Special Damage

They say that the combatant that strikes the first blow, if they strike it hard enough, may need to strike no more.

For Player-heroes:

Multiple Success icons can be used to trigger different results, or the same one multiple times.

Heavy Blow — any Weapon: You have hit your opponent with great force and precision — Spend 1 Success icon to inflict to your adversary an additional loss of Endurance equal to your STRENGTH rating. Raise the loss of Endurance by an additional +1 if you are using a 2-handed weapon.

Fend Off — any Close Combat Weapon: You exploit your successful attack to place yourself in an advantageous position — Spend 1 Success icon to modify your Parry rating for the round by +1 using Axes and all Brawling weapons, +2 using Swords, and by +3 using Spears.

Pierce — Bows, Spears and Swords: You have hit a less-protected part of the adversary’s body — Spend 1 Success icon to modify the Feat die numerical result of your attack by +1 if using Swords, +2 if using Bows, and by +3 if using Spears, up to a maximum of 10 — thus possibly triggering a Piercing Blow ( and results are unaffected).

Shield Thrust — Shield: You bash your opponents with your shield, pushing them back — If your STRENGTH is greater than the target’s Attribute Level, spend 1 Success icon to push back your target. The adversary is inflicted a penalty, losing (1d) for the length of the round (in the rare case this special damage is triggered multiple times, it must be employed to push back different opponents).

For adversaries:

Similarly to what happens with the Player-heroes, if a successful attack roll made by an adversary produces one or more Success icons (), the Loremaster can spend them to trigger special results.

• All special results listed here require 1 Success icon to be triggered. Multiple results can be used to trigger different results, or the same one multiple times.
• All adversaries can always choose to trigger a Heavy Blow special damage result.

Other options are listed on each individual creature’s stat block, and may depend on the attack type employed, or be always available and as such listed separately, under the creature’s Combat Proficiencies.

Here follow the descriptions of the special damage options available to adversaries:

Break Shield: The attack strikes repeatedly at the shield of the targeted Player-hero, smashing it to pieces. The target loses their shield’s bonus to Parry (a shield enhanced by Rewards or magical qualities cannot be smashed and thus is not affected).

Heavy Blow: The attack inflicts an additional loss of Endurance equal to the Attribute Level of the attacker.

Pierce: The attacker scores a well-aimed strike, modifying the Feat die result of the attack roll by +2.

seize: The attacker holds on to the target — the victim can only fight in a Forward stance making Brawling attacks. Seized heroes may free themselves spending a icon from a successful attack roll.