Adversaries and Environments

Adversaries and Environments

CHAPTER FOUR

Adversaries and Environments

Adversaries and Environments

This chapter presents stat blocks for adversaries and environments, along with all the rules you need to use them.

Using Adversaries

Many NPC encounters don’t involve conflict, so you don’t need character statistics for everyone inhabiting your world. However, for the scenes where conflict or combat are likely, you can use the adversaries in this chapter. Adversaries don’t have as many statistics and abilities as player characters, which makes it easier for you to coordinate multiple adversaries in combat.

This section describes how to use each adversary’s stat block, while chapter 3 presents general rules on running combat and tying these scenes into the larger story. Finally, the “Adversary Stat Blocks” section later in this chapter presents statistics for each adversary, grouped by tier to represent their general threat level.

Adversary Breakdown

Each adversary’s stat block presents its statistics in a simplified format, as described in the example below.

Jagged Knife Bandit - Standard

Description: A cunning criminal in a heavy cloak bearing one of the gang’s iconic knives.

Motives & Tactics: Escape, Profit, Throw Smoke

Tier: 1

Type: Standard

Difficulty: 12

Attack Modifier: +1

Daggers: Melee | 2d6+3 phy

Major 8 | Severe 14

HP: 5

Stress: 3

Experience:

Bandit +2

Features

Climber - Passive

This adversary can climb just as easily as they can run. “They get to higher ground.”

From Above - Action

Make an attack from above a target. On a success, deal 3d4+10 physical damage. “They drop in from above and take no mercy.”

Each stat block contains the following elements:

Name: Each stat block has a unique name—in this case, the Jagged Knife Bandit. If an ability affects all adversaries with a certain name, this includes any adversary who uses that stat block (even if you’ve given those NPCs individual names in the story)

Tier: Each adversary is designed to oppose PCs of a certain tier. You can use stat blocks from other tiers, but you may want to adjust their statistics, as described in the later “Improvising Adversaries” section. Tier 1 adversaries are appropriate for level 1 characters, Tier 2 lines up with levels 2-4, Tier 3 is for levels 5-7, and Tier 4 is appropriate for levels 8-10.

Type: The adversary’s type appears below their tier. The Bandit is a Standard adversary, meaning they comprise the rank and file of their faction’s forces. The later “Adversary Types” section lists all adversary types.

Description: A one-line summary of the adversary’s appearance, weapons, and/or demeanor.

Motives & Tactics: Each stat block suggests some general motives and tactics the adversary uses in a confrontation. When in doubt, the Bandit will try to escape (caring more for their own life than victory), profit (by any means necessary, including lying and stealing), and throw smoke (possibly obscuring the battlefield and escape route). There aren’t special rules about these—improvise the outcome like you would for a player character.

Attack Modifier: When you attack with this adversary, apply this bonus or penalty to your attack roll (see “Adversary Attack Rolls”).

Weapon: Each adversary’s weapon lists its name (in this case, Daggers), its range (Melee), and its damage on a success (2d6+3 physical damage). You can use this weapon to make an attack as an action; many adversaries also have special attacks in their “Features” section.

Difficulty: Adversaries don’t use Evasion like PCs—instead, all rolls against them use their Difficulty. The Jagged Knife Bandit is Difficulty 12, so any PC attack or action roll of 12 or above succeeds against this adversary.

Damage Thresholds, Hit Points, & Stress: Major 8 / Severe 14 represents this adversary’s Damage thresholds. They have 5 Hit Points and 3 Stress. These all function the same as for PCs (see “Hit Points and Damage Thresholds” and “Stress Points” in chapter 2).

Experience: Like PCs, some adversaries have Experiences that make them especially capable in certain situations. This stat block’s Experience is Bandit +2, which can aid them in rolls related to such skulduggery. See “Adversary Experiences” below for details on using these Experiences.

Features: Features represent the Bandit’s capabilities in a conflict and are denoted as either an action, which means you must spend a token on the action tracker to use it, a passive, which means it always applies and doesn’t require a token to activate, or a reaction, which means you can respond to the specified trigger without requiring a GM move or action token. The Bandit has an action called “From Above” that deals more damage when they are attacking from above -the 3d10 damage replaces their standard damage of 2d8. They also have a passive called “Climber” that allows them to climb without difficulty. The upcoming “Adversary Features” section details how to use various features.

Adversary Types

An adversary’s type represents the role they play in a scene. When building encounters, utilizing a mix of types helps present a dynamic and engaging challenge. Adversary types include the following:

Bruiser: Tough with powerful attacks.

Horde: A group of identitical creatures acting together as a single unit (see “Using Minions and Hordes”).

Leader: Commands and summons other adversaries.

Minion: Easily dispatched but dangerous in numbers. (see “Using Minions and Hordes”).

Ranged: Fragile but usually attacks from a distance for high damage.

Skulk: Maneuvers and exploits opportunities to ambush opponents.

Social: Primarily offers interpersonal threats or similar social conflicts, rather than combat.

Solo: Presents a formidable challenge to a whole party, with or without support.

Standard: Rank-and-file adversaries representative of their fictional group.

Support: Enhances their allies and/or disrupts their opponents.

Adversary Experiences

Adversaries tend to have fewer and broader Experiences than the PCs. In situations where you think an adversary’s capabilities aren’t fully expressed by their assigned Difficulty, you can easily apply an Experience bonus to their Difficulty and reaction rolls, as follows:

Difficulty: When a PC makes an action roll against an adversary, if the adversary’s Experience is relevant to the situation, you can choose to increase the roll’s difficulty by that Experience modifier.

Reaction Rolls: When an adversary makes a reaction roll (see “Adversary Reaction Rolls”), you can automatically apply any particularly relevant Experience to the roll (without spending Fear or action tokens to do so).

Whenever you use an adversary’s Experience, describe how it improves their odds in that moment. Experiences feel more impactful if you save them for certain dramatic moments or situations, rather than applying them to most rolls.

While some adversaries specialize in combat, others do best in non-violent situations, and their Experiences reflect that. For example, the Tier 1 Merchant isn’t hard to best in a duel or arm-wrestling, but they’re much more formidable in a negotiation. The Merchant has a difficulty of 10 (two lower than the Jagged Knife Bandit discussed above), as they’re not especially skilled in combat. But the Merchant’s Experience of Shrewd Negotiator +5 could apply whenever a PC is trying to haggle with the Merchant or trick them into taking a bad deal, increasing the difficulty to 15. And if the Merchant makes a reaction roll related to savvy or social situations, you might decide to apply that Experience as a bonus to the roll.

Example Experiences

You can always adjust a stat block’s Experiences to fit your story. Here are some examples of Experiences you can use:

  • Quick Reflexes
  • Keen Senses
  • Stealth
  • Socialite
  • Nature’s Friend
  • Barter
  • Intimidation
  • Ambusher
  • Nobility
  • Tracking
  • Navigation
  • Bodyguard
  • Cautious
  • Intrusion Strict
  • Magical Knowledge

Adversary Features

The right side of each stat block lists that adversary’s features. Below each feature, you’ll find a line of italicized flavor text. This line offers inspiration for how to tie that feature into the narrative and describe it to the players.

Features can take three forms—actions, reactions, and passives. The following sections describe how to use these features and provide a few examples. You can also find a complete list of adversary features in [section pending] of chapter 6.

Activating Features

All actions require spending an action token to use, while passives and reactions typically don’t. Some features require no resources to activate them, but those that do generally call for one of the following:

Marking Stress: Some moves call for the adversary to “mark a Stress.” Each adversary’s Stress is separate, so if they run out, they can’t mark Stress from a different adversary.

Spending Action Tokens: Some features require spending one or more additional action tokens to use. Actions cost a minimum of one action token, and if they cost more, that number will be listed in parentheses like so: Action (2) for an action that costs 2 action tokens.

Spending Fear: Some moves say to “spend a Fear.” To make this move, you must spend Fear as described, even if you already spent an action token to activate the adversary. (See the upcoming “Fear Features” section for examples of these moves.)

Adversary Actions

Adversary actions are features that always require you to spend an action token to use them. These actions can be divided into three categories:

Standard Attacks: Each adversary has a standard attack listed in the left column of their stat block. This includes their attack modifier, the name of the attack, its range, and its damage. When you spend an action token to activate an adversary, you can always use their standard attack as long as they are within range (or can move within range).

Unique Actions: Many adversaries have special actions listed in the right column of their stat block. These represent their skills, innate abilities, spells they can cast, etc. Unique actions might allow the adversary to make an attack, to force PCs to make a reaction roll, or even to change the landscape. When you activate an adversary, you can choose to use one of these instead of making a standard attack. See “Unique Actions” below for details on using these.

Other Actions: Adversaries can do nearly anything a PC can, so if you want to do something that’s not in the stat block, feel free! The “Adversary Action Rolls” section of chapter 3 provides guidance on resolving other actions an adversary might take.

Unique Actions

In addition to the action token required to use any action, some unique actions require also spending Fear or marking Stress, and others might require more than one action token to be spent (indicated by the number in parentheses after the action name). See the earlier “Activating Features” section for more details on spending these.

The following features are examples of actions. In these examples, “X” and “Y” represent numbers that are different for each stat block.

Group Attack - Action (X)

Activate all adversaries with this name within a certain range of a target, spending X action tokens for the group. This group can move and make one shared attack roll against that target. On a success, they deal the specified amount of damage per adversary, combine that damage together before applying it to their target’s damage thresholds.

Tip: While this feature is most common with minions, any adversary can use this feature. See “Using Minions and Hordes ” for more suggestions on using this in combat.

Haymaker - Action (X) | +Y attack modifier

The adversary winds up and takes a mighty swing. Make an attack with a +Y bonus. On a success, deal the specified amount of damage. Any armor used to reduce damage from this attack is only half as effective.

Shredding Strike - Action | +Y attack modifier

Make an attack with a +Y modifier against an enemy within Very Close range. If it hits, the target takes the specified amount of damage and must mark an armor slot without gaining its benefit (but they may still use other armor slots on the damage).

Adversary Reactions

Adversary reactions are features that don’t take effect until their specific trigger occurs (such as taking damage or marking a certain number of HP). When triggered, you can immediately use the reaction, and you don’t have to spend an action token or Fear to interrupt the PCs with this reaction (unless otherwise specified). The following features are examples of reaction

Shifting Amalgamation - Reaction

Spend a Fear to add X to the damage of any of the adversary’s attacks.

Team-Up - Reaction | +0 attack modifier

When another adversary within Very Close range of this adversary deals damage to a character, mark a Stress to make an attack against that same target. On a success, add the two damage rolls together.

Adversary Passives

Adversary passives don’t require activation, and always apply under the circumstances stated in that feature. Some are always in effect (such as the Arcane Form passive below, which makes the adversary permanently resistant to magic damage). Others automatically come into effect whenever the stated trigger occurs (such as the Horde passive below, which reduces the adversary’s damage once their hit points are halved).

The following features are examples of passives. In these examples, “X” represents a number that is different for each stat block.

Relentless (X) - Passive

This adversary can activate up to X times during a GM move, so long as there are enough action tokens. You still spend an action token each time you activate them in this way.

Tip: The Relentless feature is useful if you want an adversary who can act multiple times during your move. This is often best for exceedingly fast or dangerous foes, or for adversaries who are likely to battle the party on their own.

Slow (X) - Passive

This adversary costs X action tokens to activate, instead of just one token.

Tip: The Slow feature is useful if you want an adversary who narratively takes longer to act than others, like a giant slug or a lumbering ogre. This is usually most effective when that creature has powerful actions, increasing the party’s dread as the tokens stack up.

Minion (X) - Passive

This adversary is defeated if it takes any damage. For every X damage a PC deals to this adversary, defeat an additional minion in the attack’s range.

Tip: See the upcoming “Using Minions and Hordes ” section for guidance on using this feature.

Horde (X) - Passive

If the horde has marked at least half of their Hit Points, their attack only deals X damage.

Tip: See the upcoming “Using Minions and Hordes ” section for guidance on using this feature.

Arcane Form - Passive

This adversary is resistant to magic damage.

Armored Carapace - Passive

When this adversary takes physical damage, reduce that damage by X.

Fear Features

Fear features are rare and powerful adversary features that require spending Fear to activate. These most commonly appear on Leader and Solo adversaries, and can take the form of passives, actions, or reactions. Each Fear Feature is a scene-defining effect that justifies the expenditure of this valuable GM resource. For example:

Reinforcements - Action

Spend a Fear to add 1d4 additional adversaries to the scene as backup. They appear at a Far distance and may immediately activate without spending action tokens. Any attacks they make with these activations deal half damage.

Coup de Grace - Action

Spend a Fear to make an attack against a Vulnerable target within Close range. If successful, deal 4d8 phy damage and force the target to mark a Stress.

Choosing Adversaries

When choosing adversaries, the following guidance can help you create an interesting and challenging encounter:

  • For an easy encounter, use fewer enemies or a larger number of enemies of a lower tier. Try using a number of Standard adversaries equal to the party size, potentially replacing one with a Bruiser, Skulk, or Support.
  • For a standard encounter, try using a Solo adversary or number of minions equal to the size of the party plus 2-3 from the Bruiser, Skulk, Standard, and Support types.
  • For a challenging encounter, try using minions equal to the size of your party and a Leader or Solo. If not using a Leader or Solo, use the minions plus a number of other adversaries equal to the party size.
  • For a climactic, arc-ending battle, use a Leader, minions equal to one and a half times the party size, and a number of other adversaries equal to the party size.

[Playtesters: We specifically invite feedback on your experiences with encounter design during your playtests. Do these guidelines work for your table? If not, what have you found that does work for you and your group?]

Using Solos

When using a Solo adversary, it’s important to make sure they can take enough turns to challenge the party. If your Solo has the Relentless feature (allowing them to use multiple actions during your move), they can likely face the players alone. Solos without Relentless often have features that force the PCs to generate more action tokens and/or area-of-effect features to challenge multiple PCs at once. If you’re using a Solo without Relentless and you want to be sure that there are enough options for adversary actions, consider including a couple other adversaries to round out the fight, from types like Horde, Ranged, Standard, Support, or Skulk.

Since the action tracker limits how many adversaries you can activate at a time, it’s hard to accidentally overwhelm the players with sheer numbers. The above advice will help you avoid the opposite—not being able to use enough actions to challenge the PCs despite having many tokens on the tracker.

Example: Max is preparing a road encounter for their group of four to help introduce a new enemy faction. The fight is meant to be easy, so they choose three Standard adversaries and one Bruiser.

Later, the group has followed the faction’s trail and confronts a group on patrol near the faction’s outpost. This will be a standard encounter, so Max prepares four Minions, a Bruiser, a Support, and a Skulk.

And finally, when the group has fought through the outpost to confront the faction leader, the encounter will include six Minions, a Leader, two Snipers, a Bruiser, and a Support. The Leader also has an action that will bring in more minions as needed.

Using Minions and Hordes

Daggerheart has two adversary types that can represent foes that are a minor threat individually but dangerous in a group: minions and hordes. Both are useful for presenting a large group of foes to a party while planning for the combat to stay fast-paced. They help avoid a long drawn-out fight after the biggest threats have been eliminated, since you can more easily defeat these adversaries without making countless attacks. When you’re using Hordes or Minions, be sure to let the players know which ones are which—unless there’s a specific reason for the players to not know (such as a Leader hiding within their ranks).

Minions

A minion is an individual adversary who can group up with other minions for a big combined attack—but when they’re in these groups, the PCs can defeat them en masse with a single attack. Use minions when you want to put a lot of figures on the battlefield or when you need enemies to spread out and independently occupy several positions. A large group of minions creates urgency for the PCs to thin out their numbers before the minions can land devastating group attacks.

Every minion has 1 HP and both of the following features:

Minion (X) - Passive

This adversary is defeated if they take any damage. For every X damage a PC deals to this adversary, defeat an additional minion in the attack’s range.

Group Attack - Action (X)

Activate all adversaries with this name within a certain range of a target, spending X action tokens for the group. This group can move and make one shared attack roll against that target. On a success, they deal the specified amount of damage per adversary, combine that damage together before applying it to their target’s damage thresholds.

Each minion requires a different amount of damage to defeat additional minions, represented by X in the Minion feature; for example, the Rotted Zombie’s Minion feature says “Minion (4)”—so if a PC deals 4 damage to them, not only is the Rotted Zombie defeated, but the PC can choose an additional minion in range to immediately defeat. The additional minions don’t have to use the same stat block; if a PC deals 4 damage to a Rotted Zombie and there’s a Giant Rat minion nearby, the PC can choose that Giant Rat as the additional minion defeated.

Meanwhile, the Group Attack makes action tokens more efficient in battle, gives you a predictable damage output, and requires fewer rolls. When you use it to activate multiple adversaries at once, this helps make a battlefield full of enemies come alive. Remember that you only make one attack roll for the entire group of attackers, and then add their damage together before applying it to the target. Group Attack is often paired up with the Minion move because it gives groups of smaller foes a chance to attack before their inevitable defeat, but this move can appear on any stat block.

The Minion feature and Group Attack action help create the cinematic feeling of PCs being swarmed by waves of foes, then taking them out with a single attack roll. If a PC hits one minion and they do enough damage, they can defeat multiple others in range. Because of this, it’s often best to have several minions crowd a PC on your move, making the scene feel overwhelming and dangerous until the PC gets a chance to act. When making group attacks, minions deal consistent damage rather than rolling damage, making their damage output predictable.

Example: Tabby the Warrior is holding a castle gate against attacking zombies while her companions try to complete the cleansing ritual that will cut off the energy animating the undead. The GM places 5 Rotted Zombies on the board as a group of minions, describing the scattered group converging as they approach the Katari Warrior. Tabby decides to charge them, moving a Close distance and laying into the minions.

Making an attack roll against the nearest Rotted Zombie, Tabby easily hits and deals a total of 11 damage. The Zombies have the feature Minion 4, which means that for each 4 damage dealt to a Rotted Zombie, an additional minion within range marks 1 HP. Tabby’s 11 damage means that with that one attack roll, Tabby defeats 3 Rotted Zombies, as they each only have 1 HP. Tabby’s player describes hacking her way through the attackers, chopping limbs and heads.

If Tabby had rolled a failure, granting the Zombies a chance to attack before their numbers were reduced, the GM could use their Group Attack action (Group Attack - Melee - 2). The GM spends two action tokens and activates every Rotted Zombie within Melee range of Tabby (all 5) and makes a single attack roll. If the attack succeeds, the Rotted Zombies all five combine, dealing 3 damage for each Rotted Zombie activated and in range, which means the attack deals a brutal 15 damage to Tabby.

If Tabby had succeeded in her roll above and then taken a counter-attack, the 2 remaining Rotted Zombies would only deal 6 damage (2 Rotted Zombies dealing 3 damage each, adding up to 6). You’ve got to thin out those Minion groups before they can hit you!

Hordes

A horde is a large group of the same enemy that narratively moves and acts in unison—such as a mass of zombies or a swarm of deadly insects—without you having to manage each enemy individually. Use hordes when you want to concentrate danger in one space, giving the feeling of a moving group of foes that threatens to crash over a PC like a wave.

Each horde represents a certain number of creatures, which reduces as the horde marks HP. In parentheses next to each horde’s “Type” field, the stat block lists how many creatures the horde represents per HP remaining. For example, a Zombie Pack’s stat block might say “Type: Horde (2/HP)”—so if that horde has 6 HP, you would describe it as 12 zombies moving in a group together. If a PC deals 2 hit points to this horde, you would describe 8 zombies being taken out as a result.

Each horde also has the following feature:

Horde (X) - Passive

If the horde has marked at least half of their Hit Points, their attack only deals X damage.

Unlike minions who each act on their own, a horde simplifies combat; while the PCs are narratively fighting an enormous group, you only have to worry about one adversary’s actions. Also unlike minions, Hordes can hold a chokepoint, as they take several blows to dispatch. Their damage goes down when their HP is halved, giving players a reason to make a few attacks against the horde to reduce their threat, then shifting to a more dangerous target.

Example: If the GM used a Zombie Pack adversary (a Horde) instead of the previous Minions example, the group of undead would be represented as one adversary. The GM would use a miniature with several zombies on one base, moving the Horde as they act all as one unit. The Zombie Pack has the feature “Horde: 2d6+8,” and it represents two creatures per HP.

When Tabby charges the Zombie Horde, she makes her same attack. That 11 damage is compared to the Horde’s HP thresholds. 11 is above the Zombie Pack’s Major threshold of 6 but below their Severe threshold of 12. So the Zombie Pack marks 2 HP, leaving them with 4 HP remaining. The Zombie Pack’s Creatures Per Hit Point of 2 means that each HP marked represents eliminating 2 zombies, so Tabby describes carving through 4 members of the horde.

But with only 2 of 6 HP marked, their counter-attack against Tabby is made as normal, with their full damage value of 2d6+8 on a hit.

If Tabby dealt 13 damage instead, that would be a Severe blow to the Zombie Pack and they would mark 3 HP instead of 2. With 3 HP marked (one half of 6), their standard attack damage drops to 2d4+3 damage per their Horde trait.

Defeated Adversaries

When an adversary marks their last Hit Point, they are defeated (unless they have a feature that gives them a second chance!), but it’s up to you and your players what this means. For example, the PCs might knock the adversary unconscious, tie them up with ropes, or kill them.

If death is the goal, it’s generally safe to assume that the PCs successfully kill anyone they defeat—but if they don’t have time to clean up the battlefield, or if an important adversary has a means of cheating or faking death, it’s possible some might slip through the cracks.

Improvising Adversaries

When planning your session (or even in the middle of one), you can adjust an existing adversary’s stat block to fit the needs of your battle. Sometimes you want to use an adversary but they’re too powerful (or not powerful enough) for your party’s tier. Or you might want to replace a feature or two, then present them as an entirely different creature.

Chapter 5 presents in-depth information on adversary balance and how to scale existing adversaries or create new ones, but especially if you’re mid-session when you realize you need a new adversary, you don’t want to make lots of decisions. Don’t sweat the details; you can roughly adjust a stat block to a different tier by simply replacing its existing statistics with those listed on the Improvised Statistics by Tier table, using the column that corresponds to your party’s tier.

Improvised Statistics by Tier

Adversary StatisticTier 1Tier 2Tier 3Tier 4
—————
Attack Modifier+1+2+3+4
Damage Dice2d4+32d6+32d10+52d6+15
Difficulty11141720
Damage ThresholdsMajor 7Severe 12Major 10Severe 20

If you feel comfortable coming up with an adversary’s moves on the fly, you can even use the above table to improvise a completely new adversary using these statistics—see “Adding or Changing Features” below.

You can generally leave an adversary’s HP the same, but feel free to adjust if you want to drastically increase or decrease the time they last in battle. Also keep an eye out for features that deal a different amount of damage than the main weapon attack, as those might need some adjustment as well.

Using the above guidance won’t always make the adversary a perfect match for the PCs, but it’ll reduce the chances of you downing a PC in a single move (or having your Solo adversary defeated after just a couple rolls).

Adding or Changing Features

When scaling an adversary to a higher tier, consider adding a new feature to make them a greater threat, instead of just scaling up the damage and difficulty of their existing features. The earlier “Adversary Features” section contains a few examples of common adversary features; you can also find a complete list of adversary features in [section pending] of chapter 6. Adversaries’ HP and Stress do not generally need to change much between Tiers 1-2, but adversaries may need 1-2 more HP and Stress moving from Tiers 1 or 2 up to Tier 3 or 4, as PCs gain more abilities that deal extra HP and Stress.

Similarly, if scaling down to a lower tier, consider removing one of the most powerful or impactful features.

Improvising Hordes, Minions, and Solos

Horde, minion, and solo adversaries vary significantly in power from other adversaries. The following guidance can help you improvise these adversaries:

Horde: Their standard attack should deal high damage, then reduce (roughly by half) when the horde has been reduced to half HP.

Minion: Give them a flat damage value for their standard attack, and use that value for their Group Attack feature. You’ll also set the value of their Minion feature, determining how much damage is needed to defeat additional minions of that name in one attack.

Solo: Give them high damage, high HP, and features that let them act more frequently (like Relentless) and/or features that force the PCs to add extra action tokens to the action tracker.

Adversary Statblocks

Adversaries by Tier

This chapter contains the following stat blocks.

Tier 1 (Level 1)

Tier 2 (Levels 2-4)

Tier 3 (Levels 5-7)

Tier 4 (Levels 8-10)

[There will be narrative descriptions added to all of these adversaries in a future update.]