Paradigm Actions
During combat, Antagonists are capable of taking extra actions during the Paradigm Phase called paradigm actions. If an Antagonist takes a paradigm action, its effects will trigger before players have the chance to switch roles. Antagonists can only use one paradigm action per round. There are four kinds of paradigm actions that all Antagonists can take:
| Name | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Retreat | N/A | If an Antagonist reaches the end of a combat round having been downed but with Forms still remaining, the GM may choose to end the battle and have the Antagonist escape the players’ grasp. At the conclusion of the battle, the players will earn 🜹 for each Form that they managed to down in addition to 🜹 from any other warriors besides the Antagonist they downed during the battle. |
| Advance Form | N/A | If an Antagonist has been downed, they may continue the fight by moving to their next Form if they still have any remaining. When this happens, the Antagonist will take its place in the Initiative Order according to its new Initiative score without the players having to call Initiative again. |
| Cause Death | Variable | Monsters and Villains have unique abilities that can cause a player character to undergo True Death while in combat. Monsters have the Devour paradigm action, which lets them drain 🜉 from downed characters before attempting to kill them, while Villains have the Coup de Grace paradigm action, which lets them spend 3 🜉 to kill off a downed Hero. |
| Dismiss Eidolon | 1 🜉 | If a Hero’s eidolon is on the battlefield, the Antagonist may cause it to disappear. If a Hero’s eidolon is dismissed in this manner, they cannot summon it again until the end of the next Paradigm Phase. |
In addition to the paradigm actions listed above, each Form of an Antagonist is capable of using a number of role- or archetype-specific eidolon capstone abilities as paradigm actions equal to their tier divided by 3 rounded down. Using one of these abilities costs 1 🜉, but does not cost any action points. The abilities that count as valid paradigm actions are Dragonslayer, Apocalypse, Second Chance, Mirror Shield, Comeback, Vortex, Wild Hunt, Assassinate, Target Acquired, Ascension, Tango, Divine Intervention, Rout, Charge!, and Spin the Revolver. The GM can also invent their own if they wish, or use any of the unique paradigm actions from the Example Antagonists section.