Damage Rolls¶

When you succeed on an attack roll against an adversary, you then make a damage roll to determine how much damage your attack deals, and how many Hit Points your target must mark. A damage roll is composed of two parts: your Proficiency and damage dice.

Proficiency¶

Your Proficiency reflects how skilled you are at wielding weapons. You start at 1 Proficiency and can increase this value to a maximum of 6 over the course of a campaign. Your Proficiency determines how many damage dice you roll on a successful attack with a weapon, though other abilities or spells add to your Proficiency as well. This value is not weapon-specific, and does not change or reset when you equip a new weapon.

Tip: The effects of a spell or an ability might allow you to increase your Proficiency beyond the maximum of 6.

Damage Dice¶

The damage dice are the dice you roll to make a damage roll (as determined by the weapon, spell, or ability you're using to make the attack). If the attack uses a weapon, you roll a number of your weapon's damage dice equal to your Proficiency. You can find your weapon's damage dice in the "Active Weapon" section of your character sheet. If the attack is coming from a spell on a domain card or class feature, the text tells you which damage dice you should roll.

Any time it tells you to deal damage using your Proficiency, you roll a number of dice equal to your Proficiency. Any time it tells you to deal damage using your Spellcast trait, you roll a number of dice equal to your Spellcast trait.

Example: Aliyah's character Tabby has an ability that deals 4d8 damage using her Proficiency, which is 2. She rolls 2d8 when dealing damage. Mike's character Rune has a spell that deals d6s magic damage using his Spellcast trait, which is 3. He rolls 3d6 when dealing damage.

As we action rolls, if you want to add a bonus to your damage roll, you must decide to do so before you roll.

Calculating Damage¶

After rolling your damage dice, add the values together, then add any modifiers to determine the result. The GM marks Hit Points based on that damage.

Tip: In Daggerheart, there's a difference between damage and Hit Points. Damage is the result of your damage roll, including your damage dice and modifiers. Hit Points reflect how hard that damage affects the creature who's taking the damage—their damage thresholds, armour, resistances, and immunities.

Damage Without Modifiers¶

Some damage rolls tell you to roll a certain number and type of die without any modifiers. For example, "1d8 physical damage." In this case, you simply roll as indicated and the result of that roll is the amount of damage you deal.

Example: Aliyah makes an attack roll with her warrior's broadword and gets a 15, which is a success. Her Damage Proficiency is 2 and her broadsword's damage dice are d8s, so she rolls 2d8 and gets a 3 and a 7, for 10 total damage.

Damage with Modifiers¶

Some damage rolls come with modifiers, such as "+2d6+7" or "+3d8+5." In these cases, you roll the dice, add their values together, then add the modifier to that total. This modifier is not affected by your Proficiency.

Example: Nolan makes a successful attack with his improved shortbow, which deals d6+6 damage. He has a Proficiency of 2, so he rolls 2d6. The rolls are 1, 5, and 5 totaling 14. He adds the modifier of +6, for a total of 20 physical damage to the target.

Critical Successes and Damage¶

If your attack roll critically succeeds, your attack deals extra damage! Start with the highest possible value the damage dice can roll, and then make a damage roll as usual, adding it to the maximum possible roll.

Example: Mike's character Rune makes an attack against a target with his wand and rolls two 5s on the Duality Dice—a critical success. Rune has a Proficiency of 2, and the wand deals 1d6 magic damage, so Miles starts with the maximum possible roll of 6d6, for a total of 12. Rune then rolls for damage and totals it for 5 physical damage. This damage falls above Shepherd's Major threshold, but damage is reduced by one tier to Minor instead, marking 1 Hit Point.

Multiple Sources of Damage¶

Whenever damage would be applied more than once to a creature during a PC's move, the damage is always totaled before it's applied to the adversary's damage thresholds. For example, if a PC with an ancestry trait makes a successful attack against a target in Melee range and decides to spend a Hope to use their "Tusks" feature (which gives them an extra 1d6 damage on a damage roll), they would roll their normal weapon damage and add a d6 to the result, then deal that total damage to the adversary.

If this act then decides—with the table's consent—to keep the spotlight and make another attack, this is considered a separate move. When this attack resolves, its total damage is counted separately from the damage of the orc's first attack.