LotFP Rules Cheatsheet Cheat Sheet by Red Dice Diaries

Roll 1D6 for each side that might be surprised; most normal characters are surprised on a roll of 1-2. Surprised characters are unable to act for one round.

Characters that are well hidden and prepared to perform an ambush, act from surprise on a roll of 1-4 on 1D6. The foes of surprised characters can take a free action before initiative is rolled.

There are two ways to roll initia­tive:
- One player rolls 1D6 for the player charac­ter's side and the Referee rolls 1D6 for the opposi­tion. The winner's side acts first followed by the other.
- All player characters roll 1D6 for initiative indivi­dually, and the Referee rolls once for each type of enemy they are facing. Then the Referee counts down from 6 to 1 with everyone acting on their initiative segment.

A character can attack if there is an enemy within striking range. The GM will inform the player what the enemy's AC is, and the player rolls 1D20 to determine if they hit. If the result is equal or greater than the defenders AC then the character inflicts the weapon's damage on the defender.

- Strength bonuses are added to the Attack Bonus in melee.
- Dexterity bonuses are added to the Attack Bonus in ranged combat and to AC.

Fighter, Dwarves and Elves have two extra options in combat:

- Press: A fierce attack made at the expense of defence. +2 to hit, -4 AC penalty.
- Defensive Fighting: +2 AC bonus, -4 to hit.

Magic-­Users must have both hands free (a staff or wand in hand is accept­able), Elves need just one hand free to cast a spell. Clerics must have their holy symbol in their hand for the whole round.

Spells with instan­taneous or permanent duration take effect right away. All others take effect at the beginning of the next round before initiative rolls are made.

A character may decide to defend themselves at the expense of all other actions. No other action is allowed during a Round in which a character decides to parries, although a player is free to decide they are parrying at any point before they have acted in a round.

A character with a missile weapon may decide to take a full Round to aim. This means taking absolutely no action for one round besides aiming, during which time the character has no Dex modifier to their AC. On the following round they receive a +4 to hit when firing on his action. The aiming time is in addition to normal reload time.

If a character is attacked from behind by an enemy he is not aware of, he loses all Dexterity and shield modifiers to AC and the enemy receives a further +2 bonus to hit.

When firing into a melee, randomly determine who in the melee is actually target­ed--the firing character doesn't get to choose­--b­efore rolling to hit.

If the firing character takes a full round to aim, one possible target of the firing charac­ter's choice counts as two people in the melee when the Referee comes to determine the target.

Larger targets count as two characters for random target determ­ining, truly gargantuan creatures can be fired on using the normal rules.

Helpless opponents, defined as those sleeping, bound, magically frozen, etc., are automa­tically hit for maximum damage by anyone attacking them with a melee weapon.

To make a morale test roll 2D6; if the roll is equal to or less than the Morale score then the NPC, monster or monster group is willing to stand and fight. If the result is higher than the score then they have lost their nerve. NPCs, monsters or monster groups with a Morale score of 12 never fail a cehck.

In general Morale is checked when an NPC, monster or monster group first encounters opposi­tion, and again when they are reduced to half strength.