As characters within a setting are intelligent beings aware of their environs and experiences, so too will they be aware of the damage that may await them and as such will have various means of protecting themselves from and mitigating any potential injury that damage may cause.

The Augur’s Path outlines a four-tier mode of protection and mitigation for any character of the game. Three of these modes-poise, avoidance, and capacity-encompass a character’s personal readiness. The character’s readiness is an expression of the character’s physical and mental attributes, as well as their conditioned training.

Poise refers to the character’s mental fortitude, their ability to maintain composure in certain challenging scenarios. It is a static value that operates as the difficulty for another NPC or scenario to destabilize or shake your character’s focus.

Avoidance reflects the character’s physical deftness, their success in directly avoiding harmful physical contact. It is a static value that comprises the difficulty other NPCs or creatures must surpass to be able to strike your character.

Capacity refers to the amount of injury a character can sustain before they are incapacitated or killed. It is a static value that determines the amount of injury they can endure—literally their capacity for being injured. Injury remains with a character until it heals over time.

Each setting will have specific rules for calculating a character’s readiness, but each of these modes of mitigation must be tied to the character’s attributes, and be given the means to be improved through training and conditioning.

The fourth mode-often referred to as protection or protection value-is typically a means of reducing any sustained damage such as through armor or some other extra-personal means. The Augur’s Path reduces damage directly by this fourth mode of protection.

Damage Mitigation

Total damage – Protection Value = Injury

Total damage = Wear (to armor)