Combat

The modern world is a dangerous place, and opportunities for battle abound for those not hampered by fear or good sense. Whether it’s combating terrorists before they launch a deadly plot, assaulting a drug lord’s hidden den, or confronting a cabal of evil cultists preparing to sacrifice innocent abductees, combat is inevitable in modern action-adventure stories.
This chapter details the combat rules, starting with the basics before moving on to some of the more unusual situations heroes may face or combat strategies they can employ.

Combat Sequence

Combat is played out in rounds, and in each round everybody acts in turn in a regular cycle. Generally, combat runs in the following way.

1. Each combatant starts the battle flat-footed; that is, a character starts out not yet in a combat stance. Once a combatant acts, she or he is no longer flat-footed.
2. The GM determines which characters are aware of their opponents at the start of the battle. If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. The combatants who are aware of the opponents can act in the surprise round, so they roll for initiative. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take one move or attack action. Combatants who were unaware don’t get to act in the surprise round. If no one or everyone starts the battle aware, there is no surprise round.
3. Combatants who have not yet rolled initiative do so. All combatants are now ready to begin their first regular round.
4. Combatants act in initiative order.
5. When everyone has had a turn, the combatant with the highest initiative acts again, and steps 4 and 5 repeat until combat ends.

COMBAT STATISTICS

Several fundamental statistics determine how well you do in combat. This section summarizes these statistics, and the following sections detail how to use them.

Attack Roll

An attack roll represents your attempts to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. When you make an attack roll, you roll 1d20 and add your attack bonus. If your result equals or beats the target’s Defense, you hit and deal damage. Lots of modifiers affect the attack roll, such as a +1 bonus if you have the Weapon Focus feat with the weapon you’re using or a bonus for having a high Strength or Dexterity score.
A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on the attack roll is always a miss. A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a hit. A natural 20 is also always a threat — a possible critical hit (see Critical Hits).
If you are not proficient in the weapon you’re attacking with (you don’t have the appropriate Weapon Proficiency feat), you take a –4 penalty on the attack roll.

Attack Bonus

Your attack bonus with a melee weapon is:

• Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + size modifier

With a ranged weapon, your attack bonus is:

• Base attack bonus + Dexterity modifier + range penalty + size modifier

Strength Modifier

Strength helps you swing a weapon harder and faster, so your Strength modifier applies to melee attack rolls.

Size Modifier

Creature size categories are defined differently from the size categories for weapons and other objects. Since this size modifier applies to Defense against a melee weapon attack or a ranged weapon attack, two creatures of the same size strike each other normally, regardless of what size they actually are. Creature sizes are compatible with vehicle sizes.

Size (Example)	Size Modifier
Colossal (blue whale [90 ft. long])	–8
Gargantuan (gray whale [40 ft. long])	–4
Huge (elephant)	–2
Large (lion)	–1
Medium-size (human)	+0
Small (German shepherd)	+1
Tiny (housecat)	+2
Diminutive (rat)	+4
Fine (horsefly)	+8

Dexterity Modifier

Dexterity measures coordination and steadiness, so your Dexterity modifier applies when you attack with a ranged weapon.

Range Penalty

The range penalty for a ranged weapon depends on what weapon you’re using and how far away the target is. All ranged weapons and thrown weapons have a range increment, such as 30 feet for a Glock 17 pistol or 10 feet for a thrown knife. Any attack from a distance of less than one range increment is not penalized for range, so a bullet from a Barrett Light Fifty sniper rifle (range increment 120 feet) can strike at enemies up to 119 feet away with no penalty. However, each full range increment causes a cumulative –2 penalty on the attack roll. A sniper firing a Barrett at a target 500 feet away takes a –8 range penalty (because 500 feet is at least four range increments but not five increments). A thrown weapon, such as a javelin, has a maximum range of five range increments. Ranged weapons that fire projectiles, such as pistols and crossbows, can shoot up to ten increments.

Damage

When you hit with a weapon, you deal damage according to the type of weapon. Effects that modify weapon damage also apply to unarmed strikes and the natural physical attack forms of creatures.
Damage is deducted from the target’s current hit points. If the opponent’s hit points are reduced to 0 or less, he’s in bad shape (see Injury and Death).

Minimum Weapon Damage

If penalties to damage bring the damage result below 1, a hit still deals 1 point of damage.

Strength Bonus

When you hit with a melee weapon or thrown weapon, add your Strength modifier to the damage.
Off-Hand Weapon: When you deal damage with a weapon in your off hand, add only half of your Strength bonus.
Wielding a Weapon Two-Handed: When you deal damage with a weapon that you are wielding two-handed, add 1½ times your Strength bonus. However, you don’t get this higher Strength bonus when using a light weapon two-handed; in such a case, only your normal Strength bonus applies to the damage roll.

COMBAT BASICS

Here’s a quick summary of combat and how it works. Refer to the rest of the chapter for more details.

Rounds

Combat is divided into rounds. In every round, each combatant gets to do something. A round represents 6 seconds in the game world.

Initiative

Before the first round, each player makes an initiative check for his or her character. The GM makes initiative checks for the opponents. An initiative check is a Dexterity check (1d20 + Dexterity modifier). Characters act in order from highest initiative result to lowest, with the check applying to all rounds of the combat).
A character is flat-footed until she takes her first action.

Actions

The four types of actions are attack actions, move actions, full-round actions, and free actions.
Every round, on your turn, you may take an attack action and a move action (in either order), two move actions, or one full-round action. You may also perform one or more free actions along with any of these combinations.
Attack Action: An attack action allows you to make one attack or do some similar action. Not all attack actions involve making attacks (some skill checks count as attack actions, for example).
Move Action: A move action allows you to move or perform some similar action (such as stand up, if you’ve been knocked prone). Not all move actions involve movement (drawing a weapon, for example, is a move action).
If none of your actions in a round involve literal movement from one location to another, you can take a free 5-foot step.
Full-Round Action: Some activities take more time than a single attack or move action. If you take a full-round action, it replaces both your move and your attack action for the round.
Free Action: Some activities, such as saying a few words, don’t take up even a fraction of an action. You can take these actions in addition to your other actions. The GM may limit the number of free actions a character can undertake in a single round.

Attacks

You may attempt a melee, ranged, or unarmed attack as your attack action. Making a ranged attack provokes attacks of opportunity from enemies that threaten you (see below).

Attack Roll

To score a hit that deals damage on your attack roll, your result must equal or exceed the target’s Defense.
Melee Attack Roll: 1d20 + base attack bonus + Strength modifier + size modifier
Ranged Attack Roll: 1d20 + base attack bonus + Dexterity modifier + range penalty + size modifier

Damage

If you score a hit, roll damage and deduct it from the target’s current hit points. Add your Strength modifier to damage from melee and thrown weapons. If you’re using a melee weapon in your off hand, add half your Strength modifier (if it’s a bonus). If you’re wielding a melee weapon with both hands, add 1 1⁄2 times your Strength modifier to the damage (if it’s a bonus).
Most weapons deal lethal damage. Lethal damage reduces hit points.
Some weapons and unarmed strikes deal nonlethal damage. Nonlethal damage doesn’t affect hit points. Instead, if a single attack deals nonlethal damage that equals or exceeds the target’s current Constitution score, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 15). On a successful save, the target is dazed for 1 round. On a failed save, the target is knocked unconscious for 1d4+1 rounds.

Defense

A character’s Defense is the result you need to get on your attack roll to hit that character in combat.
Defense: 10 + Dexterity modifier + class bonus + equipment bonus + size modifier

Hit Points

Hit points represent how much damage a character can take before falling unconscious or dying.

Attack Options

When attacking, you have several options.
Attack: You can make a single attack.
Charge: You can charge an opponent, but doing so is a full-round action (it replaces both your attack action and your move action). When making a charge, you move in a straight line for up to twice your speed and then make one attack with a +2 bonus on the attack roll. You take a –2 penalty to your Defense until your turn the following round.
Full Attack: Some characters can strike more than once each combat round, but doing so is a full-round action.

Saving Throws

When you are subject to an unusual attack, you generally get a saving throw to negate or reduce its effect. To succeed at a saving throw, you need a result equal to or higher than the given DC.
Fortitude Saving Throw: 1d20 + base Fort save bonus Constitution modifier
Reflex Saving Throw: 1d20 + base Ref save bonus + Dexterity modifier
Will Saving Throw: 1d20 + base Will save bonus + Wisdom modifier

Movement

Each character has a speed measured in feet (humans normally have a speed of 30 feet). You can move that distance as a move action. You can take a move action before or after taking an attack action.
You can use your attack action as an extra move action, allowing you to move your speed again. Or you can run all-out, which takes your entire turn but lets you move four times your speed.

Attacks of Opportunity

During combat, you threaten all squares adjacent to yours, even when it’s not your action. An enemy that takes certain actions while in a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity from you. An attack of opportunity is a free melee attack that doesn’t use up any of your actions. It is a single melee attack. You can make one attack of opportunity per round. Actions that provoke attacks of opportunity include moving (except as noted below) and attacking with a ranged weapon.
You provoke an attack of opportunity in two ways — when you move out of a square that an enemy threatens, and when you take an action that distracts you from defending yourself while you’re in a threatened square (such as using the Treat Injury skill on an injured ally).
You provoke an attack of opportunity from an enemy when you move out of a threatened square, except:

• If your entire move for the round is 5 feet (a 5-foot step), enemies don’t get attacks of opportunity when you move.
• If you withdraw (a full-round action), enemies don’t get attacks of opportunity when you move from your initial square. If you move into another threatened square, however, enemies get attacks of opportunity when you leave that square.

Death, Dying, and Healing

Your hit points represent how much damage you can take before being disabled, knocked unconscious, or killed.

1 or More Hit Points

No matter how many hit points you have lost, so long as they have not dropped to 0 or lower, you remain fully functional.

0 Hit Points

If your hit points drop to 0, you are disabled. You can only take a single move action or attack action, and you take 1 point of damage after completing an action.

–1 to –9 Hit Points

If your hit points drop to from –1 to –9 hit points, you’re unconscious and dying. Each round, make a Fortitude save (DC 20). If you fail, you lose 1 hit point, and you must make the Fortitude save again the next round. If you succeed, you become stable. While stable, you’re still unconscious. Each hour thereafter you make a Fortitude save (DC 20) to regain consciousness; if the save fails, you remain unconscious.
You can stop a dying character’s loss of hit points with a successful Treat Injury check (DC 15).

–10 Hit Points

If your hit points fall to –10 or lower, you’re dead.

Healing

The Treat Injury skill and the proper tool (first aid kit, medical kit, or surgery kit) can help characters become stable and restore hit points.

Multiplying Damage

Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as when you score a critical hit. Roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results.
For example, Russell Whitfield gets a +3 bonus on damage when using a longsword. The critical multiplier of a longsword is ×2, so if he scored a critical hit, he would roll 1d8+3 points of damage two times (the same as rolling 2d8+6).
Bonus damage represented as extra dice, such as from firing a double tap shot (see the Double Tap feat), is an exception. Do not multiply bonus damage dice when you score a critical hit.
For example, if Adam Swift scores a critical hit when making a double tap attack with his pistol, he rolls 2d6 points of damage two times (the same as rolling 4d6) and then adds the extra 1d6 for the double tap.

Critical Hits

When you make an attack roll and get a natural 20 (the d20 shows 20), you hit regardless of your target’s Defense, and you have scored a threat of a critical hit. To find out if it is actually a critical hit, you immediately make another attack roll with all the same modifiers as the attack roll that scored the threat. If the second roll also results in a hit against the target’s Defense, your attack is a critical hit. (The second roll just needs to hit to confirm a critical hit; you don’t need to roll a second 20.) If the second roll is a miss, then your attack just deals the damage of a regular hit.
A critical hit multiplies your damage. Unless otherwise specified, the multiplier is ×2. (It is possible for some weapons to have higher multipliers, doing more damage on a critical hit.) Some weapons have expanded threat ranges, for instance the crossbow (19–20) and the rapier (18–20), making a critical hit more likely. However, even with these weapons, only a 20 is an automatic hit. The Critical column on Table 4–4 and Table 4–7 indicates the threat range for each weapon on the tables.
Bonus damage represented as extra dice, such as from firing a double tap shot (see the Double Tap feat), is not multiplied when you score a critical hit.

Defense

Your Defense represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you. It’s the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit you. The average, unarmored civilian has a Defense of 10. Your Defense is equal to:

• 10 + Dexterity modifier + class bonus + equipment bonus + size modifier

Dexterity Modifier

If your Dexterity is high, you are particularly adept at dodging blows or gunfire. If your Dexterity is low, you are particularly inept at it. That’s why you apply your Dexterity modifier to your Defense.
Sometimes you can’t use your Dexterity bonus. If you can’t react to a blow, you can’t use your Dexterity bonus to Defense. For example, you lose your Dexterity bonus if you’re hanging onto the face of a crumbling cliff, or if you’re caught flat-footed at the beginning of a combat.

Class Bonus

Your class and level grant you an innate bonus to Defense. This bonus measures your combat savvy and applies in all situations, even when you’re flat-footed or when you would lose your Dexterity bonus for some other reason.

Equipment Bonus

If you wear armor, it provides a bonus to your Defense. This bonus represents the armor’s ability to protect you from blows.
Armor provides a minimum bonus to anyone who wears it, but a character who is proficient in the use of a certain type of armor receives a larger bonus to Defense.
Sometimes you can’t use your equipment bonus to Defense. If an attack will damage you just by touching you, you can’t add your equipment bonus (see Touch Attacks, below).

Size Modifier

The bigger an opponent is, the easier it is to hit in combat. The smaller it is, the harder it is to hit. Since this same modifier applies to attack rolls, a rat, for example, doesn’t have a hard time attacking another rat. Size modifiers are shown on Table 5–1.

Other Modifiers

Other factors can add to your Defense.
Feats: Some feats, such as Dodge, give you a bonus to your Defense.
Natural Armor: Some creatures have natural armor, which usually consists of scales, fur, or layers of thick muscle.
Dodge Bonuses: Some other Defense bonuses represent actively avoiding blows, such as the Defense bonus for fighting defensively. These bonuses are called dodge bonuses. Any situation that denies you your Dexterity bonus also denies you dodge bonuses. Unlike most sorts of bonuses, dodge bonuses stack with each other.
Magical Effects: Some campaigns may include magic. Some magical effects offer enhancement bonuses to armor (making it more effective) or deflection bonuses that ward off attacks.

Touch Attacks

Some attacks disregard armor. For example, armor doesn’t affect your chance of success when splashing acid on someone or trying to trip him. In these cases, the attacker makes a touch attack roll (either a ranged touch attack roll or a melee touch attack roll). The attacker makes her attack roll as normal, but your Defense does not include any equipment bonus or armor bonus. All other modifiers, such as your class bonus, Dexterity modifier, and size modifier, apply normally.

Hit Points

Your hit points tell you how much punishment you can take before dropping. Your hit points are based on your class and level, and your Constitution modifier applies.
When your hit point total drops to 0, you’re disabled. When it drops to –1, you’re dying. When it drops to –10, you’re dead (see Injury and Death).

Speed

Your speed tells you how far you can move in a move action. Humans normally move 30 feet, but some creatures move faster or slower. Rats, for example, have a speed of just 15, while wolves have a speed of 50. Wearing armor can slow you down.
You normally move as a move action, leaving an attack action to attack. You can, however, use your attack action as a second move action. This could let you move again, for a total movement of up to double your normal speed. Another option is to run all out (a full-round action). This lets you move up to four times your normal speed, but you can only run all out in a straight line, and doing so affects your Defense (see Run).

Saving Throws

As an adventurer, you have more to worry about than straightforward attacks. You may also face grenades and explosives, dangerous traps, and maybe the special attacks of creatures.
Generally, when you are subject to an unusual or magical attack, you get a saving throw to avoid or reduce the effect. Like an attack roll, a saving throw is a 1d20 roll plus a bonus based on your class and level (your base save bonus) and an ability modifier.
A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on a saving throw is always a failure. A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a success.
Your saving throw bonus is:

• Base save bonus + ability modifier

The Difficulty Class for a save is determined by the attack itself. The poison from a scorpion sting, for example, might allow a Fortitude save against DC 11. The Reflex save to reduce the damage from a hand grenade is DC 15.

Saving Throw Types

The three different kinds of saving throws are these:
Fortitude: These saves measure your ability to stand up to massive physical punishment or attacks against your vitality and health such as poison and paralysis. Apply your Constitution modifier to your Fortitude saving throws.
Reflex: These saves test your ability to dodge massive attacks such as explosions or car wrecks. (Often, when damage is inevitable, you get to make a Reflex save to take only half damage.) Apply your Dexterity modifier to your Reflex saving throws.
Will: These saves reflect your resistance to mental influence and domination as well as to many magical effects. Apply your Wisdom modifier to your Will saving throws.

Initiative

Every round, each combatant gets to do something. The combatants’ initiative checks, from highest to lowest, determine the order in which they act, from first to last. As Moondog Greenberg says, “Hitting first is good. Hitting hard is better. But hitting last — that’s all that really counts.”

Initiative Checks

At the start of a battle, each combatant makes a single initiative check. An initiative check is a Dexterity check. Each character applies his Dexterity modifier to the roll, and anyone with the Improved Initiative feat gets an additional +4 bonus on the check. The GM finds out what order characters are acting in, counting down from highest result to lowest, and each character acts in turn. On all following rounds, the characters act in the same order (unless a character takes an action that results in her initiative changing; see Special Initiative Actions). Usually, the GM writes the names of the characters down in initiative order so that on subsequent rounds he can move quickly from one character to the next. If two or more combatants have the same initiative check result, the combatants who are tied go in order of total initiative modifier (including Dexterity modifier and Improved Initiative bonus, if applicable). If there is still a tie, roll a die.
Flat-Footed: At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically, before your first turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed. You can’t use your Dexterity bonus to Defense while flat-footed.

Opponent Initiative

Typically, the GM makes a single initiative check for the opponents. That way, each player gets a turn in each round and the GM also gets one turn. At the GM’s option, however, he can make separate initiative checks for different groups of opponents or even for individual villains. For instance, the GM may make one initiative check for a crime lord and another check for all seven of her henchmen.

Joining a Battle

If characters enter a battle after it has begun, they roll initiative at that time and act whenever their turn comes up in the existing order.

Surprise

When a combat starts, if you were not aware of your enemies and they were aware of you, you’re surprised. Likewise, you can surprise your enemies if you know about them before they’re aware of you.

Determining Awareness

Sometimes all the combatants on a side are aware of the enemies, sometimes none are, and sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few combatants on each side are aware and the other combatants on each side are unaware.
The GM determines who is aware of whom at the start of a battle. She may call for Listen checks, Spot checks, or other checks to see how aware the heroes are of the enemy. Some example situations:

• The heroes come to a door at the back of an old warehouse. The GM knows that the thugs on the other side of the door have been using security cameras to watch the party approach. Elliot listens at the door, hears muttered discussion, and tells the rest of the party about it. Moondog breaks the door open. Both sides are aware; neither is surprised. The heroes and thugs make initiative checks, and the battle begins.
• The characters are exploring a storm sewer, looking for evidence behind a string of mysterious disappearances. Feral dogs lurk in hiding places, waiting for the right time to strike. Yoriko spots one of the dogs, and with a growl the dogs charge. The dogs and Yoriko each get an attack action or move action during the surprise round. The dogs move to try to put themselves in advantageous positions for the next round. Yoriko can draw a weapon, attack, move, or take some other action. After the surprise round, the first regular round of combat begins.
• The heroes are advancing down a dark corridor, their flashlights barely lighting the way. At the end of the corridor is the terrorist leader they’ve been searching for. The terrorist, who easily sees the heroes through his night-vision goggles, opens up on them with a machine gun. That’s the surprise round. After the machine gun attack, the first regular round begins, and the heroes are in a tough spot, since they still can’t see who attacked them.

The Surprise Round

If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. The combatants who are aware of the opponents can act in the surprise round, so they roll for initiative. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take an attack action or move action during the surprise round (see Action Types, below). If no one or everyone is surprised, a surprise round does not occur.

Unaware Combatants

Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle do not get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are still flat-footed because they have not acted yet. Because of this, they lose any Dexterity bonus to Defense.

Actions in Combat

The fundamental actions of moving and attacking cover most of what you want to do in a battle. They’re described here. Other, more specialized options are touched on in Table 5–2: Actions in Combat, and covered later in Special Initiative Actions, and Special Attacks.

The Combat Round

Each round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. A round is an opportunity for each character involved in a combat to take an action. Anything a person could reasonably do in 6 seconds, your character can do in 1 round.
Each round’s activity begins with the character with the highest initiative result and then proceeds, in order, from there. Each round of a combat uses the same initiative order. When a character’s turn comes up in the initiative sequence, that character performs his entire round’s worth of actions.
(For exceptions, see Attacks of Opportunity, and Special Initiative Actions.)
For almost all purposes, there is no relevance to the end of a round or the beginning of a round. The term “round” works like the word “month.” A month can mean either a calendar month or a span of time from a day in one month to the same day the next month. In the same way, a round can be a segment of game time starting with the first character to act and ending with the last, but it usually means a span of time from a certain round to the same initiative number in the next round. Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.
For example, a stun gun paralyzes a victim for 1d6 rounds. If Yoriko fires a stun gun at a terrorist on her initiative count of 14, and rolls a 2 for how many rounds the terrorist is paralyzed, he would become unparalyzed on initiative count 14 two rounds later.

Action Types

The four types of actions are attack actions, move actions, full-round actions, and free actions. In a normal round, you can perform an attack action and a move action (or two move actions; you can always take a move action in place of an attack action), or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform as many free actions as your GM allows. In some situations (such as in the surprise round) you may be limited to taking only a single attack or move action.

Attack Action

An attack action allows you to do something. You can make an attack, use a skill or a feat (unless the skill or feat requires a full-round action to perform; see below), or perform other similar actions. During a combat round, you can take an attack action and a move action. You can take a move action before or after performing an attack action.

Move Action

A move action allows you to move your speed or perform an action that takes a similar amount of time. You can move your speed, climb one-quarter of your speed, draw or stow a weapon or other object, stand up, pick up an object, or perform some equivalent action (see Table 5–2).
You can take a move action in the place of an attack action. For instance, rather than moving your speed and attacking, you could stand up and then move your speed (two move actions), put away a weapon and then climb one-quarter of your speed (two move actions), or pick up a dropped object and then stow it in your backpack (two move actions).
If you move no actual distance in a round (commonly because you have swapped your move action for an equivalent action, such as standing up), you can take one 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. For example, if your hero is on the ground, he can stand up (a move action), move 5 feet (his 5-foot step), and attack.

Full-Round Action

A full-round action consumes all your effort during a round. The only movement you can take during a full-round action is a 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. Some full-round actions do not allow you to take a 5-foot step. You can also perform free actions (see below) as your GM allows.

Attack Actions	Attack of Opportunity 1
Attack (melee)	No
Attack (ranged)	Yes
Attack (unarmed)	Yes
Attack (aid another)	No
Bull rush (attack)	No
Escape a grapple	No
Feint (see Bluff)	No
Ready (triggers an attack action)	No
Make a dying character stable	Yes
Attack a weapon	Yes
Attack an object	Maybe 2
Total defense	No
Use a skill that takes an attack action	Usually
Move Actions	Attack of Opportunity 1
Move your speed	Yes
Use a piece of equipment	No
Climb (one-quarter your speed)	No
Climb, accelerated (one-half your speed)	No
Crawl	No
Draw a weapon 3	No
Holster a weapon	Yes
Move a heavy object	Yes
Open a door	No
Pick up an object	Yes
Reload a firearm with a box magazine or speed loader	Yes
Retrieve a stored object	Yes
Stand up from prone, sitting, or kneeling	No
Start/complete full-round action	Varies
Swim	No
Use a skill that takes a move action	Usually
Full-Round Actions	Attack of Opportunity 1
Bull rush (charge)	No
Charge	No
Coup de grace	Yes
Full attack	No
Overrun (charge)	No
Run	Yes
Withdraw	No
Extinguish flames	No
Use a skill that takes a full round	Usually
Reload a firearm with an internal magazine	Yes
Free Actions	Attack of Opportunity 1
Drop an object	No
Drop to prone, sitting, or kneeling	No
Speak	No
Action Type Varies	Attack of Opportunity 1
Disarm 4	Yes
Grapple 4	Yes
Load a weapon	Yes
Trip an opponent 4	No
Use a feat 5	Varies
No Action	Attack of Opportunity 1
Delay	No
5-foot step	No

Free Action

Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort, and over the span of the round, their impact is so minor that they are considered free. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, the GM puts reasonable limits on what you can really do for free. For instance, dropping an object, dropping to a prone position, speaking a sentence or two, and ceasing to concentrate on a magic spell (if magic is available in your campaign) are all free actions.

Attack Actions

Most common attack actions are described below. More specialized attack actions are mentioned in Table 5–2: Actions in Combat, and covered in Special Attacks.

Melee Attacks

With a normal melee weapon, you can strike any enemy within 5 feet. (Enemies within 5 feet are considered adjacent to you.)
A character capable of making more than one melee attack per round must use the full attack action (see Full-Round Actions, below) in order to make more than one attack.
Fighting Defensively: You can choose to fight defensively while making a melee attack. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on your attack in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to Defense in the same round.

Unarmed Attacks

Striking for damage with punches, kicks, and head butts is much like attacking with a melee weapon, except that an unarmed attack deals nonlethal damage. Unarmed strikes count as light melee weapons (for purposes of two-weapon attack penalties and so on). The following exceptions to normal melee rules apply to unarmed attacks.
Attacks of Opportunity: Making an unarmed attack against an armed opponent provokes an attack of opportunity from the character you attack. The attack of opportunity comes before your attack. An unarmed attack does not provoke attacks of opportunity from other foes, nor does it provoke an attack of opportunity from an unarmed foe.
“Armed” Unarmed Attacks: Sometimes a character or creature attacks unarmed but the attack still counts as armed. A creature with claws, fangs, and similar natural physical weapons, for example, counts as armed. Being
armed counts for both offense and defense — not only does a creature not provoke an attack of opportunity when attacking an armed foe, but you provoke an attack of opportunity from that creature if you make an unarmed attack against it. The Combat Martial Arts feat makes a character’s unarmed attacks count as armed.
Unarmed Strike Damage: An unarmed strike from a Medium-size character deals 1d3 points (plus your Strength modifier, as normal) of nonlethal damage.
You can specify that your unarmed strike will deal lethal damage before you make your attack roll, but you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll because you have to strike a particularly vulnerable spot to deal lethal damage.

Ranged Attacks

With a ranged weapon, you can shoot or throw at any target that is within the ranged weapon’s maximum range and in line of sight. A target is in line of sight if there are no solid obstructions between you and the target. The maximum range for a thrown weapon is five range increments. For weapons that fire projectiles, it is ten range increments.
A character capable of making more than one ranged attack per round must use the full attack action (see Full-Round Actions, below) in order to make more than one attack.
Shooting or Throwing into a Melee: If you shoot or throw a ranged weapon at a target that is engaged in melee with an ally, you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll because you have to aim carefully to avoid hitting your ally. Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies and they are adjacent to one another. (An unconscious or otherwise immobilized character is not considered engaged unless he is actually being attacked.)
If your target is so big that part of it is 10 feet or farther from the nearest ally, you can avoid the –4 penalty, even if it’s engaged in melee with an ally.
Because of the weapon’s unwieldy shape and size, an attacker using a longarm takes a –4 penalty on attacks against adjacent opponents. (It’s not easy to bring a rifle to bear on someone who is only 5 feet away from you.)
Fighting Defensively: You can choose to fight defensively while making a ranged attack. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on your attack in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to Defense in the same round.

Total Defense

Instead of attacking, you can use your attack action simply to defend yourself. This is called a total defense action. You don’t get to attack or perform any other activity, but you get a +4 dodge bonus to your Defense for 1 round. Your Defense improves at the start of this action, so it helps you against any attacks of opportunity you are subject to while performing your move action.

Speeding up Combat

You can use a couple of tricks to make combat run faster.
Attack and Damage: Roll your attack die and damage die (or dice) at the same time. If you miss, you can ignore the damage, but if you hit, your friends don’t have to wait for you to make a second roll for damage.
Multiple Attacks: Use dice of different colors so you can make your attack rolls all at once instead of one at a time. Designate which attack is which color before you roll.
Roll Ahead of Time: Once you know whom you are attacking and how, make your attack rolls before it is your turn so you have the results ready when your turn comes around. (Get your GM’s okay before you roll ahead of time. Some GMs like to watch the players’ attack rolls.)
Dice as Counters: Use dice to keep track of how many rounds a short-duration effect has been active. Each round, turn the die to the next number until the effect ends.
Prep Initiative: Have your GM roll the characters’ and creatures’ initiative checks ahead of time and prepare the order of battle. That way when a battle starts, you can skip the initiative checks and get right to the action.
Miniatures: Use miniatures to show the relative positions of the combatants. It’s a lot faster to place a miniature where you want your character to be than to explain (and remember) where your character is relative to everyone else.

Move Actions

With the exception of specific movement-related skills, most move actions don’t require a check. In some cases (such as shouldering open a stuck door), ability checks might be required.

Movement

The simplest move action is moving your character’s speed. If you take this kind of move action during your turn, you cannot also take a 5-foot step.
Many nonstandard modes of movement are also covered under this category, including climbing and swimming (up to one-quarter your speed), crawling (up to 5 feet), and entering a vehicle.

Manipulating Objects

In most cases, moving or manipulating an object is a move action. This includes drawing or holstering a weapon, retrieving or putting away a stored object, picking up an object, moving a heavy object, and opening a door.
If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you can draw a weapon as part of your normal movement.

Standing Up

Standing up from a prone position requires a move action. It provokes an attack of opportunity from opponents who threaten you.

Start/Complete Full-Round Action

The “start/complete full-round action” move action lets you start undertaking a full-round action (such as those listed on Table 5–2: Actions in Combat) at the end of your turn, or complete a full-round action by using a move action at the beginning of your turn in the round following the round when you started the full-round action.
If you start a full-round action at the end of your turn, the next action you take must be to complete the full-round action — you can’t take another type of action before finishing what you started.

Full-Round Actions

A full-round action requires an entire round to complete. If it doesn’t involve moving any distance, you can combine it with a 5-foot step.

Charge

Charging is a special full-round action that allows you to move more than your speed and attack during the action. However, there are tight restrictions on how and when you can charge.
Movement during a Charge: You must move before your attack, not after. You must move at least 10 feet and may move up to twice your speed. All movement must be in a straight line, with no backing up allowed. You must stop as soon as you are within striking range of your target (you can’t run past him and attack from another direction). You can’t take a 5-foot step during the same round as a full charge.
During the surprise round (or any other time you are limited to taking no more than a single attack action on your turn) you can still use the charge action, but you are only allowed to move up to your speed (instead of up to twice your speed).
Attacking after a Charge: After moving, you may make a single melee attack. Since you can use the momentum of the charge in your favor, you get a +2 bonus on the attack roll. Since a charge is impossible without a bit of recklessness, you also take a –2 penalty to your Defense for 1 round (until the beginning of your turn in the following round).
Even if you have extra attacks, such as from having a high enough base attack bonus or from using multiple weapons, you only get to make one attack after a charge.
Instead of attacking your target, you can attempt to push him back (to push him away from a door, for example, or knock him off the edge of a bridge). See Bull Rush.

Full Attack

If you get more than one attack per action because your base attack bonus is high enough, because you fight with two weapons, because you’re using a double weapon, or for some special reason (such as the Heroic Surge feat), you must use the full attack action to get your additional attacks. You do not need to specify the targets of your attacks ahead of time. You can see how the earlier attacks turn out before assigning the later ones.
Full attack is a full-round action. Because of this, the only movement you can take during a full attack is a 5-foot step. You may take the step before, after, or between your attacks.
If you get multiple attacks based on your base attack bonus, you must make the attacks in order from highest bonus to lowest. If you are using two weapons, you can strike with either weapon first. If you are using a double weapon, you can strike with either part of the weapon first.
Committing to a Full Attack Action: You don’t have to commit to a full attack until after your first attack. You can then decide whether to make your remaining attacks or to take a move action. Of course, if you’ve already taken a 5-foot step, you can’t use your move action to move any distance, but you could still draw or put away a weapon, for instance (see Move Actions, above).
Fighting Defensively: You can choose to fight defensively when taking a full attack action. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to Defense in the same round.
Attacking with Two Weapons: If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. Fighting in this way is very difficult, however—you take a –6 penalty on your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a –10 penalty on the attack with your off hand. You can reduce these stiff penalties in two ways.

1. If your off-hand weapon is light, such as a machete, the penalties are reduced by 2 each. (An unarmed strike is always considered light.)
2. The Two-Weapon Fighting feat lessens the primary hand penalty by 2, and the off-hand penalty by 6.

Table 5–3: Two-Weapon Fighting Penalties summarizes the interaction of all these factors.
Double Weapons: You can use a double weapon to make an extra attack as if you were fighting with two weapons. The penalties apply as if the off-hand weapon were light.

TABLE 5–3: TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING PENALTIES

Circumstances	Primary Hand	Off Hand
Normal penalties	–6	–10
Off-hand weapon is light	–4	–8
Two-Weapon Fighting feat	–4	–4
Off-hand weapon is light and Two-Weapon Fighting feat	–2	–2

Run

You can run all out as a full-round action. When you run, you can move up to four times your speed in a straight line. (You do not get a 5-foot step.) You lose any Dexterity bonus to Defense since you can’t avoid attacks. However, you get a +2 bonus to your Defense against ranged attacks while running.
You can run for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but after that you must succeed at a Constitution check (DC 10) to continue running. You must check again each round in which you continue to run, and the DC of this check increases by 1 for each check you make. When you fail this check, you must stop running. A character who has run to his limit must rest for 1 minute (10 rounds) before running again. During a rest period, a character can move normally, but can’t run.
A run represents a speed of about 14 miles per hour for an unencumbered human.

Withdraw

Withdrawing from melee combat is a full-round action. When you withdraw, you can move up to twice your speed. (You don’t also get a 5-foot step.) The square you start from is not considered threatened for purposes of withdrawing, and therefore enemies do not get attacks of opportunity against you when you move from that square.
If while withdrawing, you move through another threatened square (other than the one you started in) without stopping, enemies get attacks of opportunity as normal.
Some forms of movement (such as climbing and swimming) require skill checks from most creatures. You may not withdraw using a form of movement for which you must make a skill check. For example, if you must make a Climb check in order to climb (unlike some creatures, which have standard climb speeds), you can’t use climbing to withdraw from combat. Similarly, a creature can’t withdraw via swimming unless it has a listed swim speed.

Miscellaneous Actions

Some actions don’t fit neatly into the above categories. Some of the options described below are actions that take the place of or are variations on the actions described earlier. For actions not covered in any of this material, the GM lets you know how long such an action takes to perform and whether doing so provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening enemies.

Use Feat, Skill, or Talent

Certain feats, such as Whirlwind Attack, let you take special actions in combat. Other feats are not actions in themselves, but they give you a bonus when attempting something you can already do, such as Improved Disarm. Some feats aren’t meant to be used within the framework of combat. The individual feat descriptions tell you what you need to know about them.
Most uses of skills or talents in a combat situation are attack actions, but some might be move actions or full-round actions. When appropriate, the description of a talent or a skill provides the time required to use it (see Classes and Chapter Two: Skills).

Attacks of Opportunity

The melee combat rules assume that combatants are actively avoiding attacks. A player doesn’t have to declare anything special for her character to be on the defensive. Even if a character’s figure is just standing there on the tabletop like a piece of lead, you can be sure that if some thug with a switchblade attacks the character, she is weaving, dodging, and even threatening the attacker with a weapon to keep him a little worried for his own hide.
Sometimes, however, a combatant in a melee lets her guard down, and she doesn’t maintain a defensive posture as usual. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free. These attacks are called attacks of opportunity.

Weapon Type

You can use a melee weapon to make attacks of opportunity whenever the conditions for such an attack are met (see Provoking an Attack of Opportunity, below). In addition, you can make attacks of opportunity with unarmed attacks if your unarmed attacks count as armed (see
“Armed” Unarmed Attacks).

Threatened Squares

You threaten the squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Generally, that’s all squares adjacent to your position. An enemy that takes certain actions while in a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity from you. You can only make attacks of opportunity with melee weapons, never with ranged weapons.

Provoking an Attack of Opportunity

Two actions can provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square, and performing an action within a threatened square that distracts you from defending yourself and lets your guard down.
Moving out of a Threatened Square: When you move out of a threatened square, you generally provoke an attack of opportunity. There are two important exceptions, however. You don’t provoke an attack of opportunity if all you move is a 5-foot step, or if you withdraw.
Thus, if the square you’re in at the beginning of your turn is in a threatened square, any movement you make provokes an attack of opportunity (unless you withdraw, or limit your move to a single 5-foot step). If you don’t start in a threatened square, but move into one, you have to stop there, or else you provoke an attack of opportunity as you leave that square.
Performing an Action that Distracts You: Some actions, when performed in a threatened square, provoke attacks of opportunity because they make you divert your attention from the fight at hand. Using a ranged weapon, in particular, provokes attacks of opportunity. Table 5–2: Actions in Combat notes many additional actions that provoke attacks of opportunity.

Making an Attack of Opportunity

An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per round. You do not have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to.
An experienced character gets additional regular melee attacks (by using the full attack action), but at a lower attack bonus. You make your attack of opportunity, however, at your normal attack bonus — even if you’ve already attacked in this round.

Injury and Death

Your hit points measure how hard you are to kill. The damage from each successful attack and each fight accumulates, dropping your hit point total lower and lower until it eventually falls to 0 or lower. Then you’re in trouble. Luckily, you have a number of ways to regain hit points.

Loss of Hit Points

The most common way your character gets hurt is taking damage and losing hit points, whether from a terrorist’s submachine gun, the bite of a guard dog, or a fall into molten lava. You record your character’s hit point total on your character sheet. As your character takes damage, you subtract that damage from your hit points, leaving you with your current hit points. Current hit points go down when you take damage and go back up when you recover.

What Hit Points Represent

Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one. A 10th-level Tough hero who has taken 50 points of damage is not as badly hurt as a 10th-level Smart hero who has taken that much damage. Indeed, unless the Smart hero has a high Constitution score, he’s probably dead or dying, while the Tough hero is battered but otherwise doing fine. Why the difference? Partly because the Tough hero is better at rolling with the punches, protecting vital areas, and dodging just enough that a blow that would be fatal only wounds him. Partly because he’s tough as nails. He can take damage that would drop a horse and still battle on with deadly effect.
A 10th-level Tough hero who has taken 50 points of damage may be about as physically hurt as a 10th-level Smart hero who has taken 30 points of damage, a 1st-level Tough hero who has taken 5 points of damage, or a 1st-level Smart hero who has taken 3 points of damage. Any given amount of damage means different things to different people.

Character Condition Summary

A number of adverse conditions can affect the way a character operates, as defined here. If more than one condition affects a character, apply both if possible. If not possible, apply only the most severe condition.
Ability Damaged: The character has lost 1 or more ability score points. The loss is temporary, and these points return at a rate of 1 per evening of rest. This differs from “effective” ability loss, which is an effect that goes away when the condition causing it (fatigue, entanglement, or whatever) goes away.
Ability Drained: The character has lost 1 or more ability score points. The loss is permanent.
Blinded: The hero can’t see at all, and thus everything has total concealment to him. He has a 50% chance to miss in combat. Furthermore, the blinded character has an effective Dexterity of 3, along with a –4 penalty on the use of Strength-based and Dexterity-based skills. This –4 penalty also applies to Search checks and any other skill checks for which the GM deems sight to be important. He can’t make Spot checks or perform any other activity (such as reading) that requires vision. Heroes who are blind long-term (from birth or early in life) grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them (at the GM’s discretion).
Cowering: The hero is frozen in fear, loses her Dexterity bonus, and can take no actions. In addition, she takes a –2 penalty to her Defense. The condition typically lasts 10 rounds.
Dazed: Unable to act, a dazed character can take no actions, but still gets the benefit of his normal Defense. This condition typically lasts 1 round.
Dead: A character dies when his hit points drop to –10 or lower, or when his Constitution drops to 0.
Deafened: The hero can’t hear and takes a –4 penalty on initiative checks. He can’t make Listen checks. Heroes who are deafened long-term (from birth or early in life) grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them (at the GM’s discretion).
Disabled: The character has 0 hit points. She can take only a single move action or attack action, and takes 1 point of damage after any action.
Dying: The character is near death and unconscious, with –1 to –9 wound points. She can take no actions, and each round a dying character loses 1 hit point until she dies or becomes stable.
Entangled: An entangled character takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls in addition to a –4 penalty to Dexterity. If the entangling bonds are anchored to an immobile object, the entangled hero can’t move. Otherwise, he can move at half speed, but can’t run or charge.
Exhausted: Heroes who are exhausted move at half speed and cannot run or charge. Furthermore, they take a –6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. After 1 hour of complete, uninterrupted rest, an exhausted character becomes fatigued.
Fatigued: Characters who are fatigued can’t run or charge and take a penalty of –2 to Strength and Dexterity. After 8 hours of complete, uninterrupted rest, a fatigued character is no longer fatigued.
Flat-Footed: A character who has not yet acted during a combat is flat-footed, not reacting normally to the situation. A flat-footed character loses his Dexterity bonus to Defense.
Grappled: When grappled, a hero can’t undertake any action other than attacking with his bare hands, attacking with a light weapon, or attempting to break free from his opponent. He loses his Dexterity bonus to Defense, except on attacks from characters with whom he is grappling.
Helpless: Paralyzed, sleeping, or unconscious characters are helpless. A helpless character has an effective Defense of 5 + size modifier. An attacker can attempt a coup de grace against a helpless character.
Nauseated: Characters who are nauseated are unable to attack or do anything else requiring attention or concentration. The only action such a character can take is a single move action per turn.
Panicked: A panicked character flees as fast as possible and cowers (see Cowering, above) if unable to get away. He defends normally but cannot attack.
Paralyzed: Heroes who are paralyzed fall to the ground, unable to move (they have an effective, but not actual, Dexterity and Strength of 0). They are helpless.
Pinned: A pinned character is held immobile (but not helpless) in a grapple. He takes a –4 penalty to his Defense against melee attacks and loses his Dexterity bonus to Defense.
Prone: An attacker who is prone (lying on the ground) takes a –4 penalty on melee attack rolls and can’t use bows or thrown ranged weapons. He gains a +4 bonus to his Defense against ranged attacks, but takes a –4 penalty to his Defense against melee attacks.
Shaken: A shaken character takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks.
Stable: A stable character is no longer dying, but is still unconscious.
Stunned: A character who becomes stunned loses her Dexterity bonus, drops what she is holding, and can take no attack or move actions. In addition, she takes a –2 penalty to her Defense. The condition typically lasts 1 round.
Unconscious: An unconscious character is unable to defend himself. He is helpless and typically falls prone.

Damaging Helpless Defenders

Even if you have lots of hit points, a gunshot to the head is a gunshot to the head. When a character can’t avoid damage or deflect blows somehow — when he’s really helpless — he’s in trouble (see Helpless Defenders).

Effects of Hit Point Damage

Damage gives you scars and gets blood on your jeans, but it doesn’t slow you down until your current hit points reach 0 or lower.
At 0 hit points, you’re disabled.
At from –1 to –9 hit points, you’re dying.
At –10 or lower, you’re dead.

Massive Damage

Any time you take damage from a single hit that exceeds your massive damage threshold, that damage is considered massive damage. Your massive damage threshold is equal to your current Constitution score; it can be increased by taking the Improved Damage Threshold feat.
When you take massive damage that doesn’t reduce your hit points to 0 or lower, you must make a Fortitude save (DC 15). If you fail the save, your hit point total is immediately reduced to –1. If the save succeeds, you suffer no ill effect beyond the loss of hit points.
Creatures immune to critical hits are also immune to the effects of massive damage.
For example, Alexandra Gordon has 19 hit points and a Constitution score of 12. She takes a critical hit from a rifle shot, which deals 16 points of damage. Her hit point total is reduced to 3, so she would normally remain on her feet. But the damage she took in a single hit is greater than her Constitution score, so she has to make a Fortitude save (DC 15). She rolls an 11. Her hit points immediately drop to –1.

Nonlethal Damage

Two unarmed combatants with no combat-related feats can often battle indefinitely with no real ill effects. They may suffer bruises and black eyes, but without picking up weapons or trying to deal lethal damage, they probably can’t cause real harm — but one of them may get knocked out.
Nonlethal damage is dealt by unarmed attackers and some weapons. Melee weapons that deal lethal damage can be wielded so as to deal nonlethal damage, but the attacker takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls for trying to deal nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. A ranged weapon that deals lethal damage can’t be made to deal nonlethal damage (unless it is used as an improvised melee weapon).
Nonlethal damage does not affect the target’s hit points. Instead, compare the amount of nonlethal damage from an attack to the target’s Constitution score. If the amount is less than the target’s Constitution score, the target is unaffected by the attack.
If the damage equals or exceeds the target’s Constitution score, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 15). If he succeeds on the save, the target is dazed for 1 round. If he fails, he is knocked unconscious for 1d4+1 rounds.

Disabled (0 Hit Points)

When your current hit points drop to exactly 0, you’re disabled. You’re not unconscious, but you’re close to it. You can only take a single move or attack action each turn (but not both, nor can you take full-round actions). You can take nonstrenuous move actions without further injuring yourself, but if you attack or perform any other action the GM deems as strenuous, you take 1 point of damage after the completing the act. Unless your activity increased your hit points, you are now at –1 hit points, and you’re dying.
Healing that raises you above 0 hit points makes you fully functional again, just as if you’d never been reduced to 0 or lower.
You can also become disabled when recovering from dying. In this case, it’s a step up along the road to recovery, and you can have fewer than 0 hit points (see Stable Characters and Recovery, below).

Dying (–1 to –9 Hit Points)

When your current hit points drop below 0, you’re dying. A dying character has a current hit point total between –1 and –9 inclusive.
A dying character immediately falls unconscious and can take no actions.
A dying character loses 1 hit point every round. This continues until the character dies or becomes stable naturally or with help (see below).

Dead (–10 hit points or lower)

When your character’s current hit points drop to –10 or lower, he’s dead. A character can also die if his Constitution is reduced to 0.

Stable Characters and Recovery

A dying character (one with –1 to –9 hit points) is unconscious and loses 1 hit point every round until he or she becomes stable or dies.

Recovering without Help

Each round, a dying character makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 20). If the save fails, the character loses 1 hit point and must make another save on his turn the next round.
If the save succeeds, the character becomes stable. A stable character stops losing hit points every round, but remains unconscious.
If no one tends to the stable character (see below), he remains unconscious for 1 hour, at which point he makes a Fortitude save (DC 20). If the save succeeds, the stable character regains consciousness, becoming disabled (see above). His current hit point total remains where it is, however, even though it’s negative. If the save fails, the character remains unconscious.
An unaided stable, conscious character who has negative hit points (and is disabled) doesn’t heal naturally. Instead, each day the character makes a Fortitude save (DC 20) to start recovering hit points naturally that day; if the save fails, he loses 1 hit point.
Once an unaided character starts recovering hit points naturally, he is no longer in danger of losing additional hit points (even if his current hit point total is still negative).

Recovering with Help

A dying character can be made stable by the use of the Treat Injury skill (DC 15).
One hour after a tended, dying character becomes stable, he makes a Fortitude save (DC 20) to regain consciousness. If successful, he becomes disabled (see above). If he remains unconscious, he makes the same Fortitude save every hour until he becomes conscious. Even while unconscious, he recovers hit points naturally, and he can return to normal activity when his hit points rise to 1 or higher.

Healing

After taking damage, you can recover hit points through natural healing (over the course of days) or through medical technology (somewhat faster). In some campaign settings, magical healing is also available. In any case, you can’t regain hit points past your full normal total.

Natural Healing

You recover 1 hit point per character level per evening of rest (8 hours of sleep). For example, a 5th-level hero recovers 5 hit points per evening of rest. If you undergo complete bed rest (doing nothing for an entire day), you recover two times your character level in hit points. A 5th-level hero recovers 7 hit points per day of bed rest.
Higher-level characters recover lost hit points faster than lower-level characters because they’re tougher, and also because a given number of lost hit points represents a lighter wound for a higher-level character. A 5th-level Strong hero who has lost 6 hit points isn’t seriously wounded, but a 1st-level Strong hero who has taken 6 points of damage is.

Healing Ability Damage

Ability damage returns at the rate of 1 point per evening of rest (8 hours of sleep). Complete bed rest (24 hours) restores 2 points per day.

Temporary Hit Points

Certain effects can give a character temporary hit points. When a character gains temporary hit points, make a note of his or her current hit points before adding the temporary hit points. When the temporary hit points go away, the character’s hit points drop to that score. If the character’s hit points are already below that score at that time, all the temporary hit points have already been lost, and the character’s hit point total does not drop.
When temporary hit points are lost, they can’t be restored as real hit points can be, even with medical treatment or magic.

Increases in Constitution Score and Current Hit Points

An increase in a character’s Constitution score — even a temporary one — can give him more hit points (an effective hit point increase), but these are not temporary hit points. They can be restored through normal healing. When a character’s Constitution drops back down to its previous score after a temporary increase, the character’s full normal hit points go down accordingly.

Movement and Position

Few characters in a fight are likely to stand still for long. Enemies appear and charge the party. The heroes reply, advancing to take on new foes after they down their first opponents. Combatants jockey for advantageous terrain and position. If the fight goes poorly, most characters find it to their advantage to remove themselves from the vicinity. Movement is important in gaining the upper hand on the battlefield.
Movement and position are most easily handled by using miniature figures to represent the characters and their opponents. Using a grid map divided into 1-inch squares also helps. The standard scale equates 1 inch on the tabletop (or one 1-inch square) to 5 feet in the game world. Even if you don’t use miniatures and a grid, whenever possible, use units of 5 feet for movement and position. Calculating distance more precisely than that is more trouble than it’s worth.

Standard Scale
One inch (or one square) = 5 feet
“Next to” or “adjacent” = 1 inch (5 feet) away (or in adjacent square)
30mm figure = A human-size creature
A human-size creature occupies an area 1 inch (5 feet) across (or one square)
One round = 6 seconds

Tactical Movement

Where you can move, how long it takes you to get there, and whether you’re vulnerable to attacks of opportunity while you’re moving are key questions in combat.

How Far Can Your Character Move?

Humans normally move 30 feet, although armor can slow you down. Some creatures move faster or slower. Your speed when unarmored is sometimes called your base speed.
Encumbrance: A character encumbered by carrying a large amount of gear or a fallen comrade may move slower than normal (see Carrying Capacity).
Movement in Combat: Generally, you can move your speed as a move action. If you use your attack action as a move action, you can move again (for a total movement of up to twice your normal speed). If you spend the entire round to run all out, you can move up to four times your normal speed. If you do something that requires a full round, you can only take a 5-foot step.
Movement in Darkness: If you move when you can’t see, such as in total darkness, your speed is limited to one-half normal. The Blind-Fight feat, page 80, reduces this penalty.

Passing Through

Sometimes you can pass through an area occupied by another character or creature.
Friendly Character: You can move through a square occupied by a friendly character.
Unfriendly Character: There are two ways to move through a square occupied by a resisting enemy. You can attempt an overrun. Or you can attempt to tumble through a square occupied by an enemy (if you have ranks in the Tumble skill).
You can move through a square occupied by an unfriendly character who doesn’t resist — such as one who is dead, unconscious, bound, stunned, or cowering — as if the character was friendly.
Square Occupied by Creature Three Sizes Larger or Smaller: Any creature can move through a square occupied by a creature three size categories larger or three categories smaller than it is.

Using a Grid

Throughout this chapter, we talk about your character moving in 5-foot squares on a grid. This is a perfect arrangement for miniatures, or even for keeping track of your battles without miniatures—Xs and Os on a sheet of graph paper work just as well.
A character on a grid can move orthogonality (into a square next to her current square) or diagonally (into a square touching the corner of her current square). So from any given square, you have eight directions you can move. That doesn’t mean you’re restricted to eight paths, however — by combining orthogonal and diagonal moves, you can maneuver your character in any direction.
Some game maneuvers, such as charging, require that you move “in a straight line.” That doesn’t mean you can only charge if the grid happens to line up perfectly with your intended movement. It simply means that the most direct path of your movement must be unobstructed. The diagram on this page shows two examples of movement at an angle to the grid. In the first example, the hero can move in a straight line toward the target. In the second, he can’t (even though he can get to the target in the same number of moves), because his direct path is obstructed.
When moving across a grid diagonally, count every second square of diagonal movement as two squares. That’s because moving diagonally through a square covers more ground than a side-to-side move. For example, if you move two squares in a straight line diagonally across the grid, you’ve actually moved about 15 feet—a distance equivalent to three squares.
The same rule applies to measuring diagonal distances for other reasons, such as determining the range of a weapon.

Flanking

If you are making a melee attack against an opponent and an ally directly opposite you is threatening the opponent, you and your ally flank the opponent. You gain a +2 bonus on your attack roll. The ally must be on the other side of the opponent so that the opponent is directly between you and your ally.
You don’t gain a bonus for flanking when making a ranged attack.

Big and Little Creatures in Combat

Creatures smaller than Small or bigger than Medium-size have special rules relating to position. These rules concern the creatures’ fighting space and their natural reach.

Combat Modifiers

Sometimes you just have to go toe-to-toe in a fight, but you can usually gain some advantage by seeking a better position, either offensively or defensively. This section covers the rules for when you can line up a particularly good attack or are forced to make a disadvantageous one.

Favorable and Unfavorable Conditions

Depending on the situation, you may gain bonuses or take penalties on your attack roll. Generally speaking, any situational modifier created by the attacker’s position or tactics applies to the attack roll, while any situational modifier created by the defender’s position, state, or tactics applies to the defender’s Defense. Your GM judges what bonuses and penalties apply, using Table 5–4: Defense Modifiers and Table 5–5: Attack Roll Modifiers as guides.

Cover

One of the best defenses available is cover. By taking cover behind a tree, a car, or the corner of a building, you can protect yourself from attacks — especially ranged attacks — and also from being spotted.
Cover provides a bonus to your Defense. The more cover you have, the bigger the bonus. In a melee, if you have cover against an opponent, that opponent probably has cover against you, too. With ranged weapons, however, it’s easy to have better cover than your opponent. Indeed, that’s why snipers like to shoot out of small windows instead of from out in the open.
The GM may impose other penalties or restrictions on attacks depending on the details of the cover.

Degree of Cover

Cover is assessed in subjective measurements of how much protection it offers you. Your GM determines the value of cover. This measure is not a strict mathematical calculation, because you gain more value from covering the parts of your body that are more likely to be struck. If the bottom half of your body is covered (as when a human stands behind a 3-foot wall), that only gives you one-quarter cover, because most vital areas are still fully exposed. If one side or the other of your body is covered, as when you’re partly behind a corner, you get one-half cover.
Table 5–6: Cover gives examples of various situations that usually produce certain degrees of cover. These examples might not hold true in exceptional circumstances. For example, a 3-foot wall might provide one-quarter cover in melee, but the same wall might grant no cover against a sniper shooting down from a tall building nearby.

Cover Defense Bonus

Table 5–6: Cover gives the Defense bonuses for different degrees of cover. Add the relevant number to your Defense. This cover bonus overlaps (does not stack) with certain other bonuses. For example, kneeling gives you a +2 bonus to your Defense against ranged weapons. Kneeling behind a low wall could change your cover from one-quarter (+2) to three-quarters (+7). You would not get the +2 bonus for kneeling on top of the bonus for cover.

Cover Reflex Save Bonus

Table 5–6: Cover gives the Reflex save bonuses for different degrees of cover. Add this bonus to Reflex saves against attacks that affect an area, such as a hand grenade. This bonus only applies to attacks that originate or burst out from a point on the other side of the cover.

Striking the Cover Instead of a Missed Target

If it ever becomes important to know whether the cover was actually struck by an incoming attack that misses the intended target, the GM should determine if the attack roll would have hit the protected target without the cover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target with cover but high enough to strike the target if there had been no cover, the object used for cover was struck. This can be particularly important to know in cases when a character uses another character as cover. In such a case, if the cover is struck and the attack roll exceeds the Defense of the covering character, the covering character takes the damage intended for the target.
If the covering character has a Dexterity bonus to Defense or a dodge bonus, and this bonus keeps the covering character from being hit, then the original target is hit instead. The covering character has dodged out of the way and didn’t provide cover after all. A covering character can choose not to apply his Dexterity bonus to Defense and/or his dodge bonus, if his intent is to try to take the damage in order to keep the covered character from being hit.

TABLE 5–6: COVER

Degree of Cover (Example)	Cover Bonus to Defense	Reflex Saves
One-quarter (standing behind a 3-ft. high wall)	+2	+1
One-half (fighting from around a corner or a tree; standing at an open window; behind a creature of same size)	+4	+2
Three-quarters (peering around a corner or a big tree)	+7	+3
Nine-tenths (standing at an arrow slit; behind a door that’s slightly ajar)	+10	+4 1
Total (on the other side of a solid wall)	—	—

Concealment

Besides cover, another way to avoid attacks is to make it hard for opponents to know where you are. Concealment includes all circumstances in which nothing physically blocks a blow or shot, but something interferes with an attacker’s accuracy.

Degree of Concealment

Concealment is subjectively measured as to how well concealed the defender is. Examples of what might qualify as concealment of various degrees are given in Table 5–7: Concealment. Concealment always depends on the point of view of the attacker. Total darkness, for example, is meaningless to a creature with darkvision. Moderate darkness doesn’t hamper a creature with low-light vision, and near total darkness is only one-half concealment for such a creature.

Concealment Miss Chance

Concealment gives the subject of a successful attack a chance that the attacker missed because of the concealment. If the attacker hits, the defender must make a miss chance percentile roll to avoid being struck. (Actually, it doesn’t matter who makes the roll or whether it’s rolled before or after the attack roll. To save time, you can first make the roll that’s most likely to result in a miss, so that you’re less likely to have to make two rolls, or you can just make both rolls at the same time.) When multiple concealment conditions apply to a defender (behind dense foliage or in near total darkness, for example), use the one that would produce the highest miss chance. Do not add the miss chances together.

TABLE 5–7: CONCEALMENT

Concealment (Example)	Miss Chance
One-quarter (light fog; light foliage)	10%
One-half (shadows; dense fog at 5 ft.)	20%
Three-quarters (dense foliage)	30%
Nine-tenths (near total darkness)	40%
Total (attacker blind; total darkness; smoke grenade; dense fog at 10 ft.)	50% and must guess target’s location

Helpless Defenders

A helpless foe — one who is bound, sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise at your mercy—is an easy target. You can sometimes approach a target who is unaware of your presence, get adjacent to him, and treat him as helpless. If the target is in combat or some other tense situation, and therefore in a state of acute awareness and readiness, or if the target can use his Dexterity bonus to Defense, then that target can’t be considered unaware. Further, any reasonable precaution taken by a target, including stationing bodyguards, placing his back to a wall, or being able to make Spot checks, also precludes catching that target unaware and helpless.

Regular Attack

A helpless defender has an effective Defense of 5 + his size modifier. If you’re attacking with a ranged weapon and are not adjacent to the target, you can use a full-round action to make the attack, and gain a +5 bonus on the attack roll. If you’re attacking with a melee weapon, or with a ranged weapon from an adjacent square, you can use a full-round action to deliver a coup de grace.

Coup de Grace

As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless foe. You can also use a ranged weapon, provided you are adjacent to the target. You automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he still must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die.
Delivering a coup de grace provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening foes because it involves focused concentration and methodical action.
You can’t deliver a coup de grace against a creature that is immune to critical hits, such as a zombie.

Knockout Blow

As a full-round action, you can make an unarmed attack or use a melee weapon that deals nonlethal damage to deliver a knockout blow to a helpless foe. You can also use a melee weapon that deals lethal damage, but you take a –4 penalty on any attempt to deal nonlethal damage with the weapon. The target has an effective Defense of 5 + his size modifier. If you hit, you automatically score a critical hit (see Nonlethal Damage).
Delivering a knockout blow provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening foes because it involves focused concentration and methodical action.
You can’t deliver a knockout blow against a creature that is immune to critical hits.

Special Initiative Actions

Usually you act as soon as you can in combat, but sometimes you want to act later, at a better time, or in response to the actions of someone else.

Delay

By choosing to delay, you take no action and then act normally at whatever point in the initiative count you decide to act. When you delay, you voluntarily reduce your own initiative result for the rest of the combat. When your new, lower initiative count comes up later in the same round, you can act normally. You can specify this new initiative result or just wait until some time later in the round and act then, thus fixing your new initiative count at that point.
Delaying is useful if you need to see what your friends or enemies are going to do before deciding what to do yourself. You cannot, however, interrupt anyone’s action with a delayed action (as you can with a readied action; see below).
For example, Yoriko and Moondog both want to get past a thug who is guarding a cultist leader. Yoriko’s initiative count is 22, but she delays. She knows that if she passed the thug, she would open herself up to attack. On count 14, the cultist casts a spell to protect himself. On count 8, Moondog rushes past the thug. The thug gets an attack of opportunity because Moondog moved into a square he threatens. Moondog shrugs it off, reaches the cultist, and makes a single attack. Now, on count 7, Yoriko acts. She too rushes past the thug, who can’t get an attack of opportunity against her because he has already taken an attack of opportunity in this round. For the rest of the battle, Yoriko acts on initiative count 7.

Delaying Limits

The longest a character can delay before taking an action is until after everyone else has acted in the round. At that point, the delaying character must act or else forfeit any action in that round.
If multiple characters are delaying, the one with the highest initiative modifier (or highest Dexterity, in case of a tie) has the advantage. If two or more delaying characters both want to act on the same initiative count, the one with the highest initiative modifier gets to go first. If two or more delaying characters are trying to go after one another, the one with the highest initiative modifier gets to go last; the others must go first or lose their action for the round.
For instance, Yoriko and a dark stranger run across each other in a back alley. Yoriko’s initiative count is 17, higher than the stranger’s. She doesn’t want to commit to attacking, fleeing, or even speaking, so she delays, intending to act after the stranger acts. The stranger’s initiative count is 12. He delays, too. The initiative count drops down, and neither character acts. (If there were other characters in the encounter, they would act on their initiative counts.) Finally, the count reaches 0. Yoriko’s +7 initiative modifier is higher than the stranger’s, so she makes him act first. The stranger backs away down the alley.

Ready

The ready action lets you prepare to take an action later, to interrupt another character. Essentially, you split your action, taking your move action on your initiative count and your attack action at a later point. On your turn, you prepare to take an action later (such as shooting someone if he tries to attack you). Then, later in the round, if your readied action is triggered, you take it (so if the opponent moves to attack, you shoot at him first).
Readying does not provoke an attack of opportunity. (Of course, your move action, and the attack action you ready, may both provoke attacks of opportunity normally.)

Readying an Action

You can ready an attack action or a move action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. (For example, you might specify that you’ll throw a grenade into the courtyard if any enemies come out of the door.) Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied attack action in response to those conditions. Your readied action occurs just before the event that triggers it. If the trigger is part of another character’s actions, you interrupt the other character. He continues his actions once you complete your readied action.
Your initiative count changes. For the rest of the encounter, it is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.
You can take a 5-foot step as part of your readied action, but only if you didn’t otherwise move any distance during the round. For instance, if you move up to an open door and then ready an action to shoot at whatever comes out, you can’t take a 5-foot step along with the readied action (since you’ve already moved this round).
If you come to your next action and have not yet performed your readied action, you don’t get to take the readied action (though you can ready the same action again). If you take your readied action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.

Special Attacks

This section covers firearms, grappling, explosives, attacking objects, and an assortment of other special attacks.

Aid Another

In combat, you can help a friend attack or defend by distracting or interfering with an opponent. If you’re in position to attack an opponent with which a friend of yours is engaged in melee combat, you can attempt to aid your friend as an attack action. You make an attack roll against Defense 10. If you succeed, you don’t actually damage your opponent—but your friend gains either a +2 circumstance bonus against that opponent or a +2 circumstance bonus to Defense against that opponent (your choice) on his next turn.

Firearms

The most basic form of attack with a firearm is a single shot. One attack is one pull of the trigger and fires one bullet at one target.
The Personal Firearms Proficiency feat allows you to make this sort of attack without penalty. If you aren’t proficient in personal firearms, you take a –4 penalty on attacks with that type of weapon.
A number of other feats (such as Double Tap and Burst Fire) allow you to deal extra damage when you fire more than one bullet as part of a single attack at a single target. (If you don’t have those feats, you can still fire more than one bullet — but the extra bullets don’t have any effect, and are just wasted ammunition.)
As with all forms of ranged weapons, attacking with a firearm while within a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity.
Because of the weapon’s unwieldy shape and size, an attacker using a longarm takes a –4 penalty on attacks against adjacent opponents.

Autofire

If a ranged weapon has an automatic rate of fire, you may set it on autofire. Autofire affects an area and everyone in it, not a specific creature. You target a 10-foot-by-10-foot area and make an attack roll; the targeted area has an effective Defense of 10. (If do not have the Advanced Firearms Proficiency feat, you take a –4 penalty on the attack roll.) If your attack succeeds, every creature within the affected area must make a Reflex save (DC 15) or take the weapon’s damage. Autofire shoots 10 bullets, and can only be used if the weapon has 10 bullets in it.
Autofire is not the same thing as burst fire, which involves firing a short burst at a specific target. Firing a burst requires the Burst Fire feat. If you fire a blast of automatic fire at a specific target without the Burst Fire feat, it’s treated as a standard attack. You may hit, but if you do, you only deal normal weapon damage—all the extra ammunition you fired is wasted.
Some firearms — particularly machine guns — only have autofire settings and can’t normally fire single shots.

Grenades and Explosives

An explosive is a weapon that, when detonated, affects all creatures and objects within its burst radius by means of shrapnel, heat, or massive concussion. Its effect is broad enough that it can hurt characters just by going off close to them.
Some explosives, such as grenades, can be thrown, and they explode when they land. Others are planted, with fuses or timers, and go off after a preset amount of time elapses.

Thrown Explosives

An attack with a thrown explosive is a ranged attack made against a specific 5-foot square. (You can target a square occupied by a creature.) Throwing the explosive is an attack action. If the square is within one range increment, you do not need to make an attack roll. Simply roll 1d4 and consult the left-hand portion of the accompanying diagram to see which corner of the square the explosive bounces to.
If the target square is more than one range increment away, make an attack roll. The square has an effective Defense of 10. Thrown weapons require no weapon proficiency, so you don’t take the –4 non-proficient penalty. If the attack succeeds, the grenade or explosive lands in the targeted square. Roll 1d4 and consult the left-hand portion of the accompanying diagram to see which corner of the square the explosive bounces to.
If you miss the target, the explosive lands at a corner of a square nearby in a random direction. Consult the diagram to determine where the explosive lands. If you threw the weapon two to three range increments (typically 11 to 30 feet), roll 1d8 and use the center portion of the diagram. For ranges of up to five range increments (typically 31 to 50 feet), roll 1d12 and use the right-hand portion of the diagram.
Once you know where the explosive landed, it deals its damage to all targets within the burst radius of the weapon. The targets may make Reflex saves (DC varies according to the explosive type) for half damage.

Planted Explosives

A planted explosive is set in place, with a timer or fuse determining when it goes off. No attack roll is necessary to plant an explosive; the explosive sits where it is placed until it is moved or goes off.
When a planted explosive detonates, it deals its damage to all targets within the burst radius of the weapon. The targets may make Reflex saves (DC varies according to the explosive type) for half damage.

Splash Weapons

A splash weapon is a ranged weapon that breaks apart on impact, splashing or scattering its contents over its target and nearby creatures or objects. Most splash weapons consist of liquids in breakable containers.
To attack with a splash weapon, make a ranged touch attack against the target. Thrown weapons require no weapon proficiency, so you don’t take the –4 non-proficient penalty. A hit deals direct hit damage to the target and splash damage to all other creatures within 5 feet of the target.
You can instead target a specific 5-foot square, including a square occupied by a creature. Use the rules for thrown explosives. However, if you target a square, creatures within 5 feet are dealt the splash damage, and the direct hit damage is not dealt to any creature.
If you miss the target (whether aiming at a creature or a square), check to see where the weapon lands, using the rules for thrown explosives, above. (Use the diagram on page 105 if you threw the splash weapon from within
one range increment.) Once you determine where the object landed, it deals splash damage to all creatures within 5 feet.

Burst Radius

When determining whether a given target is within the burst radius of an explosive, count out the distance in squares just as you do when moving a character or when determining the range for a ranged weapon attack. The only difference is that instead of counting from the center of one square to the center of the next, you count from corner to corner. You can count diagonally across a square, but remember that every second diagonal counts as two squares of distance.
If the far edge of the square is within the explosive’s burst radius, a character or object in the square is affected by the explosive. If the explosive’s burst radius only touches the near edge of the square, however, creatures or objects within the square are unaffected. See the diagram on page 105.

Attack an Object

Sometimes you need to attack or break an object, such as when you want to shoulder open a door or break apart a pair of handcuffs.

Strike an Object

Objects are easier to hit than characters because they usually don’t move, but many are tough enough to shrug off some damage from each blow.
Object Defense and Bonuses to Attack: Objects are harder or easier to hit depending on their size and whether they are immobile or being held, carried, or worn by opponents. The base Defense of objects is shown on Table 5–8: Size and Defense of Objects.
If you use a full-round action to make an attack against an inanimate, immobile object, you get an automatic hit with a melee weapon, or a +5 bonus on your attack roll with a ranged weapon.
An object being held, carried, or worn has a Defense equal to the above figure + 5 + the opponent’s Dexterity modifier + the opponent’s class bonus to Defense. Striking a held, carried, or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity from the character who holds it.
Hardness: Each object has hardness — a number that represents how well it resists damage. Whenever an object takes damage, subtract its hardness from the damage. Only damage in excess of its hardness is deducted from the object’s hit points (see Table 5–9: Substance Hardness and Hit Points and Table 5–10: Object Hardness and Hit Points).
Hit Points: An object’s hit point total depends on what it is made of or how big it is (see Table 5–9 and Table 5–10). (If you have the Sunder feat, you don’t incur an attack of opportunity for making the attempt.)
Energy Attacks: Acid and sonic attacks deal normal damage to most objects. Electricity and fire attacks deal half damage to most objects; divide the damage by 2 before applying the hardness. Cold attacks deal one-quarter damage to most objects; divide the damage by 4 before applying the hardness.
Ineffective Weapons: The GM may determine that certain weapons just can’t deal damage effectively to certain objects. For example, you may have a hard time chopping down a door by throwing shuriken at it or cutting a rope with a club.
Immunities: Objects are immune to nonlethal damage and to critical hits.
Saving Throws: Unattended objects never make saving throws. They are considered to have failed their saving throws, so they always are affected by (for instance) the blast of a C4 charge exploding. An object attended by a character (being grasped, touched, or worn) receives a saving throw just as if the character herself were making the saving throw.

Breaking Objects

When you try to break something with sudden force rather than by dealing damage, use a Strength check to see whether you succeed. The DC depends more on the construction of the object than on the material. For instance, a steel door with a weak lock can be forced open much more easily than it can be hacked down.
If an object has lost half or more of its hit points, the DC to break it decreases by 2.

Repairing Objects

Repairing damage to an object takes a full hour of work and appropriate tools. (Without the tools, you take a –4 penalty on your Repair check.) At the end of the hour, make a Repair check (DC 20). Success restores 2d6 hit points. If damage remains, you may continue to make repairs for as many hours as it takes to restore all the object’s hit points.

TABLE 5–8: SIZE AND DEFENSE OF OBJECTS

Size (Example)	Defense
Colossal (jetliner)	–3
Gargantuan (army tank)	1
Huge (typical car)	3
Large (big door)	4
Medium-size (dirt bike)	5
Small (chair)	6
Tiny (laptop computer)	7
Diminutive (paperback book)	9
Fine (pencil)	13

TABLE 5–9: SUBSTANCE HARDNESS AND HIT POINTS

Substance	Hardness	Hit Points
Paper	0	2/inch of thickness
Rope	0	2/inch of thickness
Plastic, soft	0	3/inch of thickness
Glass	1	1/inch of thickness
Ceramic	1	2/inch of thickness
Ice	0	3/inch of thickness
Plastic, hard	2	5/inch of thickness
Wood	5	10/inch of thickness
Aluminum	6	10/inch of thickness
Concrete	8	15/inch of thickness
Steel	10	30/inch of thickness

TABLE 5–10: OBJECT HARDNESS AND HIT POINTS

Object	Hardness	Hit Points	Break DC
Lock
– Cheap	0	1	10
– Average	3	5	15
– High quality	5	10	20
– High security	10	120	35
– Ultrahigh security	20	150	40
Manufactured objects 1
– Fine	0	1	10
– Diminutive	0	1	10
– Tiny	1	2	10
– Small	3	3	12
– Medium-size	5	5	15
– Large	5	10	15
– Huge	8	10	20
– Gargantuan	8	20	30
– Colossal	10	30	50
Firearm, Medium-size	5	7	17
Rope	0	2	23
Simple wooden door	5	10	13
Strong wooden door	5	20	23
Steel door	10	120	35
Cinderblock wall	8	90	35
Chain	10	5	26
Handcuffs	10	10	30
Metal bars	10	15	30

Bull Rush

You can attempt a bull rush as an attack action made during your move action, or as part of a charge. (In general, you can’t make an attack action during a move action; this is an exception.) In either case, you don’t get a 5-foot step before, during, or after the bull rush attempt. When you bull rush, you attempt to push an opponent straight back instead of attacking him (just as an angry bull might behave against an object or an adversary). You can only bull rush an opponent who is one size category larger than you, the same size, or smaller.

Initiating a Bull Rush

First, you move into the target’s square. Moving in this way provokes an attack of opportunity from each foe that threatens you, probably including the target.
Second, you and the target make opposed Strength checks. If you and the target are different sizes, the larger combatant gets a bonus on the Strength check of +4 per difference in size category. You get a +2 bonus if you were charging. The target gets a +4 stability bonus if he has more than two legs or is otherwise exceptionally stable.

Bull Rush Results

If you beat the target’s Strength check, you push him back 5 feet. You can push the target back an additional 5 feet for every 5 points by which you exceed the target’s check result, provided you move with him. You can’t, however, exceed your normal movement for that action. (The target provokes attacks of opportunity if he is moved. So do you, if you move with him. The two of you do not provoke attacks of opportunity from each other as a result of this movement.)
If you fail to beat the target’s Strength check, you move 5 feet straight back to where you were before you moved into his square. If that square is occupied, you fall prone in the square.

Overrun

You can attempt an overrun as an attack action made during your move action, or as part of a charge. (In general, you cannot make an attack action during a move action; this is an exception.) In either case, you don’t get a 5-foot step before, during, or after the overrun attempt. With an overrun, you attempt to plow past or over your opponent (and move through his area) as you move. You can only overrun an opponent who is one size category larger than you, the same size, or smaller. You can make only one overrun attempt per action.
First, you must move at least 10 feet in a straight line into the target’s square (provoking attacks of opportunity normally).
Then the target chooses either to avoid you or to block you. If he avoids you, you keep moving. (You can always move through a square occupied by someone who lets you by.) If he blocks you, make a trip attack against him (see Trip, below). If you succeed in tripping your opponent, you can continue your movement as normal.
If you fail and are tripped in turn, you fall prone in the target’s square. If you fail but are not tripped, you have to move 5 feet back the way you came, ending your movement there. If that square is occupied, you fall prone in the square.

Trip

You can try to trip an opponent, or otherwise knock him down, as an unarmed melee attack. You can only trip an opponent who is one size category larger than you, the same size, or smaller.

Making a Trip Attack

Make an unarmed melee touch attack against your target.
Doing this incurs an attack of opportunity from your target
as normal for unarmed attacks.
If your attack succeeds, make a Strength check opposed
by the target’s Dexterity check or Strength check (using
whichever ability score has the higher modifier). If you and
the target are different sizes, the larger combatant gets a
bonus on the Strength check of +4 per difference in size category.
The target gets a +4 stability bonus on his check if he
has more than two legs or is otherwise exceptionally stable.
If you win, you trip the target. If you lose, the target may
immediately react and make a Strength check opposed by
your Dexterity check or Strength check to try to trip you.

Being Tripped (Prone)

A tripped character is prone (see Table 5–4: Defense Modifiers).
Standing up from a prone position is a move action.

Tripping with a Weapon

Some weapons, such as the chain and the whip, can be used to make trip attacks. You don’t incur an attack of opportunity when doing so. If you are tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop the weapon to avoid being tripped.

Disarm

As a melee attack, you may attempt to disarm your opponent. If you do so with a weapon, you knock the opponent’s weapon out of his hands and to the ground. If you attempt the disarm while unarmed (a more dangerous proposition), you end up with the weapon in your hand.
If you’re attempting to disarm the wielder of a melee weapon, follow the steps outlined here. Disarming the wielder of a ranged weapon is slightly different; see below.
Step One: You provoke an attack of opportunity from the target you are trying to disarm.
Step Two: You and the target make opposed attack rolls with your respective weapons. If the weapons are different sizes, the combatant with the larger weapon gets a bonus on the attack roll of +4 per difference in size category. If the target is using a weapon in two hands, he gets an additional +4 bonus. Also, if the combatants are different sizes, the larger combatant gets a bonus on the attack roll of +4 per difference in size category.
Step Three: If you beat the target’s attack roll, the target is disarmed. If you attempted the disarm action unarmed, you now have the weapon. If you were armed, the target’s weapon is on the ground at the target’s feet.
If you fail the disarm attempt, the target may immediately react and attempt to disarm you with the same sort of opposed melee attack roll. His attempt does not provoke an attack of opportunity from you. If he fails his disarm, you do not get a free disarm attempt against him.

Ranged Weapons

To disarm an opponent wielding a ranged weapon, you make a melee attack or unarmed attack to strike the weapon in your opponent’s hand (see Attack an Object). If the weapon is held in two hands, it gets a +2 bonus to its Defense. If your attack succeeds, the ranged weapon falls to the ground or winds up in your hands (if you made the attack unarmed). This kind of disarm attempt provokes an attack of opportunity, but if you fail, the target does not get to make a disarm attempt against you.

Grabbing Objects

You can also use disarm to snatch away an object worn by a target (such as a necklace or a pair of goggles). Doing this works the same as a disarm attempt (see above), except for the following.
Attack of Opportunity: If the target’s attack of opportunity inflicts any damage, your attempt to grab the object automatically fails.
Modifiers: If the object is well secured or otherwise difficult to grab from the target (such as a ring worn on a finger), the target gets a +4 bonus. On the other hand, if the object is poorly secured or otherwise easy to snatch or cut away (such as a purse casually slung over a shoulder), the attacker gets a +4 bonus.
Failed Attempts: Failing an attempt to grab an object doesn’t allow the target to attempt to disarm you.

Grapple

Grappling means wrestling and struggling hand-to-hand. It’s tricky to perform, but sometimes you want to pin foes instead of killing them, and sometimes you have no choice in the matter. For a creature, grappling can mean trapping you in a toothy maw or holding you down so it can chew you up.
There are three stages to grappling: grabbing, holding, and pinning.

Grabbing

Normally, a grab is just the first step to starting a grapple. If you grab another character but fail to go on to hold him, you don’t actually start a grapple. However, sometimes all you want to do is grab the target (you might want to grab a horse as it starts to flee, to swing yourself upon its back, for example).

Holding

Once you’ve established a hold, you’re involved in a grapple. From a hold, you can attempt a number of actions, including damaging your opponent or pinning him. You can’t get a hold on any creature more than two size categories larger than yourself. (However, such a creature can get a hold on you — so while you can’t initiate a grapple with a creature more than two size categories larger than you, you can still end up in one.)

Pinning

Getting your opponent in a pin is often the ultimate goal of a grapple. A pinned character is held immobile.

Grapple Checks

When you’re involved in a grapple, you’ll need to make opposed grapple checks against an opponent — often repeatedly. A grapple check is something like a melee attack roll. Your attack bonus on a grapple check is:

• Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + grapple modifier

Grapple Modifier

A creature’s size works in its favor when grappling, if that creature is Large or larger in size. Conversely, a creature of Small or smaller size is at a disadvantage because of its size when grappling. Instead of using a creature’s size modifier on a grapple check (as you would do for a melee or ranged attack roll), use the appropriate grapple modifier from Table 5–11.

Starting a Grapple

To start a grapple, you first need to grab and hold your target. Attempting to start a grapple is the equivalent of making a melee attack. If you get multiple attacks in a round, you can attempt to start a grapple multiple times (at successively lower base attack bonuses). Follow these steps.

1. Attack of Opportunity: You provoke an attack of opportunity from the target you are trying to grapple. If the attack of opportunity deals you damage, you fail to start the grapple. If the attack of opportunity misses or otherwise fails to deal damage, proceed to step 2.
2. Grab: You make a melee touch attack to grab the target. If you fail to hit the target, you fail to start the grapple. If you succeed, proceed to step 3.
3. Hold: Make an opposed grapple check. (This is a free action.) If you succeed, you have started the grapple, and you deal damage to the target as if with an unarmed strike.
   If you lose, you fail to start the grapple. You automatically lose an attempt to hold if the target is two or more size categories larger than you are (but you can still make an attempt to grab such a target, if that’s all you want to do).
4. Maintain the Grapple: To maintain the grapple for later rounds, you must move into the target’s square.
   (This movement is free and doesn’t count as part of your round’s movement.) Moving, as normal, provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening enemies, but not from your target. You and your target are now grappling.
   If you can’t move into your target’s square (because of intervening obstacles or for any other reason), you can’t maintain the grapple and must immediately let go of the target. To grapple again, you must begin at step 1.

TABLE 5–11: GRAPPLE MODIFIERS

Size (Example)	Grapple Modifier
Colossal (blue whale [90 ft. long])	+16
Gargantuan (gray whale [40 ft. long])	+12
Huge (elephant)	+8
Large (lion)	+4
Medium-size (human)	+0
Small (German shepherd)	–4
Tiny (housecat)	–8
Diminutive (rat)	–12
Fine (horsefly)	–16

Grappling Consequences

While you’re grappling, your ability to attack others and defend yourself is limited.
No Threatened Squares: You don’t threaten any squares while grappling.
No Dexterity Bonus: You lose your Dexterity bonus to Defense (if you have one) against opponents you aren’t grappling. (You can still use it against opponents you are grappling.)
No Movement: You cannot move while held in a grapple.

If You’re Grappling

When you are grappling (regardless of who started the grapple), you can attempt any of several actions on your turn. Unless otherwise noted, each of these options is equivalent to an attack. (If you normally get more than one attack per attack action, you can attempt as many of these options as you have attacks available, using your successively lower attack bonus for each roll.) You are limited to these options only; you cannot take any other actions.
Damage Your Opponent: Make an opposed grapple check; if you succeed, you deal damage as with an unarmed strike.
Pin: Make an opposed grapple check; if you succeed, you hold your opponent immobile for 1 round. Your opponent takes a –4 penalty to his Defense against all attacks from other people (but not from you); however, he’s not considered helpless.
You can’t use a weapon on a pinned character or attempt to damage or pin a second opponent while holding a pin on the first.
A pinned character can’t take any action except to attempt to escape from the pin.
Escape from Grapple: Make an opposed grapple check. If you succeed, you can escape the grapple. If more than one opponent is grappling you, your grapple check result has to beat all their check results to escape. (Opponents don’t have to try to hold you if they don’t want to.)
Alternatively, you can make an Escape Artist check opposed by your opponent’s grapple check to escape from the grapple. This is an attack action that you may only attempt once per round, even if you get multiple attacks.
If you have not used your move action for the round, you may do so after escaping the grapple.
Escape from Pin: Make an opposed grapple check. If you succeed, you can escape from being pinned. (Opponents don’t have to try to keep you pinned if they don’t want to.) You are still being grappled, however.
Alternatively, you can make an Escape Artist check opposed by your opponent’s grapple check to escape from the pin. This is an attack action that you may only attempt once per round, even if you get multiple attacks.
Break Another’s Pin: Make an opposed grapple check; if you succeed, you can break the hold that an opponent has over an ally.
Draw a Light Weapon: You can draw a light weapon as a move action.
Attack with a Light Weapon: You can attack with a light weapon while grappling (but not while pinned or pinning). You can’t attack with two weapons while grappling.

If You’re Pinned

When an opponent has pinned you, you are held immobile (but not helpless) for 1 round. (You can’t attempt any other action.) On your turn, you can attempt to escape from the pin. If you succeed, you’re still grappling.

Joining a Grapple

If your target is already grappling someone else, you can use an attack to start a grapple, as above, except that the target doesn’t get an attack of opportunity against you, and your grab automatically succeeds. You still have to make a successful opposed grapple check and move in to be part of the grapple.
If multiple enemies are already involved in the grapple, you pick one against whom to make the opposed grapple check.

Multiple Grapplers

Several combatants can be in a single grapple. Up to four combatants can grapple a single opponent in a given round. Creatures that are one size category smaller than you count as one-half creature each; creatures that are one size category larger than you count as two creatures; and creatures two or more size categories larger than you count as four creatures.
When involved in a grapple with multiple opponents, you choose one opponent to make an opposed check against. The exception is an attempt to escape from the grapple; to escape, your grapple check must beat the check results of all opponents.

Vehicle Movement and Combat

If all you want from a vehicle is to get from point A to point B, then the vehicle you choose is largely a matter of personal style and finances. Skill checks are only required in extraordinary circumstances — driving long distances off-road, for example, or piloting a boat through a hurricane. However, if you’re the sort who hears screaming tires in your sleep and dreams about extended car chases, this section is for you.
These rules are primarily focused on ground vehicles — cars, trucks, and light military vehicles. The rules can be modified for boats, heavier armored vehicles, and aircraft. For the most part, however, they cover heroes and their antagonists in the most common sorts of vehicles they encounter.

Characters in Vehicles

A character in a vehicle fills one of several possible roles, which determines what the character can do.
Driver: The driver of the vehicle controls its movement. Most vehicles have only one position from where the vehicle can be driven, so the person seated there is the driver. Driving a vehicle is, at a minimum, a move action, which means that the driver may be able to do something else with his attack action. There can be only one driver in a vehicle at one time.
Copilot: A copilot can help the driver by taking an aid another action. The copilot must be seated in a location where he can see the road and advise the driver (in a car, this generally means the front passenger seat). Aiding the driver is a move action, leaving the copilot with an attack action each round to do something else. A vehicle can have only one copilot at a time.
Gunner: Some vehicles, such as tanks, have built-in weapons. If such a weapon is controlled from a location other than the driver’s position, a character can man that position and become the gunner. A vehicle can have as many gunners as it has gunner positions.
Passenger: All other personnel aboard the vehicle are considered passengers. Passengers have no specific role in the vehicle’s operation, but may be able to fire weapons from the vehicle or take other actions.

Scale

Before beginning a scene in which you use these rules, you’ll need to determine the appropriate scale for the encounter. If the encounter involves both vehicles and characters on foot (the heroes are attempting to foil a getaway at a bank robbery, for example), use character scale. However, if the scene involves only vehicles, and they’re likely to move at much higher speeds than characters or creatures on foot, use chase scale.
Character Scale: Character scale is identical to the standard movement scale: It’s carried out on a grid in which each square equals 5 feet.
In character scale, most vehicles are large enough to occupy multiple squares on the map grid. How many squares a vehicle occupies is specified in the vehicle’s description.
When moving a vehicle, count the squares from the vehicle’s rear. When turning, pivot the vehicle on the rear square toward which it is turning (so a car making a left turn pivots on the left rear square). When firing weapons, count squares from the location of the weapon.
In character scale, more than one ground vehicle cannot occupy the same square.
Chase Scale: A fast-moving vehicle can cross your entire gaming table in a single round at character scale. For that reason, when only vehicles (or perhaps vehicles and very fast-moving creatures) are involved, use chase scale. In chase scale, each square of the grid represents 50 feet.
In chase scale, most commonly encountered vehicles occupy only one square. (Some especially large vehicles, such as ships or jumbo jets, might occupy more than one square.) More than one vehicle can occupy the same square. Vehicles in the same square are considered to be 20 feet apart for the purposes of determining range for attacks.

Vehicle Sizes

Vehicles use the same size categories as characters and creatures, as shown on Table 5–12: Vehicle Sizes. The vehicle’s size modifier applies to its initiative modifier, maneuver modifier, and Defense. (The size modifier is already included in the vehicle statistics on Table 4–14: Vehicles.)

TABLE 5-12: VEHICLE SIZES

Vehicle Size	Size Modifier	Examples
Colossal	–8	Yacht, semi with trailer
Gargantuan	–4	Tank, limousine
Huge	–2	Luxury car, SUV, armored car
Large	–1	Economy car, Harley
Medium-size	+0	Racing bike, dirt bike

Facing and Firing Arcs

Unlike with characters, when dealing with vehicles, the vehicle’s facing (the direction it’s pointing) is important. Facing indicates the direction in which the vehicle is traveling (assuming it’s not moving in reverse). It can also determine which weapons aboard the vehicle can be brought to bear on a target.
A weapon built into a vehicle can by mounted to fire in one of four directions — forward, aft (rear), right, or left — or be built into a partial or full turret. A partial turret lets a weapon fire into three adjacent fire arcs (such as forward, left, and right), while a full turret lets it fire in any direction. For vehicles with weapons, a weapon’s arc of fire is given in the vehicle’s description.

Getting Started

Most vehicles can be entered with a a move action and started with a second move action. From that moment they are ready to roll. An exception is noted in a vehicle’s description when it applies (for example, see the BMP-2).

Initiative

There are two options for determining initiative in vehicle combat. First, you can use individual initiative just as in normal combat, where each character rolls separately. This is probably the best method if most or all characters are aboard the same vehicle, but it can result in a lot of delayed or readied actions as passengers wait for drivers to perform maneuvers. An alternative is to roll initiative for each vehicle, using the vehicle’s initiative modifier. This is particularly appropriate when characters are in separate vehicles, since it allows everyone aboard the same vehicle to act more or less simultaneously.

Vehicle Speed

Vehicle speed is expressed in five categories: stationary, alley speed, street speed, highway speed, and all-out. Each of these speed categories represents a range of possible movement (see Table 5–13: Vehicle Speeds and Modifiers). Each round, a vehicle moves according to its current speed category.

Declaring Speed

At the beginning of his action, a driver must declare his speed category for the round. The driver can choose to go one category faster or slower than the vehicle’s speed in the previous round. For example, if the vehicle moved at street speed in the previous round, the driver can slow to alley speed or accelerate to highway speed. A stationary vehicle can change to alley speed in either forward or reverse. Most vehicles cannot go faster than alley speed in reverse.
Stationary: The vehicle is motionless.
Alley Speed: This speed is used for safely maneuvering a vehicle in tight spaces, such as alleys and parking garages. It tops out at about the speed a typical person can run.
Street Speed: The vehicle is traveling at a moderate speed, up to about 35 miles per hour.
Highway Speed: The vehicle is moving at a typical highway speed, from about 35 to 80 miles per hour.
All-Out: The vehicle is traveling extremely fast, more than 80 miles per hour.

TABLE 5-13: VEHICLE SPEEDS AND MODIFIERS

Speed Category	Character Scale Movement 1	Turn Number 2	Chase Scale Movement 1	Turn Number 2	Defense Modifier	Check/Roll Modifier
Stationary 3	0	—	0	—	+0	—
Alley speed	1–20	1	1–2	1	+0	+0
Street speed	21–50	2	3–5	1	+1	–1
Highway speed	51–150	4	6–15	2	+2	–2
All-out	151+	8	16+	2	+4	–4

Moving

On his action, the driver moves the vehicle a number of squares that falls within the vehicle’s speed category. For example, if the vehicle is moving at street speed, the driver can move it as few as 21 squares or as many as 50 (at character scale), or as few as 3 or as many as 5 (at chase scale).
Unlike characters, a vehicle cannot double move, run, or otherwise extend its movement (except by changing to a higher speed category).
Every vehicle has a top speed, included in its statistics on Table 4–14. A vehicle cannot move more squares than its top speed. This means that some vehicles cannot move at all-out speed, or even highway speed.
Count squares for vehicles just as you do for characters. Vehicles can move diagonally; remember that when moving diagonally, every second square costs two squares’ worth of movement. Unlike with moving characters, a vehicle’s facing is important; unless it changes direction, a vehicle always moves in the direction of its facing (or in the opposite direction, if it’s moving in reverse).

The Effects of Speed

A fast-moving vehicle is harder to hit than a stationary one — but it’s also harder to control, and to attack from.
As shown on Table 5–13: Vehicle Speeds and Modifiers, when a vehicle travels at street speed or faster, it gains a bonus to Defense. However, that speed brings along with it a penalty on all skill checks and attack rolls made by characters aboard the vehicle — including Drive checks to control the vehicle and attacks made from it.

Driving a Vehicle

Driving a vehicle is a move action, taken by the vehicle’s driver. During his move action, the driver moves the vehicle a number of squares that falls within its speed category. The driver can attempt maneuvers to change the vehicle’s course or speed. These maneuvers can be attempted at any point along the vehicle’s route. The driver can choose to use his attack action to attempt additional maneuvers.
The two kinds of vehicle movement are simple maneuvers and stunts.
Simple Maneuvers: A simple maneuver, such as a 45-degree turn, is easy to perform. Each is a free action and can be taken as many times as the driver likes while he moves the vehicle. However, simple maneuvers do cost movement — so a vehicle that makes a lot of simple maneuvers will not get as far as one going in a straight line. Simple maneuvers do not require the driver to make skill checks.
Stunts: Stunts are difficult and sometimes daring maneuvers that enable a driver to change his vehicle’s speed or heading more radically than a simple maneuver allows. A stunt is a move action. It can be taken as part of a move action to control the vehicle, and a second stunt can be attempted in lieu of the driver’s attack action. Stunts always require Drive checks.

Simple Maneuvers

During a vehicle’s movement, the driver can perform any one of the following maneuvers. They are illustrated in the diagram below.
45-Degree Turn: Any vehicle can make a simple 45-degree turn as part of its movement. The vehicle must move forward at least a number of squares equal to its turn number (shown on Table 5–13: Vehicle Speeds and Modifiers) before it can turn. Making a 45-degree turn costs 1 square of movement.
Ram: At character scale, a driver does not have to perform a maneuver to ram another vehicle — he only needs to drive his vehicle into the other vehicle’s square, and a collision occurs (see Collisions and Ramming).
At chase scale, however, more than one vehicle can occupy the same square and not collide — so ramming another vehicle requires a simple maneuver. The driver moves his vehicle into the other vehicle’s square and states that he is attempting to ram. Resolve the ram as a collision, except that the driver of the target vehicle can make a Reflex save (DC 15) to reduce the damage to both vehicles by half.
Sideslip: A driver might wish to move to the side without changing the vehicle’s facing, for instance to change lanes. This simple maneuver, called a sideslip, allows a vehicle to avoid obstacles or weave in and out of traffic without changing facing. A sideslip moves a vehicle 1 square forward and 1 square to the right or left, and costs 3 squares of movement.

Stunts

Stunts are maneuvers that require a Drive check to perform successfully. Unsuccessful stunts often result in the vehicle ending up someplace other than where the driver intended. When this happens, the vehicle collides with any objects in its path. Remember that the check/roll modifier from Table 5–13: Vehicle Speeds and Modifiers affects all Drive checks made by the driver and attack rolls made by all occupants of the vehicle.
Avoid Hazard: Vehicle combat rarely occurs on a perfectly flat, featureless plain. Rocks, trees, buildings, people, vehicles, wreckage, and other obstacles can get in the way. When a vehicle tries to move through a square occupied by a hazard, the driver must succeed on a Drive check to avoid the hazard and continue moving.
Structures (such as buildings, embankments, or other objects that fill an entire square) simply cannot be avoided. Also, if a driver cannot make a check (if he has used all his actions for the round in performing other stunts), he automatically fails to avoid the hazard. In such cases, a collision occurs.
The DC to avoid a hazard varies with the nature of the hazard.
On a failed check, the vehicle hits the obstacle. For caltrops, this means the caltrops make an attack against the vehicle (see Caltrops). An oil slick forces the drive to make a Drive check (DC 15) to retain control of the vehicle (see Losing Control). Failing to avoid an object results in a collision with the object (see Collisions and Ramming).

Hazard	DC
Caltrops	15
Oil slick	15
Object
Small (tire, light debris)	5
Medium-size (crate)	10
Large (pile of wreckage)	15
Structure	Cannot be avoided

Bootleg Turn: By making a bootleg turn, a driver can radically change direction without turning in a loop. However, in so doing, the vehicle comes to a stop.
Before a vehicle can make a bootleg turn, it must move in a straight line at least a number of squares equal to its turn number (see Table 5–13). To make a bootleg turn, simply change the vehicle’s facing to the desired direction. The vehicle ends its movement in that location, at stationary speed.
The DC for a bootleg turn depends on the change in facing.
On a failed check, instead of facing the desired direction, the vehicle only changes facing by 45 degrees. Make a Drive check to retain control against a DC equal to the DC for the bootleg turn attempted (see Losing Control).

Facing Change	DC
45 degrees	5
90 degrees	10
135 degrees	15
180 degrees	20

Dash: With a dash stunt, a driver can increase the vehicle’s speed by one category. (This increase is in addition to any speed change made at the beginning of his action; if he increased speed at that time, he can accelerate a total of two categories in the same round.) The vehicle’s total movement for the round cannot exceed the maximum number of squares for its new speed category.
(The squares it has already moved before attempting the dash count against this total.)
The DC for a dash is 15.
On a failed check, the vehicle does not change speed categories.
Hard Brake: With a hard brake stunt, a driver can reduce the vehicle’s speed by up to two categories. (This is in addition to any speed change made at the beginning of his action; if he reduced speed at that time, he can drop a total of three categories in the same round.) The vehicle’s movement for the round ends as soon as it has moved the minimum number of squares for its new speed category. (If it has already moved that far before attempting the hard brake, it ends its movement immediately.)
The DC for a hard brake is 15.
On a failed check, the vehicle does not change speed categories. Make a Drive check (DC 15) to retain control (see Losing Control).
Hard Turn: A hard turn allows a vehicle to make a turn in a short distance without losing speed.
A hard turn functions like a 45-degree turn simple maneuver, except that the vehicle only needs to move forward a number of squares equal to half its turn number (rounded down).
The DC for a hard turn is 15.
On a failed check, the vehicle continues to move forward a number of squares equal to its turn number before turning, just as with a simple 45-degree turn. Make a Drive check (DC 15) to retain control (see Losing Control).
Jump: A driver can attempt to jump her vehicle across a gap in her path, such as a ditch or a culvert.
To make a jump, the vehicle must move in a straight line a number of squares equal to its turn number (see Table 5–13). If the vehicle doesn’t have enough movement left to clear the gap, it must complete the jump at the start of its next turn.
The DC for a jump depends on the width of the gap, modified by the vehicle’s speed category.
On a failed check, the vehicle fails to clear the gap, and instead falls into it (or collides with the far side). Determine damage as for a collision (see Collisions and Ramming).

Gap Width	DC
1–3 ft. (ditch)	15
4–8 ft. (culvert)	20
8–15 ft. (creek, small ravine)	25
16–25 ft. (narrow road, small pond)	35
26–40 ft. (wide road, small river)	45

A shallow gap (1 to 3 feet deep) is equivalent to a Medium-size object; the vehicle may be able to avoid taking collision damage from the failed jump by treating the far side as a hazard and then continue moving (see Avoid Hazard, above).
A moderately deep gap (4 to 10 feet deep) is equivalent to a Huge object. The vehicle can only drive out of the gap if the walls are not too steep.
A deeper gap (11 feet or deeper) is equivalent to a Colossal object. The vehicle can only drive out of the gap if the walls are not too steep.
If the gap is filled with water (such as in a creek or pond), the vehicle takes only half damage from the collision with the ground. However, if the water is too deep or the bottom is too soft (GM’s discretion), the vehicle might not be able to move.
Sideswipe: During a vehicle’s movement, a driver can attempt to sideswipe a vehicle or other target, either to deal damage without fully ramming it or to cause another driver to lose control of his vehicle.
At character scale, a vehicle must be side by side with its target (that is, occupying the square or squares directly to its side) and moving in the same direction. Attempting a sideswipe costs 1 square of movement.
At chase scale, the vehicle must be in the same square as its target and moving in the same direction. There is no movement cost.
If the stunt is successful, both vehicles take damage as if they had collided (see Collisions and Ramming), except that the collision multiplier is 1⁄4, and the driver of the target vehicle can make a Reflex save (DC 15) to reduce the damage to both vehicles by half of that result. The driver of the sideswiped vehicle must succeed at a Drive check (DC 15) at the beginning of his next action or lose control of the vehicle.
The DC for a sideswipe is 15. It’s modified by the relative size and speed of the target.

Target Condition	DC Modifier
Each size category larger	–5
Each size category smaller	+5
Each speed category of difference	–2

For example, say you are driving a Huge truck at highway speed, and you wish to sideswipe a Large car that’s going alley speed. The target is one size category smaller, and your speed is two speed categories different. You have a total modifier of +1 (+5 for size, –4 for speed).
On a failed check, both vehicles take damage as though the sideswipe attempt was a success. However, the other driver does not need to make a check to retain control.

Driver Options

In simple language, here’s what you, as a vehicle driver, can do in a single round:
Choose Your Speed: You may increase or decrease your vehicle’s speed category by one (or keep it the same).
Optional Attack Action: If you want, you can use your attack action before you move the vehicle. If you do so, however, you will be limited to a single stunt during movement.
Movement: Move the vehicle any number of squares within the vehicle’s speed category. Along the way, perform any number of simple maneuvers (limited only by their movement cost). You may also attempt a single stunt as part of the movement (or two, if you didn’t take your attack action before moving).
Optional Attack Action: If you did not take an attack action before moving, and you performed one or fewer stunts, you have an attack action left.

Collisions and Ramming

A collision occurs when a vehicle strikes another vehicle or a solid object. Generally, when a vehicle collides with a creature or other moving vehicle, the target can attempt a Reflex save (DC 15) to reduce the damage by half.

Resolving Collisions

The base damage dealt by a vehicle collision depends on the speed and size of the objects involved. Use the highest speed and the smallest size of the two colliding objects and refer to Table 5–14: Collision Damage.

TABLE 5-14: COLLISION DAMAGE

Highest Speed	Damage Die Type
Alley speed	d2
Street speed	d4
Highway speed	d8
All-out	d12
Smallest Object or Creature Size	Number of Dice
Colossal	20
Gargantuan	16
Huge	12
Large	8
Medium-size	4
Small	2
Tiny	1
Smaller than Tiny	0

For example, a Large car going highway speed runs into a Huge truck going alley speed. The highest speed is the car’s highway speed; the smallest size is the Large car. Therefore, the damage is 8d8.
Once you have the base damage, determine the collision’s damage multiplier based on how the colliding vehicle struck the other vehicle or object. (For vehicles moving in reverse, consider the back end to be the vehicle’s “front” for determining the collision multiplier.) Consult Table 5–15: Collision Direction for a multiplier.
Once the damage has been determined, apply it to both vehicles (or objects, or, for that matter, creatures) involved in the collision. Both vehicles reduce their speed by two speed categories. If the colliding vehicle moved the minimum number of squares for its new speed category before the collision, it ends its movement immediately. If not, it pushes the other vehicle or object aside, if possible, and continues until it has moved the minimum number of squares for its new speed category.

TABLE 5–15: COLLISION DIRECTION

Colliding Vehicle’s Target	Multiplier
A stationary object	× 1
A moving vehicle, striking head-on or 45 degrees from head-on	× 2
A moving vehicle, striking perpendicular	× 1
A moving vehicle, striking from the rear or 45 degrees from the rear	× 1⁄2
A vehicle being sideswiped	× 1⁄4

The driver of the vehicle that caused the collision must immediately make a Drive check (DC 15) or lose control of the vehicle (see Losing Control, below). The driver of the other vehicle must succeed on a Drive check (DC 15) at the beginning of her next action or lose control of her vehicle.

Damage to Vehicle Occupants

When a vehicle takes damage from a collision, its occupants may take damage as well. The base amount of damage depends on the cover offered by the vehicle.

Cover	Damage
None	Same as damage taken by vehicle
One-quarter	One-half damage taken by vehicle
One-half	One-quarter damage taken by vehicle
Three-quarters or more	None

Each of the occupants may make a Reflex save (DC 15) to take half damage.

Losing Control

A collision or a failed stunt can cause a driver to lose control of his vehicle. In these cases, the driver must make a Drive check to retain control of the vehicle. If this check is successful, the driver maintains control of the vehicle. If it fails, the vehicle goes into a spin. If it fails by 10 or more, the vehicle rolls. Remember that the check/roll modifier from Table 5–13: Vehicle Speeds and Modifiers applies to all Drive checks.
An out-of-control vehicle may strike an object or other vehicle. When that happens, a collision occurs (see Collisions and Ramming, above).
Spin: The vehicle skids, spinning wildly.
At character scale, the vehicle moves in its current direction a number of squares equal to the turn number for its speed, then ends its movement. Once it stops, roll 1d8 to determine its new facing: 1, no change; 2, right 45 degrees; 3, right 90 degrees; 4, right 135 degrees; 5, 180 degrees; 6, left 135 degrees; 7, left 90 degrees; 8, left 45 degrees. Reorient the vehicle accordingly.
At chase scale, the vehicle moves 1 square and ends its movement. Roll to determine its new facing as indicated above.
Roll: The vehicle tumbles, taking damage.
At character scale, the vehicle rolls in a straight line in its current direction for a number of squares equal to the turn number for its speed, then ends its movement. At the end of the vehicle’s roll, reorient the vehicle perpendicular to its original direction of travel (determine left or right randomly).
At chase scale, the vehicle rolls one square before stopping and reorienting.
At either scale, a vehicle takes damage equal to 2d6 × the turn number for its speed. The vehicle’s occupants take damage equal to 2d4 × the turn number for its speed (Reflex save, DC 15, for half damage).

Hide and Seek

When being pursued, you can attempt a Hide check to lose the pursuer in heavy traffic, or a Bluff check to misdirect him before turning onto an off-ramp or a side street.
To make a Hide check, use the normal rules for hiding (see the Hide skill description). The normal size modifiers apply, but because you’re hiding among other vehicles, most of which are size Large or Huge, you gain a +8 bonus on the check. This use of the Hide skill can only be attempted in fairly heavy traffic; in lighter traffic, your GM might not allow it or might apply a penalty to the check.
You can use Bluff to make a pursuer think you’re going a different direction from what you intend. Just before making a turn onto an off-ramp or side street, make a Bluff check opposed by the pursuer’s Sense Motive check. If you are successful, the pursuer takes a –5 penalty on any Drive check needed to make the turn to follow you. If the other driver can make the turn using only simple maneuvers and does not have to make a Drive check, your Bluff attempt has no effect.

Fighting from Vehicles

The following rules provide a further framework for combat involving vehicles.

Vehicle Combat Actions

Actions during vehicle combat are handled the same way as actions during personal combat. In general, a character can take two move actions, one move action and one attack action, or one full-round action in a round. Free actions can be performed normally, in conjunction with another action.
Free Actions: Communicating orders and ducking down behind a door are examples of free actions. Characters can perform as many free actions as the GM permits in a single round.
Move Actions: Changing position within a vehicle is usually a move action, especially if you have to trade places with another character. If your movement is short and unobstructed (for example, sliding from the left-hand side to the right-hand side of the back seat of a car, when no one else is in the back with you), you can do it as the equivalent of a 5-foot step. Otherwise, it requires a move action.
Attack Actions: Anyone aboard a vehicle can make an attack with a personal weapon, and drivers and gunners can make attacks with any vehicle-mounted weapons controlled from their positions.
Full-Round Actions: Since the driver must use a move action to control the vehicle, he can’t take a full-round action unless he starts it in one round and completes it on his next turn (see Start/Complete Full-Round Action).

Crew Quality

Rather than force you to create, or remember, statistics for everyone aboard a vehicle, vehicle statistics include a general “crew quality” descriptor. This indicates a typical crew’s aptitude with the vehicle’s systems.
Table 5–16: Vehicle Crew Quality shows the five levels of crew quality for GM-controlled vehicle crews, along with the appropriate check modifier. Use the check modifier for all skill checks related to the operation of the vehicle (including Drive and Repair checks). Use the attack bonus for all attack rolls performed by the crew. For quick reference, Table 5–17: Crewed Vehicles shows the typical crew quality, and the crew’s total initiative and maneuver modifiers, for the vehicles covered in this book.
This by no means restricts you from creating unique vehicles where the crew’s statistics are included, or from using GM characters’ abilities when they drive or attack from vehicles. It’s merely a shortcut allowing you to save time if you don’t have particular GM characters behind the wheel.

Attack Options

Firing a vehicle’s weapon requires an attack action and uses the driver’s or gunner’s ranged attack modifier.
A driver with 5 or more ranks in the Drive skill gains a +2 synergy bonus when firing vehicle-mounted weapons while driving.
Some military vehicles are equipped with fire-control computers. These systems grant equipment bonuses on attack rolls with the vehicle-mounted weapons to which they apply.
Driving Defensively: Just as in melee combat, one can fight defensively while driving a vehicle, which grants a +2 dodge bonus to the vehicle’s Defense and applies a –4 penalty on attack rolls made by occupants of the vehicle.
Total Defense: A driver can choose the total defense, action which grants a +4 dodge bonus to Defense but does not allow the driver to attack (gunners or passengers take a –8 penalty on attack rolls). These modifiers last until the driver’s next round of actions.
Full Attack Action: A driver cannot normally make a full attack, since controlling the vehicle requires a move action. Gunners or passengers, however, can take full attack actions, since they don’t have to use a move action (except, perhaps, to change positions in the vehicle). In general, taking a full attack action is useful only if a character has a base attack bonus high enough to get multiple attacks. A passenger can make multiple attacks with his own weapon (shooting a pistol out the window, for example). A gunner can make multiple attacks with one or more weapons controlled from his position.

Targeting Occupants

An attack made against a vehicle uses the vehicle’s Defense, modified by its speed category. Attackers can choose instead to target specific vehicle occupants, such as the driver or a passenger.

TABLE 5–16: VEHICLE CREW QUALITY

Crew Quality	Check Modifier	Attack Bonus
Untrained	–4	–2
Normal	+2	+0
Skilled	+4	+2
Expert	+8	+4
Ace	+12	+8/+3

TABLE 5–17: CREWED VEHICLES

Name	Crew	Initiative	Maneuver
Civilian Aircraft
Bell Jet Ranger	2 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0
Bell Model 212	2 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0
Cessna 172 Skyhawk	1 (Normal +2)	–2	–2
Learjet Model 45	2 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0
Civilian Cars
Acura 3.2 TL	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+1
Aston-Martin Vanquish	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+2
BMW M3	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+3
Chevrolet Cavalier	1 (Normal +2)	+1	+1
Chevrolet Corvette	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+2
Dodge Neon	1 (Normal +2)	+1	+1
Ford Crown Victoria	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+1
Jaguar XJS	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+1
Lamborghini Diablo	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+3
Mercedes E55 AMG	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+2
Volkswagen Jetta	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+2
Civilian Motorcycles
Ducati 998R	1 (Normal +2)	+2	+5
Harley Davidson FLSTF	1 (Normal +2)	+1	+3
Yamaha YZ250F	1 (Normal +2)	+2	+4
Civilian Trucks
AM General Hummer	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+0
Chevrolet Suburban	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+0
Dodge Caravan	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+0
Ford Escape XLT	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+0
Ford F-150 XL	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+0
Toyota Tacoma Xtracab	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+0
Civilian Water Vehicles
Bayliner 1802 Capri	1 (Normal +2)	+0	+0
Fairline Targa 30	1 (Normal +2)	–2	–2
Sea-Doo XP	1 (Normal +2)	+1	+3
Other Vehicles
Armored truck	2 (Skilled +4)	+2	+2
Honda TRX400FW	1 (Normal +2)	+1	+3
Limousine	1 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0
Moving truck	1 (Normal +2)	–2	–2
NABI Model 40LFW	1 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0
Military Vehicles
BMP-2	3 (Skilled +4)	+2	+2
M1A2 Abrams	4 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0
M2A2 Bradley	3 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0
M113A1 Gavin	2 (Skilled +4)	+2	+2
UH-60 Black Hawk	2 (Skilled +4)	+0	+0

An attack against a vehicle occupant is made like any other attack. Remember, however, that a character in a vehicle gains bonuses to Defense from both the vehicle’s speed and any cover it provides.

Cover

When you fire from a vehicle, objects or other vehicles in the way can provide cover for your target (see Cover).

Damaging Vehicles

All vehicles have hit points, which are roughly equivalent to a character’s hit points. Like most inanimate objects, vehicles also have hardness. Whenever a vehicle takes damage, subtract the vehicle’s hardness from the damage dealt.
When a vehicle is reduced to 0 hit points, it is disabled. Although it might be repairable, it ceases functioning. A vehicle that is disabled while moving drops one speed category each round until it comes to a stop. The driver cannot attempt any maneuvers except a 45-degree turn.
Unlike characters, vehicles don’t “die” when they reach –10 hit points. Instead, a vehicle is destroyed when it loses hit points equal to twice its full normal total. (For example, a Dodge Neon with 30 hit points is destroyed when its current hit points reach –30.) A destroyed vehicle cannot be repaired.
Energy Attacks: Vehicles are treated as objects when subjected to energy attacks. For example, fire attacks deal half damage to objects, including vehicles (see Energy Attacks).
Exploding Vehicles: If the attack that disables a vehicle deals damage equal to half its full normal hit points or more, the vehicle explodes after 1d6 rounds. This explosion deals 10d6 points of damage to everyone within the vehicle (Reflex save, DC 20, for half damage), and half that much to everyone and everything within 30 feet of the explosion (Reflex save, DC 15, for half damage).

Repairing Damage

Repairing damage to a vehicle takes a full hour of work, a mechanical tool kit, and a garage or some other suitable facility. (Without the tool kit, you take a –4 penalty on your Repair check.) At the end of the hour, make a Repair check (DC 20). Success restores 2d6 hit points. If damage remains, you may continue to make repairs for as many hours as it takes to restore all of the vehicle’s hit points.

Taking out the Tires

Sometimes it’s necessary to stop a car without destroying it or killing the occupants. Generally, the best way to do that is to take out its tires. A vehicle with no tires can still operate, but it’s very hard to control.
For most vehicles, tires have 2 hit points. Some heavy wheeled vehicles (such as an armored truck) travel on puncture-resistant tires that have hardness 3 and 5 hit points. Damage taken by tires counts against the total hit points of the vehicle. A tire is flat when it is reduced to 0 hit points.
Each flat tire on a wheeled vehicle imposes a –4 penalty on Drive checks. If the vehicle has four or fewer tires, the driver must make a Drive check (DC 15) to retain control each time one or more of its tires go flat. A vehicle with more than half its tires destroyed can travel no faster than street speed.
Shooting Tires: A character can attempt to shoot a car’s tires. A tire has a Defense of 10. This figure is modified by the speed of the vehicle and perhaps by cover (a tire being shot at from behind or in front of the vehicle usually gains three-quarters cover).
Caltrops and Obstacles: See the avoid hazard stunt for rules on caltrops and obstacles. If a driver avoids a set of caltrops, the vehicle’s tires are not damaged. If not, the caltrops make an attack against each tire that passes through the square.
Spike Strips: More reliable than caltrops, spike strips function identically, except that the strip cannot be avoided if a vehicle passes over it. A spike strip deals 2 points of damage to each tire that comes in contact with it.

Windows and Windshields

When people start shooting at cars, the first things to go are usually the windows. Car windows can be targeted deliberately, or they can be damaged when an attack targeted at an individual in the vehicle must pass through an intact window (which happens when shooting at someone through the windshield).
Automotive windows and windshields have hardness 3 and 2 hit points. Damage taken by windows counts against the total hit points of the vehicle.
Targeting a Window: For most vehicles, the front and rear windscreens have a Defense of 10, while the side windows have a Defense of 12. The window’s Defense is modified by the speed of the vehicle.
Targeting a Passenger through a Window: When an attack must pass through a window to hit a target, it damages the window before damaging the target. If the attack is successful, roll damage as normal. Apply the damage to the window. If the window takes its full hit points worth of damage, it shatters and falls away. Apply any remaining damage to the target. If the attack is unsuccessful, neither the target nor the window takes damage.
Obviously, if the window is open, or is already destroyed, it takes no damage from the attack.
For example, a thug in a stolen car tries to run down Yoriko. She stands her ground, pulling her Glock 17 and taking aim at the driver as the car charges toward her. She makes her attack roll and hits the thug, dealing 9 points of damage. The first 5 points destroy the windshield (3 to get through its hardness, 2 to break the glass). The thug is dealt the remaining 4 points of damage.