Surprise

A cunning Rogue sits in the trees above a narrow road, dropping down onto the night he’s marked as a target for months now. A long haired Orc kicks down the door of a room one of her friends is staying in at the place their merry band has set up for the night, catching him sleeping as she wraps him in a headlock. In these situations, one side of the battle gains Surprise over the other.

Surprise is generally determined by a Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone Hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter. However, a good general rule is to assume that if a player is attacking from the hidden condition, their opponent will be surprised.

If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an Action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a Reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren’t.

Initiative

Initiative determines the order of turns during combat. When combat starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in the Initiative order. The GM makes one roll for an entire group of identical Creatures, so each member of the group acts at the same time.

The GM ranks the combatants in order from the one with the highest Dexterity check total to the one with the lowest. This is the order (called the Initiative order) in which they act during each round. The Initiative order remains the same from round to round.

If a tie occurs the GM can have the tied Characters and Monsters each roll a d20 to determine the order, highest roll going first.

Your Turn

On your Turn, you can move a distance equal to your speed, and a single action. If you choose to act boldly, you can potentially take a second action (as detailed later).

You decide whether to move first or take your Action first. Your speed— sometimes called your walking speed—is noted on your character sheet. The sort of folk you are initially determines this speed, but things like feats, spells, and class features can potentially raise or lower it.

The most Common actions you can take are described in the “Universal Actions” section. Many class Features and other Abilities provide additional options for your Action.

You can choose not to take an Action, or do anything at all on your turn.

Bonus Actions

Certain actions you can take, class features, feats, and other options provided to a character give you a special action called a Bonus Action. The Cunning Action feature, for example, allows a rogue to take a bonus Action. You can take a bonus Action only when a Special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus Action. You otherwise don’t have a bonus Action to take.

You can take only one bonus Action on Your Turn. Anything that deprives you of your ability to take ACTIONS also prevents you from taking a Bonus Action.

Communicating in Combat

You can communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as you take Your Turn, without requiring an action to do so.

For the sake of ease and practicality, you may also communicate when it is not your turn.

Talking Down your Opponents

You may occasionally try to use this communication to talk your opponents down in the midst of violent combat. This is more thoroughly explained in the section on morale, but attempting to do so is an action, and not a free action like most communication in combat.

Object Interaction

You can also interact with one object or feature of the Environment for free, during either your move or your Action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same Action you use to Attack.

If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your Action to do so. Some magic items and other special objects always require an Action to use, as stated in their descriptions.

The GM might require you to use an Action for any of these activities when it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the GM could reasonably expect you to use an Action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.

Reactions

Certain Special Abilities, Spells, Universal Actions, and situations allow you to take a Special Action called a Reaction. A Reaction happens instantly, usually triggered by something else in combat (but not always!) You can use your reaction on Your Turn or on someone else’s. When you take a Reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn. If the Reaction interrupts another creature’s turn, that creature can continue its turn right after the Reaction.

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On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed. You can use as much or as little of your speed as you like on your turn. Movement is made in increments of 5 feet, represented visually by squares on a grid. Moving from one adjacent square to another requires 5 feet of movement. Moving diagonally only requires 5 feet of movement as well.

Your movement can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These forms of movement can be combined with walking, or they can make up your entire move. Whichever way you move, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up, or until you are done moving.

You can break up your movement however you like. If you move ten feet, then take an action, then move ten more feet, you can. You can also move between attacks, if you have a class feature or bonus action granting you more than one. There is no limit to how you can break up your movement, unless a specific feature states otherwise.

Using Different Speeds

If you have multiple speeds (such as a fly speed and a swim speed) you can switch between them at will while moving. Whenever you switch, subtract the total you’ve already moved from the speed you’re switching over to. The result is the number of feet you can move with the new speed.

Climbing, Swimming, & Crawling

Each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (or 2 extra feet in difficult terrain) when you climb, swim, or crawl. You ignore this extra cost if you have a climbing speed and use it to climb, or a swimming speed and use it to swim.

Jumping

Your Strength determines how far you can jump.

Long Jump: When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.

This assumes that the height of your jump does not matter. If there are obstacles that would change the jump, the GM may have you make an Athletics check to clear it. When landing, if you fall enough to take damage, you make an Acrobatics check to potentially negate the damage and avoid falling prone.

High Jump: When you make a high jump, you leap into the air a number of feet equal to half your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can only go half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.

YOu can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1½ times your height.

Whether you long jump or high jump, you cannot jump a distance greater than your speed.

Difficult Terrain

There are going to be places in combat that are difficult to navigate. Thick undergrowth, rubble covered streets, and rivers of blood are all examples of this difficult terrain. The cost of movement in difficult terrain is doubled.

Being Prone or Crouching

Either as the result of being knocked down, or dropping to their belly to avoid gunfire, at some point, in some fight, a character will fall onto the ground. When this happens, they’re considered prone, as the condition.

A character can fall prone without using any of their speed, but must expend a number of feet equal to half their speed (whatever that number might be) to stand up.

To move while prone, a character needs to crawl. While crawling, all movement costs double what it would normally, like difficult terrain. Crawling in difficult terrain therefore, costs 4 times what normal movement would cost.

Flying Movement & the Prone condition

If you knock a flying creature prone, they fall all the way to the ground, taking whatever fall damage that results in.

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Creatures, naturally, come in many different shapes and sizes. A creature’s size affects how much space they control, in feet. Note that this is not necessarily their exact size - a Medium sized creature, for example, is not necessarily 5 feet around, but rather controls 5 feet of space.

Creature Size & Space

A creature’s size is the area in feet that it effectively controls in combat, not an expression of its physical dimensions. A typical Medium creature isn’t 5 feet wide, for example, but it does control a space that wide. If a Medium Hobgoblin stands in a 5-- foot--wide doorway, other Creatures can’t get through unless the Hobgoblin lets them.

A creature’s space also reflects the area it needs to fight effectively. For that reason, there’s a limit to the number of Creatures that can surround another creature in combat. Assuming Medium combatants, eight Creatures can fit in a 5-foot radius around another one.

Because larger creatures take up more space, fewer of them can surround a creature. If five Large Creatures crowd around a Medium or smaller one, there’s little room for anyone else. In contrast, as many as twenty Medium Creatures can surround a Gargantuan one.

Creature Size Table

Squeezing into a Smaller Space

A creature can squeeze through a space that is large enough for a creature one size smaller than it. A Large creature can squeeze through a Passage that’s only 5 feet wide, A medium creature can move through a space about 2.5 feet wide, and so on. While squeezing through a space, a creature treats all movement as difficult terrain, and it has disadvantage on Attack rolls and Dexterity Saving Throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it’s in the smaller space.

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Below is a list of universal acts any character can take in combat, most of them actions, but some reactions as well. When you take your Action on Your Turn, you can take an action listed here, but you will also have plenty of more specific actions from your class and subclass, and potentially a few Special features. Many Monsters have Action options of their own in their Stat Blocks.

You aren’t limited to only the actions on this list. Improvisation is often a big part of combat, and specific scenarios call for specific things that a class or universal list can’t address. When you improvise an Action, you are describing an act to your GM not present anywhere in the written rules. It falls to the GM to tell you if that Action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make, if any, to determine success or failure.

Attack

The most common act taken in combat, attacking covers swinging a sword, firing an arrow, throwing a punch, and just about any other type of harm one might try to inflict. See the “Making an Attack” section for the rules that govern Attacks.

Certain Features, such as the Fighter’s Extra Attack, allow you to make more than one Attack with this Action.

Cast a Spell

Spellcasters (wizards, Hierophants, etc), as well as potential Monster stat blocks, have access to Spells. Each spell has a Casting Time, which specifies whether the caster must use an Action, Bonus Action, Reaction, minutes, or even hours to cast the spell. Casting a Spell is, therefore, not necessarily an Action. Most Spells do have a Casting Time of 1 Action, so a Spellcaster often uses their Action in combat to cast such a spell.

Dash

When you take the Dash Action, you gain extra Movement for the current turn. The increase equals your speed, after applying any Modifiers. With a speed of 30 feet, for example, you can move up to 60 feet on Your Turn if you dash.

Any increase or decrease to your speed changes this additional Movement by the same amount. If your speed of 30 feet is reduced to 15 feet, for instance, you can move up to 30 feet this turn if you dash.

Drink or Administer a Potion

When you drink a potion, you can choose to use an action or a bonus action to do so, if you choose to use an action, you heal as if you had rolled the max number on each die assigned to the potion. When you use a bonus action, you roll as normal. If you choose to administer a potion (ie, give it to another character) you use an action to do so, and that character rolls the die for healing as opposed to taking the max.

Disengage

If you take the Disengage Action you move five feet in any direction of your choice (this movement is free, it does not use any of your character’s movement for the turn), your Movement then doesn’t provoke opportunity Attacks for the rest of the turn.

Dodge

When you take the Dodge Action, you are doing everything you can to avoid getting hit, at the cost of doing anything else in combat. Until the start of your next turn, all Attack rolls made against you are made with disadvantage so long as you can see the attack coming your way, and you make Strength and Dexterity Saving Throws with advantage. You lose this benefit, and cannot take this action if you are Incapacitated (as explained in Conditions) or if your speed drops to 0.

Help

You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task. When you take the Help Action, the creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with, provided that it makes the check before the start of your next turn. If the creature is attempting a check with a skill, tool or instrument, you must satisfy at least one of two prerequisites before helping them:

You must have proficiency in the skill (or with the tool/instrument) being used; or your bonus to the check must be higher than that of the creature you are helping.

You only need to satisfy one of these two prerequisites to help with a skill/tool/instrument check. Helping with a straight ability check has no requirements.

Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in Attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s Attack more effective. If your ally Attacks the target before your next turn, the first Attack roll is made with advantage.

Hide

When you take the Hide Action, you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check in an attempt to hide, following the rules for Hiding. If you succeed, you gain certain benefits, as described in the “Unseen Attackers and Targets” section.

Interpose

As a reaction, when an ally within 5 feet of you is targeted by an attack or spell meant to deal them damage, you may place yourself between them and the harmful effect (taking this reaction does not change your position in combat), taking the damage in their place.

Ready

Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready Action on Your Turn, which lets you act using your Reaction after your turn has ended.

First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your Reaction. Then, you choose the Action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include “If the monster tries to escape its bindings, I’ll shoot it,” “If the Orc steps next to me, I move away just a,” and “If anything emerges from the darkness, I’m casting Burning Hands.” You may hold a readied action until it is triggered, or until you otherwise choose to expend it.

When the trigger occurs, you can either take your Reaction after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger entirely. Your GM cannot force your hand and claim you act on the trigger, only you, the player, decide when you use this prepared reaction.

When you ready a spell, you cast it as normal but you must hold its energy, which you release with your Reaction at the triggering event. To be readied, a spell must have a Casting Time of 1 Action,or 1 Bonus Action, and holding the spell requires Concentration, in the same way specific spells do after being cast. If your Concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without ever taking Effect, and you lose the spell slot you’d used to ready it. For example, if you are concentrating on the web spell and ready Electrocute your web spell ends, and if you take damage before you release Electrocute with your Reaction, your Concentration might be broken, and the spell might be lost.

Sprint

Pushing yourself to go slightly faster, you overexert yourself while moving into or out of danger. When you use your action or bonus action to Dash, you can expend a hit die to move farther, gaining an amount of speed equal to 5 x your proficiency bonus until the end of your turn. You cannot use this ability if your speed or movement has been reduced by an effect or condition.

Use an Object

You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an Attack. When an object requires your Action for its use, you take the Use an Object Action. This Action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on Your Turn.

Using a Skill in Combat

As a general rule:

• Knowing something (Arcana, History, Nature, etc) is a free action.


• Noticing something (Perception, Insight, Investigation, etc) is a bonus action.


• Doing something (Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, etc) is an action.

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Not every move in combat can be accomplished with just an attack or an ability check. There are times when you might want to act with a little more flair, finesse, or brutality. The following actions are called Maneuvers. Each of them may be attempted in combat as an action.

Some maneuvers might involve a saving throw, the DC for these saving throws is always:

8 + attacker’s proficiency bonus + attacker’s Strength or Dexterity modifier (attacker chooses which to use upon initiating the maneuver).

Charge

When you move at least 10 feet in a straight line towards a creature, you can make one melee attack against it as an action. If you hit with a Strength-based attack, you can choose to push the creature 5 feet away or add +5 damage. Afterwards, you lose any remaining movement.

Disarm

You attempt to knock a weapon or another item from a target's grasp by making an attack roll contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. The target chooses which skill it uses to contest this maneuver.

If you win, the attack deals half the damage it would normally, and the defender drops the item, which lands in an unoccupied space of your choice within 15 feet of it. Items that are worn or attached to the target cannot be disarmed.

You have disadvantage on your attack roll if the target is holding the item with two or more hands. The target has advantage on its ability check if it is larger than you, and disadvantage if it is smaller than you.

Distract

You make a distracting move that puts an enemy off-balance. Make a Charisma (Performance) check against the Wisdom (Perception) check of a creature within 5 feet of you. If you win this check, the creature cannot take reactions until the start of its next turn, and cannot move away from you until the end of its next turn.

Dirty Trick

There are times in combat in which one might strike a low blow to hinder their opponent’s capabilities. A poke to the eyes to blind them, a shot to the liver to stagger them, or something similarly devious. Anything in this vein falls under the umbrella of the dirty trick maneuver.

When making a dirty trick, a character makes an attack roll against a target in range, if the attack hits, the target must make a Constitution saving throw, on a failed save, the attacker imposes a condition on the target until the end of the target’s next turn.

The conditions this maneuver can impose are limited to: Blinded, Dazed, Deafened, Poisoned, and Unsettled.

Flee

When you take the Dash action and are at least 30 feet away from all hostile creatures, you can attempt to flee the battle, dropping any items in your hands as you do nothing but sprint out.. If you do so, you can move half your speed as a bonus action, so long as your movement is in the safest possible route away from all threats.

If you are at least 60 feet away from all hostile creatures at the start of your next turn, you are removed from combat. However, hostile creatures may still chase and track you. If your enemies opt to pursue you, if they do so, employ the following rules for an overland chase:

Chasing

An overland chase is carried out by two groups. Those who are fleeing, and those who are pursuing. For each round spent in pursuit, both groups make opposing Constitution ability checks, as a measure of their endurance. If there is more than one member of either or both groups, then use the highest Constitution bonus present in the group.

If a group has a member whose speed is more than 15 feet faster than all members of the other group, they make their Constitution check with advantage. The first group to make three successful Constitution checks wins the chase.

If the fleeing group wins the chase, the pursuers lose their stamina, and can no longer follow the fleeing group effectively. If the pursuers win the chase, combat begins again in the place they catch the fleeing group. After failing to flee, no members of the fleeing group can attempt to flee again in this combat, as they are spent from the chase.

Feint

You move in a way that deceives your enemy where you might be next. Make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check against the Wisdom (Perception) check of a creature within 5 feet of you. If you win this check, you can choose to have advantage on the next attack you make against the creature, or to impose disadvantage on the next attack it makes against you (you must choose one or the other).

Headbutt

Make a single unarmed strike against a target in range. On a hit, the target must make a Constitution saving throw, gaining the concussed condition until the end of their next turn on a failed save. You take bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4 + the Consititution modifier of the creature you’re headbutting when you perform this maneuver.

Pin

While grappling a target that is your size or smaller, you can attempt to pin it with an additional free hand. Make another grapple check. If you win, both you and the target are restrained until the grapple ends, and you can impose one of the following additional effects:

• You maneuver to the target's side or back. While restrained, the creature cannot attack you.
• You pin the target's hands and arms. While restrained, the creature cannot cast a spell with a somatic or material component, draw or attack with a non-light weapon, or take the Use an Object action.

Trip

You attempt to knock a target’s legs out from under them, make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check from the target. If you succeed, the target is knocked prone.

A target with more than 2 legs on the ground makes their check with advantage.

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You will find there are times in combat where your action, your bonus action, and your movement all are spent, but things are desperate, and you need one final push. It is in times like these that your character might act boldly.

A character acting boldly effectively gains an extra (albeit more limited) action to use in combat, in return for becoming vulnerable (as the condition) at the end of their turn. They overextend themselves to pull off more difficult or desperate plays, at the risk of getting much more seriously injured. The limitations for acting boldly are as follows:

• A character may not cast a leveled spell when acting boldly. They may cast a cantrip, if they did not use their action to cast a spell or cantrip.


• A player may attack while acting boldly, but does not benefit from any extra attacks they may have as a result of class features, feats, spells, or any other source.


• A character may not use the second action they gain when acting boldly to dodge.
• A character must be fully in charge of their faculties to act boldly, and may do so if the action taken on their turn was forced by some means (such as by the command spell).

Aside from these limitations, the rules for the second action a character gains when acting boldly are the same as the rules for taking an action normally.

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Regardless of how you choose to attack, up close with your hands, at range with a crossbow, or with the power of magic, the structure for making an attack is pretty much universal.

• Pick your target. This can be anything present on the field of battle, creature, object, god, anything, as long as it’s present within range of the attack you’re planning to use.


• Determine the conditions of your attack. Add your ability bonus to the roll, your proficiency bonus if you’re proficient with the weapon, and determine advantage or disadvantage to the roll.


• Make the roll. Hit or miss normally depends on the target’s armor class vs the total of your roll plus your modifiers. When resolving the attack, roll for damage based on your weapon, adding your Strength modifier (or Dexterity modifier, depending on the type of weapon used) to the damage. Remember that some attacks have riders, like Rogue’s sneak attack.

Attack Rolls

When you make an attack you’re rolling a d20, and adding any relevant modifiers or bonuses (usually just your ability modifier, and your proficiency bonus) to the total of the roll. When rolling an attack the goal is for the total of the roll to beat an opposing armor class (AC). For monsters, AC is listed on their stat block. For characters, it’s determined during character creation, but changes at times over the course of play as it is dependent on things like strength or dexterity, armor, and spells one might cast. When a monster makes an attack roll, the bonus it uses will be listed in its stat block.

Attack Modifiers

When you make an attack you’re rolling a d20, and adding any relevant modifiers or bonuses (usually just your ability modifier, and your proficiency bonus) to the total of the roll. When rolling an attack the goal is for the total of the roll to beat an opposing armor class (AC). For monsters, AC is listed on their stat block. For characters, it’s determined during character creation, but changes at times over the course of play as it is dependent on things like Strength or Dexterity, armor, and spells one might cast. When a monster makes an attack roll, the bonus it uses will be listed in its stat block.

Ability Modifier: The ability modifier used for an attack with a weapon is listed with the particular weapon you are using to make the attack.

If a spell requires an attack roll, it will use your spellcasting modifier (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma) as the relevant ability modifier.

Unarmed attacks use your Strength modifier.

If you are proficient with the weapon with which you are attacking, you add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll. If you are attacking with a spell, you add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll.

Critical Hits & Misses

Rolling a 20 on the d20 when making an attack means the attack is a critical hit. Regardless of a target’s AC, a rolled 20 is always a hit.

Rolling a 1 on a d20 is always a miss, regardless of how big the bonus to the roll is. This is a critical miss.

Not all 20s are Sacred, Not all 1s are Cursed

Rolling a 20 or a 1 is only relevant in combat. If you roll a 20 for an Athletics check, your Athletics bonus is a -1, and the DC of the check is a 20, you still fail the check.

If you roll a 1 on a Wisdom saving throw, but the DC of the saving throw is 12, and you’re a level 20 character with +11 to your Wisdom saves, you succeed on the save despite rolling a 1.

Sight in Combat

You have advantage on attacks against targets that can’t see you, and disadvantage on attacks against targets you can’t see. If you are hidden from a target, when you make an attack against them, you give away your location regardless of if you hit or miss.

Range

Each ranged attack you can make has a specific range, beyond that range any attack made misses automatically. For a spell, the range is specified in the spell’s description. For a weapon, the range is somewhere in the weapon’s descriptions.

Most ranged weapons will have two ranges. An effective range, and a long range. Any attacks made against creatures at long range has disadvantage.

Reach

When making a melee attack, almost all attacks you make will have a reach of 5 feet. If you’re wielding a weapon with the Reach property, that range extends to 10 feet. Certain abilities might extend that reach further, but if reach on a melee attack isn’t specified, then it has a reach of 5 feet.

Unarmed Strikes

There might be times when you don’t want a sword or spear, you just want to punch something. In those cases you’d make an unarmed strike. The damage of an unarmed strike is uniform, always 1 + your Strength modifier. All characters are considered proficient with unarmed strikes.

Attack of Opportunity

When a creature moves out of your reach, you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against them. This attack is called an attack of opportunity.

You can avoid provoking an attack of opportunity on yourself if you take the disengage action before leaving an enemy’s space. You also don’t provoke an attack of opportunity if you leave an enemy’s space by some other means than walking or running, such as teleporting, or being forced away by a spell or ability (like being dragged off, or knocked away by an explosion).

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you’re holding two melee weapons with the light property in your hands, when you make an attack with one, you may use your bonus action to make a second attack with the other. You do not add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

If the weapon in your off hand has the Throwable> property (like a dagger, or a handaxe) you can also use your bonus action to throw that weapon.

Grappling

When you take the attack action, you can replace an attack with a grapple attempt. To attempt a grapple, make an Athletics check. The target of the grapple contests this with an Athletics check of their own, or an Acrobatics check.

You cannot grapple a creature any more than one size larger than you, and you need to have at least one hand free to attempt a grapple. The grappled condition is applied to any creature successfully grappled, and when grappled they can attempt an Athletics check (contested by one from the grappler) to end the grapple. Attempting to escape a grapple takes an action.

If you attempt to move while holding a creature you have grappled, your movement is halved, and you drag the creature with you.

Other Contests in Combat

There are times in combat where an action may have to be improvised. Grappling serves as an example of how such instances might work, where one character makes a skill check against another in order to accomplish some end. Many potential contests are ideally accounted for in the “Universal Maneuvers in Combat” section, but if a player attempts something that truly falls under nothing in this document, the above passage on grappling may serve as a template for how to improvise such a maneuver.

For the purposes of this playtest however, this is not ideal. A goal of GODHAND as a system is to lessen the amount GMs need to improvise on the fly. Should you encounter a common action in combat not covered by anything here, one that would need to be improvised consistently, please let us know!

Cover

Cover is an integral part of some combats, trees, buildings, the bones of god, anything large enough to get behind to block an attack. There are three types of cover.

Half Cover: Can be anything that covers half of a target’s body, roughly speaking. A creature standing behind another creature the same size as it has half cover. Half cover grants a +2 to AC and Dexterity saving throws.

3/4ths Cover: Just like half cover, but grants a +5 to AC and Dexterity saving throws. 3/4ths of a character’s body must be covered for it to have 3/4ths cover. A character can potentially crouch or position themselves so they gain 3/4ths cover from a source that might only provide them with half cover.

Full Cover: A character in full cover cannot be targeted by an attack, a spell, or any similar harmful effect. It can however still take damage from things that do damage in an area of effect, if it is unfortunate enough to be in the area.

Areas of Effect

Some effects cover an area, allowing them to affect multiple creatures at once. An effect’s description specifies its area of effect, which typically has one of the five different shapes: cone, cube, cylinder, line, or sphere. Every area of effect has a point of origin from which the effect erupts. The rules for each shape specify how you position its point of origin. Typically, a point of origin is a point in space, but some effects have an area originating at a creature or object.

An effect covering an area expands in straight lines from the point of origin. Any of these lines can be blocked by an obstruction that provides full cover. If no unblocked straight line exists from the point of origin to a location within the area of effect, that location isn’t included in the effect’s area.

Cone

A cone extends in a direction you choose from its point of origin. A cone’s width at a given point along its length is equal to that point’s distance from the point of origin. A cone’s area of effect specifies its maximum length.

A cone's point of origin is not included in the cone’s area of effect, unless the source of the effect makes it so.

Cube

You select a cube’s point of origin, which lies anywhere on a face of the cubic effect. The cube’s size is expressed as the length of each side.

A cube’s point of origin is not included in the cube’s area of effect, unless the source of the effect makes it so.

Cylinder

A cylinder’s point of origin is the center of a circle with a radius given in the effect description. The circle must either be on the ground or at the height of the effect. The energy in a cylinder expands in straight lines from the point of origin to the perimeter of the circle, forming the base of the cylinder. The effect then shoots up from the base, or down from the top, to a distance equal to the height of the cylinder.

A cylinder’s point of origin is included in the cylinder’s area of effect.

Line

A line extends from its point of origin in a straight path up to its length and covers an area defined by its width.

A line’s point of origin is not included in the line’s area of effect, unless the source of the effect makes it so.

Sphere

You select a sphere’s point of origin, and the sphere extends outward from that point. The sphere’s size is expressed as a radius in feet that extends from the point.

A sphere’s point of origin is included in the sphere’s area of effect.

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Hit Points

Hit Points are, to use a moderately fancy word, an “abstraction.” They aren’t necessarily a character’s physical toughness alone (though physical toughness does play a part in their calculation, for sure). They’re really just a rough metric of how long a character can stay in a fight.

Whenever a creature takes damage in combat, the damage taken is subtracted from the number of hit points the creature has currently.

Morale

Many enemies will not fight to the brutal end. If players are fighting particularly hard, or particularly tactfully, they might force a morale roll from the enemies they’ve put themselves up against. To calculate a group’s bonus to this roll, add each bonus every individual enemy has to their Wisdom saving throws, and find the average. This average is the group’s “morale bonus,” and is added to their rolls for morale.

Players force a morale roll from their enemies if they:

1. Reduce the leader of a group of enemy creatures to 0 HP


2. Reduce half of a group of enemies to 0 HP


3. Bring a lone enemy down to 1/3rd of its total hit points.

The suggested DC for each condition forcing a morale roll is:

1. DC 12


2. DC 15


3. DC 12

Should an enemy or a group fail their morale roll, they will begin fleeing (as the maneuver). It then becomes up to the players if they want to allow this retreat or commit what is generally considered a war crime.

Not every group of enemies needs to make saves for morale. The DC for morale saves does not always need to be one of those listed here. Those listed are more guidelines than hard numbers. Still, it’s suggested that most groups of enemies the players come across make morale rolls, as most random groups of monsters, mercenaries, or villains have some sense of self preservation, and would not allow themselves to die for the sake of maybe winning some fight. If there is a logical reason to abstain from rolling for morale, a GM may do so (mindless undead, for example, have little sense of self preservation).

Damage Rolls

Almost every effect that deals damage will list a dice. When dealing damage with that effect, roll the dice listed and add the relevant ability modifier to calculate the damage you do. Spells do not include an ability modifier in damage, unless a spell or feature states otherwise.

Critical Hits

When you land a critical hit, roll the damage dice for your weapon twice and add the results together when calculating the damage you deal. If the Attack involves other damage dice, such as from the Rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well and add them together.

Damage Types

Different things deal different types of damage, the various damage types are as follows:

Damage Resistance & Vulnerability

The nature of some things makes them incredibly difficult, or incredibly easy to harm with a specific damage type.

If a creature or an object has Resistance to a damage type, damage of that type is halved against it. If a creature or an object has vulnerability to a damage type, damage of that type is doubled against it.

Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other Modifiers to damage. For example, a creature has Resistance to bludgeoning damage and is hit by an Attack that deals 25 bludgeoning damage. The creature is also within a Magical aura that reduces all damage by 5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved, so the creature takes 10 damage.

Multiple instances of Resistance or vulnerability that affect the same damage type count as only one instance. For example, if a creature has Resistance to fire damage as well as Resistance to all nonmagical damage, the damage of a nonmagical fire is reduced by half against the creature, not reduced by three-quarters.

Variant Rule, Dismemberment

Violence, for better or worse, is something GODHAND is designed around. How characters act in the thick of a violent situation is accounted for by many, many abilities and rules in the game. Because of this, we've gone to some lengths to make that violence feel more visceral, and have created a set of rules for dismemberment (chopping off arms, legs, what have you).

This is a variant rule, because we recognize that dismemberment is, conceptually, a grisly occurrence, and just might not fit the mood of certain games. We also recognize that certain players might be uncomfortable stepping into a game only to have their character's leg cut off. At the beginning of the book (and in a few places throughout) it was stated that the most important rule of this game is to remember that it is, after all, a game. It is a game, and the most important rule of any game is to have fun.

That being said, GODHAND was in itself created with a harsher experience in mind, as being a part of the game's identity, to some degree. There are feats, class options, and even subclasses that interact heavily with these rules. If you intend to run a game with this rule, it is highly encouraged you let your players know beforehand so that if they're uncomfortable with the prospect of it being in a game, they can opt out before they find themselves in too deep. If you aren't sure you'd like to run with these rules or not, it is even more highly encouraged that you ask around your table if your players would like to use these rules, as they provide a much greater depth of character options for players who might be interested in using them.

Ultimately, this all comes down to knowing your players, and understanding the type of game you intend to run.

All this being said, the rules for dismemberment are as follows:

When a character rolls a natural 20 to hit a creature with the vulnerable condition, they may choose to forgo dealing double damage on the critical hit, instead dealing normal damage, and lopping off their choice of an arm or a leg. A character who is dismembered in this way begins hemorrhaging blood (as the hemorrhage condition) and depending on what limb is lost, gain one of the following sets of drawbacks:

• Arm: A character who loses an arm cannot make attacks with a weapon that requires two hands, and has disadvantage on melee weapon attacks. They must use their action whenever they make an object interaction, and take a -4 penalty to their Strength score (to a minimum of 0).
• Leg: A character who loses a leg falls prone and cannot stand up without using all of their movement, and their action to balance properly. A character with a missing leg cannot move any way aside from crawling while prone, and has their movement speed reduced to 5 feet per round while crawling. They cannot take the dash action.

Droping to 0 Hit Points

When your hit points drop 0, you either die outright or fall unconscious, depending on the damage dealt.

Instant Death

If a character is dealt damage that exceeds their current hit point count, plus their hit point maximum, they are killed outright, without falling unconscious or making death saving throws.

For example, a character with a maximum of 12 Hit Points currently has 6 Hit Points. If she takes 19 damage from an Attack, she is reduced to 0 Hit Points, but 13 damage remains. Because the remaining damage equals her hit point maximum, the character dies.

Falling Unconscious

If you’re reduced to 0hp but not killed outright you fall unconscious (as the condition) and unless specified otherwise by the DM or an ability, begin making death saving throws. You regain consciousness if you gain any healing while making death saving throws. If you are unconscious and stable however, healing will not wake you up.

Death Saving Throws

Whenever you start Your Turn with 0 Hit Points, you must make a Special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life. Unlike other Saving Throws, this one isn’t tied to any ability score. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by Spells and Features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw.

Roll a d20: If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. A success or failure has no Effect by itself. On your third success, you become stable (see below). On your third failure, you die. The successes and failures don’t need to be consecutive; keep track of both until you collect three of a kind. The number of both is reset to zero when you regain any Hit Points or become stable.

Rolling 1 or 20: When you make a death saving throw and roll a 1 on The D20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20 on The D20, you regain 1 hit point.

Damage at 0 Hit Points: If you take any damage while you have 0 Hit Points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer Instant Death.

Stabilizing a Creature

The best way to save a creature with 0 Hit Points is to heal it. If Healing is unavailable, the creature can at least be stabilized so that it isn’t killed by a failed death saving throw.

You can use your Action to administer first aid to an Unconscious creature and attempt to stabilize it, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

A stable creature doesn’t make death Saving Throws, even though it has 0 Hit Points, but it does remain Unconscious. The creature stops being stable, and must start making death Saving Throws again, if it takes any damage. A stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.

NPCs & dropping to 0

Most of the time, when an NPC (non-player character) is reduced to 0 hit points, they’re out of the fight entirely. These creatures die unless a player specifies they intend to knock the creature out instead of outright kill them.

Knocking a Creature Out

As opposed to killing an enemy, a player can declare that they are knocking a creature out when they reduce a creature to 0 hit points. A player makes this decision when the creature is reduced to 0 hit points.

Temporary Hit Points

Various spells and abilities might grant temporary hit points. These temporary hit points are applied atop a character’s current hit point count, and when the character takes damage, the damage is subtracted from the temporary hit points before subtracting from the character’s hit point count. These hit points don’t stack with themselves, so when you have temporary hit points from one source, and could potentially gain it from another, these temporary hit points aren’t added. You choose which source to keep, and which to discard.

Temporary hit points are not healing, which means that you can be at max HP and gain temporary hit points (putting your HP over your maximum), but gaining temporary hit points while at 0 HP will not bring you back up, or save you from death.

Unless stated otherwise, temporary hit points remain until depleted, or until you finish a long rest.

Resting

Despite it all, characters in GODHAND still need to recuperate from their undertakings. They need time to sleep, eat, to treat their wounds, recover their mental states, and brace themselves for their next trials.

Characters can take short rests in the middle of the day, and take long rests to end the day (regardless of what time it might actually be when they turn in).

Short Rest

A short rest is a brief period of downtime that lasts one hour or longer, during which characters perform no activity more strenuous than eating, drinking, treating their wounds, or performing some manner of light activity like reading, writing, playing music, or cooking a small meal.

A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character's maximum Hit Dice, which is equal to the character's level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character's Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains some spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest.

Long Rest

A long rest is a more considerable period of downtime, lasting about 8 hours, during which time a character can perform no activity more strenuous than sleeping, eating, drinking, treating their wounds, or performing light activity (as defined in the passage on short rests). A character must spend at least 6 hours of this time sleeping.

If a long rest is interrupted by more than 1 hour of strenuous activity (walking, fighting, spellcasting, or similar activities a character might undertake over the course of a day) the characters must begin the rest again to benefit from it. At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half their total hit die, rounded up. A character cannot benefit from more than one long rest in a 24 hour period. A character cannot rest in armor.

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Conditions are effects that represent changes in a creature’s situation, condition, or nature. They can be applied through spells, maneuvers, or choices in character. While most are negative in some way, others can be advantageous, by the nature of their existence, or by clever use in the right situation.

Conditions end either when the effect that caused them specifies, or when a character does something to counter them (such as standing up from prone, or being hit while vulnerable).

Bleeding

A bleeding target loses enough blood in a short enough time to be notably harmful to their wellbeing. Effects that apply bleed will occasionally have a set damage that is dealt every round to the bleeding creature at the start of their turn. If such a value isn’t present in the description of an effect that inflicts the bleeding condition, the creature takes 1d6 damage every round at the start of their turn. A bleed effect ends if a creature makes a successful DC 15 medicine check to staunch the flow of blood.

Blinded

A blinded creature can’t see. Any ability check that requires sight, or spell that requires the caster to see their target fails if the creature is blinded. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s Attack rolls have disadvantage.

A blinded character must attempt a DC 20 Perception check using their hearing before making ranged attacks on their turn. On a success, they may make their attacks at disadvantage. If the check fails, or the creature is unable to hear for whatever reason, the attack (or attacks) fail. A creature only needs to make this check once, regardless of how many attacks they’re making.

A blinded creature is immune to harmful effects that require sight.

Blinded

The Break condition represents a broken bone. A character with the break condition has their movement speed halved, and must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw before taking an action on their turn. On a failed save, the creature loses the action. On a successful save, the creature performs their action as normal, taking damage equal to a roll of their hit die as a result of the strain. A character with this condition has disadvantage on attack rolls.

A character can make a DC 15 Medicine check over the course of one minute to set a bone broken by a character with this condition to alleviate the worst of the negative effects, but a character with this condition has their movement speed halved (if their leg is broken) or disadvantage on attack rolls (if their arm is broken) until either a month’s time passes, or they’re healed by a spell that explicitly cures this condition.

Charmed

A charmed creature can’t target the entity that charmed it with any attacks or otherwise harmful effects.

A creature that charms another creature has advantage on Charisma checks with the target of the charm.

Concussed

A oncussed creature may only choose between moving, taking an action, or taking a bonus action on their turn, and cannot take reactions.

Crouching

A creature who is crouching has the following properties:

• Melee attacks against this creature have Advantage


• Melee attacks made by this creature are made with Disadvantage


• Ranged attacks made by this creature are made with a -2 penalty


• If a creature is in cover, that cover is increased by one degree (no cover becomes half-cover, half-cover becomes 3/4ths cover, and 3/4ths cover becomes full cover).

A creature may crouch as a free action on their turn, and may stand by spending 10ft of movement.

Dazed

A dazed creature cannot take reactions.

Deafened

A deafened creature can’t hear. Any ability the creature has that utilizes their hearing does not work, any ability checks they make using hearing fail. This also makes the creature immune to harmful effects that require them to hear (such as a Suggestion, or Geas spell).

Exhaustion

Fracture

The fracture condition represents large amounts of blunt force trauma, and damage to a creature’s bones. A creature with this condition has their movement speed halved, takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls, and takes 1 point of damage whenever they take an action on their turn.

Frightened

A frightened creature has disadvantage on Ability Checks and Attack rolls while whatever has frightened it is visible to the creature.

The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear, and must move at least five feet away from it at some point during its turn, if it is capable of moving at all.

Grappled

A grappled creature cannot move of its own volition (it can still be moved by a strong enough creature, or subject to forced movement effects).

The condition also if an effect forces the grappled creature, or the grappler out of the reach of one another by any sort of forced movement. The condition also ends if the grappler is incapacitated (as the condition).

Hemorrhage

A hemorrhaging creature is bleeding profusely, in a way that will likely kill them quickly. At the start of their turn, a hemorrhaging character loses HP equal to a roll of a dice equal to one of their hit die + 5. A dying character hemorrhaging blood does not make death saves, instead failing a death save at the start of their turn. If the hemorrhaging stops, they begin making saves as normal. Additionally, a hemorrhaging character must make a DC 15 Constitution save at the start of each of their turns, or gain a level of exhaustion.

A DC 25 Medicine check stops a character from hemorrhaging. This DC is lowered by 5 if a character expends a use from a healer’s kit in making the check. The Cauterize spell can also potentially end this condition.

Incapacitated

An incapacitated creature cannot take actions, bonus actions, reactions. Incapacitation does not affect movement.

Invisible

An invisible creature is impossible to perceive with sight alone. For the purpose of Hiding, the creature is heavily obscured. The creature’s location can be detected by any noise it makes or anything it leaves behind to track it with.

Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature’s Attack rolls have advantage.

Paralyzed

A paralyzed creature is incapacitated (as the condition) and can’t move or speak (it can still be moved by a strong enough creature, or subject to forced movement effects).

The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity Saving Throws.

Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.

Any melee attack that hits a paralyzed creature is considered a critical hit.

Petrified

A petrified creature is Transformed, along with any object it is wearing or carrying, into a solid inanimate substance. Its weight increases by a factor of ten, and it ceases aging. The creature is incapacitated (as the condition), can’t move or speak (it can still be moved by a strong enough creature, or subject to forced movement effects), and is unaware of its surroundings. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage. A petrified creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity Saving Throws. The creature has Resistance to all damage. The creature is immune to poison and disease, although a poison or disease already in its system is suspended, not neutralized.

Any damage a creature suffers while paralyzed carries over if the condition is ever removed (a character who loses an arm while paralyzed will not keep that arm if they are restored to life).

Poisoned

A poisoned creature has disadvantage on Attack rolls and Ability Checks. Additionally, effects that apply the poisoned condition might cause a loss of max hp over time. This varies across abilities, but unless specified otherwise by the ability, these sources of max HP reduction stack with one another.

Prone

A prone creature is a creature on the ground. Unless a creature spends half their movement to stand up, crawling is their only movement option. Melee attacks against prone creatures have advantage. Attacks made at range have disadvantage.

Restrained

A restrained creature cannot move of its own volition (it can still be moved by a strong enough creature, or subject to forced movement effects).

Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature rolls attacks at disadvantage. A restrained creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.

Stunned

A stunned creature is incapacitated (as the condition), cannot move of its own volition (it can still be moved by a strong enough creature, or subject to forced movement effects), and struggles to speak. The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity Saving Throws.

Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.

Unsettled

An unsettled creature is uncomfortable, though not so much that they’ll flee in terror, or cower in fear.

Unsettled creatures take a -2 penalty to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.

Unconscious

An unconscious creature is incapacitated (as the condition), can’t move or speak (it can still be moved by a strong enough creature, or subject to forced movement effects), and is unaware of its surroundings The creature drops whatever it’s holding and falls prone.

The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity Saving Throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage. Any melee attack that lands against an unconscious creature is considered a critical hit.

Vulnerable

While a creature is vulnerable, the next attack that lands on it is considered a critical hit. Once a vulnerable creature is hit by an attack, it loses the vulnerable condition.

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Without an enemy to fight, combat would serve no purpose. There are various threats that a character in GODHAND may face, but one of the most common is other creatures.

There are some traits and mechanics which all creatures, be they monsters or NPCs (Non-Player Characters), might possess.

Challenge Factor

The Challenge Factor (CF) of a creature is meant to be a broad guideline for how difficult a particular creature is to defeat in combat. It refers to what level a party of 4 players would likely have to be for the monster to serve a fair, yet significant challenge. For example, a CF1 creature would be an appropriate threat for a group of 4 level 1 characters to fight. A CF 2 creature would be appropriate for a group of 4 level 2 characters, and so forth.

When determining the challenge factor for a group of creatures, add the total CF to all creatures in the group together.

Combat Roles

Different creatures fill different niches in combat. All creatures will fall under at least one role in combat:

• Minion: A minion works best as a part of a group of other (likely similar) creatures.


• Leader: A leader works best when leading a group of less powerful creatures, with abilities and actions that can bolster their allies in combat.


• Solo: A solo creature is a standalone threat that can take on a party single-handedly.

A creature may be able to fill multiple roles in combat. In this instance, more than one role may be listed. They may also gain access to new actions and abilities when used in a particular role. Their challenge factor and health are adjusted accordingly.

Recharge

A recharge ability may be used once before it must be recharged. At the end of the creature's turn, the GM rolls a d6 for that ability. If the number is equal or higher to the number listed next to the recharge, that creature regains its use of that ability.

Recharge abilities are automatically charged at the end of the creature’s first turn in combat, but do not start charged.

All recharge abilities have a visible or audible 'tell' which lets other creatures nearby know that the ability is recharged.

Considerations for the GM

As the game master, it is important to draw your players in when they encounter other creatures on their journey, whether your players are conversing with them in a friendly fashion or engaging in deadly combat. In general, you should be treating your creatures and NPCs (Non-Player Characters) as though they are their own characters, each with a unique personality, skill set, and motivations.

Think about what that creature wants out of the particular encounter that they are involved in. Are they negotiating a trade deal, or are they committing an armed robbery? Are they highly skilled professionals or are the players facing a feral animal? For what reason are they doing what it is that they are doing? Are they highly motivated, or merely hired hands?

Factors like these should be apparent in the actions of a monster or an NPC. While you need not write a lengthy backstory for every character who inhabits your world, the best GMs know how to use traits such as these to create an engaging and believable game world.