FAQ
This document answers common questions that arise when playing the Cosmere RPG. Click here to download the FAQ PDF. For a list of corrections to printings, see the Cosmere RPG Errata.
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Yes, adversaries can use multiple Strike actions from their stat block. However, the GM is encouraged to only use the ones that narratively make sense that turn. For example, if an adversary Strikes with a sword, it's unlikely they could also Strike with a bow that requires two hands that same turn.
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Yes, a boss gains a reaction at the start of each of their turns. Like any other character's reactions, this reaction only lasts until the start of the Boss’s next turn. As long as they spend that reaction before their next turn, they can potentially use two reactions each round—and they're going to need that to take on a whole party!
ADVERSARIES
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Yes, all attacks add your skill modifier to damage on a hit.
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Yes, when the trigger condition for a reaction is met, you can use that reaction on any turn, including your own.
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If an effect applies a condition with a different duration than usual, the effect’s specific rule supersedes the conditions general duration (see “Specific Beats General” in the introduction to the Stormlight Handbook). For example, injuries remain until they heal; therefore, if an injury applies the Exhausted [−2] condition, that condition’s penalty isn’t automatically reduced when you rest, because you must first heal that injury.
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The Defensive weapon protects you from attacks from all directions. However, there might be cases in the narrative where the GM decides it wouldn’t protect you, such as if you’re unaware of an incoming attack, or if you’re in a tight hallway where you can’t swing the weapon around to your other side.
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Put simply, you can use Avoid Danger in response to area attacks, but not in response to attacks that target you directly. More generally, Avoid Danger is for use against anything that imperils you based on your environment and surroundings. When an attack targets you specifically, the attacker is assumed to be adjusting their aim or positioning to account for you attempting to evade them; in those cases, you can use the Dodge reaction instead. By contrast, if an attack affects an area, it’s assumed the targeting is more “fixed;” so much like you might use Avoid Danger to attempt to roll out of the path of something crashing down on you, you can use it to attempt to evade an area attack.
COMBAT
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No, Opportunities and Complications don’t cancel. If you gain both, you resolve both the effects of the Opportunity and the Complication.
CORE RULES
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If your animal companion is of a proper size, and if the GM agrees the companion can be properly trained and saddled to do so, then yes, you can use your animal companion as a mount. They follow the “Mounted Combat” rules in chapter 10 of the Stormlight Handbook (p. 313). However, keep in mind that while you’re mounted, you and the mount “share” your turn and actions; you’ll have to decide whether it's worth the tradeoff of your animal companion not being able to act on their own.
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You must choose your talent immediately upon leveling up. If you don't meet the prerequisite for a desired talent, you’ll just have to choose it on the next level. (Also remember that you can use the Self-Reflection downtime activity to potentially switch your talents later in your character's story.)
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No, you must always start from the top of each path. You can skip that talent you already own when you get to it in the tree, but you can’t skip the talents preceding it.
HEROIC PATHS
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Yes, kind of. Both traits can theoretically affect the weapon, but their effects don’t stack; rather, the weapon only has one instance of that trait. As a result, a duplicate trait with the same value doesn’t have any effect on the weapon, but if the traits have two different values, the weapon uses the higher of the two (see “Stacking Talents and Effects” in chapter 4 of the Stormlight Handbook, p. 72).
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This depends on how much the GM wants to emphasize money in your game. Currency isn’t meant to be a major balancing element in the Cosmere RPG, and costs are provided more for world-building purposes than for game balance. In tier 1, money can serve as a way to limit access to some more powerful equipment, but most items that meaningfully upgrade a character are rare or priceless, and are granted through rewards. In tier 2 and beyond, it's unlikely that money will be a key element of the game, unless the players and their characters are specifically excited about Sebarial-style economic intrigue. If you’d like a more concrete example of how much money we generally expect players to have in each tier, refer to the Higher-Level Starting Rewards table in chapter 13 of the Stormlight Handbook (p. 357).
ITEMS
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These talents apply to all your surges and infusions.
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Yes! If you can reasonably explain how you’re using your surge skill to gain advantage, you can use it with Gain Advantage. However, as with any time you use a surge skill, you must spend at least 1 Investiture to use it; the GM might decide that effects with a greater magnitude require more than 1 Investiture.
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An object maintains its shape when you transform it into another material—but it might quickly lose that shape if you turn a solid into a liquid or gas! When you transform a liquid or gas into a solid, you might selectively transform parts of the substance to create solid shapes out of the amorphous materials. The more intricate or specific the shape, the higher the DC will be for your Transformation test, at the GM’s discretion.