Fast reference for crawler combat. F means the current Floor number.
The round at a glance
- A round is 10 seconds.
- Each crawler gets 2 Actions per round. Interrupts spend those same Actions.
- Each time you take an Action, you can normally also take a Step of up to 10 feet.
- Crawlers share their phase: act in any order and intermingle Actions. There is no crawler initiative order.
- Mobs normally act first. If the crawlers surprise them, each crawler gets 1 free Action before normal combat begins. This happens only once.
- You may wait to act after another crawler, but you cannot hold an Action for a later round.
The five steps
| Step | What happens | Player focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mob Action Declaration | GM announces Mob movement, attacks, and targets. | Listen before committing Actions. |
| 2. Crawler Reaction Phase | Crawlers may spend Actions on Interrupts. | Evade, Intervene, Catch, Heal, or Taunt. |
| 3. Mob Action Resolution | Unavoided attacks deal damage and apply effects. | Apply DR, resistances, damage, and Debuffs. |
| 4. Crawler Action Phase | Spend any Actions you have left, in any party order. | Attack, move, cast, heal, investigate, set up allies, or use gear. |
| 5. Clean Up | Apply end-of-round effects in the order most beneficial to the crawlers; check whether combat ends; reset Actions. | Resolve ongoing Buffs, Debuffs, and Regeneration. |
Reaction-phase Interrupts
| Interrupt | Cost and effect |
|---|---|
| Evade | Spend 1 Action and roll a separate Evade Check against each attack aimed at you. The Difficulty is the Mob's Attack value. A successful Evade against an Area Attack halves its damage. |
| Intervene | Spend 1 Action after an ally's d20 result is announced; roll 1d6 and add it to that Check. It cannot modify Stat Checks. Excellent for a Near Miss. |
| Catcher | If you have the Passive Skill, spend 1 Action to take an attack for an adjacent ally; you may Step into position. You cannot Evade the caught attack. |
| Heal | Spend 1 Action to use a healing Spell or Hotlist item before Mob damage resolves. Healing can also be a normal Action in Step 4. |
| Taunt | Spend 1 Action and make an Int-Opposed Taunt Skill Check to redirect a Mob's announced attacks to you. Evading afterward costs another Action. |
Crawler-phase Actions
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Attack | Attack with a Skill, Spell, weapon, or other effect. Drawing or swapping a weapon from your Hotlist is free as part of this Action. |
| Call a Play | Name an Action for an ally. Roll 2d6, keep the higher die, and give that bonus to the ally's Check. If the Check succeeds without it, add the bonus to damage instead. |
| Cast a Spell | Cast a non-Attack Spell in your Hotlist and pay its Mana cost. Attack Spells use the Attack Action. |
| Heal / Make a Check | Use First Aid, another healing method, or a useful non-Attack Skill. |
| Intervene | Intervene can also be used during this phase. |
| Look for Clues | Against a Boss, make an Unopposed Perception, Investigation, or similar Check to learn a vulnerability, resistance, dangerous attack, Debuff counter, or useful environmental feature. An Amazing Success may reveal more. |
| Move | Move up to your Move value and take your normal Step. Default Move is 20 feet. |
| Retrieve | Move an item from Inventory to your hand, the floor, or your Hotlist. You cannot use it during the same Action. |
| Use a Hotlist Item | Use a prepared consumable such as a potion or scroll. |
Making an attack
- Choose a target in range. Most melee weapons reach 5 feet; Reach weapons reach 10 feet. Out-of-range ranged attacks automatically fail.
- Pay costs now. Spend Mana for an Attack Spell.
- Apply modifiers. Account for Buffs, Debuffs, cover, visibility, size, and terrain.
- Roll:
1d20 + Skill Rank + relevant Stat Mod. - Meet or beat the target's Evade. A normal Mob's Evade is
10 + Dex Mod + F, but use the value in its Stat Block. - On a hit, roll damage: base damage dice from the Skill + the relevant Stat Mod + other effects.
Which Stat?
- Melee: usually Str to hit and damage.
- Physical ranged: Dex to hit; damage may use Str or no Stat bonus, as the weapon says.
- Spell attacks: usually Int to hit and damage.
- Physical ranged and ranged Spell attacks made within an enemy's melee reach have Disadvantage.
Degrees of success and failure
| Result | Attack | Evade |
|---|---|---|
| Natural 20 | Critical Hit: roll twice the base damage dice, then add Stat Mod and other Buffs once. | Gain Advantage on your next Attack Check against that Mob. |
| Success by 10+ | Hit and add +F damage. | Gain Advantage on your next Attack Check against that Mob. |
| Success by 0–9 | Normal hit. | Avoid the attack; Area Attack damage is halved. |
| Fail by 1–2 | Near Miss; an ally may Intervene. | Near Miss; an ally may Intervene. |
| Fail by 3–9 | Miss. | Take the attack normally. |
| Fail by 10+ | Miss plus a consequence chosen by the GM. | Take +F damage and gain a Minor Injury after combat. |
| Natural 1 | Worst plausible outcome: friendly fire, broken/dropped gear, Debuff, etc. | Take double damage and gain a Major Injury after combat. |
Common attack modifiers
- Advantage: roll
2d20, keep the higher result. - Disadvantage: roll
2d20, keep the lower result. - Cover, darkness, severe weather, shifting ground, and attacking a creature you cannot see usually impose Disadvantage.
- High ground or attacking a target that cannot see you may grant Advantage.
- Attacking a creature 4+ size classes larger grants Advantage; attacking one 4+ classes smaller imposes Disadvantage.
- Cover affects greater-than-melee attacks, not melee attacks.
Area Attacks
- Make one Attack Check against a chosen target in range and roll damage once.
- On Success, every creature in the full-damage area takes that damage—including allies.
- A Splash area takes half damage before personal defenses.
- A successful Evade halves Area Attack damage; a successful Evade while already in the Splash area leaves 25% damage, rounded down.
- A Step during Evade cannot move you out of the blast.
- Failed attacks normally deal no damage, but attacks whose rules scatter on a Fail, such as Fireball or Dynamite, land somewhere else.
Area shapes: Blast radiates from the target/impact point; Burst from the caster; Line is 5 feet wide; Cone is a 60-degree arc; +Splash extends the listed area with half damage.
Taking damage
Resolve defenses in this order:
- Subtract Damage Resistance (DR).
- Apply elemental Resistance: half damage.
- Apply Vulnerability: double damage.
- Apply Immunity: reduce that damage type to zero and ignore its added effects.
- Convert remaining damage to Health Bar slots.
To mark Health Bar damage, subtract the value of each unmarked slot until the remaining damage is less than one slot. Mark every fully reached slot; discard the leftover damage. For attacks with multiple damage types, split damage evenly and apply type defenses only to the relevant portions.
At 0% Health
- You gain Dying and must be healed to at least 10% (1 HB slot).
- You cannot act, move, speak, or use your HUD.
- The Dying Debuff table sets the countdown to your Con Mod. Reduce it by 1 at Clean Up and whenever you would take damage. At zero, you die.
- If healed during Step 4 of the round you dropped, you may immediately spend any Actions you still had.
Rules-text conflict: the prose under “0% Health Bar & Dying” says the countdown equals Con, while the Dying entry in both Debuff tables says Con Mod. This sheet follows the repeated table entry; the GM should make the table ruling explicit.
Ten-second player checklist
- What are the Mobs doing, and who is targeted?
- Must I reserve an Action to Evade or save someone?
- Can I improve the battlefield instead of trading damage?
- Is the Boss hiding a clue, weakness, or environmental counter?
- Is my needed item or Spell already on my Hotlist?
- Can Call a Play or Intervene turn an ally's action into a decisive success?
Sources
- Core Rulebook: Chapter 2, Actions, Combat, and Health Menu.
- Rules For Survival: Actions, Combat, and Health Menu.