Damage

If an Attack hits the opponent, the next step is to determine the effects it has - usually Damage.

Damage Roll

To determine how much damage is dealt, the weapon's damage dice is rolled. To this is added any modifiers the character has from Strength, Enhancement, Combat Proficiencies and so forth.

An Enhancement modifier applies to both To-Hit and Damage - these do not normally stack and only the highest Enhancement modifier is considered.

The only exception comes when using Ranged Weapons and Ammunition - the Enhancement modifier of ammunition and ranged weapons stack; thus a +1 Longbow firing +2 Arrows has a +3 Damage bonus. If the character has an Enhancement modifier from other items, it is only considered for Ranged attacks if it is higher than the Ranged Weapon's Enhancement, not the Ammunition.

The rolled result and all modifiers are totaled up. If the target has no Resistances or Vulnerabilities, damage can be applied.

A character with 17 Strength and Weapon Specialization attacks their foe with a Long Sword +1.

Resistance & Vulnerability

If the target has a Resistance or Vulnerability to the damage rolled, the damage is modified by this first. For example, a target with Vulnerability 25% to Fire damage that takes 6 Fire Damage from an attack would increase this by 25%, to 7. Meanwhile, a creature with a 100% resistance to Fire could be hit by an attack that deals 200 points of Fire damage and suffer no damage.

Multiple Damage Types

Typically, attacks do one type of damage. Some attacks, however, will list multiple damage types - for example, a spell that deals Heat and Cold damage or a magical blade that drips with acid. The way these are rolled depends on the circumstance - they may do the damage separately or twinned.

For example, the spell Fire and Ice may do both types of damage separately. In this case, 1d4 Heat and 1d4 Cold damage may be done - each damage type is rolled independently. For example, they may roll 3 and 2 for Fire and Cold respectively. This means 5 total damage is done. Unless the target is resistant, that is all that needs to be known - if the target is 100% resistant to Heat, for example, only 2 damage is done.

On the other hand, the Acid Blade does twinned damage - 1d8 is rolled for the weapon and then split evenly between the damage types listed. For example, 5 damage is rolled here. Unless the target is resistant, that is all that needs to be known - if the target is 100% resistant to Slashing, for example, half the damage is voided - this leaves the player with 2 damage done by the Acid, after rounding.

Wounding

If a character takes more than half their current HP in damage in a single attack or 10 damage, whichever is greater, they make a Save vs. Death. On a failure, they suffer a randomly assigned Wound.

Destruction

If a character takes more than half their maximum HP in damage in a single attack or 20 damage, whichever is greater, and this would kill them outright, they make a Save vs. Death. On a failure, they are not just Dead but Destroyed.

Damage Below 0

Normally, Damage can be reduced to 0 and no lower by penalties. If, however, fighting an enemy of low size, Damage is first reduced to 1 and any further full damage then halves effective damage each time before turning it into the relative Size of Damage.

Damage Types

There are many types of damage that can be dealt.

Insidious Damage

Though not a type of damage in the sense that Crushing or Heat is, Insidious is a modifier for Damage. If something is Insidious, it does equal damage to HP and VP. Examples of this are poisons and bleeding, where lasting damage is done.

Normal vs Intense

Damage may be listed as Normal (though usually this is unmarked) or as Intense. Burning Hands or a torch deals Normal Heat damage whilst Fireball or lava deal Intense Heat.

Resistance to the Intense form of something is not automatically granted by Resistance to the Normal form but if a character is Resistant to the Intense form, they are always Resistant to the Normal form.

Vulnerability to the Normal form of something is not automatically granted by Vulnerability to the Intense form but if a character is Vulnerable to the Normal form, they are always Vulnerable to the Intense form.

Generally, many spells of Level 3 or greater deals the Intense form of damage - Fireball and Lightning for instance. This is not always the case however - Melf's Minute Meteors obviously does Normal damage.

If a weapon or it's wielder is two or more size categories larger than the target, it deals the Intense version of damage. For purposes of determining this, consider Small characters to be Medium-Sized.

Item HP vs Item Saves

As Items do not typically have HP (unless specifically stated for a given circumstance), Items must make a Save if they are exposed to Damage. Sometimes, however, an Item will have HP listed to determine it's breaking point to an immediate action - for instance, cutting through a rope.

Damage Type List

The types of Damage are as follows:

Damage Types
Damage Type	Example	Intense Example	Item Save	Intense Damage Item Save
Crushing	Attacked by blunt weapon, falling short distance	Attacked by blunt weapon two size categories greater than character, falling great distance	Normal Blow	Crushing Blow or Fall
Slashing	Attacked by cutting weapon	Attacked by cutting weapon two size categories greater than character	Normal Blow	Normal Blow or Crushing Blow
Piercing	Attacked by stabbing weapon, stepping on caltrop	Attacked by stabbing weapon two size categories greater than character, falling on spikes	Normal Blow	Normal Blow or Crushing Blow
Heat	Torch, Campfire, Burning Hands	Furnace, Lava, Fireball, Red Dragon Breath	Fire	Fire or Intense Heat
Cold	Ice Dagger, Freezing Water	White Dragon Breath, Cone of Cold	Cold	Cold
Acid	Melf's Acid Arrow, splashed by strong acid	Green Dragon Breath, total submergence in strong acid	Acid	Acid
Electrical	Shocking Grasp, short circuit	Lightning Bolt, Blue Dragon Breath	Energy	Intense Energy
Sound	Shout, Shatter	Banshee's cry	Energy	Crushing Blow or Intense Energy
Necrotic	Chill Touch, Cause Light Wounds, Wraith's touch	Death Spell, Lich's touch	Acid, Cold or Energy	Acid, Cold or Intense Energy
Radiant	Cure Light Wounds vs. Undead	Heal vs. Undead, Sunray	Fire or Energy	Fire, Intense Heat or Energy
Energy	Magic Missile	Lance of Disruption	Energy or Normal Blow	Intense Energy or Crushing Blow
Somatic	Bleeding, Poison	Phantasmal Killer, Deadly Poison, Major Bleeding, System Shock	Normal Blow or Crushing Blow	Normal Blow, Crushing Blow or Fall