The struggle to stand as your eyelids feel heavy, while the salty sting of sweat in your eyes makes it hard to open them anyways; the hot sensation of your own blood running down your side from an open wound while you desperately try to pull yourself together enough to get back into the fight: these sensations and more are all too common on the battlefield. Not every fight will be won so handily as to leave you unharmed.

Health Thresholds

Health Thresholds represent your level of combat effectiveness based on the amount of damage you have sustained throughout an encounter. As you suffer damage and/or your Life Points are reduced, you will reach thresholds that impact your fighting ability. Below are the list of Health Thresholds:

• Healthy (>1/2 Maximum Life Points). If your Life Points are above 1/2 of your Maximum Life Points, you are in this Health Threshold, which suffers no penalties. Effects which are based on how many Health Thresholds you are below do not count Healthy as a Health Threshold.
• Bruised (1/2 ~ 1/4 Maximum Life Points). When you reach 1/2 or less of your Maximum Life Points, you will become Bruised.
• Injured (1/4 ~ 1/10 Maximum Life Points). When you reach 1/4 or less of your Maximum Life Points, you will become Injured.
• Critical (1/10>= Maximum Life Points). When you reach 1/10 or less of your Maximum Life Points, you will become Critical.

You count as being ‘below’ any Health Threshold you are at or below the maximum Life Point amount for. For example, if your current number of Life Points is 1/4 of your Maximum Life Points, you are below 2 Health Thresholds – both the Bruised and Injured Health Thresholds.

Steadfast Checks. When your Life Points are reduced and you reach a Health Threshold, you must make a Steadfast Check immediately after completing the Maneuver (including any effects that occur during the Maneuver) or effect (if the effect is not a part of a Maneuver) responsible.

To roll a Steadfast Check, roll 1d10; if you roll a 6 or higher, you pass. Mark it down as a success or a failure. For each Health Threshold you are below that you’ve failed, you suffer from Health Threshold Penalties.

If your Life Points exceed any Health Thresholds you’ve passed through, remove the mark of success or failure for that Health Threshold’s Steadfast Check. You must make a Steadfast Check each time you are knocked through a Health Threshold, even if you reach the same Threshold more than once during a single Combat Encounter.

Health Threshold Penalties. For each Health Threshold you’re below that you failed the Steadfast Check for, reduce your Combat Rolls by 1(bT) and your Stress Bonus by 1.

Forced Stress Test. If you are in a Transformation, you must immediately make a Stress Test if you are knocked through a Health Threshold and fail the Steadfast Check.

Massive Damage. If an Attacking Maneuver or any other effect would reduce your Life Points below multiple Health Thresholds at once, you automatically gain a failure for each Health Threshold you pass through except the lowest one. You then make a Steadfast Check against the lowest Health Threshold you passed through. Even if you succeed, you must still make a Stress Test if you are in a Transformation.

If an Attacking Maneuver would knock a Character through multiple Health Thresholds and Defeat them, they automatically gain a failure for all Health Thresholds they passed through.

Health Triggers. Traits and other effects that occur when you pass through a Health Threshold can only be activated once per Combat Encounter for each Health Threshold. For example, the Saiyan Racial Trait, Born for Battle, cannot be triggered even if you rise above the Bruised Health Threshold and fall through it a second time. It can only be triggered again, after you’ve fallen through the Bruised Health Threshold, by falling through the Injured or Critical Health Threshold.

Below is a list of how Health Thresholds interact with certain other system mechanics:

• If you are knocked through a Health Threshold by your Life Points being reduced by your own effects, you do not activate the effects of Traits, Talents, or rules (except the Steadfast Checks rule) that would activate when you are knocked through a Health Threshold. You still suffer from the Health Threshold Penalties.
• If your Life Points rise above a Health Threshold, you lose any and all Health Threshold Penalties you are suffering from that Health Threshold but if you fall through it once again, you must make the Steadfast Check once again and might have to make a Stress Test for any Transformation you are currently in (see – Transformation Rules).
• If you fall through multiple Health Thresholds at once, you only use any Traits or effects that would trigger when falling through the lowest Health Threshold that you can apply the effect for. You can still use the effects of the higher Health Thresholds if you rise above that Health Threshold and fall through it again.
• If a Trait or effect states that you gain a bonus for each Health Threshold you are below, do not count the Healthy Health Threshold. You are classed as being below any Health Threshold that you have met the Life Point requirement for. For example, if you have 1/5 of your Life Points remaining, you are below both the Injured and Bruised Health Thresholds.
• If you would go through a Health Threshold during a Maneuver, trigger any effects that occur when you pass through that Health Threshold after finishing that Maneuver. Passive effects that occur for each Health Threshold you are below still apply as usual, however.
• If you rise above a Health Threshold, where you have failed the Steadfast Check for the Health Threshold above it, you still suffer the penalties of that Health Threshold.
• If you trigger an effect through the Triggered/Defeated Keyword, any Health Thresholds you passed through as a result of the Damage or Life Point Reduction that Defeated you are treated as if you failed the Steadfast Check. Upon being Defeated initially, it’s important to keep track of which Health Thresholds you were knocked through for this reason.

Combat Conditions

In combat, there’s any number of conditions you can fall under that reduce your ability to fight at your fullest. These are known as Combat Conditions and vary from things such as being poisoned to being off balance.

Stacks. Generally, you are either are or are not suffering from a Combat Condition and therefore cannot suffer from the same Combat Condition’s effects multiple times, even if an effect would force you to enter it. However, some Combat Conditions can be made incrementally worse. A Combat Condition that has Stacks has a maximum number of stacks that can be applied, known as Max Stacks, and is marked with [S] next to the name of the Combat Condition.

If an effect refers to applying stacks of a Combat Condition in relation to a Combat Condition without stacks, you simply gain that Combat Condition.

ARC-Given. Outside of being given through traits and their effects, your ARC can give you Combat Conditions due to situations outside of the system’s scope – such as inflicting the Fatigued Combat Condition on the players if they’ve had barely any time to rest between multiple fights or the Shaken Combat Condition if it’s related to their Z-Soul.

Below is a list of Combat Conditions, along with their effects:

Blinded: For one reason or another, you cannot see for a short period.
–Effect: While you have this Combat Condition, suffer from the effects of the Blinding Light Level (see — Light Levels), regardless of what the current Light Level is.

Broken [S]: Your durability is reduced, potentially due to flames wearing away at your body or due to your body being forcefully tampered with.
–Max Stacks: 3
–Effect: For each stack of this Combat Condition, reduce your Soak Value by 2(bT) after all other reductions. If the reduction to your Soak Value exceeds your Soak Value before applying this penalty, increase any Damage you take from Attacking Maneuvers by the difference.

Compelled: You have lost control of yourself.
–Effect: When you gain this Combat Condition, you will be given a target – you can only make Attacking Maneuvers that include the target as a target for that Attacking Maneuver. If you do not spend at least 2 Actions (1 Action if you are a Minion) making Attacking Maneuvers that include that Character as a Target during each of your turns while you are suffering from this Combat Condition, reduce your Life Points by 1/10 of your Maximum Life Points at the end of your turn. Additionally, you must Ki Wager at least 1/10 (rounded up) of your Max Capacity on all Attacking Maneuvers against that target and all Combat Rolls for Attacking Maneuvers made against that target become Urgent.

If your target becomes Hidden to you, change your target for the effects of Compelled to the closest Character to you other than your previous target.

Fatigued [S]: You are exhausted, unable to draw out your full strength.
–Max Stacks: 2
–Effect: For each Stack of this Combat Condition, halve your Max Capacity.

Guard Down: Flat-footed, pushed over, or in any situation that limits your defense, you become vulnerable.
–Effect: Reduce your Defense Value and all Strike Rolls made through the Parry option of the Defend Maneuver by 2(T). Additionally, increase the Ki Point Cost of the Guard option of the Defend Maneuver by 1/2 (after all other calculations).

Impaired [S]: You are impeded from succeeding in your goals by some means, be it a curse of bad luck or a physical obstacle keeping you from moving the way you want to.
–Max Stacks: 3
–Effect: Reduce the Natural Result of your Combat Rolls by the number of Impaired Stacks you possess.

Impediment: A catch-all combat condition that reflects a worsened mental state.
–Effect: Do not apply your Tier of Power Extra Dice (this only applies to a single instance of Tier of Power Extra Dice – meaning that if you apply multiple instances through effects, you only remove a single instance of them). If you do not possess Tier of Power Extra Dice, reduce your Combat Rolls by 2(bT) instead.

Impediment has a unique interaction with the Superior State. If you are in the Superior State while suffering from the Impediment Combat Condition, ignore the effects of the Impediment Combat Condition, but also ignore the first effect of the Superior State.

Pinned: You are, for one reason or another, stuck in place and unable to move properly.
–Effect: Upon gaining this Combat Condition, reduce your remaining Actions this Combat Round to 1 if you had more Actions. You only gain 1 Action each Combat Round and cannot use any Attacking Maneuvers or any effects that allow Movement.

A Pinned Character can spend 1 Action during their turns to make a Might Clash against the Character who inflicted the Combat Condition. If they win, they stop being Pinned and regain their lost Actions. This effect can be repeated as much as the Pinned Character desires.

Poisoned: Poison flows through your veins, reducing your ability to fight and sapping away your health.
–Effect: At the end of each of your turns, lose Life Points equal to 1/10 of your Maximum Life Points. Additionally, double any Health Threshold Penalties you suffer from.

Prone: You’re placed onto the floor, making it difficult to move or fight back.
–Effect: Reduce your Speed, Defense Value, and Haste by 1/2 and increase the Damage Category of all Damage you receive from Attacking Maneuvers by 1. During your turn, you can spend 1 Action to stand up and remove the Prone Combat Condition.

Shaken: Wrought with fear, you cannot fight properly.
–Effect: You cannot willingly use any effect to move towards the Character that inflicted this Combat Condition. Additionally, reduce your Strike Rolls by 2(T).

Sleeping: You have been rendered unconscious and thus, unable to fight.
–Effect: A Character who is Sleeping cannot use any Maneuvers and is hit automatically by any Attacking Maneuver that targets them. If a Sleeping Character has their Life Points reduced by Damage from an Attacking Maneuver, Collision Damage, Damage Over Time, the Poisoned Combat Condition, the Compelled Combat Condition, or any other Character’s effects, a Sleeping Character immediately loses the Sleeping Combat Condition.

A Character who is Sleeping, when targeted by an Attacking Maneuver, can spend a Karma Point to not be automatically hit by an Attacking Maneuver and defend normally. They can also use a Counter Maneuver for the duration of that Attacking Maneuver.

An Ally can also spend a Karma Point to shout something to wake up an Ally as an Instant Maneuver. The thing shouted must be something that would motivate the Character to action (such as shouting ‘dinner time’ to wake up Goku).

Slowed [S]: Your ability to move and fight is reduced to a crawl, if not a complete standstill.
–Max Stacks: 3
–Effect: For each Stack of this Combat Condition, you have 1 less Action during each Combat Round and reduce your Speeds by 1/4. This effect applies immediately (meaning you lose a number of Actions equal to the number of Slowed stacks you gained). If you have 3 stacks of Slowed, you cannot use any form of Maneuver (including those that cost Counter Actions) and your turn in Initiative is skipped.

Staggered: You are dazed and unable to move.
–Effect: You cannot use the Movement Maneuver, the Soar Maneuver, or move through your own effects.

Stress Exhaustion: The stress of your Transformations catch up to you, rendering you exhausted.
–Effect: Upon gaining this Combat Condition, return to your Normal State (see — Transformation Rules) and halve your Ki Points if you were benefiting from the effects of Ki Multiplier.

Suffocating: You cannot breathe.
–Effect: Reduce your Life Points by 1/5 of your Maximum Life Points at the end of each of your turns.

Transfigured: You have been transformed into an object, unable to fight as effectively as normal.
–Effect: A Transfigured Character has their Combat Rolls reduced by 2(bT) and cannot use any Signature Techniques, Auras, or Unique Abilities and can only make Attacking Maneuvers of the Physical Attack Type.