Attack Rolls, or, How Skills Get Used

Learn how attack rolls, skills, and defenses work in Tyranny. Understand accuracy, advantage, disadvantage, and critical hits for effective combat.

In Tyranny, every ability, spell, and weapon utilizes specific skills for attacks and targets a defense. These are crucial for calculating accuracy and defense in an attack roll, affecting everything from basic attacks to buffs and heals.

Skill Usage:

• If only one attack skill is listed, it's used directly for accuracy.
• If multiple skills are listed (e.g., Control Frost and Lore for Rimespike), their average is used for the base accuracy.
• Bonuses from finesse, items, and buffs/afflictions are added to this base accuracy.
• Attributes boost skill levels, providing significant accuracy bonuses. Finesse offers the best boost, enhancing all skills and providing additional bonuses to finesse-based skills.

Targeted Defenses:

• Melee weapons typically target Parry.
• Ranged weapons and some spells target Dodge.
• Spells often target Magic.
• Affliction-based abilities and spells target Will.
• Poison and similar effects target Endurance.

Attack Roll Mechanics:

• Advantage: Accuracy is higher than the targeted defense. This shifts the graze and crit thresholds down.
• Disadvantage: Accuracy is lower than the targeted defense. This shifts the graze and miss thresholds up.
• A virtual d100 is rolled with the following default distribution for hostile attacks: 1-5 Miss, 6-35 Graze, 36-95 Hit, 96-100 Crit.
• Advantage and disadvantage modify these thresholds, but a minimum 5% chance to miss or crit always remains.

Critical Hits and Grazes:

• Critical Hits: Deal 50% more damage and have 50% longer duration for buffs/afflictions.
• Grazes: Deal 50% less damage or have 50% less duration for afflictions. Secondary effects generally do not trigger on a graze, except for spells primarily focused on debuffs.

Beneficial Effects:

• Even beneficial effects use an attack roll, but always hit. The focus is on the chance to crit, which appears to have a sub-linear relationship with advantage, offering diminishing returns.

Key Considerations:

• Ensure your accuracy matches or exceeds enemy defenses to avoid penalties and maximize effectiveness.
• Investing in defense can make characters very resilient.
• Lore is a common attack skill for spells, allowing spellcasters to remain competent with new sigils.