After rolling your damage dice, add all their values together then add any modifiers to determine the result. The GM will mark the corresponding Hit Points based on that damage.

Tip: There’s a difference in this game between damage and hit points. Damage is the result of your damage roll, including your damage dice and modifiers. Hit Points reflect how hard that damage affects the creature who’s taking it; the number of Hit Points a creature marks depends on factors such as their Damage Threshold, armor, resistances, and immunities.

Damage without Modifiers

Some damage rolls just tell you to roll a certain number and type of die, without any modifiers (plus or minus signs) after it. For example, “1d8 physical damage.” In this case, simply roll the necessary number of dice and add the values together.

Example: Kat makes a successful longsword strike with their Guardian against a target using an attack roll of 16. They have a weapon proficiency of 2 and their longsword’s damage dice are d8’s, so they roll 2d8 and get a 3 and a 7, for 10 total damage.

Damage with Modifiers

Some damage rolls have modifiers on them, like 2d6+2 or 3d8+5. When this is the case, you roll the dice, add their values together, then add the modifier to that total. (This modifier is not affected by weapon proficiency.)

Example: Emerson makes a successful attack with their Improved Shortbow , which deals d6+6 damage. They have a weapon proficiency of 3, so they roll 3d6 damage dice. The results are 3, 5, and 6, totaling 14. They then add the damage dice modifier of +6, and deal 20 points of damage to the target.

Critical Successes and Damage

If your attack roll is a Critical Success, it deals extra damage! Start with the full value of your damage dice, then make a damage roll (plus modifiers) as usual, adding it to that value.

Example: Rowan makes an attack roll against a target with her cutlass and gets two 7’s on the Duality Dice—a critical success. She has a proficiency of 2, and the cutlass does d8+1 damage. She rolls her blade’s damage dice of 2d8, and they land on a 3 and 6. She adds the +1 modifier for a total of 10 on the roll. Because it’s a critical success, she automatically does an extra 16 damage (the maximum potential roll on 2d8). The total of her roll, plus the added 16 brings her total to 26 points of damage.

Multiple Sources of Damage

If for any reason damage should be applied more than once to a creature during a PC’s move, that damage should always be totaled together before applying it to the damage thresholds.

Damage Types and Resistance

Sometimes, other circumstances affect how much damage a creature takes. Use the following rules to determine whether special circumstances affect a damage roll.

Damage Types

There are two damage types a weapon, spell, or ability can inflict: physical damage and magic damage. Damage types can affect how damage is dealt or received. For example, a spell might double any magic damage, a condition might make a character resistant to physical damage, or a type of enemy might be immune to a certain type of damage all together.

Physical damage represents a hit primarily through mundane physical contact, something that is usually done without the aid of magic. Most standard blades and bows do physical damage.

Magic damage represents a hit that is primarily delivered through magical means. Most spells that deal harm to a target do magic damage.

Direct Damage

Direct damage is physical or magic damage that automatically hits a target. When a PC or GM deals direct damage, they don’t have to make an attack roll to hit.

Resistance & Immunity

Some abilities, spells, items, or other effects in the game might limit the amount of damage being done to a player through resistance or immunity. The text will usually specify whether this effect applies to either Physical or Magic. If it does not specify, the effect applies to all types of incoming damage.

When a creature has resistance to an incoming type of damage, they divide the damage in half (rounding up) before applying it to their thresholds. For example, you deal 25 damage to them, they would instead only take 13 damage. If multiple features give you resistance, they only count as one source of resistance.

When a creature has immunity to an incoming type of damage, they do not take any damage from the attack.

If you have resistance or immunity plus another way to reduce damage (such as marking an Armor Slot), apply the resistance or immunity first; if you wish, you can then use other methods to reduce the damage further.