SORC Ranged Mechanics

Ranged Attacks

Ranged combat covers any attack delivered from a distance using projectiles or spells. All ranged attacks use the d100 roll-over system where your relevant Trait SCR (Agility for ranged weapons, Acuity for spells, Strength for Melee, etc) is added directly to your hit roll against a target's Protection Score (PROTS).

Ranged attacks fall into four primary categories based on their origin: Telluric (bows, crossbows, thrown weapons, and black powder firearms), Technologically Advanced Weapons (TAW) (manufactured technology, splitting into TAW Ballistic and TAW Charged), Chthonic (elemental substance carried around a real primal weapon, neither cast nor built), and Spell (magical effects cast, in this case from a distance). Each type uses different range bands, damage calculations, and armor interactions.

Telluric - Ranged

Telluric projectiles operate under physics-based range mechanics where distance, projectile velocity drops, and stability directly affect accuracy and damage. Distance is measured in feet. (Given: 1 sq. = 5 ft). Every ranged shot, whether arrow, bolt, hand thrown or slung, falls into one of four velocity states based on how far it travels: Point Blank, Oscillation, Stabilized, and Velocity Drop (gravity and air resistance, out to the weapon's maximum range). Band distances past Point Blank vary by weapon class and are read off the table below.

At Point Blank range (0–10 ft., 0–5 ft. for a thrown weapon), if the attacker's d100 roll is a Critical Hit (96-100), it lands automatically and the target's Botch is waived off. The Crit deals 2x damage dice + Agility Score of the attacker (see Critical Hit Formula, Combat, Hit Results, pg. 5). If the attacker's hit roll is a non-critical hit that meets or exceeds the defender's Protection Score (PROTS), the target may attempt a Botch to interrupt it. The target rolls d100 and adds the higher of their Strength Score or Agility Score, plus their Defense Trait Score, against the attacker's total roll, including modifiers. PROTS is not added. On a meet or exceed the attack is Botched and deals half its damage dice, rounded up, with the attacker's Trait Score still added in full. A thrown weapon cannot be Botched at any distance.

Note: Innate Aptitude and Inaptitude apply to this roll; for example, a Gnome with an innate -5 Strength (STR) Inaptitude would add their Agility Score instead of Strength when calculating their defense roll. If the defender's roll fails to meet the attacker's roll, the shot lands uncontested and deals full damage.

Compact Telluric weapons (shortbows, light crossbows, slings, hand cannons, shotguns, blunderbusses, dart guns) reach a maximum of 200 ft. Extended weapons (longbows, heavy crossbows, war cannons, siege mortars, ballistae, harpoon guns) reach a maximum of 300 ft. Individual weapon cards may override these defaults. Rifles and longer ranged Telluric weapons distances are pending.

Black Powder: Telluric covers black powder firearms as well as drawn and thrown weapons. Hand cannons, blunderbusses, muskets and pistols burn black powder to drive a lead ball, slug or shot, and that charge is what separates them from Technologically Advanced Weapons, which never use black powder. A black powder firearm reads off the same table as every other Telluric projectile, taking the same velocity states, band distances, and hit and damage columns as a bow or crossbow of its reach.

Reminder: Everything except blue is ignored for Bare Bones play.

✳Oscillation. Short Bow: +10 to hit in the first 10 ft. of the band. Long Bow: +10 to hit in the first 20 ft. of the band. Throw: +10 to hit in the first 10 ft. of the band, –10 in the last 10 ft.

✤Thrown. The Throw band's numbers are for weapons made to be thrown, a throwing axe, a throwing knife, a sudikon and the like. Any other weapon may still be thrown, as an Improvised Tool: it deals its Improvised Class damage in place of its Rank dice. Point Blank for a throw ends at 5 ft. A thrown weapon cannot be Botched.

✦Point Blank. From distance 0 ft. through 10 ft. the shot is Point Blank, 0 ft. through 5 ft. for a thrown weapon. A d100 roll of 96-100 is a Critical Hit and lands automatically; the defender gets no Botch attempt. Any other roll result that meets or exceeds the defender's PROTS is a normal hit; where a Botch may then be attempted by the target. At this range the Hit MOD. is +0, and +10 only if the target cannot move; otherwise, refer to the Botch chance for target rule. A thrown weapon cannot be Botched.

✧Velocity Drop. The band runs to the weapon's maximum range, 200 ft. for Compact weapons and 300 ft. for Extended weapons. Damage decays across the band at the rate shown in the DMG. MOD. column, and nothing may be fired past the maximum.

Darkness. No light, can't attack. Dim light penalty if no darkvision, –10 on top of the band's own Hit MOD. Darkvision, no penalty as long as the target is in the archer's darkvision range. Darkvision distance is read off the character (see Visibility & Light, Combat, pg. 5).

The Velocity Curve column tracks projectile physics and identifies the physical sweet spot where ammunition reaches peak velocity and damage potential.

Abbreviations: "Melee" is a Close Quarters strike, not a shot, and uses Strength. "Pt. Blank" is the shaft at full launch energy but still unsettled, devastating at contact. A drawn bow is a Committed Action, see Botch, Unarmed Combat, pg. 5. "Oscillation" is the shaft still flexing out of the archer's paradox, flying at Base DMG. rather than a peak. "Stabilized" is the second peak, where the shaft has finished settling and flies true. "Velocity Drop" shows the projectile losing energy and accuracy as gravity and air resistance accumulate, reading "Less DMG." on a shortbow and "Decay" on a longbow. This column directly informs tactical positioning: the Stabilized band, 86–150 ft. with a shortbow and 151–200 ft. with a longbow, is the highest damage output at range, and it is bought with –10 to hit on a shortbow and –15 on a longbow. Standing inside the first 10 ft. of Oscillation on a shortbow, or the first 20 ft. on a longbow, is the most accurate shot in the table at +10.

Thrown weapons use the Throw band, a 0–25 ft. range, and Agility alone applies to hit and defense. A throw flies at Base DMG. across its whole range, Point Blank included; it has no damage peak, reaches no Stabilized band and takes no Velocity Drop within 25 ft. These numbers are for weapons made to be thrown, a throwing axe, a throwing knife, a sudikon and the like. Any other weapon may still be thrown, as an Improvised Tool: it deals its Improvised Class damage in place of its Rank dice, see Improvised Tools, Combat, pg. 5. Point Blank for a throw ends at 5 ft. A thrown weapon cannot be Botched.

Projectiles driven by hand rather than launched are Improvised Tools, not a rule of their own.

Learned or not is the test. A Character striking with a technique they have learned from a Main Class Tier, Path or Branch is fighting Unarmed. A Character striking with one they have not is using an Improvised Tool, whether their hands are empty or not.

Brawlers - a Path of the Fighter Main Class - get bonuses to Improvised Tools and to hand to hand combat, as long as no weapon is drawn.

Projectile Recovery: Telluric projectiles may be recovered after combat. Typically, 50% of arrows or bolts fired land recoverable. Recovered projectiles can be salvaged for crafting materials or sold. Ballistic projectiles (slugs, pellets, stones) may also be recovered and used for materials. Technologically Advanced Weapons (TAW) and Chthonic projectiles cannot be recovered; they are expended on use.

Weapon Families. Telluric, Technologically Advanced Weapons (TAW) and Chthonic are the three power sources a ranged weapon can draw on, and the distinction governs range bands, armor interaction and planetary penalties alike. Telluric is forged or knapped and driven by muscle or mechanism. TAW is technologically manufactured and tuned to the sun of its native planet, losing range off-world. Chthonic is ore and gem out of Ignis, carrying Adoria's own magic, so it is strongest where her light is strongest and takes the same planetary Bonus and Penalty as Magic. All three are defined under Tech and Magic Across Essentia (Planetary Markets, Basic Rules pg. 4).

Reach weapons do not use range bands; they simply extend melee reach to 10 ft. and follow standard melee rules.

Telluric Projectiles

Telluric is by far the most diverse projectile family, spanning four material tiers. A projectile's Grade is the material of the part that strikes, the head, tip or point, not the shaft, so an ordinary wooden shaft under an Adamantium head is an Adamantium projectile.

• Knapped and carved: Wooden, Bone, Stone, Obsidian, the oldest projectiles on any world and the only ones every people can make.
• The forged standard: Steel/Iron, Bronze, Hardened Steel, Chromium, what most bundles are built from.
• Light metals: Silver, Mithril, Refined Steel, worked for the cut rather than the weight.
• Dense and legendary: Tungsten, Osmium, Iridium, Platinum, Ruthenium, Titanium, Vibranium, Adamantium, Dragon Scale, heads that punish the drawing arm as much as the target.

Slope Mod belongs to whatever launches the projectile, the arm or the bow, and is read off the launcher's own rules (see Slope Conditions below). Full Grades, damage, bundle sizes and costs are on each Projectile's Card (see Projectile Grade, pg. 4).

Slope Conditions

High Ground.

Low Ground.

Rules for Slope Conditions are still being adjusted.

TAW Ranged

Technologically Advanced Weapons (TAW) are rail guns, mini guns, high velocity sniper rifles, laser pistols, plasma pistols and rifles, plasma grenades that stick, and other technologically advanced weaponry originally manufactured on the planets further out from Adoria. TAW splits into two: TAW Ballistic, which fires a physical round, and TAW Charged, which fires light or plasma. A laser pistol or a plasma cannon is TAW Charged, not Chthonic, because it was built (see Chthonic Weapons, pg. 4).

TAW also fields shotguns, and they fire more than plasma. A TAW shotgun will throw minerals much the way lead is thrown from an Telluric gun, but it never burns black powder to do it. The propellant for any TAW round that is not light or plasma is one of two systems: nuclear pulse propulsion or an electrothermal-chemical (ETC) charge. That distinction, powder against [your text ends here]

Charts

Every combat chart this page draws on, reproduced for reference. These are the same charts held in the Appendix; the rules that use them are explained above.

Hit Chart

Hit Results Chart

Hit Bonus Chart

x = Strength Trait ± any other modifiers (melee), Agility Trait ± any other modifiers (ranged), Acuity Trait ± any other modifiers (spells).

DMG. Chart

Crit Chart

DMG. Mod Chart

Thrown Chart, Damage Falloff

Complex

Bare Bones throws at Base DMG. across the whole 0–25 ft., see the Telluric Ranged table. The curve below is the Complex detail: a throw needs room to travel, so it is weakest in hand-reach, hardest at 11-15 ft., and falls away past that. Thrown attacks use Agility alone to hit, trading a melee weapon's Strength for it. Slope Mod† (see Slope Conditions, above) is what the ground itself is worth to the throw, High Ground where the thrower stands above their target, Low Ground where they stand below it. High Ground is the one exception to the last row, a thrower above their target still deals damage at 26 ft. and past, where level ground deals none; Low Ground carries a penalty in its place.

Melee Range Chart

Spell Range Chart

LST Chart

Mod Scaling Chart