Conditions
From D20advanced
Generally speaking, any situational modifier created by the attacker’s position or tactics applies to the attack roll, while any situational modifier created by the defender’s position, state, or tactics applies to the defender’s Defense. The GM judges what bonuses and penalties apply, using the Combat Modifiers Table as a guideline.
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Chosen Conditions
Chosen Conditions are usually brought about by the choice of the character in those conditions, whether by picking a specific position on the battlefield or changing how the character is working with teammates. They are usually positive conditions, or conditions which impart more beneficial bonuses than penalties.
Position & Teamwork
Many simple advantages a character can gain on the battlefield, whether through strategic positioning or teamwork, can be easily represented by Combat Advantage.
Concealment
| CONCEALMENT | Condition |
| Partial | -2 penalty to attack rolls against concealed character, can hide, Combat Advantage |
| Total | -5 penalty to attack rolls against concealed character, can hide, Combat Advantage |
Concealment includes circumstances where nothing physically blocks an attack, but something interferes with the attacker’s accuracy. Typically, concealment is provided by things like fog, smoke, shadows, darkness, foliage, and so forth.
- Concealment Attack Penalty: Partial concealment imposes a -2 penalty on attack rolls made against a concealed character. Multiple concealment conditions do not stack.
- Concealment and Infiltration Checks: You can use concealment to make a Infiltration check to avoid being seen. Without concealment, you usually need cover to make an Infiltration check.
- Combat Advantage: If you have concealment and your opponent is unable to perceive you clearly, you gain Combat Advantage over that opponent.
- Total Concealment: A target you cannot perceive with any of your accurate senses has total concealment from you. You can't directly attack an opponent with total concealment, though you can attack into the area you think he occupies. Any attacks made against a character's space with total concealment is made at a -5 penalty.
- Concealment and Area Attacks: The attack penalty concealment imposes on attackers does not apply to their area attacks, which are made at no penalty.
- Ignoring Concealment: Concealment isn't always effective. A shadowy area or darkness doesn’t provide concealment against an opponent with darkvision. Smoke provides no concealment against a character with X-ray vision, and so forth. Characters with low-light vision can see clearly for a greater distance with the same light source than other characters. See Enhanced Senses for more information.
 Option: Percent Miss Chance
If you prefer, it is possible to replicate the difficulty of attacking a concealed foe with a flat percent chance to miss on a given attack rather than suffering a penalty to attack rolls. While the outcomes for these systems are mathematically very similar, this system includes an extra "blind" roll which does tend to help the feeling of "stumbling around in the dark" more than the above streamlined rules. You cannot use hero dice to reroll a miss chance.
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Cover
| COVER | Condition |
| Light Cover (Bush, Fence, Weak Barrier) | -2 penalty to attack rolls against covered character, can hide |
| Heavy Cover (Stone Walls, Large Tree, Heavy Machinery) | -5 penalty to attack rolls against concealed character, can hide |
Taking cover behind a wall, tree, or other obstacle provides some of the benefits of concealment (making you more difficult to hit by imposing a -2 penalty on attack rolls against you), but does not grant you Combat Advantage (though if you use cover to hide, you can gain combat advantage over foes who can't perceive you). Further, the penalty to attack cover imposes on your opponents applies to both normal and area attacks (since cover can shield you from explosions very well). Cover is measured relative to the attacker. For example, hiding behind a low wall provides no cover against an opponent hovering above you, but does provide cover against an opponent on the other side of the wall.
- Cover and Infiltration Checks: You can use cover to make an Infiltration check to avoid being seen. Without cover, you need concealment to make an Infiltration check to hide.
- Total Cover: If you cannot draw a line between you and a target without intersecting cover, the target has total cover. You can’t make an attack against a target with total cover without using a Ricochet attack or an Indirect FX.
- Varying Degrees of Cover: In some cases, cover may provide a impose a greater penalty on attack rolls. In such situations, characters attacking you suffer a -5 penalty to attack rolls.
- Striking Cover: If it ever becomes important to know whether the cover was actually hit by an incoming attack, the GM should determine if the attack roll would have hit the protected target without the cover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target with cover but high enough to hit the target if there had been no cover, the cover is hit. This can be particularly important to know in cases when a character uses another character as cover. In such a case, if the cover is struck and the attack roll exceeds the Defense of the covering character, the covering character takes the damage intended for the target. If the attack roll is lower than the Defense of the covering character, but higher than the Defense of the covered character, the original target is hit instead. The covering character avoided the attack and didn't provide cover after all! Covering characters can voluntarily lower defense bonus to ensure they provide cover.
Inflicted Conditions
Inflicted conditions tend to be conditions which a character did not choose. The different conditions the environment may inflict on characters, or that other characters might inflict on one another with their FX are all based off of the inflict FX. These conditions inflict penalties on different sorts of actions you might take. These could include penalties to checks, a reduction in your movement speed, or a loss of actions.
Penalties to Checks
| INFLICT CHECK PENALTY | Condition | |
| Succeed | -2 penalty to any one type of checks | |
| Succeed by 5 | -5 penalty to any one type of check | |
| Succeed by 10 | Helpless | |
| Recovery | Varies | |
Penalties to checks are categorized by what sort of attributes they penalize.
- All Attacks: Characters with their attacks penalized suffer this penalty to all checks involving their weapon group skill rolls, including attack rolls and (if the option is being used) opposed maneuver checks. This penalty is appropriate for combat inflictions which hamper your ability to swing or aim an weapon well, perhaps because of dizziness or a snare holding a character's arms.
- Any one Resistance: Includes Defense, Fortitude, Toughness, or Will. Characters suffer a penalty to these resistances, making it much easier for your opponents to successfully affect characters whose resistances have been penalized in this way. A penalty to Defense might be the result of being held and unable to react quickly to threats, while a penalty to Toughness could represent having something like a corrosive acid eating away at armor and flesh. A penalty to Fortitude could be a poison or disease which weakens the character's immune systems, and a penalty to Will could represent confusion.
- All Non-Combat, Non-Resistance Skill Checks: Representing being shaken and unable to focus in general, and being unable to perform activities as well as would normally be possible. You suffer this penalty to the active uses of all non-combat skills (including the active uses of skills like Perception, which have both active uses and passive resistances). This effect is useful for representing distracting conditions, such as itching sensations or strong winds.
- Any One Ability Score: Allows for any one of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma to suffer penalties. This is similar to the above option to affect all non-combat and non-resistance distracting conditions, but it is more focused on penalizing a more related group of options. For an ability score like Charisma, for example, this option allows you to penalize both non-combat skills such as Persuasion as well as resistances like Will, representing something like a mystical doldrums that weaken the spirits of those who enter.
Movement Penalties
| INFLICT MOVEMENT PENALTY | Condition | |
| Succeed | Halve movement speed | |
| Succeed by 5 | Immobile | |
| Succeed by 10 | Helpless | |
| Recovery | Varies | |
Conditions can also hamper a character's movement. If such a condition overcomes a character's resistance, that character is reduced to moving at half speed with all forms of movement. If the condition overcomes the character's resistance by 5 or more, the character is instead immobile and cannot take any move actions. This could represent something as simple as sticky glue making it difficult for the character to move to something as fantastic as time itself being slowed down or stopped.
Action Penalties
| INFLICT ACTION PENALTY | Condition | |
| Succeed | Lose One Action | |
| Succeed by 5 | Lose Two Actions | |
| Succeed by 10 | Helpless | |
| Recovery | Varies | |
Conditions can even work to deny a character his or her normal allotment of actions in a round. Such conditions deny a character one action if the condition overcomes the character's resistance, or denies the character two actions if it overcomes the character's resistance by 5 or more. Conditions which deny a character actions are usually ones that represent a character being too disoriented to act coherently, or time slowing to prevent a character two actions.
Combat Advantage
| COMBAT ADVANTAGE | Condition | |
| Succeed | Off-Balance | -2 Defense against your attacks, Susceptible to your Combat Advantage attacks |
| Succeed by 5 | Vulnerable | Lose Defense Bonus against your attacks, Susceptible to your Combat Advantage attacks |
| Succeed by 10 | Flat-Footed | Lose Defense Bonus against all attacks, Susceptible to everyone's Combat Advantage attacks |
| Recovery | Automatic | 1 round |
For details, see Combat Advantage.
Conditions in d20 Advanced
Some conditions are already defined in d20 Advanced, such as damage, which is critical to the health and injury system. Other sample conditions constructed from the Inflict (Condition) FX are described below.
Damage
| TABLE 7.2: INJURED (STAGED) | Condition | |
| Succeed | Injured | –1 on future Toughness checks (ranked) |
| Succeed by 5 | Dazed | lose one action on your next turn |
| Succeed by 10 | Staggered | one action only, knocked unconscious if damaged again |
| Succeed by 15 | Unconscious | knocked out, no defense |
| Recovery | Recovery | 1 hour check (injured, staggered) / 1 minute check (unconscious) |
One or more of the following damage conditions apply to a damaged character.
Injured
Injured means the character has been battered and bruised and is in less than top condition. Each injured condition imposes a –1 penalty to your Toughness score against nonlethal damage, putting the character closer to being taken out of the fight.
Dazed
If your Toughness score is exceeded by 5 or more, in addition to the normal effects of the condition, the character is dazed, losing one action on his next turn. A character who suffers two or more dazed results loses both of his actions for the next turn and cannot act. This lasts until just before the attacker’s turn in the initiative order on the following round.
Staggered
A staggered character has been badly beaten, barely holding on to consciousness. He can only take a single action each round until he recovers.
Unconscious
An unconscious character is knocked out and helpless. What befalls an unconscious character depends on the attack's descriptor and the tone of the game.
Recovery
With rest, characters can make Recovery checks (DC 10) to recover from their damage conditions. The frequency of the checks is based on the severity of the condition. The Regeneration FX speeds up a character’s recovery checks.
Injured
Once per hour of rest, characters can make a Recovery check (DC 10). If successful, they erase one injured condition. If the check fails, the character can make another in one hour, with a +1 bonus for each failed check. All characters recover at least one injured condition per 10 hours.
Staggered
Once per hour of rest, characters can make a Recovery check (DC 10). If successful, they erase the Staggered damage box. If the check fails, the character can make another in one hour, with a +1 bonus for each failed check.
Unconscious
Once per minute, characters can make a Recovery check (DC 10). If successful, they erase the Unconscious damage box. If the check fails, the character can make another in one minute, with a +1 bonus for each failed check.
Other Sample Conditions
- Fear: A character stricken with fear suffers a breakdown of reason and judgment, suffering a penalty to all attacks and all non-combat, non-resistance checks.
- Nausea: A nauseated character is sick and vulnerable, suffering a penalty to all attacks and his Fortitude resistance.
- Snare: A snare represents some physical object or force holding a character fast, penalizing a character's attack, defense, and mobility.
- Slow: Slow represents some sort of force that causes a character to move and act more slowly in battle, penalizing a character's actions and mobility.
