A–C

Ability Check: To attempt this type of check, roll a d20 and add your modifier for the relevant ability score. See page 21.

Ability Points: You use these at character creation and every 5th character level to increase your ability scores. See pages 18–19.

Ability Scores: These are numeric values that define a character’s raw talents. The associated abilities are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma. See page 21.

Acid Damage: This is a type of energy damage. See page 169.

Affliction: This is a harmful effect that generally worsens over time and may deal damage. Most afflictions are categorized as curses, diseases, drugs, or poisons. See pages 414–419.

Alignment: This is a general characterization of your basic moral and ethical attitude. See pages 24–25.

Ally: An ally is a creature you see as helpful. Some abilities allow you to affect an ally with a benefit of some kind. The GM has final say on who counts as an ally. See page 242.

Android: This is a common player character race. See pages 42–43.

Armor Class (AC): This number represents how hard it is for an enemy creature to strike your character in combat. A character has two Armor Classes: Energy Armor Class (EAC) and Kinetic Armor Class (KAC). See page 240.

Asleep: This condition applies negative effects to your character. See page 273.

Attack: This is any action you take that could potentially damage a target. Attacks in combat are either ranged, such as shooting a laser rifle or throwing a grenade, or melee, such as stabbing with a survival knife. Monsters often can make attacks with their natural weapons, such as claws, or they might have access to other special attacks. See page 240.

Attack of Opportunity: This is a special reaction that you can use in close-quarters melee when a target you threaten lets its guard down. See pages 248–249.

Attack Roll: This represents your character’s attempt to strike another creature in combat. An attack roll is the result of a d20 roll plus your attack bonuses with your weapon, and it is compared to your target’s relevant Armor Class. See page 240.

Augmentation: This is a piece of technological or biological gear that modifies your body and gives you special benefits. Technological augmentations are cybernetics, and biological augmentations are biotech. See pages 208–212.

Bleeding: This condition applies negative effects to your character. See page 273.

Blinded: This condition applies negative effects to your character. See page 273.

Bludgeoning Damage: This is a type of kinetic damage. See page 169.

Bonus: This is a positive numeric modifier you add to a die roll or a static value as the game rules dictate. Two bonuses of the same type usually don’t stack with each other. See pages 266–267.

Broken: This condition applies negative effects to armor, weapons, or other equipment. See page 273.

Bulk: An item’s bulk represents its unwieldiness and weight. See page 167 for more about bulk.

Burning: This condition applies negative effects to your character. See page 273.

Carrying Capacity: Your carrying capacity is the amount of bulk you can carry. See page 167 for more about carrying capacity.

Caster Level (CL): This value represents the total number of levels you have in spellcasting classes. Some effects, such as spells, have variables tied to your caster level. See page 331.

Challenge Rating (CR): This is a numerical expression of the difficulty of an encounter, a creature, a trap, a hazard, or another threat. See page 389.

Character Level: This value represents the total number of levels you have in all your classes. See page 26.

Charisma (Cha): This is an ability that represents your appearance, personal magnetism, and personality. See page 21.

Check: A check is a d20 roll that may or may not be modified by another value. The most common types of checks are ability checks, initiative checks, and skill checks. See page 8.

Class: This represents your training in a specific discipline that grants you an array of abilities. See pages 58–59.

Class Feature: This is an ability you gain from your character’s class. See page 59.

Class Level: This is a value that represents your total number of levels in one specific class. See page 26.

Class Skill: This is a skill in which members of a specific class are particularly proficient. If you have one or more ranks in class skills, you receive an additional bonus to those skill checks. See pages 58 and 132.

Cold Damage: This is a type of energy damage. See page 169.

Combat: This typically refers to tactical combat, which takes place on a square-gridded battle map and is tracked in rounds during which each character takes a turn. See page 238.

Combat Maneuver: This is a type of standard action that can have a variety of effects when performed successfully. See page 246.

Concealment: When enemies can’t see you clearly, their attacks are subject to a miss chance from concealment. See page 253.

Condition: This is a circumstance that can affect a creature for an extended period of time. See pages 273–277.

Confused: This condition applies negative effects to your character. See pages 273–274.

Constitution (Con): This is an ability that represents your health and stamina. See page 21.

Cover: This is a defensive bonus you gain when an object blocks half or more of your body from being exposed to enemy attacks. See page 253.

Cowering: This condition applies negative effects to your character. See page 274.

Creature: This is an active participant in the game’s world. It can be a player character, a nonplayer character, or a monster.

Credit: This is the standard unit of currency used in the Pact Worlds. See page 166.

Critical Hit: When you make an attack roll and the result on the d20 is a 20, it’s a critical hit. You roll damage twice, and your weapon might inflict an additional effect. See page 245.

Critical Hit Effect: This is a weapon’s effect that applies when you deal damage with a critical hit. See pages 182–183.

Curse: A curse is a magical effect and an affliction that is normally triggered when you take a certain action. See page 414.

d% (percentile): This indicates that you should roll to generate a number from 1 to 100. If you don’t have percentile dice, you can roll two 10-sided dice, one of which represents the result’s first digit and the other the second digit. A set of percentile dice consists of a 10-sided die expressing multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30, etc.) and a 10-sided die consisting of multiples of 1.

d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20: These are abbreviated expressions of die rolls, often expressed with a preceding number, as is the case of 1d4. They typically indicate which dice you roll to determine a variable number, such as the amount of damage a weapon deals. The first number in the expression indicates how many dice you roll, while the second number indicates the number of sides the die or dice must have. For example, 2d12 means that you must roll two 12-sided dice to determine a variable result from 2 to 24. In the case of an expression without a preceding number, roll a single die with the indicated number of sides. For example, “roll a d10” means you must roll one 10-sided die. Occasionally, you may see a rare die type that isn’t reflected in the basic set explained above, such as 1d3. In this case, you can use math to simulate the result, such as rolling 1d6, dividing the result in half, and rounding down.

d20 Roll: This is a roll with a single 20-sided die. Ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks are all rolls that require you to roll 1d20 and add various modifiers.