Attack Effects

AX.C.08.05.01

A power attack uses the practitioner's full roll to deal harm to a target or group of targets.

Targeted Attack

Roll: Governing Attribute + Odd Talent (+ Focus) vs the target's Defense

Damage: Successes rolled = damage applied to the target's Health

Range: Tradition-defined. Targeted power attacks are not range-limited to Touch/Close the way Strike is. Near is the default range; extending to Far or Distant requires Threshold +1 per additional band (declare before rolling).

Damage type: Tradition-defined. Catalogs assign specific damage types (fire, radiant, arc, kinetic, etc.) to their traditions. Type has no universal mechanical effect unless the target has a stated resistance or vulnerability.

Secondary condition delivery: If the attack exceeds the target's Defense by 2 or more successes, the practitioner may deliver a Minor Condition in addition to damage. The target makes a Save (tradition-appropriate type) vs Threshold 2 to resist. This requires no additional action. If the tradition specifies a condition on hit (burning, freezing, bleeding, etc.), that condition's Save uses the tradition's stated Threshold instead.

Targeting one vs. multiple

A targeted attack affects one declared target. To affect additional targets with the same roll, use Area Attack instead or use excess successes as described under Area Attack Options below.

Area Attack

Roll: Governing Attribute + Odd Talent (+ Focus) vs a Threshold determined by the scope of the burst effect area. Successes are only used for Damage calculation.

Damage: Successes rolled = damage applied to each target in the affected area. Targets in the area of effect can roll an appropriate Save to reduce damage by half.

Speed Save to 'Dodge' the effect.
Body Save to 'Tank' the effect.

Targeting:

The practitioner rolls against the Threshold for the scope they declare.
Every target in the declared area takes damage equal to the successes rolled.
Each target makes a Save vs a Threshold (default: Threshold 2) to reduce the Damage by half.

Area effects bypass standard Defense. A target with Defense 4 still takes damage from a Near-burst attack that succeeds at Threshold 3. Defense is not relevant to area resolution.

Scope declaration: The practitioner declares the scope before rolling. Scope determines the Threshold required. Use the Threshold & Scope table above.

Area Attack Options allocating excess successes:

If the roll exceeds the Threshold, each excess success may used to provide the following benefits instead of Damage:

Extend range by one band (Close → Near → Far)
Add one additional target as a discrete named target rather than an area (useful for selecting targets within a crowd while excluding others)
Increase the condition's Save Threshold by 1 (makes the condition harder to resist)
Extend the effect's duration by one step per the Scaling table