every wound the unit takes while unconscious.
  • Slow: Your speed is reduced by the number of Slow counters you have.
  • Stun: While you have any Stun counters, you can’t take any actions.

 

Injuries

Injuries are applied when you sustain too many wounds and begin dying (see below). They persist once you come back from the brink and will only be removed once all of your wounds have recovered. The type of injury you receive is determined by the type of damage dealt by the final blow. It’s possible to have each different type of injury at the same time, but you can never have more than once instance of the same injury. For example, you can have both a burn and a bleed injury, but you can’t have two different bleed injuries. Injuries always worsen with the number of wounds you have.

  • Bleed: You have an open wound that’s bleeding. Roll Vigor when your turn begins. On a roll less than the number of wounds you have, you suffer an additional wound. Weapons and spells that inflict Sharp damage cause bleeding.
  • Burn: You’ve had a brush with some force that burned you, be it a lit flame, a powerful blast of necrotic blight, or the cold death of a frost spell. You suffer increased damage from all sources equal to the number of wounds you have. Spells and abilities that deal acid, fire, ice, lightning, or shadow damage inflict a burn.
  • Concussion: Damage to the brain can wrack your mind just as it harms your body. Your coordination suffers heavily. When you make a Strength, Agility, Intelligence, or Will roll, reduce the result by the number of wounds you have. Additionally, your Mana is reduced by an amount equal to your number of wounds. Spells and abilities that deal air, water, holy, or ether damage inflict a concussion.
  • Fracture: You suffer a broken bone, torn ligament, or other internal damage that hinders your effectiveness. Your damage rolls are reduced by an amount equal to your number of wounds. Weapons and spells that inflict Blunt damage cause a fracture.

 

Effects

Not an Affliction, Injury, or Condition? It’s just considered an Effect. No special rules, just what’s listed below:

  • Dead: You die if you have twice as many wounds as you have Health. Your soul passes into the afterlife, and calling it back requires the most extreme magic. Speak with your DM about the best way to handle character death at your table.
  • Dying: You’re considered dying once you have a number of wounds greater than or equal to your Health. You fall unconscious and you can’t participate in battle, and you gain one additional wound at the beginning of each of your turns. You also gain an injury based on the damage type that felled you. See the Injuries section above to determine how that affects you. You’re no longer dying once you have fewer wounds than you have Health.
  • Grappled: You’ve been captured in the grip of a foe. You can try to escape on your turn by spending 2 Stamina — Roll Strength to overpower the grapple or Agility to escape it. This is measured against the Strength of the unit grappling you. While grappled, you’re immobilized and you can’t use the Dodge reaction.
  • Prone: You’re on the ground on your stomach, back, or in some other somewhat awkward position for a being of your kind. You suffer a -2 penalty to Speed in this state to reflect the fact that you can only move by crawling. While prone, your Evasion bonus against melee attacks is halved, but it’s doubled against ranged attacks.
  • Stabilized: A stabilized unit no longer receives a wound each round when dying. You can become Stabilized by receiving proper medical attention or receiving any magical healing. Some items, when used on a dying unit, will automatically stabilize them. Some skills can be used as well.
  • Unconscious: You’re considered stunned until you wake up, and you immediately fall prone. Unconsciousness can be caused by spells and abilities that put you to sleep, by falling asleep naturally, or by sustaining enough wounds to start dying.