Combat Mechanics

Combat in ELDRA is fast-paced and reactive, with attack rolls and defend rolls happening in real-time exchanges. Every combatant has a choice to react to incoming attacks, making each encounter dynamic and engaging.

Attack and Defend rolls

In ELDRA, attacks are resolved through opposed skill checks:

• Melee Combat: The attacker rolls using their Fight skill, and the defender may respond with either their Fight or Reflex skill to evade or parry.

• Ranged Combat: The attacker rolls with their Shoot skill. The defender must respond with their Reflex skill.

• Magic Attacks: defend rolls against spells are dependent on the specific spell’s mechanics, which are described in the Spellcasting and Magic System section.

Ties. If the attack roll and the defend roll are equal, the defender wins. The attack misses.

Damage Calculation

Damage in ELDRA is determined based on the margin of success during an attack roll. If the attack is successful, the damage is calculated as follows:

• Melee Damage: The attacker deals damage equal to the margin of success plus their Might damage bonus (see the Might skill), plus any weapon modifiers.

• Ranged Damage: The attacker deals damage equal to the margin of success plus Perception skill bonus, plus any weapon modifiers.

• Magical Damage: In addition to the spell’s effects, the attacker deals damage equal to the margin of success plus their Focus skill bonus, plus any modifiers.

Critical Hit

When you roll four + on 4dF (or five + on 5dF with Advantage), the roll is a Critical. Add +2 to the result, or +4 with Advantage. If the roll is an attack or a damaging spell, it is a Critical Hit: the damage is doubled, or tripled with Advantage. This works for every damage type. On a defend roll or a skill roll, you only get the bonus to the result.

Dual Wielding

When you are wielding 1 weapon in each hand, you can make a second attack with your off-hand in addition to your attack once per turn. When you do so, you make your second attack with a -2 penalty to your attack roll. You can not add your Might to the damage calculation for the off-hand attacks.

Grappling

To grab a creature, spend 1 AP and roll Fight or Might. The target defends with Might or Reflex, its choice. You need one free hand, and the target can be at most one size category larger than you. On a success, the target is Grappled by you.

A Grappled creature can spend 1 AP to escape. It rolls Might or Reflex against your Might. On a success, the hold ends. The hold also ends if you let go, move away from the target, or become Incapacitated. Some creatures and abilities grapple without a roll; the target then escapes as described here. Where an entry says escape as Grapple, use this rule.

Size Categories

Creatures and characters in ELDRA are described by one of six size categories. Size affects movement, reach, what spaces a creature can occupy, and how some weapon techniques and abilities scale.

• Tiny: under 30 cm

• Small: 30 cm–1 m

• Medium: 1–2 m (the default for most player characters)

• Large: 2–4 m

• Huge: 4–8 m

• Gargantuan: 8 m and larger

When an ability refers to a creature being “one size category larger” or similar, it counts the steps in this list (for example, Large is one size category larger than Medium).

Damage Types

In ELDRA, damage is categorized into different types, each with its own unique effects and interactions. Below are the defined damage types and their specific mechanics:

Physical Damage Types

Physical damage in ELDRA comes in three types: Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Piercing. Each type interacts with creature resistances and vulnerabilities as described in individual creature entries. Physical damage is reduced by Physical Defense granted by armor and shields.

• Bludgeoning: Crushing, concussive, or impact-based damage from hammers, maces, fists, and falling objects.

• Slashing: Cutting and sweeping damage from swords, axes, claws, and bladed weapons.

• Piercing: Puncturing and penetrating damage from spears, arrows, rapiers, and fangs.

A weapon’s physical damage type determines which Weapon Techniques and Mastery abilities are available to its wielder. See the Equipment and Weapon Techniques sections for full details.

Some weapons deal multiple physical damage types (e.g., a Halberd deals Slashing, Piercing, or Bludgeoning — the wielder chooses when attacking).

Armor Pierce

Some attacks, weapon techniques, abilities, and potions grant Armor Pierce. When you deal damage with an attack that has Armor Pierce, reduce the target’s Physical Defense by the Armor Pierce value for the purpose of calculating damage from that attack. Armor Pierce cannot reduce Physical Defense below 0.

Example: An attack with Armor Pierce 3 against a target with Physical Defense 7 treats the target’s Physical Defense as 4 for that attack only.

Elemental Damage

— An Elemental spell has one of the following elemental types. Most spells name their element. If a spell does not, choose the element when you cast it. The spell deals that type of damage and also applies the matching effect:

• Fire: The target takes an additional 2d4 elemental damage.

• Frost: The target takes an additional 1d4 elemental damage, and loses movement equal to the elemental damage it receives from this attack.

• Lightning: The target takes an additional 1d4 elemental damage, and suffers a -1 penalty to its next action for every 3 Lightning Damage it receives from this attack.

Radiant Damage

Radiant damage is magical. Elemental Defense reduces it. Undead creatures have Vulnerability against Radiant damage.

When a creature takes Radiant damage, it emits a faint glow for 1 round. While glowing, the creature cannot benefit from invisibility, Stealth, or concealment of any kind. Attack rolls against a glowing creature do not suffer penalties from darkness or obscurement.

Necrotic Damage

Necrotic damage is magical. Elemental Defense reduces it. Undead are healed by it instead (vampires are the exception: they resist it, see Vampire).

When a creature takes Necrotic damage, its capacity for recovery is impaired. Until the end of its next turn, the creature cannot recover Physical Stress points from any source (potions, spells, abilities, or class features).

Poison and Acid Damage

Some creatures and items deal poison or acid damage. Both are reduced by Elemental Defense and bypass Physical Defense.

Fall Damage

You take 1d4 Physical damage for every 2 meters you fall. This damage ignores Physical Defense.

Armor, Shields, and Resistance

Armor grants Physical Defense and Elemental Defense. These defenses reduce incoming damage of the appropriate type, making it easier to withstand assaults in combat. Shields do not add to these defenses; each shield has its own properties instead (see Shields in Equipment).

Resistance means that a creature takes only half damage (rounded down) from a specific type of attack, while Vulnerability means they take double damage.

Initiative and Turn Order

Initiative decides the order in which combatants act. At the start of every combat, each participant makes an initiative roll: a Perception roll, plus any initiative bonuses from abilities, stunts, or potions (for example, the Commander’s root adds +1). Your initiative bonus is your Perception rating plus those bonuses; the character sheet records it in the Initiative box.

The highest result goes first, with turns proceeding in descending order of results, and the order stays the same every round. Ties are resolved by the highest Perception rating; if still tied, players may decide or roll off.

Surprise. Creatures caught unaware at the start of a fight, by an ambush they did not notice, are surprised: they take no turn in the first round and cannot take Reactions until it ends. To notice an ambush before it is sprung, roll Perception against the ambushers’ Stealth.

Summoned and Raised Creatures

A creature you summon, conjure, raise, or bind during a battle joins it at once. Starting in the round it appears, it takes its own turn right after yours each round and spends its own AP. If you control several such creatures, they act in the order you choose. The spell or ability that created the creature says how you command it and may limit what it can do on its turn.

Undead you control. You can control at most as many undead as your Magic skill, counting every source: spells, class nodes, and People features. A Necromancer uses Lore instead, and a vampire uses Vampirism if it is higher. If a new undead would take you over the limit, your oldest undead crumbles first.

Cover, Advantage, and Disadvantage

In the chaos of combat, positioning matters. When a creature has Full Cover, it cannot be targeted by attacks or spells that require line of sight. If a creature is behind Half Cover, any attack rolls against it are made with Disadvantage.

Advantage and Disadvantage are mechanics that reflect situational superiority or difficulty. When you have Advantage on a roll, you roll one additional die and discard the lowest result. When you have Disadvantage, you roll one additional die and discard the highest result.

You can have multiple stacks of Advantage or Disadvantage; however, if you have both, they cancel each other out one by one. For example, if you have two sources of Advantage and one source of Disadvantage, you would roll with one Advantage.

Stealth in Combat

During structured scenes, a creature may attempt to enter Stealth by spending 1 AP and making a Stealth skill check. The creature must meet one of the following conditions:

• It is heavily obscured (e.g., in darkness, fog, or behind full cover).

• It is invisible.

• No hostile creature has line of sight to it at the moment it attempts to hide.

The result of the Stealth check becomes the detection difficulty. A hostile creature may use its action or Perception skill (passively or actively) to contest the Stealth result. If a creature’s Perception meets or exceeds the Stealth result, the hidden creature is detected and Stealth ends.

Stealth ends immediately when the hidden creature:

• Makes an attack (unless an ability states otherwise).

• Casts a spell that targets a creature or produces a visible effect.

• Moves into a space where it is no longer obscured and an enemy has line of sight to it.

• Makes a loud noise or otherwise draws attention.

Attacking from Stealth: When a hidden creature makes an attack against a target that is unaware of it, the attack is made with Advantage. After the attack resolves, Stealth ends unless a feature explicitly allows it to continue.