Build Guide & Mechanics Reference

Every action resolves with a 1d10 roll that must meet or beat a Difficulty Value (DV).

The contest rule — opposed tests. When you act against a static task or environment, you roll against a DV the GM sets. When you act against someone who resists, both sides roll the same shape — 1d10 + skill — and the higher total wins, each using its own relevant skill. A commander pressing Authority rolls 1d10 + Authority; the target resisting rolls 1d10 + their resist skill. The characteristic does not ride on a trained contest (stacking it inflated the curve); its one contest role is the untrained fallback — with no points in the skill you roll Dis.d10 + the governing characteristic (Disadvantage: two dice, take the lower). Inspire and Performance are the only exceptions, keeping 1d10 + skill + characteristic as uncontested projection. Against Bestiary creatures nothing slows down — the Law of Resistance bar (Characteristic TN + Resist bonus, scaled by Tier) is the creature’s pre-rolled side of that contest, so monsters never roll to resist.

• Natural 10 — Exploding Dice (Confirmed Hit/Cast Only): If your To-Hit or To-Cast roll (1d10 + bonus) meets or beats Defense or TN and the die showed a 10, roll a second 1d10. No To-Hit or casting bonus on this roll. For melee/ranged attacks, only Precise Strike points apply. For casting (all six disciplines), only Perception points apply. If that roll (+ applicable skill points) meets or beats Defense/TN, add +1d10 damage. Chain continues on each subsequent natural 10 by the same rule. Falling short on any explosion roll ends the chain — all wounds already confirmed are kept.
• Natural 1 (Miss): An automatic miss. No further penalties.
• Advantage: Roll 2d10, keep the higher.
• Disadvantage: Roll 2d10, keep the lower.
• Held Action penalty: –2 to To-Hit or To-Cast. Removed entirely at 6+ pts in Discipline.

Characteristics are never set manually — they grow automatically from skill investment.

Every 3 pts invested in skills belonging to a characteristic's group raises that characteristic by 1. Armor modifiers then apply on top for Agility and Awareness.

Critical interaction — Evasion vs Heavy Armor: Chain Mail (–1 Agility) cancels 3 pts of Evasion investment. Full Plate (–2 Agility) cancels 6 pts. Mithril has no penalties, making it the ideal pairing with Evasion.

Evasion DM note: The DM bonus from Evasion (floor(Evasion÷3)) is NOT affected by armor Agility penalty — only the Defense bonus is. So even in plate armor, Evasion still contributes to physical DM.

Blinded condition: Defense drops to armor value only — base 3 and all Evasion bonus disappear.

Bonus DM vs Evil: floor(Light-Soul pts ÷ 3) added to all three DM pools when Cleric Advanced Vocation is active. Light-Soul also adds +1 wound to all attacks against Evil per pt.

Minimum hit: Every successful hit always deals at least 1 wound, regardless of how high your DM is.

Situational To-Hit modifiers:

• Size-Up (1 AP): Advantage on next melee To-Hit if not engaged with multiple opponents. Also adds Physique to wounds.
• Outnumbered 2:1+: Attackers gain Advantage To-Hit.
• 2H Weapon: No To-Hit penalty. Costs 2 AP per strike. Physique ×2 on wound bonus.
• Phantom Assassin: Advantage To-Hit when attacking from Stealth or Flanking.
• Shield Rush: +1 To-Hit per pt of Shieldsman on the charge (requires 25 ft movement).

Critical interaction — Finesse & Heavy Armor: Finesse builds suffer a compounding armor penalty that standard melee does not. Armor reduces Agility first (e.g. Chain –1 Agl), which lowers floor(Agility÷5) directly. Then the Armor Melee Penalty (m_pen) is subtracted on top of that. A Finesse fighter in Chain Mail loses Agility accuracy from the stat reduction AND takes an additional –1 melee penalty — paying the armor cost on both fronts. Mithril is the only heavy armor that avoids this: no Agility reduction means only the flat –1 m_pen applies.

Situational ranged modifiers:

• Aim (1 AP): Advantage on next ranged To-Hit + add Awareness to wounds + range ×1.5.
• Firing into melee: Disadvantage To-Hit (unless target is 2× ally's size). A miss does not hit your ally.
• Cover: Target gains Disadvantage against your shot. Each obstructing ally = –1 additional penalty.
• Opportunist Advanced Vocation: Removes ALL penalties for shooting into melee or obscured LoS.

Skill Accuracy Bonus detail: Zero effect until 9 pts. At 9 pts = +1. At 12 pts = +2. At 15 pts = +3. This is the linear late-game bonus from deep skill investment.

Focus action: Spend 1 AP before casting. floor(Focus pts ÷ 3) passive bonus to To-Cast applies. Also distribute Focus pts between +1 flat wound/heal per pt and –1 target DM per pt.

Counter-Cast: Attacker: 1d10 + To-Cast + Magic Skill pts. Defender: 1d10 + To-Cast + Skill pts OR Resist Bonus. Winner's spell prevails. Tie = both take half wounds unmitigated.

Resist Bonus (defender's passive): If magic skill ≥6: floor((skill–3)÷3). Kicks in at 6 pts (+1) and grows from there.

Arcane Mastery (15+ pts in any magic skill): Add your Spirit skill pts as a flat bonus to ALL spell wounds and healing. One of the most powerful late-game multipliers.

Overcast Menu — each additional AP beyond base TN cost:

• Empower: +1d10 + Primary Characteristic to wounds or healing.
• Precision: +2 flat To-Cast bonus for this cast.
• Piercing: Ignore 3 pts of target's DM.
• Enlarge: AoE radius +10 ft.
• Extend: Duration +1 turn.
• Vantage: Range +50 ft.
• Echo: Apply non-damaging buff to 1 additional target.

Max d10s by TN: TN 1–3: D1d10  |  TN 4–6: 1d10  |  TN 7–9: 2d10  |  TN 10–12: 3d10  |  TN 13–15: 4d10  |  TN 16–18: 5d10  |  TN 19+: 6d10

Spirit skill: Each pt in Spirit adds +1 wound to healing received from any Blessing — this stacks on top of the healer's output bonus and comes from the recipient's sheet, not the healer's.

Cleric Advanced Vocation: Adds +1 wound healed whenever you receive any Blessing.

Divinity Advanced Vocation: Heals Normal + Devotion pts (TN≤7 blessings). Crit: Normal + (Devotion×2) + removes 1 Bleeding.

Sanctity spec (Divinity): Normal + (Devotion×2) + 1d10, removes Bleeding, allies gain +1 Fear resistance 2 turns.

Opposed contests resolve as 1d10 + skill  vs.  1d10 + skill, higher total wins. The characteristic is not added to a trained contest — an earlier draft (the “Mark of Three”) stacked it on every test and over-inflated the curve. Its one role in a contest now is the untrained fallback: with no points in the skill you roll Disadvantage on the d10 + the governing characteristic. See The Core Roll above for the full statement. Two skills are the exception — Inspire and Performance keep 1d10 + skill + characteristic, as uncontested projection (rolled vs a flat DV, never a defender). Bestiary creatures are unaffected — their Law of Resistance bar is their side of the roll, and it now lines up with the de-inflated player side.

Resist-skill lanes: Resolve endures the supernatural (Fear, Terror, magical compulsion, Dominate); Zealotry endures mundane coercion (Charm, Intimidation, Seduction by people). Resolve’s old magical-mitigation contribution moved to Spirit.

Anti-lockout: a creature already subjected to a control effect this encounter resists further control attempts at Advantage — control removes a turn, it does not stun-lock a key foe out of the fight.

This guide now uses Damage Mitigation (DM) throughout, matching the system-wide rename from the old “Wound Mitigation (WM).” The mechanic is unchanged — only the label. (Likewise, the Willpower swap-pool entry now reads Vibhuti, not the retired “Śabda.”)

An optional spell-economy layer, now live in the v4 sheet and pending the table's final confirmation. If used, a caster has an Essence pool spent to cast; if not, casting works exactly as the rest of this guide describes. It is built into both character sheets with an auto-calculating tracker, so it can be switched on or ignored without re-statting.

Why this shape: every term is a third, multiplied by three — the Power of Three in the math. Counting the governing characteristic (not just skill points) makes the pool reward commitment to one path: a pure caster draws a deep well, a hybrid a shallower one. One-use scroll items in the Reliquary still cast without spending Essence by design.

Several gap-filling spells were added across the disciplines. Mechanically they slot into the existing To-Cast / TN framework with no new rules:

Earlier additions also include Feather Fall, Enlarge/Reduce, Water Breathing, and Scry. All are new player options — clear them with your GM.

The Reliquary now rolls on a fourteen-category master table, and three categories use a two-step Common / Greater Hoard system in the old Unearthed Arcana style:

• Melee, Ranged, and Armour each split into two sub-tables. First roll d100 to route: 1–75 → the Common Hoard (mostly workaday gear, a couple of Rare, one Legendary), 76–100 → the Greater Hoard (Rare/Legendary-heavy, the only place an Artifact appears). Then roll d100 on that table.
• Monster-crafted gear — pieces forged from dragons, undead champions, Pyreborn, Weald-beasts, Titan-Blood, the Vraxxal, and the Khugron deep — lives in the Greater Hoards.
• New flat categories: Enchanted Ammunition, Scrolls & One-Use Castings (cast at their TN with no Essence cost, then crumble), and Mounts & Companions.