Prelude and Setting (1/2)

The Human Race

The next book of the Power of Ten, as requested by the readers, will be ‘urban fantasy’-mode.

Urban fantasy varies from one author to another. My particular inspirations center on Shadowrun (without the cyberpunk super-science aspect), Monster Hunters International, the Dresden Files, the Vampire/Masquerade world, and naturally enough, d20 Modern.

In my experience, Urban Fantasy has several particular features:

Into this mix of features, I’m going to be mixing the Power of Ten ‘reality’.

I will be reposting the glossary from Power of Ten: Sama Rantha.

The Rules of Power of Ten are in effect for the story:

Extra humanoid Racial Class Levels can be taken when you reach Four, Seven, Ten (Atlantean Human), and as discovered in the last book, Fifteen (Advanced Human). The Ten and Fifteen Levels are basically just acquiring the Atlantean and Advanced Templates.

All rights reserved to add other Classes the Power of Ten doesn’t normally have (The Rules are Different Here).

Magic items are usually based on their D&D equivalents, although Quality Level is a mechanic added in to reasonably restrict how powerful they can grow, and Skill Ranks are very important.

There are no Bags of Holding or Portable Holes (creating extradimensional holes/pockets). These are excuses for something to come in through the Veil through the weakness and eat you and everything nearby. Shrinking/compression magic is used for this purpose instead (similar to the Pym Particle) via use of Itemize.

As a general rule, I like to stick close to the Paizo Pathfinder or 3E Stat line for monsters, but I’m happy to deviate if need be. In particular, monsters having Health Qi to up their staying power is anything but uncommon, and the way many of them ‘get tougher’ with age.

The Glossary

Some History: I freely borrow from Pathfinder and D&D 3E and 3.5E as I do this, as well as AD&D, BECMI, and even Warhammer FRPG and some of the video games I’ve played in the past. Since I’m being authorial, I can add all this in to liven up the world and show the underlying mechanics of what is at play. Of course, playing with all of the stuff I use without a computer doing all the stuff behind the scenes might be very slooooooow... especially with Deep Tens getting access to all sorts of stuff!

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The Players! Powered, Primos, Forsaken, Nulls, Voids, Sources, Karma

Powered: The Magic Folks who won the super-power lottery. They can use magic, chi, ki, whatever, they have the potential for it, they only need the Stats and Levels to make use of them. Basically, they have stretchy souls.

Primos: The rest of us. Terrans are all Primos. We can learn to use magic items, and accept a Warlock or Binder Pact. Our souls are considered rubbery rigid. The vast majority of humans are simple Primos.

Forsaken: Primos who had forsaken Magic are either Nulls, Sources, or Voids. They cannot use any magic, chi, or psionic effects that require them to be projected, Cast, or otherwise, nor most magic items.

Nulls: The most common Forsaken, the hardest souls. Reinforce the rules of Reality around themselves. Magic and such energies intruding on their Null simply gets straightened back out to basic background magic, and vanishes into nothingness. Tough and wise.

Sources: Radiate magic at its most foundational level, and so burn away higher forms that intrude on their Sun. Effectively Make Fate for themselves. Strong and charismatic, Kings Among Men/Queens Among Women, natural leaders.

Voids: Filter magic through themselves, tying themselves to it with every breath and heartbeat. Abnormally sensitive to impurities and disruptions, and driven to get rid of them. Very dexterous and extremely intelligent, their Voids manifest as Helices of different colors dependent on their Order that can drain magic from things around them. Since they are Awakened by the Land, there are Voids in the story.

Forsaken are effectively limited to using ki (passive effects only), and some Alchemy in the story. They can use Powered magic items with passive effects, but cannot improve them.

Karma: Another term for experience points. Karma is gained many ways, but the universally acknowledged fastest way is to defeat worthy opponents. This can be meta-gamey (evacuating a town before the flood caused by an enemy drowns it) or straight up bashing skulls en masse. Note that slaughtering things that are not a threat to you or yours generally gives you nothing, unless it’s for a greater purpose (i.e. completing the Fountain of Death Becoming to create an undead army, or something). If you are a Good person, saving lives is generally worth much more Karma than taking them... rewarding you for being a hero!

Just like classic RPG's and the video games that borrow from them, it takes more and more Karma to gain every extra Level. You can always keep accumulating Karma even if you can't Level up, buying Feats, Masteries, Hit Points towards your cap, Secondary Levels, spend them to make magic items, and so forth.

A Level is defined as one Character Class Level, One Purchased Feat, and 3 Mastery Advances, in terms of Karma and Caps.

For this novel, Powered must Level to gain new caps on Feats and Masteries, and only if they cannot Level can they Train Feats and Masteries sideways.

It takes a Stat of 10+Level in the Class you want to take a Level in it. Thus, to be a Ten, you need a 20 in the prime Stat of that Class. It takes an exceptional person to gain Levels. If you play the system, you need a 14 base Stat to make it all the way to Ten eventually. Magical items do NOT count towards this limit!

Regardless of how much Karma you have accumulated, you can't Level up ten times in one day. Between Renewals, you can add one Level, one Feat, advance one Mastery, or train up one Hit point towards your maximum (Health or Soak, not both).

You can only put a combination of 1,000 points of Karma and gold combined into a magic item (ONE Magic item!) per day via Infusing or Investing. There are special exceptions to this for Consumables, such as Scrolls and Potions, but largely 1,000 is a Hard Limit, until you get to very high end Forsaken Crafting...

This amount of 500 gold + the Karmic equivalent means a ‘goldweight’, the amount a Powered can Infuse a day, is a Known Standard of value, and the actual value of an object or power comp is generally measured against goldweight. This amount represents approximately five pounds of gold, half a pound of platinum, or fifty pounds of silver (pure, unrefined, uncrafted).

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THE LIMITS!:Ten, Valence, First and Second Ceilings, Alignments, Gaining Levels/Feats/Skill Points, Primary and Secondary Classing, Prestige Classes, Renewals

The Power of Ten was largely an E10 world, meaning characters were mostly limited to Ten. The Human Race is largely an E6 world... the vast majority of characters don’t ever exceed Six.

Spells are limited to Valence III at Six. Post-Six characters with higher Slots can meta their spells to be more powerful, but D&D level 6+ spells are not possible to cast, and 4-5th Level spells are incredibly rare.

The First Ceiling is Level Six. This is the limit for a normal mortal/human. It is by definition the limit of being Human. If you are a Seven, you are by definition a post-human. Thus, Tarzan, Batman, and the like, who are not post-humans, are Sixes. If you are a Seven, you’re better in some way than Batman is. The average level of an experienced Terran Primos is Two. An elite is a Three. An Olympian/World-Class is a Four, and the best in the world today might be a Five. There are probably no Sixes alive on Terra, as it’s much too hard to get there without healing magic.

Batman would be a Deep Six... a Six with a LOT of secondary Classes, and many Feats and Masteries, and a nigh-prefect Stat Line.

The Second Ceiling is Level Ten. Only truly legendary characters exceed Level Ten.

The limit on Stats for a human body is 30-35. After that point, your body is basically a magic item, your mind is thinking in the akasha outside your skull, and so forth. Your strength is more telekinetic than physical.

Twenty is the absolute Mortal Limit. After Twenty, you become Eternal, stop aging, and will not die of natural causes, you can only be killed. The Road to Twenty is the Road to the Eternal.

Powered gain 10 years of additional prime years (normal age 20-40) for every Level they have... meaning they also live longer than the rest of us. Forsaken do the same. Primos who become Forsaken at Seven get back the years, which can rapidly de-age them, as do Primos who swear a Warlock Pact and become pseudo-Powered.

Secondary Classing is allowed. One’s Primary Class is not fixed until Level Four...the first Class to reach Four is your Primary forever, so prepare well! Your Secondary Classes are limited to half the level of your Primary, rounded down, +1. Thus, at Ten, the maximum Class Level you can have in a Secondary Class is Six.

Gaining a Level in a Secondary Class costs exactly what it would cost to gain your next Level in your Primary Class.

Skill points gained from a Secondary Class MUST be spent on Class Skills for that Class. Likewise, any Stat advances from Secondary Classes must be spent on the Prime Requisite of that Class. Any Feats and Masteries taken must also involve Skills or features related to that Class.

You gain no bonus Skill points from Intellect from taking Secondary Classes, nor extra hit points. You do get the best of the Save/Resist Bonuses by Class, and Attack Bonus. You also do not gain any weapon or armor proficiencies, or other starter bonuses only available at Level One.

There are Prestige Classes, which are basically special niche Classes or work off combinations of one or more main Classes. The main Classes are where the real power is. Most such Classes are 5 Levels long, and cap at Ten (i.e. require you to be a Ten to take the final Level).

You gain a Stat point at Level 4 in any Class, and again at 8. When you first reach Ten, you gain +1 to all Stats (only once).

Skill Ranks impose absolute limits on certain things you can learn and know. If your Soul is not developed enough, you simply can’t understand certain things.

The existence of Levels is widely known and understood.

Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos are fundamental forces that empower the universe, not philosophical arguments.

Creation refers to the multiverse of multiverses. Marvel, DC, Star Trek, Star Wars, and the Power of Ten all exist in Creation, although the rules of their realities might be wildly different.

There is no war in Heaven.

Renewal is your Reset time, when your Magical Day begins. It calculates the duration of all day-long spells, the reset on x/day abilities, when you can begin enchanting magical items again, when you can rememorize spells, when you roll again for saves to throw off an effect, and the like. Anyone who has gone through a Renewal knows exactly what it feels like, and so can track days passing by their Renewal. (Yes, I borrowed the concept shamelessly from the Dresden Files).

The vast majority of Renewals are at Dawn. Other popular times are Noon, Dusk, and Highmoon (midnight).

Renewal is based on personal time. Going to a world with week-long days, a Renewal is still once a day. The time of day can be changed by eschewing Renewal at the proper time, and proceeding to the time you want to Renew at.

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FEATS AND MASTERIES: Explanations of what they are

Feats represent special tricks and capabilities that build upon other basic abilities, and come in all types and flavors, magical and not magical. They are analogous to some of the Skills of video games, but virtually all Feats are passive in nature. The ability to Power Attack, giving up accuracy for a considerable boost to damage, or focusing solely on kill-points, is a Feat that builds over time. However, Skill Focus Feats give a +3 bonus to using a Skill, which doubles at Ten to +6.

Melees, Archers, and Scouts have access to Class Features that basically supercharge certain Feats, allowing them to improve with time. It’s how the Primos truly improve over time.

Many Feats require you to be a certain Level, have certain Stats, possess certain Class Features, be of a certain Alignment, or know other Feats and Masteries to take them.

Power Feats are certain stacking Feats that can only be taken once per every three full Levels.

Masteries are basically half- or minor Feats that represent increasing proficiency in a specific area. If applied to a Skill, they give Competency bonuses and count as Skill Unlocks. In other areas, they serve as ways to upgrade a power or ability over time.

Because they have no access to magic or spellcasting, Forsaken and Primos focus on Feats. Any time a Forsaken or Primos gains a Feat when Leveling or from a Class, they gain an extra Feat. If a Forsaken or Primos takes a Class that has magical ability or Casting, any Level where they would gain a Spell or similar power, they instead gain a Feat appropriate to that Class.

Competence bonuses for Skills are limited to +5, exactly what you get from a Mastery. Most other Bonuses are limited to +3 at Ten. Magical items that buff ability scores are limited to +5 at Ten.

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The Stats! Strength (Str), Intellect (Int), Wisdom (Wis), Dexterity (Dex), Constitution (Con), Charisma (Cha), Health, Soak (Hit points), and what they mean in real terms.

-Human Stats average 10-11 as a baseline. As PoT mirrors reality, most women take a -2 penalty to Strength. Conversely, they gain +2 to any other Stat, up to the human maximum of 18. This means women don’t make the best Melee Fighters, but they definitely make the most talented multi-discipline Casters!

- Every 5 points represents a doubling. So, a Strength score of 20 is basically about as strong as 4 men, and a 20 Intellect can match wits with 4 average people easily.

-The total bonus of a Stat increases by +1 every 2 points past 10, and is a penalty in the other direction. The subordinate score increases by +1 in between (i.e. Might increases before Power for Strength).

-The normal human Stat maximum at career start is 20 (base 18, +2 for starting choice reflecting training). In the real world, the human maximum is about 23. It is VERY difficult for an average human to train beyond that level. Having a Stat of 24+ basically means you are beyond human in some way. People who are born with natural 18’s and train to make it a 20 are incredibly rare... but not on Player Character Creation sheets, it seems...

-If you want to see what a 22-23 represents, pull out the Guinness Book of World Records!

---Ogres have a Str score of 21 on average, making the average Ogre stronger than all but the very strongest humans, and they have Cons of 18, making them incredibly tough. Spider-man sits in the mid-40 range since he can toss a car, the Thing has a Might of about 60 (Power low since he’s not very fast), and the Hulk a Str of 60+ (fast AND strong!).

---Succubi have Charisma scores of 26 (+8) on average, making them more charming than any human on Earth. Napoleon rode an 18-20+ Charisma to historical immortality, despite being nothing much to look at.

--Intellect maps to IQ. An Intellect of 13 is the smartest person in the room. 14, in your grade. 15, in your grade school. 16, in your high school. 17 is a true genius, and best in your college. 18, probably in your state. 20, probably in your country. 22, probably the planet (Sherlock Holmes range). Batman probably has a 23, and Lex Luthor a 24-26 (and a lot of Feats/Masteries). Reed Richards is probably in the 30’s, but has no ceiling, since he can grow his brain.

-Spider-man has a reaction time 15x a human athlete, and perfect balance and body control. That puts his Dex score in the 38-40 range (+14-15). The best snipers in the world will have Precision about 20, while the best yoga masters and gymnasts will have Agility in the same area.

-The wisest and most cunning advisors and plotters in history have Wisdom scores in the 20-22 range, which is about the basic level of a lesser Angel. The way Shakespeare’s Plays have endured the centuries is a timeless testament to the wisdom of their writer.

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Strength/STR: Physical power, divided into Might (lifting, breaking, bending, damage) and Power (how fast you can use your Might, hitting stuff, control). Power cannot be higher than Might. Someone with high Might but low Power could carry a mountain, but only throw it a couple feet, for instance.

Someone with high Might will generally have massive musculature, while someone with Power will appear more toned, lighter on their feet, and faster. A body builder, for example, has high Might, but probably has less Power than an MMA fighter.

Strength is very important to a Melee combatant, signifying speed and control of a weapon, and being able to wield heavier arms and armor. A mighty warrior wields bigger weapons (perhaps ridiculously so), but a Powerful one controls them more easily and swings them faster and more lightly.

Dexterity/Dex:Agility and Precision. Not Speed. NOT SPEED. Speed is derived from Power. Agility is quick reaction times and dodging stuff, like Spider-Man doing his thing to avoid all the Green Goblin Shurikens, and twisting around like a pretzel. Precision is control, balance, a steady hand, and affects to-hit rolls with missiles, finesse combat, and when working on delicate tasks. These factors tend to be equal, but it would easily be possible for a tumbling acrobat to have a higher Agility than Precision, while a sniper might go the opposite direction.

High Dex people are graceful, flexible, controlled, precise, steady, and balanced, and move with efficient motions.

Dex is NOT SPEED! It’s vital to both quick-reacting and agile combatants, such as Scouts, and ranged combatants, like Archers.

Constitution/CON: Vitae, the power of your lifeforce/soul, and Vitality, same for your body. They tend to be equal, strong soul breeding strong body, but do not need to be. Vitae governs bonus to Class Levels/Soak, and Fortitude saves to resist things that affect the life/soul (life drains, necromancy, etc). Vitality governs the bonus to Hit Dice/Health and Fort saves against things that affect the body (fatigue/exhaustion, poison).

People with high Constitution are in extremely good Health and phenomenally tough, able to keep going when others fail, and resist negative energy attacks more easily.

Intellect/Int:Reason and Memory. Reason is the ability to figure out things rapidly, working through a new problem. Memory is retaining what you know. Reason governs present skill rolls for many crafting and profession skills, and Memory how many Skill Points you get.

A high Intellect person knows a lot of things, and can apply them effectively and consistently, figuring stuff out faster than those around them.

People who work with Arcane magic and Crafters, as well as Skill-heavy folk, need high Intellects.

Wisdom: Divided into Experience and Insight. Experience is what allows a Wise person to pick the best option out of many available, doing the right thing at the right time. Insight allows a Wise person to know what is out of place, including things affecting themselves, and so pursue harmony.

A Wise person can give (and take) good advice easily... or horribly wrong advice, if they choose. They tend to be hard to sway, self-controlled, and calm.

Wisdom is important for those wanting attunement with Nature and the Divine, so Monks and Divine and Druidic Casters require it.

Charisma: Divided into Personality and Willpower(is NOT Appearance!!). Personality is social skills, ability to get along with people, have them follow you, personal magnetism, ease of being around people, silver tongue, always having the right words for the occasion, having a thick skin, and so forth. Willpower is strength of will, inability to be swayed, commanding presence, emotional power, and pure stupid determination.

Naruto would be an example of a high Charisma character... not much in brains or common sense, but gets people to follow him, never gives up, and becomes a leader.

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Examples: The high Int character exploits every cheat in the game, the high Wis character rewrites the rules of the game instead, and the high Cha character convinces the Admin to let her win.

The high Int character comes up with a dozen battle plans, the high Wis character picks the best one... and convinces the high Cha character to back it, so everyone follows along.

The High Int character goes looking for lots of advice and alternatives; the High Wis character gives the best advice; and the High Charisma character bulls ahead, figuring he can fix anything that goes wrong as he goes.

For a Negative Example, Donald Trump is an example of high Charisma, Low Wis/Intellect. He had the charm and personality to manipulate people to become President of the United States, but had neither the Intellect nor the Wisdom to do well once he got there.

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HIT POINTS: A term that includes Health, Soak, Temporary Hit Points, and Health Qi. The base idea is similar to video games (who took it from RPG’s).

Healthis actual physical damage an object or being can take. Most monsters and creatures only have Health. The average human has 1-8 Health. A brick usually has 5. Fast Healing, Magical Reserve Healing, and Regeneration only affect Health. Health naturally returns at Level/Hit Dice + Con bonus/day, twice that if resting, for normal humans.

Soak is the magical ‘oh that didn’t actually hurt’ or ‘damn, that was lucky’ effect, very fundamental battle magic. It ONLY comes from Class Levels. Creatures fighting humans with Class Levels hate it. (Why puny human not fall down when tree trunk smash his ribs?) It manifests in whatever manner is the most efficient to save the person struck, including near misses, lucky steps, glancing blows... but you can face plant after falling two hundred feet onto concrete, get up and walk away if you’ve the Soak for it. Magical stuff! Clerical Cures can restore Soak, but mostly it’s restored steadily at (Level+Con)/hour, much faster than Health, for humans.

Battle Vigor, a Combat Feat, is designed to rapidly restore some lost Soak.

Temporary Hit Points: Come from magic. Any damage taken is first taken from these, and they are burned away/expended. Like a magical field of ‘Ahhhhh, don’t cut me!’ Very similar in effect to Soak.

Health Qi: A form of damage absorption/instant healing possessed by really powerful monsters. You cut them, blood sprays, flesh tears and rips... and in the next second they are right back to normal, and the crimson stuff kinds of evaporates. Powerful monsters can have LOTS of Health Qi. They can burn Health Qi to overcome ability damage, poison, stun effects, etc, meaning things that have it are total pains to deal with. It is recovered after all Health damage is healed, building right back up, so Fast Healing and Regeneration, as well as healing spells, can help a monster get their Health Qi back very quickly.

Temporary or Subdual Damage: This is Health damage that is not lethal, returning at the same speed Soak does. This is how you beat people unconscious. Melee fighters have Vigor, which turns lethal wounds into subdual damage, meaning they heal much more quickly than normal people. Also, every point of Health or Soak damage cured by other means also heals a point of temporary damage, meaning double effect healing!

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COMBAT TERMS:TH, MAB and RAB, d4/d6/d10 etc, Hit Dice, Crits, AC, DR, MAB, Energy Res, Saving Throws, etc.

TO-HIT/TH: The modifier to your roll to hit an opponent. In video games, this is generally a % chance. The enemy has a target number for you to hit (their Armor Class/AC), you roll % dice or a d20 (twenty-sided die), add your To-Hit modifier, and if you equal or exceed their AC, contact is made and it is time to roll damage. Most magic weapons modify To-Hit and Damage by a fixed amount.

TH is divided into MAB, Melee Attack Bonus (close combat) and RAB, Ranged Attack Bonus (missile combat).

If you are subject to Luck, rolling a 1 (01-05) is always considered a miss, and rolling a 20 (96-00) is considered always a hit.

This is somewhat different from many video games, where you are presumed to hit, and damage is just modified. Mathematically, they end up in the same place... whiffing is basically the same as seeing 0,0,0 damage come up...

In terms of combat importance, you generally want your attacks to hit, then do more damage per attack, then gain more attacks. It’s all math, but if you can’t hit, it doesn’t matter how many attacks or damage you get, and if you don’t do any damage, it doesn’t matter how many attacks you have.

D4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d100: the d is short for ‘die’. Google ‘Gamer dice’ to see what they look like. They are used to roll random results from 1-4, 1-6, 1-8, 1-10, 1-12, 1-20, and 1-100, respectively, with other combinations possible by halving or combining different dice. They are used for calculating weapon damage and hit points for combat, and TH rolls and saves.

The main reason dice is used is because of mathematical averages with more than one die. 2-16 means an equal chance of any number from 2 to 16. 2d8 means the damage is heavily weighted towards the average of 9, and 2-4 and 14-16 are very uncommon. So, a 10d6 fireball mathematically stays around 35 damage, instead of having the same chance to do 10 or 60 as the middle.

A knife or dagger does a d4 in damage.

A gladiator’s short sword or a normal arrow does a d6.

A knightly longsword or broadhead arrow does a d8.

An average handgun does a d10.

A two-handed sword or axe, or a lance on a charge, does 2d6.

A rifle or shotgun does 2d8 or so.

A cloud giant is four times the height of a human, can wield a Heavy Weapon, and so his sword strike would do roughly 5d6 damage, +11 from Strength... Remember us Terrans have on average 5 Health...

A d20 is also known as an icosahedron! D&D basically invented the market for almost all non-d6 dice... If you take a geometry, you will learn that the vertexes of each die help make another one with more faces...

CRITS: If you actually roll high on a TH Roll, you have a chance of hitting a key point (throat, eyes, stab the heart, cut the groin, etc.)... you know, the places you WANT to hit. You confirm the Crit by rolling again, and if you hit again, you generally deal double or triple damage, depending on weapon type and feats.

Sword-type weapons crit more frequently (19-20 roll) and generally do double damage, making them more consistent.

Axe-type weapons crit less frequently (20 roll), but hack down for triple damage when they do, making them more explosive.

Simpler weapons, such as clubs and maces, crit on 20 and do double damage. A few exotic weapons are 20/x4 and 18-20/x2. The big difference between simple and martial weapons is generally that martial weapons are designed to hit and kill things, and simple weapons are just tools or random objects that can double as weapons.

Exotic Weapons generally obey these crit ranges. The highest base combination is 19-20 x3, the natural damage range of a falcata (sword-axe, like an oversized kukri).

HIT DIE/LEVELS: These are the number (and type) of dice rolled to calculate hit points. Monsters use a d6 (such as Fey), d8 (ex. Humanoids, Animals, Aberrants), d10 (magical creatures, Jotuns, Soulborn outsiders), or a d12 (Dragons) for their Health, usually assigning average values. To each Hit Die, you add their Constitution bonus to gain their Final Health, which can vary with other Feats and Masteries. So, a 12-HD Hill Jotun with a Con bonus of +6 has 12 x (1-10+6) Health, or roughly 12 x11.5 on average, or 136 Health. An average Terran Human with a Con of 12 (d8+1 bonus) has 5.

Video Games tend to assign hit points per level, instead of rolling variables, and using an average is perfectly fine. Basically, the more Hit Die you have, the tougher/stronger/more badass you are.

The average Human has 1 Hit Die for Human/1, and 1-2 Class Hit Die. How’s it feel to be a wimp like me? An experienced, Veteran soldier might be a Three, and the best spec ops soldiers in the world, Fours.

Main Characters are assumed to be highly trained and experienced, and at Level One start with maximum Health and Soak for their Class and Race. Us noncombatant NPC’s have to roll...

Class Levels also have Hit Dice + Con bonus, which grant Soak. Pure Casters, like Wizards and weak combatants (Experts, Commoners, Vizards), have a d6 for Soak. Partial combatants and skill-centered Classes have d6+2 Soak (d8 for NPC’s) (Scouts, Archers, Bards), primary fighting combatants have d6+4 (d10 for NPC’s) (Melees, Dragon Warriors, Paladins, Knights), and savage melee combatants have a d6+6 (d12 for NPC’s) (Barbarians, Berserkers).

Note: This is Power of Ten, and I am making a clear difference between the Classes if they use average hit points. It takes much more investment to make a Wizard as tough as a Melee using d6 vs d6+4 (3.5 vs 7.5 average), instead of using a d6 vs d10 (3.5 vs 5.5 avg). It was a problem in 3.5E D&D.

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AC/ARMOR CLASS: How hard it is to hit something. Unlike many games, PoT treats armor not as damage-reducing, but avoidance, i.e. it bounces off your armor. If some force gets through, it isn’t reduced automatically by the armor, it’s a hit.

Armor Class is raised by wearing armor, using a shield, being dexterous, dodging, being insightful and reading movements, having a tough hide/skin/scales, and other methods. It starts at 10 (a normal human with no bonuses or penalties), and goes up as high as you can make it.

Bonuses to magic armor and shields raise the amount of protection they give by the same amount.

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DR/DAMAGE REDUCTION (and Hardness): The amount of damage taken off a physical attack. This can be magical protection, toughness, supernatural vitality, special armor, otherworldly physiology, and so forth.

DR is expressed as a number/bypass. DR 10/Silver means 10 points of damage is removed from every physical attack... except if the attack is silver. This is the standard defense of were-creatures, and why they are fearsome enemies if you don’t have silver, as you just can’t hurt them or nickel and dime them to death.

There are Feats and Masteries that help bypass DR.

DR X/- means there is no bypass, except some Feats. Common types of DR are X/Silver, X/Magic, X/Good, X/Cold Iron, and X/Adamant, but there are X/hawthorn, X/Jade, X/Obsidian and X/Gold out there, among other things, and X/(random special object) are always fun to throw at people.

Hardness is possessed by objects, but is more like Indestructibility, while DR is more like Invulnerability. You need to exceed the Hardness of an object, using the right tool, to damage it. So, wood has a DR of 5, and a casual blow by a human isn’t going to damage it. Steel has a Hardness of 10, and is very hard for a human to damage without the right tools. Mithral and the finest steel hit Hardness 15, and Adamant has a Hardness of 20.

Jotuns have Primal DR equal to their Strength bonus, which also applies against Energy of the standard types. It allows them to live pretty much anywhere.