.: Help for stamina

Stamina (SP) is your physical endurance, one of your three resource pools,
alongside Health and Conviction. It is the fuel of the body in a fight, and
managing it is the difference between winning a long exchange and gassing
out halfway through one.

━━━ What Stamina Powers ━━━

  - Attacking: every swing you throw costs stamina, and a fast
    fighter who strikes several times in a round pays for each blow. A
    flurry costs more than a single strike.
  - Defending: dodging, parrying, and blocking all cost stamina.
  - Ranged actions: shooting and reloading both cost stamina.
  - Special moves: physical maneuvers, thrown items, sneaking,
    and starting a grapple all cost stamina.
  - Grappling: both participants spend stamina on each continuing round.
  - Fleeing: each command spends stamina once as you try to escape.
  - Getting back up: standing from prone takes a real effort.
  - Movement: travelling costs stamina, and load raises the price.

━━━ The Cost of Defending ━━━

A defensive attempt spends stamina, and it spends it whether the defense
succeeds or fails. When a blow comes at you, you meet it with whichever of
your defenses serves you best against that particular strike, and you pay
for that one alone. One incoming swing is never charged to you three times
over.

The three physical defenses are not priced alike. Dodging is the dearest,
because you throw your whole body out of the way. Blocking sits in the
middle, since a shield takes the blow for you. Parrying is the cheapest, as
a weapon already in your hand need only turn the strike aside. A style
built around dodging therefore leans on the most expensive defense in the
game, while a fighter who parries keeps more in the pool for a long fight.

Attacks on your mind and your resolve are turned aside differently.
Steeling yourself against a spell, or standing firm against a taunt, draws
on Conviction rather than Stamina, and the load you carry does not make
either of them harder.

━━━ Weight and Skill ━━━

Two things change the price of everything physical you do: load raises the
price, while the governing skill lowers it.

The load on your back makes attacking, defending, and travelling dearer.
Heavier loads demand more effort, especially as you approach what you can
carry. Weight has no effect on acts of will.

Skill runs the other way. Practice lowers the price of the actions governed
by that skill. Training a defense makes it cheaper to use as well as more
reliable.

━━━ Running Low ━━━

Voluntary physical actions require full payment. If you are too spent, they
refuse before consuming ammunition, items, cooldowns, or effects. Autoattacks,
the defense that wins an incoming contest, fleeing, and ongoing grapple upkeep
remain possible. They spend what is left and resolve without their governing
skill. Losing defense choices never charge you.

Flee spends once when you issue the command; grapple upkeep spends each
continuing round.

Low Stamina also weakens physical effectiveness. When you feel it going, break
off and recover, or flee outright.

━━━ Regeneration ━━━

Stamina returns a little each round, and much faster while you are out of
combat and at rest, the same rhythm as Health and Conviction. In-combat
recovery is deliberately slow, so extended fights are a test of endurance.
If you are losing the stamina war, disengage and let it come back before
you commit again.

━━━ Raising It ━━━

Your maximum Stamina is governed by Vitality, which, like every stat on
Gaius, grows through use. The more you fight, endure, and exert, the deeper
the pool becomes and the longer you last before it tells. Some equipment
and buffs raise Vitality (and so stamina) as well.

See Also:

  help health, help conviction, help combat, help stand
  help flee, help status, help encumbrance