Basic Actions

Sometimes words are not enough to solve a conflict and swords are drawn.

Encounter Start

This section describes what happens at the start of a combat.

What is an encounter?

An encounter is a battle against an enemy or multiple enemies, or a challenge that the GM considers to be an appropriate difficulty. Most battles or challenges will be considered an encounter.

Each round in an encounter is 10 seconds long.

This is important in regards to Encounter Start or Encounter Conclusion abilities.

Initiative

The order of a battle is determined by a character’s initiative. At the start of the battle, before anything else is done, every participant rolls a 1d4 and adds their initiative bonus to it. Everyone’s initiative is then ranked from high to low. The character with the highest initiative gets to act first.

If a grunt, heroic enemy and a player character have the same initiative, the player character gets to act first. If multiple player characters or enemy bosses have the same initiative, they may decide amongst themselves who acts first. Heroic humanoid NPC's may also be treated as player characters for this purpose if the GM feels its appropriate.

If player characters are opposed to another or cannot decide amongst themselves who acts first, each of them must roll a dice. Whoever rolls higher may act first.

Initiative cannot go below 0.

Surprise

When one or more characters are unaware of the other party, a surprise round occurs. This generally only occurs when one side of the conflict is trying to be stealthy. The GM rules on who exactly is surprised and who isn’t.

Every character who is not surprised may act as normal, while a surprised character is considered to have 0 RP until they take their first turn in the battle or are attacked once. All characters who are not surprised gain a +1 to their initiative. In addition, the character that triggers the combat (by firing the first shot for example) gets placed at the top of the initiative order.

When the initiative reaches a surprised unit, they may act as normal.

First Shot

There may be times when both parties are aware and wary of each other, but combat hasn’t started yet. In such a standoff, there is no surprise round if a person makes a move, but that character does automatically get placed at the top of the initiative order.

Encounter Start Abilities

After the initiative order has been determined characters may use Encounter Start abilities. Each character can only use one Encounter Start ability and Encounter Start abilities may only be used at this point of the encounter. If multiple characters have Encounter Start abilities that conflict with each other, the character with the highest initiative goes first.

Individual turns

What happens and is possible to do when it’s your turn. Each character can only get 1 turn per round.

Heroic and non-heroic characters

In combat, characters are divided into three types: Bosses, Heroics and Grunts (also refered to as simply non-heroics). Characters at roughly the same powerlevel as the players are usually considered Heroic characters, where as bosses are strong enough to easily defeat an average PC 1v1 and likely take an entire party to take down. Everyone else, such as common bandits, commoners or basic guards are considered grunts.

Non-heroic characters or Grunts are weaker, have less AP and RP to spend, some abilities are more effective or only work on these types of characters. For non-threatening or non-intelligent grunts, they may react to the first attack that they can avoid instead of saving their RP for an optimal use.

Heroic characters or Elites are characters roughly on the same power level as a single player character. They have the same AP and RP and will adjust their defenses based on the situation.

Bosses are the strongest type of enemy. They sometimes have more AP and RP and can fight off an entire party on their own through the use of powerful abilities.

AP and RP

AP or Action Points are what a character uses to act on their turn. They can be used to move, attack, use magic, interact with an object and more.

RP or Reaction Points are what a character uses to act outside of their turn. 

At the start of combat and at the beginning of each Heroic character’s turn, they regain AP up to their max, normally 4 AP.

RP is only gained at the start of combat. Players and most Heroic enemies have a max RP equal to 2 + Agility. 

Non-heroic characters have a lower max, only 2 AP and 1 RP.

Reactions

Any ability that only uses RP is a reaction. Reactions can be used any time during an encounter in response to an action or reaction from another character.

When reacting to another action, it follows the First in, Last out principle. The ability that was activated first gets resolved last. Any ability that is no longer valid due to for example the target moving out of range has its cost refunded and is treated as if it was not used.

For example: Ayra uses 2 AP to attack Enrin with a Heavy Attack from her sword. Enrin uses 1 RP in response to that to use her Evasive Maneuver skill, which lets her move 5ft away from Ayra. Since it was activated last, Enrin’s reaction activates before Ayra’s attack does and she makes her movement. Because the attack is now no longer valid due to Enrin no longer being in range, the attack is cancelled and Ayra is refunded the 2 AP she spent on the attack.

Movement

Every character may on their turn spend 1 AP to move up to their movement speed. This movement has to be done in 1 go and a character cannot save movement to use later in their turn.

A character may move multiple times during their turn, each time spending 1 AP again. They can choose to take other actions in between these movement actions if they wish. They may also choose to spend more AP at the same time.

Difficult terrain costs double movement to cross through. For example, moving through 5ft of difficult terrain would count as having moved 10ft.

A character that is prone cannot move using the move action, they can only move by using the crawl ability.

Characters may freely move through friendly or neutral characters, but not enemies or otherwise hostile characters (GM’s discretion). They may not end their movement in the same space as another character.

A character leaving the threatened range of an enemy by moving may provoke an Attack of Opportunity. Knockbacks and other forced movements do not provoke. If you are made to use your action to move during your turn (for example through a charm ability) then those attacks do provoke.

Jumping & Falling

As part of a movement, a character may jump by using their athletics skill. The jump distance is equal to the value of the skill check. If you moved 5 or more feet before jumping, it increases by 10. However, your jump distance cannot exceed your movement speed. If your movement speed is 20ft and you wish to jump 40ft, you would need to spend 2 AP on that jump.

If a characters falls from a high place, whether naturally or through being a targeted by an ability, they take fall damage. For every 10 feet fallen, a character takes 1d6 true damage. If they fell 30ft or more, they also fall prone. When a character is knocked back through an ability, but is unable to move back the full distance, they also take fall damage. The fall distance in this case is equal to the distance they were unable to move.

A character may choose to jump off a high place, rather than being knocked off or falling off. In this case, they treat the fall as being 30ft lower than it actually is.

Dragging:

You may pick up and carry or drag an unconscious ally. Doing so requires you to spend 1 AP to pick them up before you can move. While dragging or carrying an ally, your movement speed is halved.

You cannot drag allies that are conscious.

Creature Sizes

Creatures come in various sizes. Each size takes up a different amount of space on the battlefield.

Tiny: Doesn't occupy any space and can share the same space as an ally or enemy. No more than 4 tiny character can share the same space.
Small: 5x5ft
Medium: 5x5ft
Large: 10x10ft
Huge: 15x15ft or more.

Creatures of a bigger size can squeeze into a space for one size smaller, but it is considered difficult terrain for them.

If there is a situation where two characters larger than tiny size would occupy the same space, the character that was latest to occupy it is instead shunted to the closest free space.

Stealth

By using the basic Hide action or an ability that does a similar thing, you are able to stealth. You must be behind some sort of cover or otherwise concealed to be able to hide. When you do, you enter the Hiding state against anyone you have cover from.

Hiding: While in Hiding, enemies cannot see or target you and even if they are aware of your presence, they cannot pinpoint your exact location. You lose Hiding if you move, attack or use any other ability that does not have the Stealth keyword unless that movement or attack says otherwise.

After you move, if you moved next to a target in melee range, you may make a single melee attack against them and still be considered in stealth for that attack. This bonus still applies even if you were revealed normally during your movement due to not being in cover, but being revealed through the Overwatch action removes this.

Escaping the battle

Sometimes a battle is lost or simply unwinnable from the start and you want to flee from the battle.

If you play on a battle map, escaping the map is a simple process. To escape the map, you must start your turn on an edge of the map. Then you must spend all your AP to escape as your first action of the turn. If you take any other actions, you can no longer escape that turn. Dropping upkeep is not considered an action, but paying upkeep is. You must also be standing and not rooted or otherwise prevented from moving.

If you are grabbed or carried by a creature, you may choose to escape by the ally that is grabbing you leaving the map.

When escaping the map, you take attacks of opportunity as if leaving an opponent's range like usual. If your movement speed is higher than an enemy, that enemy does not get to make an attack of opportunity.

After escaping a battle, you cannot take encounter conclusion actions.

Using abilities

Abilities are the special abilities that you can find inside classes and races that are more than the normal actions you can take during combat. Each ability has its own range, cost and requirements to use.

You can use multiple abilities per round, as long as you can pay the cost and meet the requirement. However, you can only use each ability once per round, unless that ability has the rapid keyword.  Upgraded abilities count as the same ability.  For example casting Fireball 2 expends the usage of Fireball.  This restriction only applies to abilities, not to basic actions described later in this chapter.

Attacking & Defending

Swinging a sword, shooting an arrow or firing a spell at someone are all examples of an attack. No matter the type of attack, most of them will resolve in the same way:

1. Every attack or ability has a certain range, ap cost or other requirements that must be fulfilled before it can be used. Once you pick a target that matches these requirements, you roll the accuracy check. 
2. You make an accuracy check depending on the type of attack. Light and Heavy attacks are usually 1d20 + your focus. Precise attacks are 1d20 + (focus x 2)
3. Roll for damage. (See resolving the attack below). This damage is only relevant if you manage to hit the enemy's base evasion, but for speed of play it is recommended to roll damage immediately after you make your accuracy check.
4. After seeing the damage, the defender may choose how they wish to react to the attack. Classes and monsters may have special reactions they can use, but everyone can choose between 3 basic ways to defend.
   1. Dodge the attack: The defender commits to dodging the attack. They spend 1 RP and get boosted Evasion.
   2. Block the attack: The defender commits to guarding the attack. They spend 1 RP and get a boosted Guard.
   3. Do nothing. The attack resolves as normal.
5. Resolve the rest of the attack.

Area attacks and selecting targets

Some abilities hit multiple targets in a radius or line. 

A character is considered to be inside of the attack if the line or radius covers at least half of at least one square that the character is standing in.

Accuracy Checks

Most attacks will require an accuracy check to see if the attack hits the target(s). In general, there’s two types of accuracy checks.

Light/Heavy attacks: These require an accuracy check that is 1d20 + Focus

Precise attacks: These require an accuracy check that is 1d20 + (Focus x 2)

The rolled number is compared to the target’s Evasion. If it matches or surpasses the target’s Evasion, the attack hits.

Dodge

Dodge is a basic reaction available to all characters that is generally used when becoming the target of an attack. A character that dodges focuses on avoiding the damage all together rather than trying to lessen the impact of it.

Dodge increases the Evasion of a character by 13. The attacker will need to roll an accuracy check to see if they hit the defender before they can do damage.

This means that a character’s Evasion when using Dodge is now as follows:

Evasion = 20 + Agility

Block

Block is a basic reaction available to all characters that is generally used when becoming the target of an attack. A character using Block focuses on guarding against the damage rather than avoiding it.

Block increases your Guard to the following:

Guard (Block) = 2 x Toughness + Armor Block Value

An attack against a character using Block automatically hits, regardless of what the accuracy check was.

Normal shields also add a +4 to Guard while using Block, but don’t otherwise. Armors and Greatshields always give Guard.

In addition, you may use the Block reaction in general when taking damage even if the damage didn't come from an attack.

Resolving the attack

After an attack hits, it’s time to roll for damage. How much damage an attack does is based on what type of attack it is. These numbers may be modified by certain abilities, weapons or items.

Light attacks deal 2d4 + Power points of damage.

Heavy attacks deal 4d6 + (Power x 2) damage. If the attack is a melee attack made with a Two-Handed melee weapon, it deals 5d6 + (Power x 2) instead.

After the damage is rolled, any guard the defender has is subtracted from the damage. If the block action, or a similar sort of damage reducing action was used then this damage can be reduced to 0. Otherwise, regardless of how much guard the defender has, the attack will always do at least 1 point of damage. Damage resistance or damage reduction effects such as from the acolyte’s ‘Angel’s Embrace’ are applied after the guard has been applied and may still reduce damage to 0.

The damage taken is then subtracted from the defender’s hit points. A character that drops to 0 HP or lower is Downed.

Finally, resolve any other effects that the attack may have.

Temporary HP

There are abilities or items that may grant you temporary HP. Temporary HP is subtracted before your actual hit points are.

Temporary HP does not stack. If you gain extra temporary hit points while you already have some, only the higher number will take effect.

Temporary HP also does not protect against ‘On damage’ effects. They will still happen, even if you only lost temporary HP.

Critical Hits

When an accuracy roll is made and the number rolled is a 20 and the attack is a hit, the attack is a critical hit. 

A person taking the Block action cannot be critically hit.

A critical hit deals maximum damage instead of rolling for the damage done. It also gains the half-pierce (ignores Guard unless the target Dodges or Blocks) effect.

True damage

True damage is damage that is not reduced by Guard or any other effect such as shields or temporary HP. This is often damage that is environmental such as fall damage, drowning etc. Full Pierce attacks also ignore Guard, but they are not considered to do true damage.

True damage ignores most forms of damage reduction, unless the damage reduction specifically states it works on true damage.

Ranged Attacks

Attacks made with a ranged weapon, or any ability with a range bigger than 5ft/Melee Weapon Range are considered ranged attacks unless that ability is made using a melee weapon.

Ranged attacks can be used against a target within the weapon’s or ability’s effective range.

Using a ranged attack provokes an attack of opportunity from enemies in melee weapon range. This can happen multiple times per turn if using multiple ranged attacks in a turn.

Cover

To defend against attacks, characters can take cover behind objects. Primarily used against ranged attacks, it also helps defend against melee attacks. Cover is divided into 3 categories: Low, High and Full

Low Cover: Most types of cover will fall under low cover, such as hiding behind a chest-high wall, a tree or peeking around the corner. While in low cover, a character gains a +4 bonus to their Evasion.

High Cover: High cover is mostly created by magic or that covers most of the body such as arrow slits. While in high cover, a character gains a +6 bonus to their Evasion and their Guard increases by 1.

Full Cover: In full cover, there is no direct line of sight between the character and the attack. While in full cover, a character cannot be targeted. If the point of the attack is somewhere that would grant LoS to the character, such as a fireball thrown behind a wall, then they are not considered in full cover. 

If an attack destroys the cover a character is hiding behind as part of the attack, then the cover bonus is nullified.

Peeking from cover rule:

While in cover and making a ranged attack, you may treat the attack as coming from 5ft away from where you actually are. These 5ft must be a place you could physically reach while still touching the cover (diagonally allowed). This represents you peeking out of cover to fire. If this new space you are shooting from is within the melee attack range of an enemy, that enemy may make an Attack of Opportunity against you as if you are shooting in melee as normal.

However, if you peek from full cover or high cover using this rule, it is regarded as low cover instead.

Hidden Attacker

An attacker may be hidden from a target, through normal stealth, sniping, magical concealment or other means. When this is the case, the first attack the hidden attacker makes gains the Trick Attack keyword. This only applies to attacks with an AP cost of 2 or less.

Any subsequent attacks do not gain the same benefit and can be reacted to as normal.

On the attackers next turn, if they stealth again, the same rules will apply again.

Downed

When a player is reduced to 0 HP they are placed into a downed state and they fall prone. Any attack against a downed character automatically hits (Sure Hit) and guard value is reduced to 0 (Full Pierce).  Downed players may still use actions with the “downed” keyword.

Downed players may receive an Injury at the end of combat.

If a character is reduced to negative their max hit points they are mortally wounded and can no longer take any actions. If they are still mortally wounded at the start of their turn, any effects they have active or applied automatically vanish. Mortally wounded characters die at the end of the encounter resolution phase unless the mortal wound is removed.

Enemy heroic creatures may also end up in the downed state when they are reduced to 0 HP, but grunts always instantly die if they are reduced to 0 (unless they have an ability that states otherwise). Whether a creature ends up downed or dead is up to the GM. In general, humanoids will end up in downed state where as other creatures instantly die.

On hit and On damage

Some abilities have effects that happen on hit or on damage.

On Hit abilities take effect if the accuracy roll was successful, regardless of whether the attack did damage or not.

On damage abilities take effect when you deal damage to the target. If the damage is reduced to 0, then the effect is negated.

Damage Types

There are several damage types in Angel's Sword. There are the main damage types and each damage type can have a large number of subtypes. The main damage type is more important than the subtype. If you have resistance or immunity to a main damage type, you apply that same resistance or immunity to any subtype of that damage type but not vice versa. 

For example: A character with Earth immunity is also immune to Earth(Acid) damage. However, a character with Earth(Acid) immunity is not immune to Earth damage.

The main damage types are as follows:

Physical:

Physical: Physical has the Slashing, Piercing and Bludgeoning subtypes.

Poison: Poisonous stuff.

Magic:

Arcane: Raw magical energy, unaligned but volatile.

Fire: Destructive flames that burn and spread. 

Water: Fluid and adaptable, from crushing tides to suffocating torrents. 

Earth: Unyielding stone, corrosive minerals, and toxic fumes. Common subtype(s): Acid

Wind: Hurricane gusts.

Lightning: Thunder.

Frost: The cold.

Divine:

Holy: Radiant energy that purges corruption. Devastates undead. 

Dark: Shadowy decay or vampiric hunger. Corrupts and drains life. Example subtype: Necrotic

Astra:

Astra: Astra damage is often unexplainable and chaotic. Only commonly done by Fiends.

Mounted Combat

Mounted combat is fighting on the back of a mount such as a horse or pegasus. Being on a mount has advantages such as increased speed, but can be difficult for inexperienced riders.

Actions while mounted:

While mounted, you can in theory take any action you would otherwise be able to take, including moving. 

However, the GM may always rule that some abilities are unusable or don’t work in the usual way. They can also ask for a Riding check if using an ability that would be complex to perform while mounted. Abilities that target yourself do not affect your mount unless stated otherwise.

Your mount cannot normally take any actions by itself. You may command it to use basic actions, using your own AP equal to the AP cost of the action. A mount may also have special abilities that you can activate by using your AP. These special abilities can each only be used once per round like a normal ability.

Moving while mounted

While mounted, your movement speed increases based on the type of mount you’re using. You and your mount move together as one, but you’re the one directing it. You must use your own AP to move.

Most types of mounts force you to move in a straight line. This means that you cannot change directions once you begin moving. Check each mount in the Items section to confirm which mounts have this drawback.

When you use an ability to move, your mount may not always move with you. In general, if your ability has you leaping, sidestepping or otherwise moving without provoking attacks of opportunity, then you dismount from your mount (without a check) when you use this ability (GM’s discretion).

Forced movements and teleport abilities may also move you without moving your mount, thus forcefully dismounting you. Unless the ability states otherwise, any teleport or forced movement that only targets you and not your mount will move only you.

Forced movements against your mount will move you along with it, even if you aren’t targeted by the ability. Teleport abilities on your mount that do not target you and do not explicitly mention moving you with it, will only teleport your mount.

If you provoke attacks of opportunity when moving while mounted, the attack of opportunity is only made against you, not your mount.

Mounting and Dismounting.

When standing within 5ft of an unused mount, a character may spend 1 AP to mount it. You may also attempt to mount it faster by making a Riding check against DC20. On success, you get on top of your mount for 0 AP. On failure, you spend the 1 AP to get on it.

Similarly, you may dismount while mounted for 1 AP stepping off your mount at an empty spot within 5ft of your mount. As with mounting, you may attempt to dismount it faster by making a Riding check against DC20. On success, you dismount for 0 AP. On failure, you lose 1 AP and dismount in the chosen spot.

Attacking a mounted enemy

When a character is mounted, both the character themselves as well as their mount are valid targets for attacks. When choosing a target, you can choose to target the mount of an enemy as if it was a normal target.

If an ability that hits an area would hit both rider and mount, then both of them are affected by the ability as normal.

While a mount is being used and up to a day after that, it counts as a heroic unit for the purposes of determining what type of abilities can affect it if the rider is also a heroic unit.

Dead Mounts

When a mount’s hp is reduced to 0 or lower, it is slain. The rider is forcefully dismounted and knocked prone in their square. If the rider was on top of a flying mount, then he begins to fall to the ground and takes falling damage as normal though they may also use any items or abilities that use RP to stop their fall as normal.

Types of mounts:

The current list of mounts is as follows:

• Dragonfly (Tiny creatures only)
• Boar (Small creatures)
• Horse (Medium creatures)
• Wolf (Medium creatures)
• Pegasus (Medium creatures)
• Wyvern (Medium creatures)

Not every mount can be used by every type of race. Dragonfly are too small to be ridden by anyone but the tiniest of creatures and a pixie is much too small to ride a horse.

Some types of mounts may require a character to have a certain amount of skill points invested into the Riding skill before they can be properly ridden. If a character does not meet this requirement, they must make a Riding check at the end of each turn against DC25 or be thrown off, falling prone in a random spot adjacent to the mount (or falling to the ground in case of a flying mount).

It is possible to use creatures not listed here as mount (Up to the GM’s discretion). In general, creatures that possess their own free will and think on more than just instinct cannot be used as mounts. While creatures like a centaur can be ridden, the rules for mounted combat do not apply to them even if you happen to sit on their backs. Completely mindless or unliving things such as Armatae can also not be used as mounts.

Actions in combat

Aurasense: 0 AP: You check the aura of an enemy within 120ft, letting you know if they are a Boss, Heroic unit or Grunt. An enemy in presence concealment always shows as non-heroic.

Opportunity Attack: 0 RP or 1 RP - Melee Weapon Range: you can use light melee attack (0 RP), Heavy Melee Attack (1 RP) or Precise Melee Attack (1 RP) against a target that is leaving your weapon range. If your attack hits, you deal a minimum damage equal to your Power regardless of the target's guard unless the target blocks the attack.

Block: 1 RP: You attempt to Block the attack or damage. Your Guard is increased to (2 x Toughness) + Armor Block Value.

Crawl: 2 AP:  You move up to 5ft while Prone. Can be used while Downed.

Defend: 3 AP: Your next basic Dodge or Block before the start of your next turn costs 0 RP.

Disengage: 2 AP, Your movement does not trigger attacks of opportunity until the start of your next turn.

Dodge: 1 RP: You attempt to dodge the attack. Your Evasion is increased to 20 + Agility against the triggering attack. 

Drop Object: 0 AP, You immediately drop an object you are holding.

Grab Ally: 1 AP: You grab hold of a downed ally, allowing you to move them with you. Your movement speed is halved while holding on to an ally. Requires at least 1 hand free and does not work on allies that are not Downed. Letting go can be done for 0 AP.

Heavy Attack: 2 AP - Weapon Range: Deals 4d6 +  (2 x Power) damage. Deals 5d6 + (2 x Power) if using a Two-Handed melee weapon and making a melee attack.

Hide: 3 AP: You go into Hiding (as per the keyword) against anyone you have cover from. You cannot use this if you've been the target of an attack since the end of your last turn. If you have at least a +10 bonus in the Stealth skill, the AP cost of this action is reduced by 1.

Hunker Down: 2 AP: You hunker down, treating a low cover you’re next to as high cover until the start of your next turn.

Interact With Object: X AP, You interact with an object. The cost is determined by the GM. Most actions require 1 AP (such as opening or closing a door, sheathing/unsheathing a weapon, or picking up an object). When drawing a weapon or shield, you may draw two weapons or shields with the same action or stow and draw a weapon at the same time.

Light Attack: 1 AP - Weapon Range: Deals 2d4 + Power Damage. 

Move: X AP: You move up to X times your Speed.

Overwatch: 2 AP -  You look in a direction and focus on detecting stealth in a 90 degree 90ft long cone  until the start of your next turn. You automatically spot any creature moving through your entire sight line and reveal these to your allies. An enemy attacking from stealth in the area you are watching does not gain the Trick Attack bonus against you or your allies.

Precise Attack: 2 AP - Weapon Range: Deals 2d4 + Power Damage. Your focus is doubled for the accuracy check. This attack has Pinpoint (You ignore points of the target's guard equal to your Focus. Cannot reduce guard below 0.)

Prepare: X AP: You state a trigger and an action along with any targets involved. The AP is immediately consumed and your turn is ended. If the trigger occurs before the start of your next turn, you may immediately use the action at the point the conditions are met. You cannot prepare actions with a base AP cost of 0 or with a base cost of higher than 2 AP. Your trigger cannot be one of your own 0 RP actions or an action that depends on a dice roll (such as an attack missing or hitting).

Push: 2 AP - 5ft: You push a target that's the same size as you or smaller than you 5ft. The target may spend 1 RP to not get pushed.

Search: 2 AP - You search an area for hidden foes, revealing all hidden enemies in a 20x20ft area within 30ft range. For every +5 bonus you have in Perception, the range increases by 10ft.

Sneak: 2 AP - You move up to your movement speed without going out of Hiding. If you end your movement in a position without cover from an enemy, you are no longer Hiding from them. Although you can do this multiple times per turn, you must end each individual Sneak action in low cover to maintain Hiding.

Stand: 1 AP: Removes the Prone condition.

Thrown Attack: 1 or 2 AP: You can make either a light (1 AP) or heavy attack (2 AP)  up to 15ft range. Any weapon group abilities do not trigger when making a Thrown attack with the weapon.

Grapple: 4 AP. You grapple a target that is not larger than you, rooting both of you and rendering the target incapable of any attacks.  Any attacks directed at the target instead deals damage to you, and you cannot defend against these attacks.  The target may spend 1 AP or 1 RP to attempt to escape, granting them escape power equal to their power.  Further escape attempts continue to add escape power.  When their escape power is equal to 8, the target successfully escapes. This effect ends at the start of your next turn unless you pay Upkeep 4 AP. You may end this effect at any time for 0 RP. Does not work against Boss enemies.
 

Downed Actions

Downed actions are special actions you can take while in a downed state. While in the downed state, you cannot use any other abilities unless they specifically say you can.

Crawl: 2 AP: you move up to 5ft while Prone. Can be used while Downed.

Grit: 2 AP: You heal for 4 damage. Can only be used while Downed.

Play Dead: 4 AP: You feign death making targets less likely to attack you. The GM may ask for a Deception or Cunning check. This state ends when you take any action other than Play Dead. Can only be used while Downed.

Throw Rock: 2 AP: You can throw a one handed object (like a stone) at a target up to 40ft away for 2 damage. Can be used while Downed. Sure Hit/Full Pierce.

Non-heroic actions

Non-heroic actions are special actions that can only be used by non-heroic characters. These can be used once per turn only.

Retreat: 1 AP:  You cannot be targeted by attack of opportunity. 

Stride: 1 AP:  You move double your movement speed.

Encounter Conclusion actions

Encounter Conclusion actions are special actions that can only be used in the Encounter Conclusion phase.

Draw Mana: You regain 1 mana.

Gather Parts: You skin or remove parts from a slain monster. Each monster can only be gathered from once, unless stated otherwise. Make a survival check (Average DC is 15 for grunts, 20 for heroics and 25 for bosses). On success, you obtain the gatherable materials. On failure, you receive a % based of how close your roll was to the DC.

Scavenge: You carefully search the corpses, automatically finding any hidden loot they might have carried without having to roll.

Second Wind: You Heal yourself for 4d4.

Treat Conditions: You may use a Medical Kit or Surgery Kit to remove a single harmful effect such as common Poisons or Diseases that were applied during the battle from yourself or allies.

Encounter Start actions

Delay: You may lower your initiative to any number between 0 and your initiative.

Unsheathe: You may draw up to two weapons, shields and/or other items.

Encounter Conclusion

At the end of every encounter an Encounter Conclusion Phase occurs.  The following events occur in order during this phase.

1. Players may use one Encounter Conclusion action each.
2. Resolve character deaths and recover from downed
3. Resolve character injuries.
4. Distribute Loot.
5. Distribute EXP.

This phase occurs even if the fight was not a victory, but it may be delayed until the party is in a safe spot by the GM’s discretion.

Encounter Conclusion Actions

Players may use a single Encounter Conclusion action each when this phase begins.  These actions can have various effects.

Draw Mana: You regain 1 mana.

Gather Parts: You skin or remove parts from a slain monster. You may make a Survival check with the result influencing how much and what you gather.

Scavenge: You carefully search the corpses, automatically finding any hidden loot they might have carried without having to roll.

Second Wind: You Heal yourself for 4d4.

Treat Conditions: You may use a Medical Kit or Surgery Kit to remove a single harmful effect such as common Poisons or Diseases that were applied during the battle from yourself or allies.

Resolve Character Deaths

Characters that reach negative their maximum hitpoints in combat receive the Mortal Wound status.  During this phase any characters with Mortal Wound immediately die.

Every character without a Mortal Wound that is still in downed state gets healed up to 1 HP and the downed state is removed from them.  

Resolve Character Injuries

Characters that have been downed at least once during combat or received an injury effect receive their injuries now. A character may receive multiple injuries from being downed during combat. However, they can only suffer the effects of one injury from being downed. If nothing is done to prevent it, the character receives an injury of varying levels.

For example: A character is downed three times during combat, receiving 3 injuries. At the end of combat, they get healed by Light's Care, which removes an injury and leaves them with 2. Despite having 2 injuries, they still only roll once on the injury table and only suffer that injury.

If a character receives an injury through something other than being downed, such as an ability, then this injury stacks with the injury from being downed. A character injured in this way could have 2 or more injuries at the end of the fight.

Roll a 1d10 to determine which injury is received:

1. Main Hand Injury: Your main hand becomes broken.  You immediately drop whatever you are holding in your main hand after taking an action with the object you are wielding.
2. Muscle Injury:  You have 2 less RP.
3. Spirit Circuit Injury:  You do not regenerate mana from food.
4. Off Hand Injury:  Your off hand becomes broken.  You immediately drop whatever you are holding in your off hand after taking an action with the object you are wielding.
5. Leg Injury: Your movement speed is reduced by 10.
6. Head Injury:  You receive 1 less AP on your turn.
7. Wound Injury:  Everytime you take damage, you take an additional 1 damage and your Evasion rating is reduced by 2.
8. Eye Injury:  Reduces any sight-related checks by 10 and reduces your hit rate by 3.
9. Laceration Injury: If you use all of your available AP in a turn you immediately receive 1d6 true damage.
10. Foot Injury:  Your movement speed is reduced by 5.

A single injury is removed by taking a Recover Action during the Interlude Phase.

Custom Actions / Stunting

One of the appeals of the TTRPG genre is the ability to freely act and take actions and interact in ways that are not always explicitly stated.  Perhaps as you fall from a cliff, you would impale your sword into the side of it in an attempt to stop your fall.  Or maybe leap onto a counter in order to gain the high ground for your next attack as you flip through the air in a downward thrust.  All of these things create cool and unique scenarios—however there can be a fine line between a cool stunt action and always attempting to bypass the rules.

In ASTTRPG the GM has much more tools at their disposal for dealing with these kinds of things.

You could for instance, demand an encounter start action, encounter conclusion action or even RP to perform one of these maneuvers.  This makes it not always optimal to perform these actions, but does make them incredibly fun when they do happen.

Here is an example scenario:

GM:  You stand upon the iron Armatae, a giant metal colossus, searching for the hatch to gain entry.  You see the hatch twenty feet away from you, it is covered in a hard leather shell.
Player:  I run to the hatch and prepare to open it, jamming my spear into the leather hatch with a heavy attack!
GM: The pilot of the Armatae notices your movement and slams their controls to the right, and then to the left, causing a sudden movement in an attempt to shake you off!  Roll for athletics to stay on.
Player: (Rolls low) 
GM: You begin to slip off of the Armatae, falling towards the ground.
Player:  Can I grab the spear, which I lodged into the hardened leather? In order to stay on?!
GM: You may do this for 1 RP.
Player:  I spend my 1 RP and I hold on tight!
GM:  You muster what stamina you have to grab onto the spear, holding on to it for dear life as you are whipped around like a ragdoll.

This a fun scenario in which the player is able to utilize a cool and creative moment—and for the GM it did come with a cost.  That 1 RP is a crucial resource for a fight, so its not as if the action was completely free.

As a GM feel free to demand the usage of resources such as:

RP
Mana
Secret Arts
Encounter Start
Encounter Conclusion
Injuries
and other resources

You can make the game more dynamic and fun by using what you have at your disposal.