Protecting oneself from attacks such as volleys of ranged weapons, headlong charging beasts, and even destructive magical spells can be exceptionally difficult, especially if the consequences will overwhelm or ignore a shield. In these situations often the best thing for a character to do is fling themselves to the side or dive behind cover to escape. This is known as evading.

Evasion attempts require an opposed roll of the attacker’s pertinent skill versus the Evade skill of the defender. This could be anything from the Drive roll of a charioteer to the spell casting roll of a magician. If the attacker wins then they inflict damage as per normal. If the defender wins damage is completely avoided. Whatever the result, the evasive gambit leaves the defender prone, usually requiring him to regain his footing on his following turn.

If the winner of the opposed roll achieves one or more levels of success over his opponent, they may select suitable Special Effects as per normal combat.

Evading may be made more difficult or rendered impossible depending on the circumstances:

• The character is helpless or entangled

• There is nowhere to evade to (balancing on a ledge whilst scaling a cliff, for example)

• A mounted character may only evade by flinging themselves clear of the saddle

Evading is not normally performed in close combat due to its inherent disadvantages. However, a character facing a hand-to-hand attack against which he has no applicable defense due to the lack of a weapon (or an inferior sized one which won’t block the damage) may have no other choice.

In such cases evading provides only a temporary respite from a determined opponent who decides to follow up, preventing the prone character from regaining their feet. Nothing prevents a prone character from attempting to evade subsequent attacks, with the proviso that they suffer a ‘Fighting while prone’ situational penalty as they continue to roll aside or scrabble backwards away from their attacker.