Dice Rolls

As in any TTRPG, dice rolls are a central game mechanic of Linguomancy. When any action is attempted by an entity, such as casting an idiom, attacking or avoiding something, a dice roll is used to resolve the outcome. Most mechanics presented in this page are directly inspired by DnD or Pathfinder, reusing the same terminology when their concepts are similar.

Main Elements

Whenever an entity attempts an action that risks failure, it rolls a 20-faced dice against a given target number to determine if the attempt either fails or succeeds.

The die is rolled first, then a number of modifiers can be added to the result depending on the type of roll used. Modifiers are bonuses and penalties that either add or subtract from the result :

• When a roll targets a specific Ability, the entity adds its corresponding Ability Modifier to the outcome of its roll. For example, a roll that targets the player's Strength will see their Strength modifier added to the result.
• Some conditions and idioms will add even more modifiers to specific rolls. For example, an idiom could add a specific +2 bonus to a given roll.

Types of Rolls

Ability Check

When an entity attempts to perform a specific task, it makes an Ability Check against a given number called Difficulty Class (DC). This DC is predefined by the game master depending on its difficulty.

If the final result of this roll is equal to or above the DC, the attempt succeeds.

Attack Roll

When an entity attempts to attack a target, it makes an Attack Roll against the target's Armor Class (AC) to determine if the attack is successful or not.

If the final result of this roll is equal to or above the AC, the attack hits, and it can roll for damage.

Saving Throw

When an entity attempts to avoid or reduce the effects of traps, idioms, conditions or other sources, it attempts a Saving Throw.

To do so, it rolls against a Save Difficulty Class (save DC), determined by the source of danger.

An Ability is given along a saving throw, defining what the type of harm the entity tries to avoid. For example, a Constitution Saving Throw is a roll that can be made to see if an entity's response to pain is enough to affect it or not.

If the final result of this roll is equal to or above the save DC, the effect is cancelled or reduced, depending on the degree of success.

Degrees of success

The final result of an Ability Check, Attack Roll or Saving Throw, determine the intensity of success or failure.

This is called a Degree of Success (DoS). They are defined by the difference between the original DC and the final result of a roll.

DoS	Condition	Consequence
Critical Failure	The roll's final results meets or is under the DC by 10 or less.	The action fails miserably, a detrimental effect happening alongside it.
Failure	The roll's final result is under the DC by 4 or less.	The action fails.
Partial Failure	The roll's final result is under the DC by 3 or 2.	The action fails, but not in its entirety.
Partial Success	The roll's final result is under the DC by 1.	The action succeeds, but not in its entirety.
Success	The roll's final result meets or exceeds the DC.	The action succeeds.
Critical Success	The roll's final results meets or exceeds the DC by 10 or more.	The action succeeds greatly, a positive effect happening alongside it. Attack Rolls inflict a Critical Hit.

Natural 1 & Natural 20

Rolling an unmodified 1 or 20 on a roll is called a "Natural 1" or "Natural 20". When achieving either, the modifiers are still applied, and the final result calculated. However, the Degrees of Success will be affected outside of numbers alone.

Upon rolling a Natural 20, the DoS of the final result will be one degree better. Upon rolling a Natural 1, the DoS of the final result will be one degree worse.

While this usually results in a Critical Failure or Critical Success, this might only guarantee a Success on a very high DC. Inversely, if an entity's abilities and modifiers are high enough, it can still succeed a roll despite rolling a Natural 1.

Advantage & Disadvantage

A number of situations and conditions can give entities Advantage or Disadvantage on their dice roll.

When an entity rolls with Advantage, it rolls two dice instead of one and uses the highest of the two results.

When an entity rolls with Disadvantage, it rolls two dice instead of one and uses the lowest of the two results.

Advantage and Disadvantage do not stack : having multiple sources of either on a roll stills only rolls twice.

An entity either has Advantage or it has not. Likewise, it either has Disadvantage or it has not.

If an entity has both Advantage and Disadvantage on a roll, it rolls only a single die, even if it has multiple sources of either.

Ability Checks

Ability Checks are dice rolls made to determine whether an entity succeeds or fails a specific task. They are rolled against a DC, defined by the game master. Each ability check is made using one of twelve Abilities, and entities add their corresponding Ability Modifier to the result.

Ability Checks are usually made using a specified skill, such as Intimidation, Perception, Stealth or Persuasion. Skills are area of expertise associated with an ability, not to be confounded with Expertise associated with a Noun.

Ability Checks related to a certain Noun can only be attempted by learning the related idiom Speak or Shape.

For example, only an entity knowing the idiom of "Shape - Fire" can attempt Ability Checks about manipulating fire.

Attack rolls

Entities make an Attack Roll when they attack a target. If the result of the roll is higher or equal to the target's AC, the attack succeeds. Depending on the attack, the attacker can then roll for damage, unless an immunity or other effect prevents them from doing so.
If the result of the roll is instead lower than the target's AC, the attack fails.

If an entity has no Armor Class, Attack Rolls against it immediatly succeeds.

Critical Hits & Critical Misses

When an entity lands a Critical Success, their attack usually turns into a Critical Hit.

Upon landing a critical hit, the attacker rolls twice the amount of base dice on a Damage Roll. Modifiers are not doubled.

When an entity lands a Critical Failure, their attack usually turns into a Critical Miss.

A Critical Miss, always completely misses its target.

Armor Class

Armor Class is a number unique to an entity, measuring how difficult it is to hit it. To successfully hit itwith full force, the attack must be equal to or greater than the target's Armor Class. AC can be modified by many sources, like equipping shields, armor, using certain spells, or increasing finesse related Abilities.

The following formula determines AC when using an Idiom :

Armor Class = Armor + Signature Modifier + Shield Bonus + other bonuses and penalties

When wearing no armor, the armor value becomes 10.

The Signature Modifier is the Modifier of the Ability called Signature, a global indicator of an entity's finesse and fortune.

Saving throws

Saving throws are attempts for an entity to avoid harm. Some idioms allow their targets to attempt a saving throw, most idioms hitting in a zone or inflicting a curse. Saving throws can completely cancel a harmful effect or protect an entity from the effect's full force, depending on the Degree of Success.

Each roll has an associated Ability and a save DC that the entity has to roll against. When attempting a save, the entity adds its corresponding Ability Modifier to the end result.

If an entity has no Ability Score associated with the roll, it automatically fails its Saving Throws against it.

Save Difficulty Class

The Difficulty Class of a Saving Throw is called the save DC. The save DC for idioms is defined by multiple parameters.

Idiom Save Difficulty Class = 10 + Idiom's Flux Cost + Potential Modifier

The Potential Modifier is the Modifier of the Ability called Potential, a global indicator of an entity's power and impact with Flux.

Damage Rolls

Upon landing a successful attack, the damage is determined by a Damage Roll, associated with a Damage Type.

Damage is calculated by the following formula :

Damage = Damage Tick Range Rolls + ( Potential Modifier x Damage Tick Multiplicator )

Damage Ticks

Damage Ticks are rough indicators of damage severity.

In order to avoid raw value balancing, which was out of scope for Linguomancy's mechanics, Damage Ticks instead define an estimated range of damage.
This range of damage describes a minimum and maximum value. By rolling one or multiple undefined dice, the mathematic expected damage value of the rolls should then fall inside this range.

For example, an attack of Low Damage has a range of 4 to 8. Regardless of what dice used and how many are rolled, the weighted average of the rolls should fall in between 4 and 8 HP of damage inflicted.

Along with this range of damage, Damage Ticks apply a multiplicator on the Potential Modifier.

Damage Tick	Range of Expected damage value	Potential Modifier Multiplicator
None	No damage dealt	0
Tiny	1 - 4	1
Low	4 - 8	1
Moderate	8 - 12	1
Strong	12 - 16	2
High	16- 20	2
Major	20 - 30	2
Severe	30 - 40	3
Huge	40 - 50	3
Massive	50 - 60	3
Extreme	60 - 100	5
Ultimate	100 - 250 or above	10

Healing Rolls

Healing restores a target's Hit Points similarly to Damage Rolls. Similarly to Damage Rolls, Healing Rolls use Healing Ticks to determine the efficiency of their restoration.

Healing= Healing Tick Range Rolls + ( Cohesion Modifier x Healing Tick Multiplicator )

In order to avoid raw value balancing, which was out of scope for Linguomancy's mechanics, Healing Ticks instead define an estimated range of HP restoration.
This range describe a minimum and maximum value. By rolling one or multiple undefined dice, the mathematic expected healing value of the rolls should then fall inside this range.

For example, an attack of Low Healing has a range of 4 to 8. Regardless of what dice used and how many are rolled, the weighted average of the rolls should fall in between 4 and 8 HP restored.

Along with this range of damage, Damage Ticks apply a multiplicator on the Cohesion Modifier.

Healing Tick	Range of Expected restoration value	Additional Effect	Cohesion Modifier Multiplicator
None	No healing is done.	-	0
Tiny	1-4	-	1
Low	4-8	-	1
Moderate	8-15	-	1
Strong	15-30	-	2
Small Mending	30-40	Mends small body parts back.	2
Greater Mending	40-50	Mends one limb back.	2
Small Regrowth	50-70	Regrow one small body part.	3
Greater Regrowth	70-100	Regrow one limb.	3
Multiple Regrowth	100-1000	Regrow multiple limbs.	3
Complete	Full restoration.	Regrow all limbs.	0
Resurrection	Restoration value is given in the effect's description.	The target comes back to life.	0