Major Combat Pass
In the first major fork from the TTRPG system, the CRPG version of FCDC has received its own balancing pass.
Combat defence has received a major overhaul, making defensive actions clearer and more consistent for characters and creatures.
Attacks now resolve through separate defensive stages: Defence, Dodge, Shield Use, and finally automatic Armour protection.
Defence dice remain available throughout the round and can protect against multiple attacks.
Dodge dice are only spent when an attack gets past Defence and a Dodge roll is required.
Shield Use dice remain expendable whenever they are committed.
Creatures now follow the same rules: their Defence remains available, while their Dodge pool is depleted until the next round.
Attack rerolls now correctly pass through each defensive stage and retain applicable Dodge perks.
Weapon competency checks now compare the attack against the strongest individual defensive stage faced—Defence and Dodge are no longer combined.
Successful qualifying weapon attacks and defensive weapon use can still trigger the a one-in-six competency check.
Weapon criticals now require the character’s complete Weapon Use pool to be committed to one roll. Split or partial pools cannot produce critical maximum damage or critical competency rewards.
Competency gains are capped per weapon skill during each combat to discourage farming.
The Round Shield’s minimum Shield Use requirement has been reduced to 1d6+1.