(For our purposes HP, Hope, Desperation, and Essence are all statistics. Potency, Precision, Vigor, Will, and Agility are Attributes)
Health Health is basically what it says on the tin. HP represents how close you are to getting a major wound. Each major wound drains your sanity, and once you get 5 you go utterly mad with pain. HP can be restored with essence (see below) but ONLY with essence. There are no healers capable of mending you, no potions that can restore your broken flesh.
You gain 1 hit point every level.
HopeHope is the statistic that will fluctuate the most as you play. Most abilities run off charges from your five attributes, and hope is what allows you to recharge those attributes via the three resurgence abilities. You can never have more than 10 charges of Hope stored at once. You can never use resurgence to gain more charges in an attribute than your score in that attribute. (If you have a Precision of 5, and roll a 7 on a major resurgence, you can still only have a max of 5 charges in precision)
Resurgence (Minor): Spend 3 hope to gain 1d3 charges in any one attribute. Swift Action.
Resurgence (Major): Spend 6 hope to gain 1d6+2 charges in any one attribute. Costs 1 frame
Resurgence (Grand): Spend 10 hope to gain 1d10+4 charges in any one attribute. Costs 3 Frames.
Gaining HopeThere are multiple methods of gaining hope, and most all involve endangering yourself in some way.
- Hitting an enemy generates 1 Hope
- Killing an enemy generates an additional 1-5 Hope.
- An Ally killing an enemy generates 1 Hope
- Intercepting a blow meant for an ally generates 1 Hope
- Uniquely Buffing an Ally generates 1 Hope
- Uniquely Debuffing an Enemy generates 1 Hope
- Sufficiently deserving/suicidal actions in combat can generate Hope
- Any Deserving Actions/ tasty RP outside combat can generate Hope
Losing HopeLosing hope is a little harder than gaining hope, but is still something to keep a wary eye on.
- Being struck destroys 1 Hope
- Gaining an Agony destroys all Hope
- An Ally gaining an Agony causes all party members to lose 3 Hope
- Striking an Ally by accident destroys 2 hope
DesperationThe pair to Hope, Desperation is a powerful tool, but you only gain desperation charges in the most dire of situations. You can carry as many desperation charges as you have agonies, and the only surefire way of recharging Desperation is to gain an agony- an action which completely fills your desperation charges.
Desperation charge gain is situational, and can happen for a variety of reasons out of combat, but will only happen in combat in truly dire situations. It can get you out of a jam, providing a bit of cushion for suicidal tactics, but you can't rely on it.
Desperation charges can be spent on the following abilities,
Desperate Attack: Spend 1 charge to make an attack that has swift strike and maximized damage.
Desperate Roll: Spend 1 charge to make a quick movement and make a standard roll with two frames of full invincibility. Does not count as your dodge roll for the round.
Desperate Resurgence: Spend 1 charge to gain 1d4+1 charges in all attributes. Swift.
EssenceEssence is the raw material of the soul, gained from defeated foes, and is both the material used to level up and the only thing that can heal damage.
Essence can ONLY be spent between combat encounters, not during.
Leveling UpUsing essence to level up is simple. You just need essence equal to the current sum of all of your attribute points. Spend that much essence, and you can add one more attribute point anywhere you'd like. This action also increases your max and current health by 1.
HealingHealing is a more expensive and tricky proposition. Restoring health via essence has a price dependent on your current health,
Current HP =< 25% : 1 Point per HP
25% < Current HP =< 50% : 3 points per 2 HP
50% < Current HP =< 75% : 2 Points per HP
75% < Current HP =< 100% : 5 points per 2 HP
Agonies can also be removed with sufficient essence. This requires that the character already be at max health, and then pays as much as a 25% heal + (20-3*#CurAgonies). It then removes the agony and sets the character back at 25% health.
Attributes and Attribute ChargesAttributes run off a charge system, and the points you invest in each attribute now represent the maximum number of charges you can have in that attribute. These attributes start filled at the beginning of the game, but at every point thereafter must be recharged through the use of the resurgence abilities.
The below are the special abilities that you can spend your points on:
PotencyAccelerated Strike: Removes 1 frame from the heavy or light frame cost of a weapon. Costs 1 potency charge. Cannot reduce costs to 0.
Staggering Blow: Gives light attack s this round a +25% chance to stagger and heavy attacks a +75% chance to stagger. Costs 2 potency charges.
PrecisionCritical Strikes: All yellow spaces of a single attack are treated as red. Costs 1 Precision Charge.
Twisting Blow: Simultaneously make an attack from any adjacent tile. This attack does not have to have the same name or the same direction. Whichever attack threatens more enemy targets is used. Costs 2 precision charges.
WillPoise: Remove 1 frame of stagger. Costs 1 will charge.
Reinforce: Gain 5-10 damage resistance this round. Timed Blocks gain an additional 5-10 damage resistance. Costs 2 will charges.
VigorSecond Wind: Use to spend vigor charges to replace up 50% of the charges required for any other ability.
Endure: Spend 2 vigor charges to ignore any debuff (including an agony) extend any Buff duration by 1 round.
AgilitySwift Strike: Spend 1 agility charge to make an attack that is evaluated before all movement except swift movement.
Swift Move: Spend 2 agility charges to move once as a swift action.
Defiance Defiance is a special ability in common with all player characters, and reflects a heroic ability to withstand damage that would destroy lesser individuals. Defiance does not have charges, but is instead either 'active' or 'inactive'. Characters always start encounters with Defiance active. When defiance is active, a character can choose to negate the damage they received from any single attack on the most recent combat round. This causes Defiance to become inactive and can ONLY be done immediately after one round ends but before the next begins.
In addition, if a character's HP is reduced to 0 or below while Defiance is active, they will automatically expend it in order to reverse the most damaging attack received up to and including the blow that reduced them to 0 HP or below.
When Defiance is inactive, it can be reactivated in one of two ways: waiting, or a Defiant Resurgence. Defiance will reactivated naturally after 5 rounds have passed since it was used, functionally a 25 frame cooldown. However, it can also be restored through the use of the Resurgence ability described below. No other abilities that modify cooldowns can alter the cooldown of Defiance unless explicitly stated.
Defiant Resurgence: Spend 5+X charges from any combination of attributes to reactivate Defiance early. X is the number of times the ability has been used in the current chapter (one overmap). Swift Action.