Standard maneuver roll

The standard maneuver roll system is used to determine the success of most physical actions that do not fall within the attack roll system. These include special attacks performed by creatures such as the tail sweep of the cave lizard, three-toed tegu, and the snow madrinol; a soul golem's steam push; an Illoke's ground stomp; an Ithzir adept's lightning mote; and a war griffin's ride of doom.

SMR is an d100 open roll with many additive modifiers and is successful if the total exceeds 100. The original SMR system typically does not show the exact result of the roll and modifiers. The new system (SMR v2) shows the d100 and the sum of the modifiers.

SMR v2

SMRv2 is the modern maneuver system, used for all newly implemented maneuvers, including Player System Manager maneuvers. Any creatures or effects added since December 2016 should be assumed to use SMRv2. Many older creatures have been updated to SMRv2, but not all.

SMRv2 Defense

The primary defense for the defender is calculated using:

Stats

• Primary: Agility
• Secondary: Dexterity and Intuition

Skills

The following skills, based on ranks and not bonus, are weighted equally:

• Dodging
• Combat Maneuvers
• Perception
• Physical Fitness
• Shield Use for some maneuvers
• Survival for some bandit trap cases

Race

Some races receive bonus effective Dodging ranks for the purpose of SMR v2 defense:

• Aelotoi, Dark Elf, Erithian, Half-Elf, Sylvankind: 30 ranks
• Elf, Forest Gnome, Halfling: 60 ranks
• Burghal Gnome: 80 ranks

Defensive Spells and Maneuvers

The following spells and maneuvers provide a bonus to SMRv2 defense:

• Heroism (215)
• Prayer (313)
• Phase (704) (Sorcerous Lore, Demonology ranks increase this bonus.)
• Cloak of Shadows (712)
• Melgorehn's Aura (913)
• Song of Luck (1006) (no direct benefit, but randomly provides a reroll)
• Empathic Focus (1109)
• Dauntless (1606)
• Cunning Defense (provides bonus effective Dodging ranks)
• Weapon Specialization
• Weapon Bonding
• Holy Weapon (1625)
• Shield Focus (only against Sunder Shield)
• Some spells provide an indirect benefit via Dodge ranks (Mass Blur (911), Mobility (618), Song of Mirrors (1019)) or other stats/skills involved in SMRv2 defense (Assume Aspect (650), Patron's Blessing (1611)).

Maneuver Knowledge

Training in a maneuver via the PSM or your guild provides up to a 30% defensive bonus against like level creatures using that maneuver.

• Rank 1: +2%
• Rank 2: +4%
• Rank 3: +8%
• Rank 4: +12%
• Rank 5: +20%
• Guild Master: +30%

Knowledge of the spell or sphere of a magical SMRv2 attack provides up to a 20% defensive bonus against like level creatures using that magical attack.

• Access to the same sphere, but not the same spell circle: +2%
• Access to the spell circle: +8%
• Knowledge of the spell, regardless of ability to cast: +20%

Other Factors

Not all of these factors are taken into account by all maneuvers.

• Defender's stance
  • SMR attacks from hiding can pushdown the target's stance
• Force On Force
• Level difference
• Injuries
• Encumbrance
• Armor penalty
• Low spirit
• Status conditions
• Holding a shield

SMRv2 Offense

Skills

SMRv2 offensive power is primarily based on skill training per character level.

• 1x training per level is considered baseline. Diminishing returns apply over 1x, with 2x training being 15% more effective than 1x training.
• Combat Maneuvers is the primary skill for physical maneuvers, including Weapon Techniques and Shield Specializations. Secondary skills may be averaged in to find the total skill value:
  • Weapon skill for Weapon Techniques and maneuvers that utilize a weapon
  • Shield Use for Shield Specializations
  • Ambush for maneuvers from hiding
• Spells known in the spell circle is the primary skill for magical maneuvers produced with spells. Many SMR spells use Spell Aiming as a secondary skill.
  • The 2023 spell disabler review introduced a new SMR calculation in which Spell Aiming is only calculated into your SMR offense if it is beneficial to you (i.e., if your Spell Aiming ranks are greater than your spells known in the circle).
• The 2023 review also introduced the Minimum Level of Effectiveness calculation. If your SMR offensive bonus is less than a calculated minimum based on your level, the level-based calculation is used instead. This should approximately provide a 70% chance of success against like-level enemies.

Racial Size

Some races have a bonus or penalty to effective endroll margin on physical maneuvers, based on their size.

• Giantman, Half-Krolvin: +10
• Dwarf, Human: +5
• Aelotoi, Elf: -5
• Forest Gnome: -10
• Halfling: -15
• Burghal Gnome: -20

Shield Size

Shield size affects both your chance to hit and effective endroll with shield-based maneuvers.

• Small: +10% to hit, -10% endroll
• Medium: no modifiers
• Large: -5% to hit, +5% endroll
• Tower: -10% to hit, +10% endroll

Offensive Maneuvers

Weapon Specialization, Weapon Bonding, Holy Weapon and Shield Focus all provide a 2% per rank bonus for maneuvers using the appropriate weapon or shield.

Maneuver Knowledge

Training in a maneuver via the PSM or your guild provides up to a 25% offensive bonus against like level creatures with that maneuver.

• Rank 1: +2%
• Rank 2: +4%
• Rank 3: +8%
• Rank 4: +12%
• Rank 5: +20%
• Guild Master: +25%

Other Factors

Not all of these factors are taken into account by all maneuvers.

• Attacker's stance - typically stance is not a factor for any spell based SMRv2 abilities
• Level difference
• Injuries
• Encumbrance
• Armor penalty
• Low spirit
• Status conditions

Creature Maneuvers Updated to SMR v2

This is not an exhaustive list.

• Abyran'ra
• Animate Dead (explosions)
• Avians (wing buffet)
• Bandit
• Bear family creatures
• Caedera quaking
• Cat family creatures (pounce)
• Chimera family creatures
• Construct creatures: Greater construct, Lesser construct
• Crested basilisk
• Darken
• Decaying Citadel guardsman
• Dog family creatures
• Elemental Confluence's twisting vortex (air blast)
• Enormous rift crawler
• Festering taint
• Frost giant (ice chunk)
• Giant family creatures (stomp)
• Giant fog beetle (poison fog)
• Giant veaba
• Gnarled being
• Greater ice giant (ice chunk)
• Gremlock
• Griffin family creatures
• Horse family creatures (kick)
• Huge mein golem
• Illoke creatures: Illoke elder, Illoke jarl, Illoke mystic, Illoke shaman
• Kiramon
• Krolvin slaver
• Lesser ice giant (ice chunk)
• Necleriine
• Patchwork flesh monstrosity
• Plant family creatures
• Red Forest's Dreamvine (twinkling and wrap)
• Roa'ter
• Scaly burgee
• Settlement of Reim traps
• Snake family creatures
• Spider family creatures (web)
• Steam dervish
• Tail sweep
• Temple Wyneb's Emaciated hierophant, Hunch-backed dogmatist, Muscular supplicant
• Treekin creatures: Treekin druid, Treekin sapling, Treekin warrior
• Triton (drowning)
• Unholy quickening
• Vathor
• Vvrael warlock
• Water wyrd
• Worm family creatures

SMR v1

The original SMR system is used by some older spells and creature attacks.

Statistics

• Dexterity
• Agility

Race

Certain races receive a bonus to dodging maneuver attacks, with smaller racers generally having the larger bonus. Races not listed on the following table are considered to have an average ability to dodge maneuvers.

Best:	Burghal Gnomes
Excellent:	Halflings, Forest Gnomes, and Elves
Good:	Half-Elves, Dark Elves, Sylvankind, Erithians, and Aelotoi

Training

Sidebox: Armor Penalty

"The armor penalty is a relatively significant factor. For a character exactly trained for full plate at cap, it contributes a penalty a little bit above the difference between 1x and 2x PF. Overtraining in armor to reduce the action penalty and/or using Armored Evasion can reduce the maneuver penalty by a fairly significant amount, however."

- GM Coase

• Physical Fitness - Physical Fitness is the primary skill for defense against standard creature maneuvers.
• Combat Maneuvers - Combat Maneuvers is twice as effective as perception in defensive and operates on a sliding scale until they are equal in offensive.
• Perception
• Shield Use - Shield Use factors into creature maneuvers that can be blocked by a shield.

Additionally, Armor Use can provide a bonus by reducing the action penalty.

Spells

The following spells provide bonuses to evading maneuvers:

• Heroism (215)
• Prayer (313)
• Temporal Reversion (540) (randomly triggered)
• Mobility (618)
• Phase (704)
• Song of Luck (1006) (randomly triggered)
• Empathic Focus (1109)
• Premonition (1220)
• Dauntless (1606)
• Patron's Blessing (1611)

The following spells provide bonuses to blocking maneuvers:

• Spirit Barrier (102)
• Wall of Force (140)
• Elemental Barrier (430)
• Elemental Deflection (507)

Stance

Defensive stance is best.

Condition

A character's present condition also has an effect on their defenses. Low spirit will penalize the target, as well as certain types of injuries and scars.

References

• Stronghold Bowels information (saved post)
• Saved posts
• GM Konacon on stance and spell-based SMR via discord