Category Archives: Rules

Necromancer class

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Several of my favorite archetypes are rarely handled as classes in a way that satisfies me, including the necromancer, summoner, and warlock/diabolist. It is possible to simulate these types of characters in traditional D&D, but only with a specific set of spells and a higher level magic-user. In a game where you are playing to find out what kind of magic-user you become based on the spells you find this can be fun, but if you are looking to play a particular kind of magician from the beginning it can be something of a letdown.

I have already attempted to create a necromancer class, but in review that approach (with variable undead creation costs) feels a bit clunky and bases too much of the necromancer’s primary competency (undead minions) on treasure cash flow. Like a traditional magic-user’s spell preparation, the necromancer should be able to recover thralls as part of the basic resource cycle. As such, there is no cost for the basic creation and maintenance of undead thralls. Procuring corpses may still require adventuring, depending on the setting, and each body can only be used once. Scarcity of corpses can thus be used to modulate thrall disposability, but the expectation is that necromancers should be able to burn through a collection of thralls between each downtime if desired.

This necromancer does not gain new spells automatically and can only learn necromancy spells. These can be found (unlikely, as the referee is not expected to tailor treasure found to desires of specific PCs) or researched at a cost of 1000 coins per spell level. In a game where treasure yields the bulk of XP, I would expect necromancer PCs to spend most of their money on researching new spells (or making scrolls of known spells, if that is an option allowed to magic-users). This also means players can handle most spell choices on their own between sessions, only relying on the referee for final approval, easing the administrative load.

Allowing any magic spell to be re-skinned with necromantic trappings (“skeleton key” as a knock spell, negative energy blast rather than magic missile, and so forth) will likely make this class overpowered (and also indistinct). So don’t do that. Require necromancy spells to be taken from existing books or newly designed around strong (and limited) necromantic themes. This necromancer is intended to play differently than the traditional magic-user.

See downloads page for a PDF for printing conveniently front and back on one letter-sized sheet.

Necromancer

Level progression, HP, saves, attack, weapons, armor, and spell slots as magic-user.

  • Prepare and cast only necromancy spells
  • Maintain control over up to 1 HD worth of undead per level
  • Assert control over undead as an action
  • Direct any or all controlled undead as an action
  • Create and repair undead minions up to 1 HD per level per downtime
  • Will not generally be served by mortal retainers other than apprentices

Spells and magic items

Given that the chance of finding many necromancy spells during play without fudging is low, necromancers of any level may research new spells during downtime. This requires 1000 XP-equivalent currency units per spell level and takes one downtime action irrespective of spell level. Necromancers may only research new spells of a level that can be prepared. Necromancers may craft scrolls of known necromancy spells following the rules used by magic-users and may only use scrolls, wands, staves, or other wizardly magic items that have a strong necromancy component.

Control and direct undead

Death and the miser (source)

Death and the miser (source)

Necromancers may maintain control over a number of HD worth of undead equal to level. No check is required, but asserting control takes an action if done in combat. Intelligent undead deserve a saving throw and a necromancer only gets one try when attempting to influence such beings. Directing newly controlled undead must wait for another action.

Most created undead have dim and limited intelligence. They can only follow crude commands and are unable to perform complicated tasks. An action such as “pull that lever” is about the limit of undead sophistication. As an action, a necromancer may direct (or modify previous directions for) any or all currently controlled undead. Directions must be clear and vocalized but need not be overly specific. For example, “attack those orcs” is acceptable; there is no need to declare exactly which orc should be attacked.

Actions available include attack (a target), defend (a person), follow (a person or thing), guard (a location), move (to a nearby place), patrol (an area), and retrieve (a nearby item). Minions will intuit needed movement given an attack command, but may not choose the smartest route on their own. Minions instructed to defend will hold actions and use opposed combat rolls to determine the success of a potential interception.

This structure means that a necromancer can either take an action themselves during a turn (such as cast a spell) or redirect minions but not both. Undead will continue to follow existing directions until new directions are provided.

Undead become uncontrolled upon the death (though not unconsciousness) of a necromancer master and uncontrolled undead without directions are hostile to all life. A necromancer may release undead minions from service at will.

Create undead

During downtime, necromancers may create or repair a number of HD worth of undead equal to level. This may result in a necromancer having created more undead than can be controlled. Excess undead are uncontrolled and hostile to all life. The propensity of necromancers to create uncontrolled “spares” that often get loose is no small part of the profession’s generally poor reputation. Strictly speaking, no resources are needed other than corpses that have not been previously animated, though in practice a private ritual sanctum is necessary for the sake of privacy (necromancy being widely vilified as black magic). Created undead are by default a form of zombie. Other undead may be controlled but must be discovered in play or created with the aid of augmentation spells.

HD may be allocated as desired between multiple minions. For example, a fourth level necromancer may create 4 minions of 1 HD each, one minion of 4 HD, or some other combination. Undead minions attack and save as a creature of the appropriate HD, have an AC bonus equal to HD, move in combat as a lightly encumbered human (three-quarters of an unencumbered human’s rate), and gain no benefit other than style from armor. Damage is by weapon or 1d6 from fearsome unarmed strike. Undead are not effective porters and have a tendency to hide or vandalize carried objects other than raiment or armament when unsupervised.

Weapons

Even if being strict about weapon usage, it is suggested that necromancers be allowed to wield sickles and scythes because of the symbolic value of these tools to the craft of necromancy.

  • Sickle: as dagger, not throwable, 1d4 damage
  • Scythe: as staff, requires two hands, slashing rather than bludgeoning, 1d6 damage

Good sources of necromancy spells for use with traditional class-and-level fantasy games:

Image by Millet (source)

Image by Millet (source)

Thanks to Duncan E. for suggesting Holbein as an illustration source.

An approach to Flailsnails

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I have been meaning to run more Flailsnails games. In pursuit of that goal, here is a brief overview of how I would run such games for ease of linking. The objective is to maintain a certain level of restraint, to keep the game interesting, but to not fight too hard against the strange cross-world agglomeration which is part of the charm of Flailsnails or expect folks to rewrite PCs extensively.

House rules are minimal:

  1. No more than two outland magic items (stole this rule from Zak)
  2. Significant items carried without penalty = strength score
  3. Save or die at zero HP (no negative HP)

What this means for you, the player: you probably do not need to worry about system level changes much, but you will need to spend 5 to 10 minutes most likely to decide what you will carry. Hopefully this won’t be to onerous?

“Native” base system is something like B/X D&D (ability mod range of -3 to +3, 3d6 in order assumed for stat generation). If you used some other method for character generation, that’s fine, just be aware that you are likely to be above the curve a bit (the equivalent of a higher level character). I do not worry much about inter-party level balance and a group of characters with drastically different levels plays fine at the table with this kind of game in my experience.

I use ascending AC. If you do not already have an attack bonus calculated for your PC, use level for fighters, zero for magic-user types, and half-level for all other classes.

In addition to this, the session will begin with a brief “downtime” turn. PCs must pay for upkeep or start disadvantaged in terms of HP and resource recovery (5 coins buys standard upkeep, 100 quality, and 500 luxurious; quality and luxurious accommodations grant better HP rerolls or some bonus temp HP depending on your preference). During this turn, gear can also be purchased and retainers recruited. This is not intended to be an expansive roleplaying opportunity, just a staging ground. While these matters are being sorted out I will also recount the basic rumors and adventuring opportunities available.

At the end of the session, I will give XP based on treasure recovered. Normally, I prefer to do XP for treasure spent, but that is impractical within the Flailsnails context. I do not award any XP for defeating monsters. Special XP awards may be available for completing other tasks, and if so this will be made clear during the preparatory downtime turn along with rumors.

It should go without saying, but please also let me know beforehand if you have some really strange power or extra potent magic item. Use your best judgment; I reserve the right to nerf stuff during play that was not cleared beforehand.

Oh, and no infravision or dark vision. Continual light works differently in my games too (ask me if it matters). I am sure I am forgetting a few other things as well.

See also:

Stabilized Carcosa hit dice

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stabilized carcosa hit diceThe Carcosa supplement introduces a rule where hit dice are not rolled until combat begins. The hit die size is also determined randomly. At the start of an encounter, HD are rolled and left in front of each player. Damage is then inflicted upon the die with highest face value first. For example, a character with three rolled HD of 5, 4, and 2 takes damage to the 5 die first. If a die is reduced to zero, it is removed entirely from the character’s pool and only returned in the case of healing. If that character only takes (say) 3 damage during an encounter, all three HD are retained, and there is no persistent damage. I have used this system, and though it does take a bit getting used to, it works in practice more smoothly than it reads.

This approach has a number of properties that may be disentangled if desired. First, determining the die size randomly increases the uncertainty of combat. Though higher level characters are on average tougher than lower level characters, when combat starts you may be rolling four-sided dice for HP, twelve-sided dice, or something else. Second, rolling a handful of dice and letting them sit in front of you eases the tracking of damage, as there is no HP tally. You just have a max HD value written on your character sheet, and a remaining pool of dice in front of you.

I think the second property would work well without the first (that is, rolling the HD at the beginning of combat, but not determining the HD size randomly). It would be especially convenient using OD&D style all six-sided HD, given the ubiquity of six-siders. How to handle bonus HP would need to be determined (the second term in an HD expression such as 1+1 or the bonus from constitution). The most satisfactory method would probably be to have a series of static “bonus” hit dice to represent those extra HP which would not be rolled. For example, assuming values from Men & Magic, a fifth level fighter with an exceptional constitution has 5+1 HD and +5 HP. This could be represented as 5d6 rolled plus one die set down with a “6” value. Handling penalties seems more tedious, and I cannot think of a better system right now than needing to adjust each die downward after rolling them. The B/X bonus scale of -3 to +3 also would require more bonus dice, with a mid-level high-constitution character having several “static” HD worth of bonuses, but it seems like that would not be overly cumbersome.

Using a system like this also opens up the possibility of using hit dice as other sorts of resources. For some ideas along those lines, see:

Using HD as resources could require re-rolling them, removing them from the pool entirely, only removing them in the case of rolls less than (or greater than) the current rolled face value, or any other number of ways to modulate potential die removal.

HP determination could also be deferred until damage is rolled, as described here:

Rereading that post, however, I think it is probably less immediately approachable than the kind of modified Carcosa die system outlined here.

 

Souls as resource

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Image by Chardin (source)

Image by Chardin (source)

James Y.’s necromancer class uses harvested souls as fuel for necromancy spells. From the post:

Last Breath must be collected at the moment of a creature’s death and is usually stored in glass vials.

I like the flavor of this mechanic, and the way it interacts with the encumbrance system (by using flasks for storage). It would be interesting to use something like this as a more general resource. Here is a simple idea along those lines.

After death, souls linger for a short time before moving to the next phase. Conveniently for game purposes, this period is about ten minutes (which is to say, one exploration turn). A magician may spend this time collecting a soul if an empty flask is at hand. Do not neglect to roll for random encounters. Soul capture requires reciting minor incantations and performing the proper ritual gestures. At the end of this time, a soul is captured. Flasks, empty or occupied, are significant for purposes of encumbrance. No more than one soul may be stored per flask.

Such trapped souls have a number of different uses, including:

  1. Casting a prepared spell without expending it (called “drinking a soul”).
  2. Animation of an object (chair, broom, sword, corpse, etc) for one exploration turn.
  3. Feeding undead (like how rations or livestock work for living monsters).

Using the soul in any of these ways negates its existence and destroys it utterly. Some claim that this is an abhorrent act, but certain groups of magicians have developed entire philosophies around the liberation of the souls bound to the reality through eternal recurrence. Sages have remarked that such philosophies are convenient for the earthly needs of magicians, but do not entirely discount the validity of such beliefs.

Bottled souls may also be traded between magicians or otherworldly beings.

Postscript: believe it or not, I totally wrote and scheduled this post before I started playing Dark Souls recently!

Dragon class

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Below you can find a PC dragon class designed for use with various traditional tabletop fantasy RPGs. It assumes a relatively restrained power curve (think 3 LBBs) and thus might need to be punched up slightly if used with games that have a higher power expectation (just increasing HD and natural attack damage would probably be enough). I imagine it should work just fine for FLAILSNAILS play as is.

A two-page PDF version is also available.

Other Character Types: There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Dragon would have to begin as let us say, a “young” one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee.

— Gary Gygax, Men & Magic, page 8

  • XP progression and attack as fighter
  • 1d6 HP per level, up to 10d6
  • When gaining a level, +1 strength and +1 constitution (max 18) to reflect physical development

Adventuring dragons are usually disowned runts or survivors of insufficiently thorough paladin attacks. Solitary young dragons are usually killed if encountered by civilized folk and so may seek the protection of a treasure-hunting adventuring company. Dragon PCs speak common and the language of dragons.

Dragon progression and abilities by level
Level 1-3 4-6 7-9 10+
Description whelp wyrmling wyrm dragon
Size small medium large huge
Flight long jump half normal speed standard standard + hover
AC chain (5 [14]) chain + shield (4 [15]) plate (3 [16]) plate + shield (2 [17])
Melee attack 1d6 1d6+1 2d6 2d6+1

Appearance

Image by Jacob Grimm (source)

Image by Jacob Grimm (source)

The appearance of dragons varies greatly. Scales are most commonly dark green with orange or white underbellies, but dull black and shades of deep blood red exist as well. Dragons age at varying rates based on successfulness accumulating treasure. Dragon size ranges from that of a large hound (whelp) to that of an elephant when full grown (tenth level). The bulk of even a full-grown dragon is sinuous, and can fit through standard doors if wings are furled. Openings smaller than doors may present difficulties, however.

Equipment

Dragon claws are not suited to fighting with weapons or manipulating anything much more complicated than a door handle, so dragons cannot use weapons effectively. Dragons prefer to walk on all four legs, but can hold an item in each fore claw when not moving. Armor is awkward for dragons, and hinders as much as it helps. As such, dragons gain no AC benefit from wearing armor, though dragon scales naturally gain in toughness as dragon level increases.

Dragons can carry a number of significant items equal to strength, given harnesses and saddlebags, but much prefer not to, opting instead to have servants perform such manual labor. Dragons can use wands and staves, but no other magic items.

Breathing fire

A dragon’s flaming breath does 1d6 damage per level (save for half), with area coverage also equal to level. Thus, a third level dragon’s fire can catch up to 3 human-sized targets within its area and deals 3d6 damage (with a save allowed for half damage). Dragons may breath fire no more than once per exploration turn. Further, the total number of times a dragon breathes fire per day may not exceed dragon level. Dragon fire can damage enemies that require magic or silver weapons to hit.

Some dragons have deadly breath of types other than fire (acid, lightning, frost, etc). With referee permission, you can choose a type other than fire. In any case, dragons are immune to damage of a type that they can breathe. For example, an acid-breathing dragon is entirely immune to acid damage.

Gaining levels

Dragons gain 1 XP for each GP worth of treasure accumulated in a hoard. If the hoard is depleted, no XP is lost, but no new XP is gained either until the hoard is replenished. A dragon’s XP total never rises above the hoard value. Funds spent on hoard guards, traps, interior decorators, and other home improvements do not count towards hoard value. Hoards consist of glittery things that you can sleep on and show off to guests.

A lair must be established to store this hoard. Assuming the dragon takes reasonable precautions, there is little risk of burglary, though the referee is within rights to occasionally use stolen hoard elements as adventure hooks, assuming that clues are left behind.

Flight

Whelps, with the aid of furiously beating wings, can reliably jump 10 feet high or 15 feet forward. Whelps may also fall an extra 10 feet without taking damage. Wyrmlings can fly awkwardly at half human movement rate, with a wing action that is the flying equivalent of doggy paddle. Wyrms can fly with more aptitude as long as movement is constant, or can fly awkwardly if also carrying something up to the size and mass of a human. Full-grown dragons can fly with agility and hover indefinitely given enough space to beat their wings. At this stage, a dragon could serve as a mount for a human and still fly well, though few dragons will do so as it is considered demeaning.

Banking treasure

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XP = treasure spent is one of my top-shelf house rules, up there with encumbrance by strength. This method of managing advancement has become pretty important to how I play D&D. However, it presents two challenges. One is that there must be supply to match player demand (that is, interesting things to spend money on). Living costs, retainers, and equipment constitute partial supply.

Another is that it makes players more present-biased, as treasure must be disposed of in order to acquire XP, which works against saving for large expenses such as strongholds. This is not entirely a bad thing, as it incentivizes the iconic Swords & Sorcery behavior exemplified by Conan, Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser. However, this can work at cross-purposes to some degree with the mid to high level domain game.

To address these issues, I suggest introducing a new common town feature: the bank (or merchant house, or whatever you prefer to call it). PCs may deposit money in a bank to take XP immediately. Bankers, being important folks, are not going to concern themselves with pocket change. If you want to make a deposit, it must be in round numbers with at least four digits (of whatever coinage is being mapped to experience points). Withdrawals are not in coinage, but instead in bank notes (which have similarly large denominations). Spending bank notes does not grant XP (that would be double dipping). Bank notes are primarily useful for funding expenses such as mercenary companies, fortresses, and ships.

From a game perspective, all that need be tracked on the character sheet is the bank in question and the deposit amount. Of course, bankers pay interest, and this is represented by 1100 out in note value for each 1000 put in (nice round numbers, because I am lazy). This provides the standard economic trade-off between less now or more later. The amount on deposit could also double as some sort of reaction bonus for social interactions with the bank.

Needless to say, someone will bring up the bank as lucrative target. And I say to that, go for it! Heists make good adventures. However, good luck getting more than a few thousand coins from knocking over a bank, as most bank assets are in the form of obligations owed by others, not hard currency, and any heist will of course have social ramifications (not least being the adventurers becoming wanted criminals if identified). I could even see adventurers being called in to defend a bank with which they have deposits.

If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.

— John Paul Getty (mutatis mutandis, of course).

Cleric boons

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Roerich - Blessed soul (source)

Roerich – Blessed soul (source)

Hey look, it’s another system for cleric magic. You need another one of those, right?

In addition to turning undead, clerics have the ability to call upon boons from patron immortals. All boons require an action and the brandishing of a holy symbol. Any target must be touched. A cleric may use a number of boons per adventure equal to class level. Thus, a third level cleric may use three boons. Boons need not be prepared in the manner of magician spells. The following eight effects are available.

  • Bless: grant +1d6 towards a single specific action (use prior to roll).
  • Cure: restore 1d6 HP.
  • Dispel: suppress a major enchantment or destroy a minor enchantment.
  • Exorcise: drive out a possessing spirit, which may not return to the same host.
  • Know: determine whether an object or creature is unholy or possessed.
  • Light: holy symbol shines; duration and illumination as torch.
  • Purify: remove corruption, including from contaminated food or drink.
  • Resist: 1d6 DR versus one of acid, fire, lightning, or cold for one exploration turn.

That is a simple version of the system. A more complicated version might have clerics only start with access to a few boons (say, 1 to 3) and gain one more per level attained. In that case, eight boons are probably not enough. Here are several more (with the original entries repeated, so that this list can be used as a random table if desired).

  1. Antidote: negate the effects of poison if used within one exploration turn.
  2. Awe: impose penalty to enemy morale checks.
  3. Bless: grant +1d6 towards a single specific action (use prior to roll).
  4. Clear: counteract a magical mental effect such as confusion or charm.
  5. Cure: restore 1d6 HP.
  6. Courage: counteract magical fear.
  7. Dispel: suppress a major enchantment or destroy a minor enchantment.
  8. Exorcise: drive out a possessing spirit, which may not return to the same host.
  9. Inspire: grant bonus to morale checks for all allied retainers for one exploration turn.
  10. Know: determine whether an object or person is unholy, enchanted, or possessed.
  11. Light: holy symbol shines; duration and illumination as torch.
  12. Protect: grant a defensive bonus of +1d6 for one exploration turn.
  13. Purify: remove corruption, including contamination from food or drink.
  14. Question: know if the answer to one question is a lie.
  15. Remedy: cure a non-magical disease.
  16. Resist: 1d6 DR versus one of acid, fire, lightning, or cold for one exploration turn.
  17. Seal: closure may not be opened by unholy creatures while holy symbol remains.
  18. Silence: prevents speaking or the casting of spells for 1d6 turns.
  19. Smite: a weapon’s next successful strike deals +1d6 damage to an unholy creature.
  20. Ward: protection from unholy creatures for 1d6 turns or until recipient attacks.

Some new ideas for turn undead

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The main new ideas here are 1) clerics take damage on turn attempts that fail and 2) holy symbols serve as spiritual armor to reduce that backlash damage. Holy symbols also become damaged on bad turn rolls just like I have been having mundane gear degrade on bad combat rolls. The consequences of a failed turn roll are intended to provide a cost to using turn undead continuously without resorting to spell slots or some separate resource (as Pathfinder does with “channel energy” rules).

I have this vision of a cleric’s silver holy symbol melting in the face of a horde of wraiths.

The text below is an excerpt from a longer house rules document that I put together for an in-person game, and as such some terms are referenced without being defined. Overkill, for example, means combat roll success margin of 4 or better (or a natural 20).

Image by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (source)

Image by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (source)

By brandishing a holy symbol, clerics may attempt to overawe the undead. Turning undead affects a number of monster levels equal to 1d6 plus cleric level (the player may select which monsters are affected). It is resolved by a combat roll using cleric level rather than combat rating. Overkill results on a turn roll additionally deal 1d6 damage.

Undead that are affected by a turn shrink back in terror, and keep well away from the cleric as long as the turn is maintained. Such overawed creatures may not attack by any means. A turn may be maintained as long as the cleric does not engage in any activities other than concentration and slow movement. Attacking turned undead frees them from the effect.

Attempting to turn undead pits a cleric’s soul against the undead’s power. If the turn fails, the cleric takes 1d6 damage. This damage is spiritual, and so is not reduced by armor. Clerics reduced to zero HP from such spiritual damage are not slain, but rather knocked unconscious, retaining a single hit point.

Holy symbols become damaged in the case of low combat rolls just like weapons. Particularly fine holy symbols also serve as spiritual armor. Silver provides DR 1, gold DR 2, and platinum DR 3. This DR only applies to damage from failed turn attempts.

Characters of any class may assist with turning undead by brandishing a holy symbol. An assistant adds 1d6 to the effect coverage but no bonus to the combat roll. Assistants also take damage from failed turn attempts and must similarly concentrate to maintain a turn effect.

See also:

Replacing intelligence and wisdom

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A replacement ability score system.

Strength, dexterity, constitution, magic, perception, charisma.

Why this substitution? Because these six scores fit into the tasks that adventurers perform regularly in the game, are useful to all classes, and are less ambiguous. For example, should INT or WIS modify the save versus magic? Why? With this spread, the relevant stat is obviously “magic.” Similarly, d6 search and listen checks are the common traditional perception system, and are used frequently. Having a stat associated with them highlights the centrality of these mechanisms to a certain play style.

3d6 each. Modifiers abbreviated as STR, DEX, CON, MAG, PER, CHA.

Ability Modifier
3 -3
4, 5 -2
6, 7, 8 -1
9, 10, 11, 12 nil
13, 14, 15 +1
16, 17 +2
18 +3
Modifier Effects
STR modifies melee damage and force tests.
DEX modifies combat rating and sneak tests.
CON is added to HP (total, not per die).
MAG modifies magic tests.
PER modifies search and listen tests.
CHA modifies reaction tests.

Force, listen, search, sneak, etc tests are performed with a d6 and succeed on 6 or higher. A natural 1 is always a failure. Listening and searching take an exploration turn and forcing something makes noise.

Magic tests are used both to resist enemy magic (basically, a replacement for saving throws versus spells) and for the difficulty of resisting the spells a particular magic-user casts.

And to replicate traditional race abilities:

  • Dwarves: +1 to search tests involving architecture or mechanisms.
  • Elves: +1 to search tests involving secret doors.
  • Halflings: +1 to sneak tests and thrown missiles.

An aside: it is interesting that “advanced” games modify ability scores directly by race, whereas the “basic” games give demi-humans bonuses only to specific tasks.

See also:

Equipment deterioration simplified

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The equipment deterioration rules (originally inspired by Logan) that I posted before have seen around 10 sessions of online play testing. In general, I like the idea, but in practice I found that the large number of notches tended to prevent the effects from ever showing up on-screen. Rolling another die on every notch to test for immediate breakage is also too much work (and easy to forget, being outside the standard D&D workflow). The replacement costs I made up were a bit too complicated.

This new version of the rules (included below) feels “finished” to me, though I have only used them for two sessions so far. The complexity overhead and game impact are about where I want them. The new version does away with “null result” notch accumulation while also giving players some warning before their weapon or armor is totally gone.

There are three different gear states: sound, damaged, and ruined. On rolls less than or equal to an item’s quality rating, the item drops a category, which decreases its effectiveness in the case of “damaged.” Repairing a damaged weapon costs 1/2 new price. Some actions may cause an automatic downgrade, such as hitting a statue with an axe. Damaged weapons deal less damage and damaged armor loses one point of protection.