Given the sheer number of fiendish monsters and evil empires waiting to be vanquished in the name of justice, combat is an unavoidable part of day-to-day life in the worlds of Final Fantasy. This section covers these encounters -- and more importantly, how to emerge from them alive.
Initiating Combat
Many game systems determine in which order combatants act by rolling. This is not the case in the FFd6 – after the Pre-emptive round of combat, the ‘heroes’ (generally the player characters) almost always go first. After all the PCs have taken their turns the monsters attack, after which the next round begins. Monsters can also use Destiny points to take combat actions at any time, making some high-level adversaries commonly exploit this fact to go first.
If neither side is clearly the ‘good side’ – due to party infighting or a morally grey campaign, for example – then you can settle who acts first by having the character with the highest Finesse on each team make an opposed Finesse roll.
At the beginning of combat, all allies or enemies who have the element of surprise may act first. Characters may not use abilities or attacks when it is not their turn during the Pre-emptive round, even if the ability says otherwise. However, they retain their AVD scores, able to dodge reflexively.
If neither side is clearly the ‘good side’ – due to party infighting or a morally grey campaign, for example – then you can settle who acts first by having the character with the highest Finesse on each team make an opposed Finesse roll.
At the beginning of combat, all allies or enemies who have the element of surprise may act first. Characters may not use abilities or attacks when it is not their turn during the Pre-emptive round, even if the ability says otherwise. However, they retain their AVD scores, able to dodge reflexively.
Actions in Combat
In a given round of combat, a character may move a short range and perform as many Instant actions as they like. They may also perform one Standard Action, or start a Slow action.
Instant Actions include speech (even long-winded monologues!), certain abilities, and non-skill effects that have no major impact on combat.
Standard Actions include most job abilities, drinking potions or using a potion on a party member, switching between weapons, attacking, or moving a Medium Range instead of a Short Range. Most actions characters take will be Standard actions.
Slow Actions are longer effects that require concentration, time, or both. A character has to declare that they are initiating a slow action, which takes their entire turn. Slow Actions then resolve at the start of the character’s following turn unless interrupted by a critical hit, limit break, Teamwork Attack or a knockback effect.
Slow actions don’t count towards any of the character’s actions on the second turn. Thus, a Black Mage could begin casting Fire on his first turn and on his second turn, if uninterrupted, the spell would be cast, allowing him to take a standard action or begin a second Fire spell in the same round. This second cast would finish in the third round of combat, and so on.
Quite a few weapons and abilities have the capability to cause a ‘knockback’ of various distances, which – in addition to making battle sequences much more dramatic – are incredibly useful to interrupt and cancel Slow actions. Monsters with the ‘Large’ property are immune to knockback effects, both to the forced movement and the loss of their action.
There are a few different combat-related factors that also limit actions. Firstly, a character may only (generally) make a single Counterattack each turn and characters must still roll for attacks as normal when making a Counterattack. These counterattacks cannot be used while taking a Slow action as well.
A character under the influence of the Haste status essentially gets an extra half-turn. They may move an additional range increment OR take a second standard action, OR they may allow a Slow action to begin and finish in one turn.
Skills may either be Instant, Slow or Standard actions in combat, depending on the GM ruling. For example, Riding might be an Instant action because it requires no concentration normally, whereas to aid an injured soldier by using the Healing skill would likely be a Slow action.
Descriptive Actions
Combat in the FFd6 is fast-paced and furious, often pitting the heroes against near-impossible odds. The players will need to think quickly and stay on their toes.
A player who, on their turn, simply says “I attack” and rolls the dice is often a character without strategy, potentially to the point of being predictable and easy to dodge. Such lackluster strategies might even impose a -2 penalty on the accuracy roll at the GM’s discretion.
Similarly, a player may wish to make highly cinematic attacks, and such actions are to be rewarded for their creativity and resourcefulness as opposed to reducing the overall effectiveness of the attack. For example, a character who spends a round climbing up the metal arrows embedded in a massive dragon to reach a vital point (then attacking on the following round), might be allowed by the GM to treat the foe as having 0 AVD. A character that plunges their Indestructible blade into molten lava before striking should gain the Fire Strike weapon bonus, and so on. Similarly inspired GMs should be able to come up with other appropriate temporary or permanent rewards based on the situation at hand.
Instant Actions include speech (even long-winded monologues!), certain abilities, and non-skill effects that have no major impact on combat.
Standard Actions include most job abilities, drinking potions or using a potion on a party member, switching between weapons, attacking, or moving a Medium Range instead of a Short Range. Most actions characters take will be Standard actions.
Slow Actions are longer effects that require concentration, time, or both. A character has to declare that they are initiating a slow action, which takes their entire turn. Slow Actions then resolve at the start of the character’s following turn unless interrupted by a critical hit, limit break, Teamwork Attack or a knockback effect.
Slow actions don’t count towards any of the character’s actions on the second turn. Thus, a Black Mage could begin casting Fire on his first turn and on his second turn, if uninterrupted, the spell would be cast, allowing him to take a standard action or begin a second Fire spell in the same round. This second cast would finish in the third round of combat, and so on.
Quite a few weapons and abilities have the capability to cause a ‘knockback’ of various distances, which – in addition to making battle sequences much more dramatic – are incredibly useful to interrupt and cancel Slow actions. Monsters with the ‘Large’ property are immune to knockback effects, both to the forced movement and the loss of their action.
There are a few different combat-related factors that also limit actions. Firstly, a character may only (generally) make a single Counterattack each turn and characters must still roll for attacks as normal when making a Counterattack. These counterattacks cannot be used while taking a Slow action as well.
A character under the influence of the Haste status essentially gets an extra half-turn. They may move an additional range increment OR take a second standard action, OR they may allow a Slow action to begin and finish in one turn.
Skills may either be Instant, Slow or Standard actions in combat, depending on the GM ruling. For example, Riding might be an Instant action because it requires no concentration normally, whereas to aid an injured soldier by using the Healing skill would likely be a Slow action.
Descriptive Actions
Combat in the FFd6 is fast-paced and furious, often pitting the heroes against near-impossible odds. The players will need to think quickly and stay on their toes.
A player who, on their turn, simply says “I attack” and rolls the dice is often a character without strategy, potentially to the point of being predictable and easy to dodge. Such lackluster strategies might even impose a -2 penalty on the accuracy roll at the GM’s discretion.
Similarly, a player may wish to make highly cinematic attacks, and such actions are to be rewarded for their creativity and resourcefulness as opposed to reducing the overall effectiveness of the attack. For example, a character who spends a round climbing up the metal arrows embedded in a massive dragon to reach a vital point (then attacking on the following round), might be allowed by the GM to treat the foe as having 0 AVD. A character that plunges their Indestructible blade into molten lava before striking should gain the Fire Strike weapon bonus, and so on. Similarly inspired GMs should be able to come up with other appropriate temporary or permanent rewards based on the situation at hand.
Targets and Ranges
Four types of targets exist in combat:
To enhance the cinematic style of combat this system revolves around, try to avoid thinking in terms of ‘movement squares’ or exact numerical measurements to determine movement and range. Instead, only three types of distance exist.
- Self is the user of the ability, or the caster of the spell.
- A Group is the entire formation of monsters or the character and all his allies. A Group should be limited to a dozen or so at most for balance reasons.
- Local refers to everything except the originator of the attack, spell or ability – all enemies, all allies, all defenseless pedestrians, the terrain in the area, everything within range - is affected by this blanket maneuver.
- Finally, a Single target is – as the name implies – restricted to only one person, whether friend or foe. Such targets may be picked out of a larger formation, or exist simply because the Party is fighting against only one powerful foe.
To enhance the cinematic style of combat this system revolves around, try to avoid thinking in terms of ‘movement squares’ or exact numerical measurements to determine movement and range. Instead, only three types of distance exist.
- Short Range refers to anything conceivably the characters could reach or attack without much movement required beforehand. It generally denotes that an enemy is easily within melee distance. Short Range weapons are common, and include everything from swords to unarmed brawling attacks. Such weapons are versatile and plentiful, but limited in situations with much more mobile combatants – for example, hitting Flying enemies with a Short Range weapon imposes a -4 penalty on the attack roll. Characters can move a Short Range as an Instant action once per round.
- Medium Range is a little harder to measure because its exact distance varies for dramatic purposes. Medium Range is the distance a character can move in a single round at a hard run, or how far a gun or bow can be comfortably fired. Medium Range could be a city block or from one side of an Airship to the other, for example. Almost all Ranged and thrown weapons possess a Medium Range – though there’s no reason a gun or Shuriken couldn’t be used to its fullest at point-blank. It normally takes a character a Standard action to move a Medium Range, unless the character is riding a mount or vehicle.
- Long Range denotes a distance greater than medium range, but still able to be seen. This could represent anything from a few city blocks to a few miles, depending on circumstance. Characters cannot normally move a Long Range without beneficial magic, and characters can only use Ranged weapons at a Long Range – albeit with large penalties to attack rolls.
Dealing Damage
Damage – whether from a spell or the swing of a sword – is mostly pre-calculated.
For example, we’ll use a spear that deals (PWR x 1) + 2d6 points of damage. If the character wielding this weapon had a PWR attribute of 15, then the damage his basic attacks deal would be read as 15 + 2d6 in total. If the same character switched to a (PWR x 2) weapon, then such attacks would deal 30 + 2d6 damage.
When a character rolls their attack on their turn, they only roll a total of 2d6 dice that are used for both determining if the attack hits, as well as how much additional damage the attack does if successful. For spells and magical effects they generally do not require an ACC roll, yet they still use the same method of rolling 2d6 for the purpose of damage calculation.
Falling
A character that is affected by a Knockback effect while in the air may be forced to land, though this generally does not happen until the end of their next turn.
In those cases where falling happens, falling from a Medium Range causes the character to take 50% of their maximum HP in damage, and a Long Range is immediate unconsciousness for most creatures. This is often bypassed however, as Final Fantasy heroes are well-known for their ability to fight flawlessly even in mid-air, almost appearing to hover as they clash with foes a few dozen feet above the ground.
Damage Multipliers
This rule is brief, but important. Often, characters will gain large bonuses to their damage – a critical hit (200% damage) with a Fire-based against an enemy weak to fire (200% damage) for example. These bonuses are additive; in this situation, 400% damage would be dealt. However, no attack may ever gain a total combat multiplier of higher than 500% for any reason. And finally, attacks that deal ‘half’ damage always total up the multiplier before cutting the final score in half. So in the above example involving a fire-based critical hit against a fire-weak enemy, the 400% damage would be reduced down to 200% if the enemy also had Unusual Defense.
Elemental Affinities
Most creatures and many pieces of equipment have an affinity to a particular element, gaining some benefits related to that element. Some monsters go one step further - becoming so strongly aligned with a particular element that they are impervious to harm from that element or even growing stronger from exposure to it. On the other hand, such a monster is often at the mercy of the opposing element. Certain accessories, equipment properties, and even job abilities can also grant elemental affinities to player characters. There are five levels of elemental affinities.
Weakness means the target takes double damage from attacks of that element.
Vulnerable means the target takes an additional 50% damage from that element.
Resistance means the target takes only half damage from attacks of that element.
Immunity means the target takes no damage or effects from attacks of that element.
Absorb means the target takes no damage from attacks of that element, and instead regains an amount of HP equal to half the damage rolled.
Critical Hits
When a character rolls a critical success (two 6s) on their accuracy roll, the hit is assumed to automatically land and deal 200% damage. Depending on the situation, this critical hit can possibly become a Limit Break.
Some abilities and properties expand a critical hit’s potential range. In these cases the critical hit only automatically lands if it’s a critical success, otherwise it still needs to beat a target’s AVD score. These critical hits can still turn into a Limit Break.
Enhanced rolls have special rules for critical hits; you choose any 2 dice that you have rolled for the purposes of determining if the attack was a critical hit. For example, if you have a critical range of 10-12 and rolled a 4, 2, and 6, the 4 and 6 would add up to 10 and count as a critical hit.
For example, we’ll use a spear that deals (PWR x 1) + 2d6 points of damage. If the character wielding this weapon had a PWR attribute of 15, then the damage his basic attacks deal would be read as 15 + 2d6 in total. If the same character switched to a (PWR x 2) weapon, then such attacks would deal 30 + 2d6 damage.
When a character rolls their attack on their turn, they only roll a total of 2d6 dice that are used for both determining if the attack hits, as well as how much additional damage the attack does if successful. For spells and magical effects they generally do not require an ACC roll, yet they still use the same method of rolling 2d6 for the purpose of damage calculation.
Falling
A character that is affected by a Knockback effect while in the air may be forced to land, though this generally does not happen until the end of their next turn.
In those cases where falling happens, falling from a Medium Range causes the character to take 50% of their maximum HP in damage, and a Long Range is immediate unconsciousness for most creatures. This is often bypassed however, as Final Fantasy heroes are well-known for their ability to fight flawlessly even in mid-air, almost appearing to hover as they clash with foes a few dozen feet above the ground.
Damage Multipliers
This rule is brief, but important. Often, characters will gain large bonuses to their damage – a critical hit (200% damage) with a Fire-based against an enemy weak to fire (200% damage) for example. These bonuses are additive; in this situation, 400% damage would be dealt. However, no attack may ever gain a total combat multiplier of higher than 500% for any reason. And finally, attacks that deal ‘half’ damage always total up the multiplier before cutting the final score in half. So in the above example involving a fire-based critical hit against a fire-weak enemy, the 400% damage would be reduced down to 200% if the enemy also had Unusual Defense.
Elemental Affinities
Most creatures and many pieces of equipment have an affinity to a particular element, gaining some benefits related to that element. Some monsters go one step further - becoming so strongly aligned with a particular element that they are impervious to harm from that element or even growing stronger from exposure to it. On the other hand, such a monster is often at the mercy of the opposing element. Certain accessories, equipment properties, and even job abilities can also grant elemental affinities to player characters. There are five levels of elemental affinities.
Weakness means the target takes double damage from attacks of that element.
Vulnerable means the target takes an additional 50% damage from that element.
Resistance means the target takes only half damage from attacks of that element.
Immunity means the target takes no damage or effects from attacks of that element.
Absorb means the target takes no damage from attacks of that element, and instead regains an amount of HP equal to half the damage rolled.
Critical Hits
When a character rolls a critical success (two 6s) on their accuracy roll, the hit is assumed to automatically land and deal 200% damage. Depending on the situation, this critical hit can possibly become a Limit Break.
Some abilities and properties expand a critical hit’s potential range. In these cases the critical hit only automatically lands if it’s a critical success, otherwise it still needs to beat a target’s AVD score. These critical hits can still turn into a Limit Break.
Enhanced rolls have special rules for critical hits; you choose any 2 dice that you have rolled for the purposes of determining if the attack was a critical hit. For example, if you have a critical range of 10-12 and rolled a 4, 2, and 6, the 4 and 6 would add up to 10 and count as a critical hit.
Casting a Spell
When you cast a spell, the MP is only used when the spell is successfully cast. If the spell is interrupted by a critical hit, the Seal status condition, a limit break or a Knockback, no MP is spent – although Job abilities may have been wasted. All magic has a Medium Range unless noted differently, and never misses even the most evasive of foes. No attack roll is needed unless specified otherwise, and magic can never critically hit (though it can still trigger a Limit Break if a roll is high enough).
Teamwork Attacks
Think about your closest friends. If you know them well enough, you also know their strengths and weaknesses. You know how they think, how they react, how they tick. You trust them to know the same about you, too. And when it comes to combat, going back-to-back with a partner and fighting in tandem is often the key to victory.
It is assumed that all attacks in a round happen nearly simultaneously. However, two or more players can coordinate their attacks against a single foe, attempting to ruin their concentration and leave him (or it) staggered from the flurry of attacks. These are most often referred to as Teamwork Attacks, but are also known as Concurrences or band attacks. On his or her turn, each player interested in participating in a teamwork attack must declare so ahead of time. Each player then makes an attack or casts a spell as normal, and compares the 2d6 they rolled for accuracy/damage, looking for paired numbers. For example, if the first player rolls a 4 and a 6, and the second player rolled a 2 and a 4, the teamwork attack would be successful.
If the Teamwork Attack is unsuccessful due to no matching pairs, both of the attacks are negated and instantly fail. If there’s a matching pair but one of the attacks would miss their target due to the value simply being too low, the Teamwork Attack fails and again, both attacks are nullified. Teamwork Attacks happen simultaneously, meaning if one of them is a slower action than the other both of them happen when the slower one would happen.
A successful Teamwork Attacks grant the following benefits:
It is assumed that all attacks in a round happen nearly simultaneously. However, two or more players can coordinate their attacks against a single foe, attempting to ruin their concentration and leave him (or it) staggered from the flurry of attacks. These are most often referred to as Teamwork Attacks, but are also known as Concurrences or band attacks. On his or her turn, each player interested in participating in a teamwork attack must declare so ahead of time. Each player then makes an attack or casts a spell as normal, and compares the 2d6 they rolled for accuracy/damage, looking for paired numbers. For example, if the first player rolls a 4 and a 6, and the second player rolled a 2 and a 4, the teamwork attack would be successful.
If the Teamwork Attack is unsuccessful due to no matching pairs, both of the attacks are negated and instantly fail. If there’s a matching pair but one of the attacks would miss their target due to the value simply being too low, the Teamwork Attack fails and again, both attacks are nullified. Teamwork Attacks happen simultaneously, meaning if one of them is a slower action than the other both of them happen when the slower one would happen.
A successful Teamwork Attacks grant the following benefits:
- The monster targeted by the Teamwork Attack loses all of their Combat Abilities until the end of their next turn; Counterattack, Magical Counterattack, Final Attack, Status Touch, Call For Help, Inhale, Call Minions, Multiweapon, Flawless Spell, Item Use, Submerge, Combination attack, and Job Ability all cease to work.
- Whenever any character that successfully helped perform the Teamwork Attack is targeted by an enemy over the course of the next round, any other party member involved in the teamwork attack may redirect the attack so that it targets them instead.
- Single-target Teamwork Attacks deal normal damage to a Swarm instead of being reduced by half.
- Teamwork Attacks interrupt the target’s ongoing Slow actions.
Maneuvers
Maneuvers are generally some specific technique or tactic used in combat that is not generally covered by making a Standard attack or using a combat ability. These should be things that nearly any character can attempt and they generally require a character’s Standard action. Depending on the case there may be need for opposed Force/Finesse checks or even rolling skills against the standard set difficulties. When an unusual maneuver occurs a GM is encouraged to remember that in the Final Fantasy universe, even heavily encumbered warriors are capable of incredible speed, rapidity and technique. Some examples of common maneuvers include:
- Disarm: Both parties make opposing Force/Finesse checks. On a success, one object the target is holding is either sent flying or now wielded by the one disarming them (if the one doing the disarming had a hand free). How long an opponent remains without their weapon after being Disarmed can vary drastically but it generally takes at least a Standard action to reclaim the object. Disarming a creature often leads to a significant drop in power and potentially the inability to use certain abilities or properties.
- Distract: The character makes an Acting check opposed by an Awareness check made by the target. On a success the target is distracted by the target, letting its guard down and making the next attack against them strike them as though they were inflicted with the Armor Break status.
- Grapple: Both parties make opposing Force/Finesse checks. On a success, the target is grappled by the character, inflicting the Stop status on them both for the rest of the round.
- Push/Pull: Both parties make opposing Force checks. On a success, the target and the character initiating the action suffer Short range knockback in a direction of the character’s choosing.
- Shove: Both parties make opposing Force checks. On a success, the target suffers Short range knockback.
- Sunder: The character makes an attack against a piece of equipment a target is using. This attack must exceed the target’s AVD. They then make a Force check to try and break the object based on what that equipment is made of. A sundered piece of equipment has its equipment tier temporarily decreased by one step until the end of combat (or until it gets repaired, depending on the GM’s discretion) and is cumulative. If this exceeds half of its overall tier the weapon instead gains the ‘Broken’ property. Indestructible equipment cannot be sundered in this way.
- Swap Equipment: The character swaps one of their pieces of equipment that they currently have on with another one in their inventory.
- Throw: One object the character is wielding gets thrown up to a Medium range away. If this is used as part of an attack it requires both a successful attack roll and either a Moderate, Challenging, or Impressive Finesse check to throw it appropriately (depending on the item). If the character chooses to do so they may have a creature nearby where it’s being thrown make their own Finesse check to catch that object. If nobody catches the object or the throw is unsuccessful it’s generally located somewhere on the floor nearby; able to be picked up with a Standard action.
- Trip: Both parties make opposing Force/Finesse checks. On a success, the target falls down to the floor. While on the floor in this way they are inflicted with the Speed Break status effect. They may stand up at any time using their movement for the turn.
Defending
On their turn, a character may choose to go into a defensive stance instead of taking any actions. This reduces all damage taken (after armor) by 50% as if the player had the effects of Protect and Shell, and lasts until the start of the character’s next turn. If the character already had the effects of Protect or Shell (as appropriate), the damage sustained when defending is reduced to only 25% instead.
Some job abilities provide additional bonuses to how Defending works, but those are few and far between.
Some job abilities provide additional bonuses to how Defending works, but those are few and far between.
Running Away
Not every challenge the PCs encounter will be winnable, and sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor. There are a myriad of ways for players to remove themselves from combat – a Smoke Bomb item, the white magic spell ‘Escape’, and others. But the players can always try to flee on foot if magic and misdirection fail.
With a Standard action in combat a non-unconscious character may roll his Escape skill at a varying difficulty; generally the difficulty never exceeds Moderate (9), but some Notorious Monsters and Bosses are much more difficult to escape from. On a success the character flees the battle and leaves combat, and does not receive any gil, experience or Destiny for the battle.
Characters who are afflicted with the negative status effect Stop cannot make Run Away checks, and there must be some conceivable way of escaping battle for this to work – a character cannot, for example, run away when inside a locked cell or soaring through the clouds on the deck of an airship. At least, not without a very nasty fall involved.
If the entire group of heroes runs from a Notorious or Boss monster, then it’s assumed that the creature is still out there, lurking and waiting for them to return. Fleeing from a lesser or regular monster group effectively means the encounter was nullified, and the players probably won’t encounter the same creatures a second time.
With a Standard action in combat a non-unconscious character may roll his Escape skill at a varying difficulty; generally the difficulty never exceeds Moderate (9), but some Notorious Monsters and Bosses are much more difficult to escape from. On a success the character flees the battle and leaves combat, and does not receive any gil, experience or Destiny for the battle.
Characters who are afflicted with the negative status effect Stop cannot make Run Away checks, and there must be some conceivable way of escaping battle for this to work – a character cannot, for example, run away when inside a locked cell or soaring through the clouds on the deck of an airship. At least, not without a very nasty fall involved.
If the entire group of heroes runs from a Notorious or Boss monster, then it’s assumed that the creature is still out there, lurking and waiting for them to return. Fleeing from a lesser or regular monster group effectively means the encounter was nullified, and the players probably won’t encounter the same creatures a second time.
Terrain
In addition to the normal dangers in combat, characters may be faced with other challenges. Perhaps the area is crowded with screaming, fleeing pedestrians, making firing a ranged weapon almost impossible. Perhaps a cluster of bomb cores sits in the middle of the room, capable of causing a massive explosion if accidentally nicked with a Fire-based spell or attack.
We refer to all of these things as Difficult Terrain, something that turns a straightforward battle into a more delicate or complicated affair. There’s three different ways this could play out.
The first penalty difficult terrain might cause is penalties to rolls, generally a -2 or -4 penalty to specific checks such as Stealth or accuracy. This could be anything from sand traps to high winds; effects that hinder, but do not physically harm.
The second way Difficult Terrain might adversely affect battle is with One-Time Damage, such as a set of crumbling ruins collapsing on the battlefield. One-Time damage can almost always be avoided with a successful Force of Finesse check depending on the situation, and generally deals (Party level x 10) + 2d6 points of damage to one individual or an entire group, on a case-by-case basis. It may or may not be tied to a certain element, and may target either ARM or M.ARM or completely ignore all defenses.
Finally, Difficult Terrain might cause Recurring Damage, such as battling in a cactus patch, or taking a pleasant dip in the planet’s molten core. Recurring damage is dealt at the end of each player’s turn, and just like the previous example, may or may not be tied to an element and may target either ARM, M.ARM, or ignore defenses depending on the complication. Depending on the situation, some GMs may rule that a successful Force, Finesse, or Skill check (made as an instant action of course) can avoid one round’s worth of damage from a recurring source. For example, a trapped hallway that shoots a steady stream of arrows into combat could still be dodged, and a particularly machismo hero might be able to wade uphill against a landslide without winding up battered and unconscious. Recurring damage is generally equal to (Party level x 6) points of damage.
We refer to all of these things as Difficult Terrain, something that turns a straightforward battle into a more delicate or complicated affair. There’s three different ways this could play out.
The first penalty difficult terrain might cause is penalties to rolls, generally a -2 or -4 penalty to specific checks such as Stealth or accuracy. This could be anything from sand traps to high winds; effects that hinder, but do not physically harm.
The second way Difficult Terrain might adversely affect battle is with One-Time Damage, such as a set of crumbling ruins collapsing on the battlefield. One-Time damage can almost always be avoided with a successful Force of Finesse check depending on the situation, and generally deals (Party level x 10) + 2d6 points of damage to one individual or an entire group, on a case-by-case basis. It may or may not be tied to a certain element, and may target either ARM or M.ARM or completely ignore all defenses.
Finally, Difficult Terrain might cause Recurring Damage, such as battling in a cactus patch, or taking a pleasant dip in the planet’s molten core. Recurring damage is dealt at the end of each player’s turn, and just like the previous example, may or may not be tied to an element and may target either ARM, M.ARM, or ignore defenses depending on the complication. Depending on the situation, some GMs may rule that a successful Force, Finesse, or Skill check (made as an instant action of course) can avoid one round’s worth of damage from a recurring source. For example, a trapped hallway that shoots a steady stream of arrows into combat could still be dodged, and a particularly machismo hero might be able to wade uphill against a landslide without winding up battered and unconscious. Recurring damage is generally equal to (Party level x 6) points of damage.