Tactics (Draw Steel)

Skills

Definition

Tactics is military thinking: choosing the ground before a fight, spotting that an enemy line is a screen for a flanking column, estimating how long a gate will hold, planning an ambush that accounts for the retreat. It is a Reason skill because it is analysis applied under time pressure. It comes up before combat, in war councils, when the party commands allied troops, and whenever the Director shows a battlefield and asks what the heroes do first.

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How it works

**Characteristic**: Reason. **Skill group**: Reason skills. **Test**: 2d10 + Reason; 11 or lower is tier 1, 12 to 16 tier 2, 17 or higher tier 3. Training grants a benefit and unlocks attempts untrained heroes cannot make. **How it is used**: Tier 3 reads the enemy's plan and identifies the decisive weakness. Tier 2 gives a sound read with a gap. Tier 1 gives a wrong assessment the party may commit resources to. **Edges and banes**: Time to scout, a vantage point, and knowledge of the enemy grant an edge (+2). Ambushes, unfamiliar fighting doctrines, monstrous or mindless foes, and no reconnaissance impose a bane (-2).

Tips

**Best for**: Tacticians and any party that fights organized enemies rather than lone monsters. **Character concepts**: Aristocrat career officer, Gladiator schooled in troupe combat, martial upbringing in a war college. **Synergies**: Lead to turn a plan into orders, Monsters for enemies that do not fight like soldiers, Terrain Lore and Architecture for the ground and the walls you fight over.

Frequently asked questions

Does Tactics give bonuses in combat?

Not directly. It provides information and positioning before the fight. Combat bonuses come from class abilities and the situation.

Is Tactics useful against beasts?

Less so, and usually with a bane. Monsters knowledge covers how unthinking creatures behave in a fight.

Tactics (Draw Steel)

Definition

How it works

Tips

Frequently asked questions

Further Reading