Athletics

Structure

Athletics covers physical prowess, movement techniques, and bodily resilience.

Athletics pairs with different attributes depending on the task: Strength for lifting, pushing, and pulling; Agility for quick jumps, sprinting, and rapid movements; Physique for technical climbing, balance, and swimming strokes; Endurance for long-distance running, sustained swimming, and holding breath. DCs are set by the GM.

At each mastery level, you choose one Athletics discipline and one Athletics ability.

Athletics Disciplines

Balance: Keeping your footing on narrow, uneven, or unstable surfaces, such as ledges, ice, rope bridges, or a ship's deck in a storm. The GM sets the DC by how narrow or unsteady the footing is, and raises it if you are fighting or carrying a load.

Climbing: Ascending surfaces without established handholds, such as cliff faces, castle walls, or trees with sparse branches. A rope or ladder needs no trial. The GM sets the DC by how sheer the surface is, and raises it for rain, crumbling stone, or climbing under attack.

Jumping: Clearing gaps, vaulting obstacles, and reaching elevated surfaces. The GM sets the DC based on distance and conditions. Covers horizontal leaps, vertical reach, and running vs. standing attempts.

Lifting: Sustained exertion beyond normal carry capacity: holding open a portcullis, dragging a wounded ally, throwing heavy objects. Without this discipline, you are limited to what your carry capacity allows and cannot attempt feats of raw strength such as bending bars or forcing reinforced doors.

Running: Sprint speed and sustained distance. Without this discipline, bipedal characters cap at x4 speed multiplier. With it, x5 and x6 sprint speeds are available. When you travel on foot, you have Dominance on your Endurance trials for Pushing the Pace.

Swimming: Moving through water against currents, rough seas, or undertow, and fighting while submerged. Swimming also covers holding your breath for long stretches. Calm, shallow water needs no trial. The GM sets the DC by how rough the water is.

Athletics Abilities

At each mastery level, choose one Athletics ability from any attribute category. These represent exceptional physical capabilities developed through training.

AGILITY ABILITIES

Deft: When you actively defend, add your Agility tier to the defense roll.

Head Start: On the first round of combat in which you are not Impaired from a Startle trial, your first movement does not cost AP.

Slippery: You gain Dominance on Agility trials to avoid traps and spells.

Swift: Your base movement speed increases by 10 feet per AP.

ENDURANCE ABILITIES

Avoid Death: When an attack or spell would reduce you to 0 health, as a reaction you can roll your Endurance tier die and restore that amount of health. You cannot use this again until you complete a rest.

Elemental Resistance: Choose one element (Sea, Sky, Stone, or Fire). You resist that damage type by an amount equal to your Endurance tier.

Healthy: You gain Dominance on trials to resist Tainted and Infected conditions.

Vigorous: After a rest, you regain additional health equal to your Endurance tier. You always reduce Exhausted by 1 tier when resting, regardless of rest quality or location.

PHYSIQUE ABILITIES

Muscle Memory: When you actively defend against an attack and take no durability or health damage, the next attack against you from the same source has Impotence.

Poised: Reprisal Attacks against you have Inferiority.

Tumble: When you drop, reduce the DC of your Falling trial by your Physique tier. When you fall, you have Dominance on your Falling trial. On landing, you can tuck and roll into an adjacent space. Obstacles and difficult terrain caused by objects (rubble, furniture, low walls, barricades) do not impede your movement, and you can leap onto elevated surfaces up to your height as part of normal movement without a trial.

Wall Run: You can run on vertical surfaces (walls, cliff faces) or bounce between two vertical surfaces within 10 feet of each other. You can move up to 5 feet + (5 feet × Physique tier) per round on walls, whether moving horizontally or vertically. This is your maximum wall running distance per round regardless of your maximum movement speed or how many movement actions you use. You must end your movement on solid ground (platform, ledge, rooftop) or you fall. You cannot attack or defend while wall running. The surface must be relatively solid (stone, wood, brick — not ice, water, or actively crumbling).

STRENGTH ABILITIES

Devastate: When wielding a melee weapon that relies on the Strength Attribute, your weapon dice step up one rank on the die progression chart.

Overbearing: When a target actively defends against your melee attack, their defense roll has Impotence.

Sturdy: You gain Dominance on trials to resist Restricted conditions.

Unstoppable: You can automatically succeed at one Strength trial without rolling, as long as the DC is within the maximum possible roll of your dice (tier die + mastery die). For example, if you are rolling 1d4 + 1d6 (max 10), you can auto-succeed on DC 10 or lower, but not DC 11+. You cannot use this again until you complete a rest.