Attack Rolls
When you use a Strike action or make a spell attack, you attempt a check called an attack roll. Attack rolls take a variety of forms and are often highly variable based on the weapon that you are using for the attack, but there are three main types: melee attack rolls, ranged attack rolls and spell attack rolls. Spell attack rolls work a little differently, so they are explained separately.
Melee attack rolls use Strength as their ability modifier by default. If you’re using a weapon or attack with the finesse trait, then you can use your Dexterity modifier instead.
Ranged attack rolls use Dexterity as their ability modifier.
Proficiency
When attacking a spell or a weapon (whether melee or ranged), you add your proficiency die (or dice) for the weapon that you are using to your d20 dice pool for the attack roll.
Your class determines your proficiency rank for the various weapons and schools of magic. Sometimes, you’ll have different proficiency ranks for different weapons or spells. You proficiency rank determines how many additional dice that you roll:
- If you are untrained with your weapon or spell school, you do not add any dice to your d20 dice pool, for a total of 1d20.
- If you are trained with your weapon or spell school, you add a single d20 to your d20 dice pool, for a total of 2d20-keep-the-highest-one (2d20kh1).
- If you are an expert with your weapon or spell school, you add 2d20 to your d20 dice pool, for a total of 3d20-keep-the-highest-one (3d20kh1).
- If you are a master with your weapon or spell school, you add 3d20 to your d20 dice pool, for a total of 4d20-keep-the-highest-one (4d20kh1).
Bonuses
The bonuses that you might apply to attack rolls can come from a variety of sources.
Circumstance bonuses can come from the aid of an ally or a beneficial situation. Common circumstance bonuses are:
- When you attack a creature in melee from higher ground, you have +1d to hit.
- When you attack a creature smaller than your mount that is on foot, you get the same +1d on melee attacks for being on higher ground.
- When you flank a creature in melee, you also have +1d to hit.
Status bonuses are typically granted by spells and other magical aids.
The item bonus to attack rolls comes from magic weapons. Notably, a weapon’s potency rune.
Penalties
Penalties to attack rolls come from situations and effects as well.
Circumstance penalties come from risky tactics or detrimental circumstances, status penalties come from spells and magic working against you and item penalties occur when you use a shoddy item.
For example, aiming a ranged attack is more difficult when a foe is next to you. When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have -1d on the attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t incapacitated.
When making attack rolls, two main types of untyped penalties are likely to apply. The first is the multiple attack penalty and the second is the range penalty. The first applies anytime you make more than one attack action during the course of your turn, and the other applies only with ranged or thrown weapons. Both are described below.
Multiple Attack Penalty
The more attacks that you make beyond your first in a single turn, the less accurate you become, represented by the multiple attack penalty. The second time that you use an attack action during your turn, you take a –1d penalty to your d20 dice pool. The third time that you attack, you take a –2d penalty to your dice pool. The multiple attack penalty continues to increase for every subsequent attack in a single turn. Every check that has the attack trait counts toward your multiple attack penalty, including Strikes, spell attack rolls, certain skill actions and many others.
Some weapons and abilities reduce multiple attack penalties, such as the Extra Attack talent, or light weapons, which eliminate this penalty on your second attack if two-weapon fighting.
| Attack | Multiple Attack Penalty | Light Two-Weapon Fighting |
|---|---|---|
| First | None | None |
| Second | -1d | None |
| Third | -2d | -2d |
Always calculate your multiple attack penalty for the weapon that you are using on that attack. For example, if you are wielding a longsword in one hand and a shortsword (which has the light property) in your other hand and you are going to make three Strikes with these weapons during the course of your turn. The first Strike that you make during your turn has no penalty, no matter what weapon you are using. The second Strike will take either a –1d penalty if you use the longsword or no penalty if you use the shortsword. Just like the second attack, the penalty for your third attack is based on which weapon you’re using for that particular Strike. It would be a –2d penalty no matter what weapon you used for your previous Strikes.
The multiple attack penalty applies only during your turn, so you don’t have to keep track of it for an Attack of Opportunity or a similar effect, where another creature rolls to avoid being hit by you on their own turn.
Range Penalty
Ranged and thrown weapons each have a listed range increment and attacks with them grow less accurate against targets farther away (range and range increments are covered in depth here). As long as your target is at or within the listed range increment, also called the first range increment, you take no penalty to your dice pool for the attack roll. If you’re attacking beyond that range increment, you take a –1d penalty for each additional increment beyond the first. You can attempt to attack with a ranged weapon or thrown weapon up to four range increments away, but the farther away that you are, the harder it is to hit your target.
For example, the range increment of a light crossbow is 80 feet. If you are shooting at a target no farther away than that distance, you take no penalty due to range. If they’re beyond 80 feet, but no more than 160 feet away, you take a –1d penalty due to range. If they’re beyond 160 feet, but no more than 240 feet away, you take a –2d penalty due to range and so on, until you reach the last range increment: beyond 240 feet, but no more than 320 feet away, where you take a –3d penalty due to range.
Defences
Attack rolls are compared to special difficulty classes called Defences (Def), which measure how hard it is for your foes to hit you with Strikes and other attack actions. Typically, melee and ranged attacks are made vs a creature’s Dexterity defence, although this can vary. For example, when attacked in melee, a creature may choose to use its Strength defence instead of its Dexterity defence. For every defence there are spells and other effects that target that defence with attacks.
Just like for any other check and DC, the result of an attack roll must meet or exceed your Defence to be successful, which allows your foe to deal damage to you.
Defences are calculated using the following formula.
Use your proficiency bonus for the defence that you’re using. Defences can benefit from bonuses with a variety of sources, much like attack rolls. Penalties to defences come from situations and effects in much the same way that bonuses do. Circumstance penalties come from unfavourable situations and status penalties come from effects that impede your abilities.