Derived Scores are derived from your nine core Ability scores.
Sorry, there is math involved. Note that as you change your Ability Scores, you will also change your Derived Scores.
Derived Scores impact certain capabilities of the characters and operate much the same way as other scores – except they can be increased or decreased more readily and in different circumstances. Derived scores do not have modifiers.
Heart (Hrt)
Heart is derived by adding your Wis, Cha, and San together and dividing by three.
Heart is a flexible concept that measures just how hard it is to allow something bad to happen, how much effort you can put into something, and how much you care about others and can empathize with them. It seems weak but is a major aspect of one’s strength. Heart gets a reputation as being “silly” and “fluffy” and “earnest”, and yet Shrinewards make significant use of it, some creatures directly attack it.
Using Heart
Heart is the ability to resist despair, to overcome hopelessness, to defy the forces arrayed against you and stand up to them. It is the mouse flipping off the eagle, and the rescuer not being done digging to find survivors. Heart is rolled against and for some is a kind of energy that helps them to empower things.
If Heart ever drops to 0, the subject is rendered unconscious and will remain that way until they have recovered at least 1 point of heart, and they will have a hard time of it until they have recovered at least12 points of heart through outside intervention.
Once per day, you can add your Heart modifier to any single roll, representing a desire or need to push beyond out of emotional desperation. Heart can also be rolled to resist fear, anger, and despair.
Recovering Heart
Heart is normally recovered at a rate of your Heart modifier every hour of rest during a short rest or long rest.
Your heart Modifier is based on your heart score.
Psyche (Psy)
Psyche is determined by adding your Kno, Wis, and Per together and dividing them by 3.
Psyche is a general, catch all resistance to psychic effects, situations, and sometimes to just pure charm. It is a variation of willpower and self-discipline.
Using Psyche
Psyche is used whenever a character has to resist a full effect over their person that is psychic in nature or not directly due to damage, such as Pain. Psyche plays some role in Psychics in a way that is not fully understood.
Psychic energy can be both drawn from and used, as well as reduced through harm – the total amount of Psyche is essentially one’s psychic Hit Points, and you use psyche when engaging in certain psychic actions and activities.
Psionic Power
A person has a number of Psi Points equal to their Psyche score multiplied by their Level of Mastery. Only improving or increasing one’s Psyche score or level of mastery can alter this maximum number.
Psi Points are roughly the equivalent of Mana for Psychics, but function very differently. For one, psionic power is fixed, and much slower to recover.
Psychic Damage
Psychic damage reduces the total number of Psi Points first, then the total of Psyche. Running out of Psi Points results in being rendered unconscious, and further harm can be done to the now defenseless person’s Psyche.
Damage done to a person’s Psyche is traumatic, and requires a Heart save each time damage is taken to it. If a person’s Psyche is reduced to zero, they will be catatonic until they have been treated to help them recover, as once the score is reduced below 12, they no longer have the ability to recover psyche.
Psychic Recovery
A person recovers psionic power at the rate of their Psyche Modifier every hour during a long or short rest. This means that persons with a psyche of 11 or less do not recover Psyche without outside intervention.
Vitality (Vit)
Vitality is determined by adding your Con, Wis, and Mana scores together and dividing them by three. This is a measure of your Flesh, to go with the measure of your Heart and your Psyche.
Vitality is a measure of the total Inner Will that a character has and is directly oppositional to Fatigue and Exhaustion and has much to do with illness and conditions that can strike a character throughout their life.
Using Vitality
Vitality comes into play whenever one has to overcome a condition, deal with massive amounts of damage, or experience physically challenging events.
A point of Vitality can also be spent to overcome the effects of Fatigue or Exhaustion, on a one for one basis.
Vitality can also be spent to temporarily overcome a condition by making a successful Vitality roll against the condition’s difficulty, at the cost of 1 point of vitality.
Some attacks by creatures or beings can cause direct reduction to vitality – sucking the life out of you, in a sense.
Recovering Vitality
Completing a long rest restores a character’s vitality by 1 + the character’s Vitality modifier, up to the character’s maximum Vitality. For Characters with low vitality scores, this may not happen.
Effects that restore hit points have no effect on Vitality. Restoring Vitality requires either magic or psychic aid if it cannot be recovered normally.
Loss of Vitality
A character reduced to 0 vitality is immediately made unconscious. If a character is reduced to 0 hit points but his or her vitality remains above 0, they can spend a Vitality point to stabilize themselves..
