Stamina

In some fantasy stories, the heroes are able to avoid any serious

The main gameplay consequence

injury until the situation gets dire, getting by with a graze or a

of using these stamina rules is that a quick 10- or 20-minute rest

flesh wound and needing nothing more than a quick rest to get

can restore most groups to full

back on their feet. If your group wants to tell tales like those,

or nearly full health via Taking a

you can use the stamina variant to help make that happen.

Breather and Treating Wounds

as necessary, allowing more encounters with shorter breaks in between. Additionally, charismatic

Stamina Points

or otherwise diplomatic characters

Stamina Points represent a character’s energy and readiness. They’re reduced by gain fun and useful ways to bolster

damage just like Hit Points, but a character always loses their Stamina Points first, their allies.

and loses Hit Points only if they’re out of Stamina Points. If a character takes damage Because spells that heal Hit

exceeding their remaining Stamina Points, the excess damage reduces their Hit Points. Points don’t restore Stamina

However, they lose any temporary Hit Points before losing Stamina Points. Points, it’s a little harder to heal up

Though Stamina Points and Hit Points function similarly when a character takes completely in the middle of a fight.

damage, a character recovers them differently. A heal spell restores Hit Points, not This can mean that fights become

Stamina Points, and the actions described below (like Take a Breather) restore only deadly after characters have been

Stamina Points, not Hit Points. A character regains all their Stamina Points after a beaten down, possibly causing

full night’s rest. Hit Points still determine whether a character remains conscious—a retreats to be more frequent, but

character at 0 HP is unconscious, no matter how many Stamina Points they have. the retreats themselves are shorter.

In addition to their ancestry Hit Points, a PC gains the number of Stamina Points The focus of the game can stay

and Hit Points indicated in the second and third columns of Table 4–21 at 1st level. consistently within encounters,

Both values increase by the same amount at each level thereafter. This replaces the with less managing of time and

Hit Points a character gains from their class in a standard game. resources outside of battle.

Resolve Points

In this variant, each PC also has a pool of Resolve Points, representing their intrinsic grit and luck. A character’s maximum Resolve Points is equal to their key ability modifier, and a character regains all their Resolve Points with a full night’s rest. In addition to spending Resolve Points to regain Stamina Points (as described under Stamina Actions), characters can spend Resolve Points in the following way.

Stabilize

If a character is dying at the start of their turn, their player can spend 1 Resolve Point to stabilize at 0 HP, gaining or increasing the wounded condition as normal for stabilizing. At the start of the character’s next turn, they gain 1 HP and wake up (unless they started dying again). The character can act on that turn. Consider this an optional rule best suited for groups that have little access to healing. When using this rule, you might remove the ability for characters to use Hero Points to stabilize.

Stamina Actions

Take a Breather

Traits: exploration

Cost 1 Resolve Point

You rest for 10 minutes and recover your stamina. After you complete this activity, you regain all your Stamina Points.

Class Stamina Points Class Hit Points Classes

6 + Con modifier
3 + Con modifier
3
Sorcerer, wizard

8 + Con modifier
4 + Con modifier
4
Alchemist, bard, cleric, druid, rogue

10 + Con modifier
5 + Con modifier
5
Champion, fighter, monk, ranger

12 + Con modifier
6 + Con modifier
6
Barbarian

Rally

Traits: auditory, emotion, exploration, linguistic, mental

Prerequisites trained in Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Performance

You spend 1 minute encouraging your ally. Though this action typically has the auditory and linguistic traits, if you’re using the Performance skill, the GM might adjust the traits for this action to match the traits for your type of performance.

Attempt a DC 15 skill check. The GM might adjust this DC based on the circumstances, such as attempting to Rally an ally who just suffered a humiliating defeat.

Critical Success The ally can spend 1 Resolve Point to regain all their Stamina Points.

Success You can continue encouraging your ally for a total of 10 minutes. If you do, they can spend 1 Resolve Point to regain all their Stamina Points.

Critical Failure The ally takes 1d8 mental damage, but this can reduce only Stamina Points, never Hit Points.

STAMINA FEATS

Encouraging Words ◆

FEAT 2

Traits: auditory, general, linguistic, mental, skill

Prerequisites trained in Diplomacy

Requirements The target ally lost Stamina Points within the last round.

You give an ally within 30 feet a quick pep talk, helping them recover. Attempt a Diplomacy check. The DC is usually 15, though the GM might adjust it based on the circumstances. If you have expert proficiency in Diplomacy, you can instead attempt a DC 20 check to increase the Stamina Points recovered by 5; if you have master proficiency, you can attempt a DC 30 check to increase the Stamina Points by 15; if you have legendary proficiency, you can attempt a DC 40 check to increase the Stamina Points by 25. No matter the result, the ally is temporarily immune to Encouraging Words until they either Take a Breather or rest for the day.

Critical Success The ally recovers 2d8 Stamina Points.

Success The ally recovers 1d8 Stamina Points.

Critical Failure The ally takes 1d8 mental damage, but this can reduce only Stamina Points, never Hit Points.

Steel Your Resolve ◆

FEAT 3

Traits: general

Cost 1 Resolve Point

Regain Stamina Points equal to half your maximum.

Other Creatures

There’s no need to give Stamina Points to monsters that are expected to be encountered once and likely defeated. However, you might use Stamina Points for a recurring character, especially an NPC who fights alongside the PCs. Usually, it’s easiest to turn half the creature’s Hit Points into Stamina Points. While enemy healers still work as they’re intended to, players might be upset about the enemies’ ability to heal their allies to full Hit Points, while the PCs are left not being able to heal their allies’ Stamina Points. In this case, give more enemies Stamina Points to compensate.

No-limit Stamina

If you want a fast-paced, almost superheroic game, you can skip the Resolve Point component of this subsystem and simply make Taking a Breather and Rally free. This gives the characters a lot of staying power, meaning that the group will typically keep adventuring until they run out of spells for the day, rather than having the additional pressure of running out of Resolve Points. If you use this approach, omit the Steel Your Resolve feat, as it’s too powerful if there’s no cost to use it! Alternatively, if you want to keep it, you can require a character to Take a Breather before they can Steel their Resolve again.