Guide
Combat
Mapped encounters open a tactical battle on an isometric grid, with miniatures, terrain, deployment, and initiative. You do not fight in real time while walking. Pacifist heroes can resolve encounters without launching combat at all.
The battlefield Implemented
Before a tactical battle begins, available allies are placed on permitted deployment tiles. Deployment uses an encounter budget. At least one ally must be deployed within that budget before the battle can start. This budget is an encounter rule, not a shop currency.
Battlefields can contain blocked spaces, cover, difficult ground, and water. Large creatures use larger footprints. Flying movement ignores the increased movement cost of terrain. The camera supports a confined view with pan and zoom.
Some unmapped encounters can still use an older menu-based resolver. That fallback does not have the grid’s movement and deployment systems.
Rounds and turns
At the start of each round, every living unit rolls d20 + initiative. Higher totals act earlier. Ties favour higher base initiative, then the player side, then the stable roster order. The initiative display shows the acting unit and those still waiting.
On a normal activation, movement and attacks follow the unit’s rules. Staying still can permit a full multi-attack sequence. After moving, a unit normally receives one attack. Powers, conditions, and individual unit profiles can modify that behaviour. Actions resolve fully before control advances.
Movement, cover, and reactions
| Entered tile | Movement cost |
|---|---|
| Ordinary ground | 1 |
| Difficult terrain | 2 |
| Water | 3 |
| Flying movement | 1 per entered tile |
Reachable destinations depend on the path’s cost. Range limits ranged targets. Cover can improve a target’s defense against a ranged attack.
Relevant movement can provoke an opportunity attack, using the reacting unit’s melee attack. A reactor can make one such reaction per round. The current rule exempts a move of one grid step, even when entering or leaving reach. Longer moves that cross the reach boundary can provoke. Destination highlights warn of relevant reactions. Disengagement and some conditions prevent reactions.
Attacks, saves, and conditions
Weapon attacks use a d20 plus the applicable attack entry and bonuses against a target defense. A natural 1 fails. A natural 20 succeeds and is the critical trigger. A normal roll succeeds when its modified total meets or exceeds the target. The legacy attack sequence can inflict self-damage on a critical failure.
Weapons can combine damage types, bonuses, and on-hit effects. Resistance, immunity, and vulnerability change damage of applicable types. Critical hits multiply damage according to the weapon’s rule. Saving throws use a d20 and the relevant defense against an effect’s difficulty.
Combat supports effects such as poison, burning, acid, bleeding, slowing, weakening, blindness, stun, daze, pacification, immobilisation, restraint, prone, fear, confusion, and domination. Their consequences differ. They may affect attack rolls, defense, movement, reactions, available actions, or who controls an activation.
Refreshing an existing effect generally renews its duration rather than stacking a duplicate. Some effects allow saves. A trait such as Regeneration is a separate ongoing property of the creature. Enemy abilities can add on-hit riders or rules such as morale checks, spell resistance, or pack-based damage.
Icons on miniatures and the effects panel show active effects. Tooltips and the journal explain hits, misses, saves, immunities, healing, and conditions ending. A catalog entry or a visual effect does not guarantee that every future enemy or power using it is finished.
Outcomes
| Outcome | General result |
|---|---|
| Victory | No enemies remain while the player side survives. Eligible rewards and story resolution are applied. |
| Defeat | No player units remain while enemies survive. The hero recovers at low HP, and encounter-specific consequences apply. |
| Draw | Neither side survives. No victory rewards are granted, and the encounter remains available under the current persistence rule. |
Results include a summary and battle history. XP, remaining hero HP, encounter state, and eligible loot return to the adventure. Repeat victories may have reduced XP or one-time rewards according to the encounter. Repeated fights are not universally full-reward activities. Defeat recovery is described under health.
Encounters and the Fight Bank Implemented
An unresolved encounter can block further travel. Depending on its rules, you can fight now, store it in the Fight Bank, or try to flee.
| Action | Rule and consequence |
|---|---|
| Fight | Launch the encounter and resolve its outcome. |
| Bank / Store | Postpone a permitted fight if capacity is available. A duplicate of a stored definition is refused. |
| Flee | Attempt an allowed escape. A failed attempt forces the fight and removes further bank and flee options for that encounter. |
| Release / Drop | Remove the stored fight and surrender its remaining fight rewards. |
Fight Bank capacity is based on character level and can be increased by the Procrastinator talent. A lost banked fight remains available without paying victory rewards. Whether a won fight remains repeatable or leaves the bank depends on its definition.
Mandatory quest bosses
A quest’s closing boss can hold the quest’s completion rewards until victory. It cannot be fled in ordinary combat play. It can be banked only after a recorded defeat. Releasing that banked boss abandons the quest and loses the held rewards.
Some newer authored quests intentionally continue after a boss fight or end on a scene. Follow the particular quest objective.
Pacifist encounters Implemented
Pacifist mode resolves encounters without launching combat. A saved, random Battle Flee Excuse supplies a title, illustration, and explanation for the guaranteed escape. Required enemy objectives can progress through a separate peaceful-resolution record.
Pacifists do not record a kill or combat victory, and they do not earn combat XP or ordinary battle loot. Essential quest items remain obtainable. Required quest encounters still allow the closing story and held noncombat progress rewards to proceed. Peaceful travel, quests, and exploration can still level the hero.