Damage, armour & recovery
Hits drain Stamina (fatigue and bruises) and Body (real wounds). Armour and shields soak what they can. Recovery restores Stamina, not Body.
Start here
Two kinds of damage
- Stamina — fatigue, bruises, near misses and exhaustion.
- Body — real wounds.
Stamina below 0 → Stunned.
Body below 0 → Unconscious.
Armour and shields reduce incoming damage. What happens after unconsciousness is the GM and the fiction — When a character falls.
In the app these states show as chips on the combat panel. The app handles armour absorption for you on Take Hit. The folds below explain what it is doing.
At the table
Recover during combat
Spend an action catching your breath: roll 3d6 against Constitution instead of attacking. Success puts Stamina back. It never exceeds your maximum, and it does not heal Body.
Exact Recovery outcomes
- Natural 18: nothing — you wasted the moment.
- Failure: +1 Stamina.
- Success: +max(1, margin) Stamina.
Look this up: the damage roll
On a successful hit, the attacker rolls a number of d6 equal to the weapon's damage class. Unarmed attacks roll max(1, Strength ÷ 4) dice. Each die is read independently against Impact or Piercing.
Set weapon, Charge, and Use extra strength can add dice.
Look this up: Impact damage table
Blunt force — clubs, maces, fists, falls. Drains Stamina; only the heaviest hits break through to Body.
| Die | Stamina damage | Body damage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 4 | 3 | 0 |
| 5 | 4 | 0 |
| 6 | 5 | 1 |
Look this up: Piercing damage table
Cutting and stabbing — swords, axes, arrows, spears.
| Die | Stamina damage | Body damage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | 1 |
| 6 | 4 | 2 |
Example — one hit from start to finish: a longsword (piercing, damage class 3) rolls 3d6 and gets 2, 4, 6. Raw damage: 1 + 2 + 4 = 7 Stamina and 0 + 1 + 2 = 3 Body — before armour.
Look this up: how armour absorbs damage
Armour has a Resilience rating. A shield has one too. Both are subtracted from incoming damage after the dice are read — absorbed alternately across Body and Stamina until they run out.
Order: 1 Body → 1 Stamina → 1 Body → 1 Stamina → … If one pool is empty, that step is skipped.
Raw damage: 7 Stamina, 3 Body. Effective resilience: 4.
- Step 1 (Body): 3 → 2; resilience left = 3
- Step 2 (Stamina): 7 → 6; resilience left = 2
- Step 3 (Body): 2 → 1; resilience left = 1
- Step 4 (Stamina): 6 → 5; resilience left = 0
Net damage applied: 5 Stamina, 1 Body.
Both damage types use the same absorption rule.
Look this up: when the shield helps
A shield's Resilience only joins the armour total when the attacker's hit margin is at most 2 better than the defender's parry score:
shield counts if (hit score − parry score) ≤ 2
A devastating hit (margin three or more above your parry) goes around it. If you didn't parry — or the parry failed — the shield doesn't help.
The GM may call Ignore shield or Ignore armour on Take Hit (back-stab, magical penetration).
Look this up: healing between fights
These rates are GM-adjudicated guidelines — not automated by the app.
Stamina
- Full rest — recover all lost Stamina.
- Light activity — recover 50% of lost Stamina.
Body
- With rest and care: Constitution ÷ 5 (rounded down) Body per day.
- Without care: half of that (rounded down).
- Piercing wounds: −1 per day from the rate unless treated.
- Broken bones or severe bruising: recovery rate halved.
- At 0 Body a character can't act until they're back up to at least 1.
- A Healing skill or magical help may add +1 Body per day — GM decides.
See also
- Combat — the four-step flow.
- Combat moves.
- Dice rolls — the outcome scale Recovery uses.