Q: Using the body area damage system is a fireball divided evenly among all the areas of the body?
    A: In most cases, yes. The only exception would be an example where the character being attacked was stand up to his waist in the water or situated in such a way as to only expose a portion of the body. As GM I usually will divide the fireball damage total by the number of body areas exposed. I also think it makes sense to say that the damage goes straight to the characters body if they are wearing metal armor. If the armor is metal it will be super heated by the fireball doing damage and leather armor would provide protection but be destroyed in the process.
    Q: If a PC is backstabbed with a poison dagger, does the damage from the poison only go into the area hit, or does it travel through the rest of the PC's system? How does ingested poison work?
    A: Some poisons actually do physical damage causing paralysis or other nasty effects. In the case of a poison dagger I would assign damage to the character for the dagger blow, if it penetrates the armor the character should make a saving throw vs. poison. From here the damage is going to be determined by the type of poison. If the character fails the first saving throw I will assign damage to that body area for poison by rolling a damage die and then each round, as the poison begins to move through the body, I will require the PC to make a saving throw for each body area. This process would continue until the character can get help or the poison runs its course.

    We handle ingested poisons a bit differently. The character makes a saving throw and if the check fails the characters constitution or strength will begin to drop. Again, the effect on the PC are determined largely by the type of poison you are using.

    Q: If an assassin is using a poison dagger that does 1d4 against a character wearing plate mail armor that has a score of 5, how can the assassin ever have a chance to succeed?
    A: In order for the assassin to penetrate or puncture the fighters armor he would need to do at least 5 points of damage to through the armor and at least one more point of damage to administer the dose of poison. This extra damage can be achieved by magic or strength bonuses. However, if the assassin does not have any of these options there is also a chance that they could administer the poison by making attacking a specific area of the armor. This situation brings into effect the "called shot" rules discussed in the attacking section of the house rules. If your assassin is going to aim for a weak spot in the fighters armor I would suggest a modifier that is a bit more severe such as -4 or -5. It can be tough to hit this way but also very rewarding when you do.
    Q: If characters are rolling against each other's skill levels to determine hits what do you do if a character has surprise? Is the hit automatic?
    A: No, nothing in life is automatic. The defending character would get a roll of 1d20 plus defense modifier. The attacker would receive 1d20 plus strength, magic and a +3 ToHit modifier for surprise. As we see it, there is always a split second of awareness before the attack due to peripheral vision, the twang of a bow string or the reactions of others, especially for a seasoned adventurer.
    Q: How do you resolve range weapon attacks using the dynamic ToHit system?
    A: Unless the character is walking around with and arrow ready to go we build time into the system for the character to load, draw and fire. Characters with any bow that have one attack per round always attack in the last phase of each round. Phase 1 is loading, phase 2 is drawing and aiming and phase 3 is fire. If the character is higher level or specialized in bow allowing multiple bow attacks per round they attack every other phase. So in round one the character would fire in phase 2, in round 2 the character would attack twice in phases 1 and 3. In the case of light and medium crossbows we have them always fire in phase 3 and heavy crossbow fires every other round because of the longer load time.
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