Adventuring and Combat

Adventuring

Unlike base D&D 5E, Novence Eternal's rules were designed with a specific setting and lore in mind, which reflects itself thematically in many of the mechanics. Furthermore, they were designed for a campaign spanning multiple years, and contain many design factors influenced by MMORPGs-- namely buildcrafting, powerscaling, and the accretion of massive amounts of loot. Beyond the three types of adventure scenarios (exploration, social interaction, and combat) listed in the D&D 5E players' handbook, there are specific types of encounters with specific rules and specific rewards, listed as follows:
Dungeons: Consisting of between 3-5 encounters with puzzles, enemy encounters, and boss fights, dungeons are mid-level content designed to serve as a method of obtaining loot or escalating story tension.
Ordeals: Consisting of a single boss fight with multiple phases, Ordeals are high points in the story-- usually Harmonization fights, and typically do not drop significant loot.
Raids: Consisting of multiple boss fights and encounters with complex mechanics, Raids are the pinnacle of difficult content, and contain the highest-quality loot.

While traveling the overworld, you must make d20 Traversal rolls. The roll determines a number of effects, such as finding secret locations, engaging in combat encounters, or gathering materials:

• 20: Gain access to a special location nearby, such as a mine or a magical clearing.
• 19: Come across a method of travel to greatly accelerate your rate of travel, such as a convoy or ship.
• 17-18: Come across a friendly NPC or creature, potentially gaining materials or engaging in a special encounter.
• 15-16: Good weather and ease accompanies your travel, increasing the distance you move.
• 13-14: You find some local materials as you travel. Guaranteed regional exclusive material on a 14.
• 7-12: Nothing special happens.
• 5-6: Bad weather accompanies your travel, reducing the distance you move.
• 3-4: Come across a hostile NPC or creature. Roll intimidation/persuasion to avoid combat, or roll a stat to engage in combat. If successful you potentially gain materials. If unsuccessful, you take damage.
• 2: Come across a significant delay to your travel such as a broken bridge or a dense crowd, forcing you to rest for the day.
• 1:
Come across a dangerous cryptid or gang of criminals. Roll a stat for combat; if successful you gain materials. If unsuccessful, you take damage and must rest for the rest of the day.

Party Rules

The party consists of at minimum one character per player. Additional characters can be added into the active party roster up to a limit of 10 total characters (including player characters), but no player may control more than two characters at once. Additionally, players cannot control more than one of their personal player characters at once. However, players may replace their personal character with that of another player or an NPC, with XP still being accrued for their main character.

Additional party members can be hired as mercenaries for a per-fight fee. NPCs you have met that you are on good terms with can also be hired, though most have a prerequisite sidequest that must be completed first. NPCs that are part of your inactive roster will reside in the Living Library, having been given a library pass to access it.

The party also has a bank that gains gp equivalent to 100gp per player that attends a given session. GP in the party bank must be spent on purchases that affect the whole party, such as hiring mercenaries, buying Strings of Arachne, etc. The party bank may also be used to purchase individual players equipment/items/etc., but only if the entire party agrees.

---

Combat Structure

Combat is broken up into rounds, with each active combatant making a single turn each round (with some exceptions). In real-time, one round is equivalent to 10 seconds (as opposed to 6 for normal D&D 5E). A spell that lasts 30 seconds has a 3-round duration. All characters make their turns within the same 10 seconds-- the turn order simply determines who reacts first. For status effects, spells, and other conditions that have a duration, they decrement after all combatants on a turn have moved.
For most fights that do not involve a physical map, the location of all combatants is ambiguous until an action that specifies the location of combatants is used. All combatants are assumed to be within the range of AOE effects, melee attacks, and ranged attacks. The party can, however, specify a certain formation that they enter the fight in-- such as if they are all grouped up or spread out. The design of most encounters in Novence Eternal, however, does not heavily rely on the physical location of combatants.
Each turn is comprised of four different types of actions: tactical actions (TA), ability actions (AA), bonus actions (BA) and reaction actions (RA). As you level up and gain access to higher Class Tiers, however, you will gain additional ability actions on your turn.

Tactical Actions

A Tactical Action, as the name implies, is used typically for some type of tactics-related action your character performs on their turn. This can be anything from interacting with an object, to moving to a new location, or Helping a party member. The default tactical actions available to all players are listed as follows:

• Interact: A general-purpose action, covering a variety of situational actions that a character may perform. This includes using an item, opening a door, signaling to another character-- anything that might reasonably be performed in a few seconds.
• Search: Devote your attention to finding something in your environment, such as a stealthed enemy, making a Perception roll against a DC determined by the DM.
• Investigate: Analyze a target, revealing more information about them and their abilities. Typically used in harder content to uncover information regarding the mechanics of a fight. When Investigating, the creature makes an Investigation roll against a DC determined by the DM, who then reveals a short description of the specific target of the action. Typically, this is used on an individual mechanic, such as a unique buff or an ability that an enemy uses.
• Move: Move to a different location. Unlike in D&D 5E, movement does not use the Speed stat. Instead, the creature makes a DEX roll, substituting the roll with the average value if it rolls below average. The result is the number of feet they move in that action.
• Disengage: Carefully retreat from an attacker. Making this action before moving prevents you from being targeted by a free reaction attack when leaving the reach of a melee attacker this turn.
• Take Aim: Taking Aim does different things depending on the equipped weapon.
  While using a melee weapon, you can Aim before making an attack against a target with restricted movement, such as one that is Bound, Staggered, or Prone. Doing so allows your weapon to inflict bonus effects depending on its damage type. If it is slashing, it inflicts a stack of Bleed equivalent to half its damage roll for 1 turn. If it is piercing, it bypasses the PC of the armor. If it bludgeoning, it applies a stack of Stagger.
  While using a ranged weapon, you can Aim to increase the likelihood of landing your next attack with that weapon, granting yourself 1 stack of Aim. Each stack of Aim reduces the floor of your d20 roll by 1/3rd (7, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20). If the target uses the Dodge action, your stacks of Aim against it are halved. Using Aim also increases the minimum value of your To-Hit Remainder upon landing a shot, increasing the likelihood that the shot lands on the portion of the target that is out of cover. For each stack of Aim, the minimum value of your THR increases by 2, up to a maximum of +10. When calculating THR vs the opponent's Cover Class (CC), choose either your actual THR or the minimum value granted by Aim, whichever is higher.
• Prepare to Parry: Prepare yourself to fend off an incoming melee attack, or to succeed a feat of strength, granting yourself one charge of Parry lasting until your next turn. When you are targeted by an AC-based melee attack, consume a charge of Parry and make a STR or DEX roll with your current weapon's Parry modifier applied (or unarmed strike if no weapon is equipped), with proficiency if you are proficient with that weapon. If the result is greater than the to-hit of the incoming attack, parry it and take no damage-- otherwise, take 20% less damage. If you make a STR save while you have a charge of Parry, consume that charge and roll your save at advantage, taking 20% less damage on a failure. Whenever you make a parry, both the attacker and the defender must make a d100 roll-- if the result rolls below the Breakage Value of the weapon, the weapon breaks. If attempting to parry an attack made by a Heavy weapon, use a d20 instead of a d100. The DM may decide if certain attacks are parryable at their discretion.
• Prepare to Dodge: Prepare yourself to fend off an incoming ranged attack, or to succeed a feat of dexterity, granting yourself one charge of Dodge lasting until your next turn. When you are targeted by an AC-based ranged attack, consume a charge of Dodge and make an advantaged DEX save. If the result is greater than the to-hit of the incoming attack, dodge it and take no damage-- otherwise, take 20% less damage. If you make a DEX save against a DC while you have a charge of Dodge, consume that charge and roll your save at advantage, taking 20% less damage on a failure. The value of the Dodge roll can be affected by your equipped weapon; Light weapons will grant a bonus, while Heavy weapons will grant a penalty. If you are unarmed, your default bonus to Dodge is +10. The DM may decide if certain attacks are dodgeable at their discretion.
• Prepare to Guard: Prepare yourself to weather an incoming attack, or to succeed a feat of constitution, granting yourself one charge of Guard lasting until your next turn. When you are targeted by an AC-based attack, consume a charge of Guard and make an advantaged CON save. If the result is greater than the to-hit of the incoming attack, guard against it and take 40% less damage-- otherwise, take 20% less damage. If you make a CON save against a DC while you have a charge of Guard, consume that charge and roll your save at advantage, taking 20% less damage on a failure. The DM may decide if certain attacks are guardable at their discretion.
• Meditate: Focus on regulating your mind, taking deep breaths. Removes 1 stack of any mental debuffs you have of 2 or fewer stacks. For debuffs of 3 stacks or higher, you must make a save of the associated ability of a DC 20, increasing by 5 for each stack above 3. When making this action, gain an additional 1d4 Ultimate.
• Help: Assist an ally in their next ability check or their next attack, whichever comes first, granting advantage on the roll. A creature may only have 1 other creature Helping them at a time.
• Hide: Attempt to hide from enemy combatants, making a Stealth (DEX) roll. Enables the use of special actions, and prevents you from being targeted unless the enemy makes a Perception roll greater than your Stealth roll, or has passive perception greater than the Stealth roll.
• Retreat: Attempt to flee from combat. The number of turns and possible ability checks this requires varies based on the combat situation.

Ability Actions

Ability Actions are used to perform the majority of abilities, attacks, and other skills that a creature has. As your character increases in level, they will unlock additional Ability Actions per turn; gaining one when picking up a Tier 2 class, and another when picking up a Tier 3 class. You may also use an Ability Action as a Tactical Action, allowing for multiple Tactical Actions on the same turn. By default, most skills and abilities will cost one Ability Action to perform. Bonus/Free Actions do not cost any Ability Actions, and certain skills will cost multiple Ability Actions.

Bonus Actions

Bonus Actions are actions that are gained from a given effect, and must be used immediately. Since they are appended to another effect, the window in which they are able to be used is determined by the effect that caused them. For instance, a bonus action granted from an effect activated by an ability action cannot be used as a reaction to an effect, such as Overwatch.

Reaction Actions

Reaction Actions are any actions that are used by a creature outside of its normal turn window. By default, all creatures have one Reaction Action that they can slot an Ability Action into, by making the Ready action during their turn. The Ready action specifies the use of an action by a creature in reaction to a specific perceivable trigger between their current turn and their next one. Most skills that are used as Reaction Actions are granted as bonus Reactions. If two reactions are activated at the same time, the one that goes first is determined by the character with the higher roll on a contested perception check.

Legendary Actions

Legendary Actions are special actions that can be used at any time, even as a reaction. Upon using a legendary action, the user must utilize their creativity and the context of the battle to roleplay what action they take. Chance of success is varied, and may require the use of certain rolls. The more creative the action, the more lenient the chance of success tends to be. By default, the party has one legendary action each round, shared between all party members.

Ultimate Abilities

Special types of abilities known as Ultimates require the consumption of the Ultimate class resource. At the start of your turn, you roll a number of d4s dependent on your current class, adding the result to your Ultimate resource, up until a cap of 100. Different Ultimate Abilities will have different Ultimate costs. When you cast an Ultimate Ability, set your Ultimate resource to 0. Using the Meditate action grants you an additional 1d4 Ultimate. You may only use each different Ultimate Ability once per combat encounter.

Use of Ultimate Abilities will cause great thrymmotic distortion to the environment. Each Ultimate Ability will add a varying amount of Zenith Points (ZP) to the Zenith Meter. For every 9 ZP, the Zenith Level will increases by 1. Certain Ultimate Abilities will require the Zenith Level to be of a certain tier or higher in order to be used.

Different Zenith Levels will provide different benefits:

• (I): UP gains at the start of your turn increase by 1.
• (III): UP gains on the Meditate action increase by 1.
• (V): UP gains at the start of your turn increase by 1d4.
• (VII): UP gains on the Meditate action increase by 1d4.
• (IX): All UP gains increase by 2.

Note: As the Zenith Level rises and thrymmotic distortion increases, it may lead to changes in the combat encounter in unforeseen ways.

---

Ability and Combat Stats

Ability Stats

Ability Stats (Ability Scores and Modifiers in base D&D) are the primary stats used to determine how your character interacts with the world. They are upgraded as you level up, or through special feats and items.

• Strength (STR): Determines how much physical force your character can impart onto the environment. Used as the to-hit roll for many melee weapons, as well as for feats of strength.
• Dexterity (DEX): Determines how nimble and accurate your character is with their movements. Used as the to-hit roll for ranged weapons and light melee weapons, as well as determining Initiative. Also used for acrobatics, stealth, and dodging.
• Constitution (CON): Determines how healthy your character is, and how well their body can sustain damage. Used for determining HP and resistance to certain effects such as fire and poison. Also used for guarding.
• Intelligence (INT): Determines how analytical your character is, and how well they can understand and figure out complex things-- as well as being a catch-all stat for general knowledge. Used for Investigating, deciphering, and a number of other tasks. Also determines your character's cognitive fortitude, and is used as the saving throw against certain skills or stats (such as Confusion).
• Wisdom (WIS): Determines the intuitive and instinctive aptitude of your character, as well as how perceptive and attuned they are to their surroundings and subconscious. Most commonly used in psionics and spiritual tasks, and is often the saving roll against psychic attacks. Also used in perception and insight.
• Charisma (CHA): Determines the social and emotional skills of your character, as well as their ability to use social engineering. Used in Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion, and Performance. Also used when communing with inhuman or otherworldly beings, as well as the saving roll against certain status effects like Charmed.

Combat Stats

Combat Stats are special stats exclusive to combat, used to calculate the interactions between a variety of combat mechanics.

• Hit Points (HP): A number representing the amount of damage a character can take before they are KO'ed. HP is represented by (Current HP / Max HP). Healing cannot cause a character's HP to exceed their maximum HP. When a character's maximum HP is modified by an effect, it is represented as (Current HP / Modified Max HP | True Max HP).
• Temporary Hit Points (THP): A number representing the amount of bonus HP a character is granted. THP is granted by a number of varying effects with different conditions; however, a character can only have THP granted by one condition at a time, and automatically takes the THP value of whichever condition grants the most. For instance, a character with 4 THP granted by Bless and 30 THP granted by an energy shield would ignore the 4 THP from Bless entirely, keeping only the 30 THP from the shield.
• Ultimate Points (UP): A number representing the amount of accumulated charge for a character's Ultimate Meter, used in Ultimate Abilities. UP is granted by a special die roll at the start of a character's turn, or when they use certain abilities such as Meditate.
• Spell Slot (SS): A resource used in the process of casting spells. Spell slots come in tiers from 0 (cantrip) to 9, represented as SS0 to SS9.
• Class Resource (CR): A catch-all term for the main resource used by a class. Some classes may have no CR (such as Fighter some may have multiple.
• Agility Class (AC): A number representing the overall difficulty of your character to be hit by an attack. Base AC is 10 + DEX, though this can be increased through certain skills. Unlike base D&D 5E, equipped armor does not affect AC, and AC is completely unrelated to how tough or protective the armor you wear is. The maximum AC you can have by default is 30, though some special abilities may let you exceed this.
• Protection Class (PC): A number representing the protective capabilities of your equipped armor. If an AC-based attack lands, subtract the AC from the to-hit of the attack, and then compare your character's PC to the remainder. If it is higher, the attack is deflected by your armor, and does not land. If it is lower, the attack penetrates the armor and deals a portion of its damage dependent on your equipped armor. Armor PC can be restored through repairs by a trained blacksmith.
• Difficulty Class (DC): A number representing the overall difficulty to succeed at a task, most commonly used in AOE attacks. DC is calculated as a base number (usually 10 to 14), with optional modifiers of adding a character's Proficiency Bonus or a certain Ability Stat Modifier.
• Spirit Class (SC): A number representing the protective abilities against your ether. SC functions the same as AC, but deals mostly with certain types of attacks-- namely Etherhacking. Base SC is equivalent to 10 + WIS, and can be augmented by certain types of accessories or abilities. Certain Etherhacks will still be effective if they roll below your SC, instead taking a penalty to either their effectiveness or the time it takes for them to take effect.
• Proficiency Bonus (PROF): A number representing a bonus granted to a character based on their overall power. For player characters, this is determined by their level.
• Hit Die (HD): A die determined by a character's class, used as a unit of measurement for their overall HP. Used when determining healing from a short rest, or from certain abilities.



• Attack (ATK): A flat damage multiplier to all outgoing attacks made by your character. Damage caused by status effects is not modified by ATK.
• Defense (DEF): A flat damage multiplier to all incoming attacks against your character. Damage caused by status effects is not modified by DEF.
• Affinity (AFF): A flat damage multiplier to all damage dealt by your character of a specific damage type. Damage caused by status effects is modified by AFF. The AFF of a status effect is determined by the last creature that inflicted the status effect; if the status effect is overridden by a different creature, it will gain the AFF of that creature.
• Resistance (RES): A flat damage multiplier to all damage received by your character of a specific damage type. Damage caused by status effects is modified by RES.
• Critical Hit Range (CRR): The range required on a d20 roll to qualify as a critical hit. By default this is 20. Modifiers range from 0 (normal chance) to -19 (guaranteed crit). At -20, the same roll gains an additional chance for a bonus crit, with the range of the bonus crit at 0 (stacking further at additional intervals of -20). This is represented by (x1, 0 with the x1 representing the guaranteed crit, and the 0 representing the crit range modifier of the bonus crit.
• Critical Fail Range (FAR): The range required on a d20 roll to qualify as a critical fail. Represented the same way as CRR, with 0 to +19 instead.
• Armor Piercing (AP): A modifier on certain attacks that allows a set amount of damage to bypass PC. If the AP value is greater or equal to the armor's PC, all damage bypasses the armor and ignores all resistances (unless the resistances are negative, in which case they still apply), and its PC is reduced by 1. If the AP is less than the PC, a portion of the damage still goes through while ignoring resistances as above, equivalent to the damage * AP / PC.
• Ether Piercing (EP): A modifier on certain attacks that allows a set amount of damage to bypass SC. If the EP value is greater or equal to the target's SC, all damage bypasses SC. Otherwise, a portion of the damage still goes through equivalent to the damage * EP / SC.
• Defense Ignore (DI): A modifier on certain attacks that reduces the effectiveness of the target's DEF. When calculating damage, subtract the listed DI% from the target's DEF% of before calculating.
• Resistance Ignore (RI): A modifier on certain attacks that reduces the effectiveness of RES against a certain element. When calculating damage, subtract the listed RI% from the target's RES% of the same type before calculating.

---

Making and Taking Attacks

The basic process of making and receiving attacks in Novence Eternal is the same as D&D 5E. A target or multiple targets are selected, modifiers are considered, and the attack is resolved. The primary differences lie in the way modifiers interact to determine damage received.

Landing Attacks

The process of actually landing attack depends highly on the type of weapon or skill used. As a general rule, melee weapons require the target to be within the weapon's Reach, and may make as many attacks as the wielder has Attack actions-- typically one per Ability Action, though this can increase as a result of the Extra Attack skill. Ranged weapons have differing chances of hitting depending on the listed range-- at short range (half of the listed range), the weapon gains advantage on to-hit. At medium range, the weapon rolls to-hit normally. At long range (twice the weapon's listed range), the weapon gains disadvantage. Weapons that can fire more than one shot in the span of an action are limited by their Rate of Fire rather than the Extra Attack skill. Further details about the process of firing ranged weapons can be found on the Equipment page.

When it comes to actually landing an attack, firstly the To-Hit total is calculated. This typically involves a d20, the to-hit bonus modifier of the weapon, the Ability Stat modifier used (if applicable), and Proficiency Bonus if the attacker has proficiency with the weapon type. The resulting total must then exceed the Agility Class (AC) of the target in order to land. Note that this does not mean the attack has actually dealt damage yet-- it simply means that the attack has physically landed within the target region, and does not account for factors such as cover or armor. Subtract the AC from the to-hit total to obtain the To-Hit Remainder (THR), which is necessary for further calculations.

Calculating Cover

For ranged attacks, the target's cover must next be considered. The THR of the attack determines how accurate the shot was between the combined silhouette of the target-- both the parts that are in cover and out of cover. The percent of coverage of the target's silhouette from the perspective of the attacker divided by 5 grants a value from 1-10 known as the Cover Class (CC). You may also choose to use a simplified version with only two levels of cover-- if the target is at least 50% covered, the CC is 5. If the target is at least 80% covered, the CC is 8. The THR is then compared to the CC; if the THR is greater than the CC, the attack lands on the exposed portion of the target. If the THR is less than or equal to the CC, the attack lands on the portion of the target protected by cover. For ranged attacks that are DEX DC-dependent, such as explosions, the target may choose to make a DEX save as normal, or to rely on their cover. If they rely on cover, they take the full damage of the attack multiplied by 1-(CC/10).
Special Case: Overpenetrating Attacks: Sometimes, a target's cover is insufficient to stop all damage from an attack from getting through. In these cases, any shots that land on the portion of a target obscured by cover instead suffer a reduction to their damage-- usually in the form of a multiplier. For DC-based attacks, the damage is calculated as (Full Damage)*(1-CC/5 + (Cover Damage Modifier)*CC/5)

Calculating Armor

After the THR of an attack is obtained, it must next be compared against the Protection Class (PC) of the target's armor. Note that if the target is already using cover, the THR is first compared to the CC and the resistances of the cover material. If the THR is less than or equal to the PC, the attack is completely deflected by the target's armor. If it exceeds the PC, different things happen depending on the armor type. Different types of armor will be more or less effective against different types of damage, depending on the listed Vulnerability Level against that damage type. Higher levels of Vulnerability inherit the effects of lower levels.

• Vulnerability I: The armor is very effective against the listed damage type. If the THR of an attack of this type exceeds the PC, the resulting damage is affected by the listed Resistance modifier for that type. If it rolls lower, the damage is nullified.
• Vulnerability II: The armor is effective against the listed damage type. If the THR of an attack of this type exceeds the PC, Resistance is applied, but the PC of the armor decreases by 1 until it is repaired. If the THR is lower than the PC, Resistance is applied, as well as a 50% reduction to damage (instead of avoiding damage completely).
• Vulnerability III: The armor is somewhat effective against the listed damage type. If the THR of an attack of this type exceeds the PC, Resistance is applied, but the armor's PC is reduced by 2. If the THR is lower than the PC, Resistance is applied, but the armor's PC is reduced by 1 at a 1d2 chance.
• Vulnerability IV: The armor is weak against the listed damage type. Whenever the armor is hit by an attack of the listed damage, type, its PC is reduced by 1 (and further by 1d2 if the THR exceeds the PC).
• Vulnerability V: The armor is very weak against the listed damage type. In addition to the above effects, the THR of an attack of this type is granted a 2x modifier against the armor's PC.

Calculating Damage

When calculating damage, there are countless modifiers that may affect the actual damage received. Rather than simply stack every multiplicative modifier together (which gets out of hand very quickly), modifiers are instead limited by the nature of what kind of modifier they are. Only one positive and negative modifier of each type can apply to outgoing or incoming damage at a time. In this case, type can include DEF, ATK, elemental affinities, critical damage affinities, and many more. If multiple modifiers of the same type are affecting a single damage roll, the modifiers used are the ones that have the highest absolute values, with a limit of one positive and one negative modifier. Note that in the case of multiple RES/AFF affecting an attack that has multiple elements, the total resistances and affinities pertaining to the attack's damage types are averaged to determine the overall RES/AFF.

When multiple modifiers are affecting an outgoing damage roll, their percentages are summed together to determine the final damage modifier. For instance, a 20% ATK buff and a 10% PHYS AFF buff sum together for a 30% total damage buff. When it comes to defensive modifiers, the same summation process happens. If the total exceeds 50%, the incoming damage is halved once, after which 50% is subtracted from the total; repeating until the remainder is less than 50%, which is then applied. For instance, an 80% DEF buff and a 40% PHYS RES buff sum to a total of 120% damage mitigation-- the incoming damage is halved twice, then the remainder is reduced by 20%.

For example: an attack that deals Psychic and Slashing damage is affected by a +20% ATK modifier, a +50% ATK modifier, a +10% Psychic AFF modifier, a +30% Psychic AFF modifier, and a +20% Slashing AFF modifier. The target is affected by a +10% DEF modifier, a +60% DEF modifier, a +5% Psychic RES modifier, and a +70% Psychic RES modifier. The modifiers of the outgoing attack are reduced to +50% ATK, +30% Psychic AFF, and +20% Slashing AFF. The modifiers of the target's resistance are reduced to +60% DEF and +70% Psychic RES. Adding the two together, the resulting damage modifier ends up as +10% DEF, +40% Psychic RES, and +20% Slashing AFF. Since the attack deals both Psychic and Slashing damage, the RES/AFF is averaged to +10% RES. The RES and DEF are then summed together for a total of +20% DEF. In practice, however, damage calculations rarely have this many intersecting modifiers, and will usually end up much simpler.

---

Damage and Healing

In Novence Eternal, a creature's Hit Points serve as a representation of physical and mental durability augmented by magic prowess, will to live, and luck. It serves as a simplified scalar between full health (max HP), and the point at which a creature is knocked out and cannot continue fighting (0 HP). When a creature takes damage, subtract the result of the damage roll from the target's HP.

Temporary HP (THP) is a secondary HP bar that typically represents some form of shielding, usually magical in nature, that a creature possesses. In most cases, if a creature is the target of an external attack, the damage roll must be subtracted from THP before bleeding over to HP. However, if it would make more sense that the damage should ignore the shielding of the creature, there are certain cases where incoming damage may ignore THP.

Critical Hits: If a to-hit roll on an attack rolls a natural 20, the attack is a critical hit. Critical hit chances can be affected by a variety of skills and other factors, reducing the minimum d20 roll required to count as a critical hit. If this is reduced to less than 1, the attack gets an automatic critical hit, as well as another d20 roll at normal crit range. This works recursively; meaning that if you stack enough crit range reduction, you can potentially score multiple critical hits in a single attack. When rolling damage for a critical hit, roll the number of dice the damage roll requires an additional time for each critical hit the attack scores, and add them all together (you do not add the static damage modifiers more than once).

Different damage types and status effects can have a wide impact on how a creature's health is affected. Details regarding these can be found on the Damage Types and Status Effects page.

Healing, KO, and Injury

Enemies and allies in combat can typically suffer wounds that would incapacitate or outright kill a normal person, yet still fight just fine. This is due to the use of mana as a method of enhancing the body's natural regenerative abilities. When a player's HP reaches 0, they are Knocked Out (KO) and can no longer fight.
However, even when KO, a player is not truly out of the fight yet. Characters that are magically talented are typically much harder to kill, as their body can better allocate its mana reserves to sustaining one's soul-- even while knocked out. For Resonants, this is even more pronounced. When a player character is knocked out, they suffer 1 stack of Injury, a special status effect that cannot be dispelled by most means, and lasts until the next long rest. Whenever a player starts their turn KO'ed, they must roll a d20-- if it rolls 10 or higher, they are no longer KO'ed. If it rolls 9 or lower, they gain another stack of Injury. Whenever a KO'ed player takes damage greater than their CON modifier multiplied by the maximum value of their hit die in a single turn (minimum 1), they gain another stack of Injury. As Injury stacks increase, the greater the chances of permanent disfiguration-- and eventually, death. Even magically-augmented regeneration can't save your body from harm forever.

Injury stacks have different effects depending on the number a player accrues:

• Injury (I): A player with only one stack of Injury suffers no effects, other than a hit to their pride.
• Injury (II): A player with two stacks of Injury only suffers light cosmetic injury, with no actual effects on gameplay.
• Injury (III): A player with three stacks of Injury suffers a penalty of -2 to all stats, as well as cosmetic injury.
• Injury (IV): A player with four stacks of Injury suffers a penalty of -3 to all stats, as well as cosmetic scarring.
• Injury (V): A player with five stacks of Injury suffers a penalty of -5 to all stats, as well as significant injury (e.g. breaking a limb). When gaining Injury (V)+, roll a d10 to determine where the damage is dealt (unless the attack already specified): 1 = head; 2-4 = torso; 5 = right arm; 6 = left arm; 7-8 = left leg; 9-10 = right leg. If the damage is dealt to the head, gain +2 Injury instead of 1.
• Injury (VI): A player with six stacks of Injury suffers a penalty of -8 to all stats, as well as chronic debilitating injury (e.g. requiring a wheelchair, PTSD).
• Injury (VII): A player with seven stacks of Injury is considered to be in critical condition. They cannot become conscious from a d20 roll like with previous Injury levels, and will advance to Injury (VIII) if they do not receive immediate emergency medical care within 12 rounds. This also usually results in permanent debilitating injury (e.g. losing a limb, losing a sense, a major mental disorder).
• Injury (VIII): A player with eight stacks of Injury is on the brink of death, and will proceed to Injury (IX) if they do not receive immediate emergency medical care within 12 rounds. Unless the party has a high-level character with advanced medical knowledge, this typically requires an immediate retreat and trip to a hospital. Characters who reach this level of injury are typically put into a comatose state for an extended period of time-- up to a maximum duration of around 10 months.
• Injury (IX): A player with nine stacks of Injury is considered dead.

If a creature is KO'ed and is accruing Injury stacks, they can be stabilized-- usually through making a Medicine roll. This prevents them from having to roll a d20 for each turn they are KO'ed; however, if they take enough damage to gain another Injury stack, they must be re-stabilized.

Once a player with 4 or fewer Injury stacks makes a long rest, they lose their Injury stacks. If they have five or more, however, they must rest for a longer period of time. Resting consists of being well-nourished, well-rested, and abstaining from combat and other physically intensive activity. The duration of rehabilitation required for each level of Injury beyond 5 is listed as follows:

• Injury (V): One week of rest.
• Injury (VI): Three weeks to two months rest.
• Injury (VII): Two to four months' rest, with time spent under care of a medical professional.
• Injury (VIII): Four to eight months' rest, with significant time spent under care of a medical professional.

Special Case: Dismemberment

Some attacks, especially those dealt by eastern-style weapons, have a chance to dismember the target on a critical hit. This can only occur if the target's HP is below 20%, as the target's mana prevents it from happening otherwise. When the conditions are met, the target must make a CON save. If the roll lands at or above 15, the target is not dismembered. If it lands at 10-14, the target loses a wrist/ankle or other equivalent appendage and gains Injury(VI). If it lands at 5-9, the target loses an arm or leg or other equivalent limb and gains Injury(VII). If it lands lower than 5, the target is beheaded and instantly dies (with some rare exceptions).

Special Rules: Difficult Content

In difficult content such as Dungeons, Ordeals, and Raids, the DM may choose to implement rules to soften the blow of the many inevitable KOs that will follow. In these situations, the party shares a pool of Second Chances equivalent to the number of characters. Whenever a character sustains an Injury stack, they instead drain the Second Chance pool by 1. The Second Chance pool is replenished by half between each phase of a boss fight, or during a Short Rest. Long rests fully restore the Second Chance pool. Fighting without Second Chances is risky for the health of your characters, although special items or abilities exist that may potentially grealty help the party in these type of situations.

---

Death and Beyond

So, you died. Unlike base D&D however, you might not want to scrap your character sheet just yet. In Novence Eternal, fallen players (and other characters) can be resurrected with few ill effects-- provided it occurs within one minute of their death. Upon resurrection, roll a 1d10 and subtract the result from 9-- the result is the number of Injury stacks the character is resurrected to (minimum 1).
After a minute passes, however, the soul of the character is transported to the Spirit Realm. From there, things get a lot more difficult. Firstly, when they are successfully resurrected, the character must make a d10 roll, and add 4 to the result (without exceeding 8), to determine the number of Injury stacks the character is resurrected at. Secondly, in order to even resurrect said character, the party must undergo a voyage to the Spirit Realm and retrieve their soul. This becomes progressively more difficult the longer the character has been deceased, compounded by how powerful the character was.