Damage types
Every blow, shot, trap, and spell does damage of a certain kind. Weapons do the three physical kinds: slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning. The elements are fire, cold, electricity, acid, and poison. Two more kinds come only from magic: force and necrotic.
The kind decides what armour does against the damage, what resists it, and whether it makes you bleed, and whether it spills blood on the floor or leaves char. It also decides how the message reads: “The kobold stabs you.”, “You cleave the giant rat.”, “The fireball burns the kobold.”
Bare hands, kicks, and shield bashes do bludgeoning damage.
What weapons do
Each weapon does one kind of damage, or two. A sword can cut or stab. Against each target it uses whichever is better: first the kind the target resists least, then the kind its armour stops least.
A flaming arrow stabs and burns. Its fire is added damage: it is rolled after the arrow’s own damage, and armour never soaks it. Magic weapons can add any element except force in the same way (see Magic items and the table below).
| Weapon | Damage | Adds |
|---|---|---|
| Knife | slashing | — |
| Stiletto | piercing | — |
| Dagger | piercing | — |
| Short sword | slashing or piercing | — |
| Scimitar | slashing | — |
| Rapier | piercing | — |
| Long sword | slashing or piercing | — |
| Great sword | slashing | — |
| Hand axe | slashing (“cleaves”) | — |
| Battle axe | slashing (“cleaves”) | — |
| Great axe | slashing (“cleaves”) | — |
| Club | bludgeoning | — |
| Mace | bludgeoning | — |
| Morning star | bludgeoning or piercing | — |
| War hammer | bludgeoning | — |
| Maul | bludgeoning | — |
| Javelin | piercing | — |
| Spear | piercing | — |
| Trident | piercing | — |
| Glaive | slashing | — |
| Halberd | slashing or piercing | — |
| Quarterstaff | bludgeoning | — |
| Ironwood staff | bludgeoning | — |
| Short bow | piercing | — |
| Long war bow | piercing | — |
| Composite bow | piercing | — |
| Crossbow | piercing | — |
| Heavy crossbow | piercing | — |
| Sling | bludgeoning | — |
| Flaming arrow | — | 1d4 fire |
| Rock | bludgeoning | — |
Creatures’ bites stab, their claws cut, and their hooves and slams strike. A shield bash, a kick, and bare hands strike too.
Armour and resistance
Protection (see Combat) soaks physical damage only. A fireball, a lightning bolt, the cold of a plunge through the ice, and poison all go straight through mail. A piece of armour may do better or worse against one physical kind. Chain mail turns a blade well and a point badly.
Resistance takes a share off damage of one kind, in percent, after armour has done its part. A fur cloak resists cold, a leather jerkin resists acid a little, and magic of an element resists that element (see the table below).
Everything adds up: your race, what you wear, magic, talents, and potions. There is no cap on the total, but at most 75 % counts. With 200 % fire resistance you take a quarter of any fire. Lose 100 % of that again and you are still at 75 %, since 100 % remains. Below zero you take more, but at worst double: −100 % is the floor of what counts. The same cap holds for creatures.
Nothing you can wear or learn makes you immune. Immunity belongs to some creatures alone: a creature immune to a kind takes nothing of it, whatever it wears or suffers.
The share comes off each kind on its own: a flaming arrow’s point and its fire are reduced separately. The result is rounded to the nearest point, so a 1-point hit still hurts at 50 % but does nothing at 75 %.
| Armour | Protection | Against | Resists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Padded coat | — | — | cold 10% |
| Leather jerkin | 1 | — | acid 10% |
| Studded leather jerkin | 1 | — | acid 10% |
| Chain mail shirt | 3 | +1 slashing, −1 piercing | — |
| Suit of scale mail | 4 | +1 slashing, −1 bludgeoning | — |
| Suit of banded mail | 5 | +1 slashing | — |
| Wool cloak | — | — | cold 10% |
| Fur cloak | 1 | — | cold 20% |
Magic of the elements
Each element has a magic prefix and a magic suffix. The prefix adds a die of the element to every hit of a weapon, a missile weapon, or ammunition. The suffix resists the element.
Force has no prefix. It is the spells’ own kind (Magic missile, Arcane bolt), and items can only resist it. The physical kinds have neither prefix nor suffix: Protection is their resistance.
| Element | Prefix (adds) | Suffix (resists) |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Flaming (1d2 to 1d8) | of the Salamander (10–15 % to 35–45 %) |
| Cold | Freezing (1d2 to 1d8) | of Warmth (10–15 % to 35–45 %) |
| Electricity | Shocking (1d2 to 1d8) | of the Storm (8–10 % to 42–45 %) |
| Acid | Corrosive (1d2 to 1d8) | of Glass (8–10 % to 42–45 %) |
| Poison | Venomous (1d2 to 1d8) | of the Adder (8–10 % to 42–45 %) |
| Force | — | of the Anvil (8–10 % to 42–45 %) |
| Necrotic | Withering (1d2 to 1d8) | of the Living (8–10 % to 42–45 %) |
Two talents work on damage types:
- Elemental ward is taken for one element: fire, cold, electricity, acid, poison, force, or necrotic. It resists that element 25 % per rank, up to two ranks. It counts like gear, under the same 75 % cap. A ward against poison also shrinks each dose of poison.
- Crusher lets your striking blows and kicks ignore 2 points of the target’s Protection. That covers a mace, a club, a staff, bare hands, and a shield bash. Shots and throws are not blows.
Three birth-sign gifts resist too, 25 % each, counted like gear under the same cap. The Wyvern’s Flame-hardened and the Fire element’s Kindled resist fire, so a Fire Wyvern has 50 %. The Kraken’s Of the deep resists cold.
The character screen (@) tells you what you resist in words only: “Resistant to
cold”, “Vulnerable to fire”, “Immune to poison”. Item descriptions show the numbers for what you
hold: “Resists cold 20%”, “+15% cold resistance”, “Protection 3 (+1 against slashing, −1 against
piercing)”, “Adds 1d4 fire damage”.
Creatures have resistances and weaknesses of their own, and some are immune to a kind. The game never gives their numbers. You learn them by playing. A blow that is shrugged off says so: “The fireball does the salamander no harm.” A blow stopped by armour alone glances off instead. You may also simply know: look mode describes a creature’s resistances in words when your Knowledge stands above its level.
What else the kind decides
- Bleeding comes only from cuts and stabs. A big hit or a critical with a club, a fall into a pit, or a fireball opens no wound (see Status effects).
- Poison is damage of its own kind. A creature immune to poison is never poisoned, and resisting poison shrinks each dose, whether from a rat’s bite or bad food.
- Fire melts ice where it bursts, and cold freezes water, as a fireball and a frost burst do (see Temperature and ice). The plunge through broken ice is cold.
- A trap’s arrows and spears stab, its fireball burns, its frost chills, its lightning shocks, and its pit strikes (see Traps). Scrolls cast the same spells (see Scrolls).
Starving, a disease eating at you, and the slow loss of blood from a wound have no kind. Nothing resists them.
See also: Combat, Spell types, and Materials.