Attack and Defense

Attacking and defensing is a process of rolling two pools of strong and standard dice and counting successes. If the attacker has more successes, it is a hit. A tie or less results in a miss and a chance for a counter-attack (in melee combat at least). The auto-block mechanic can then come into play, should the attacker score higher. After any attempt to block has been made, damage is then resolved if necessary.

Attack Pools
The size of the pool of dice and the how many of those dice are strong versus standard depends on the Talent and type of weapon you are using.

In a melee attack, your pool consists of:
 * Talent Accuracy bonuses as Strong Dice
 * Weapon Accuracy as Strong Dice
 * Strength Attribute as Standard Dice
 * Warrior Skill as Standard Dice
 * Any Bonuses to Melee Accuracy from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

In a ranged attack, your pool consists of:
 * Talent Accuracy bonuses as Strong Dice
 * Weapon Accuracy as Strong Dice
 * Attribute dice are weapon dependent. Light ranged weapons and grenades use Quickness. Heavy ranged weapons use Strength. The selected Attribute is rolled as Standard Dice.
 * Gunnery or Grenades Skill as Standard Dice
 * Any Bonuses to Ranged Accuracy from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

Defense Pools
In a melee defense, your pool consists of:
 * Weapon + Shield Parry as Strong Dice
 * Warrior Skill as Strong Dice
 * Evasion Skill as Standard Dice
 * Armor Evade as Standard Dice
 * Any Parry Bonuses from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

In a ranged defense, your pool consists of:
 * Armor Evade as Strong Dice
 * Tactics Skill as Standard Dice
 * Evasion Skill as Standard Dice
 * Quickness Attribute as Standard Dice
 * Any Bonuses to Dodge from gear or buffs as Standard Dice

Types of defense
Evasion is used to provide protection against all attacks made by an attacker and acts as the first line of defence, as the attacker must score a hit in order to deal damage. The attacker rolls all their dice to hit and the defender rolls all the dice appropriate to the attack type to avoid being hit. The defender must score higher than the attacker to avoid being hit.

Dodge is used in ranged defence only and provides 1 standard dice per point of dodge. Dodge is only provided by buffing Talents and gear. The low number of ranged opponents renders the need for a high dodge unnecessary. Additionally, even with a large amount of attributes, gear and talents focused on boosting Dodge, the probability of dodging anything but a standard cultist is exceptionally low.

Parry is used in melee defence only and provides 1 standard dice per point of parry. Parry is provided by buffing Talents, melee weapons, gauntlets, shields and gear. All classes have at least one piece of gear in addition to at least a gauntlet that will provide a parry bonus, as most enemies will attempt to engage a templar in melee.

They are not the only sources of dice for defending, as the Quickness attribute along with the Warrior & Tactics skills can also provide protection. Any armour with an Evade bonus will also contribute. Evade is different to evasion, as it can act as a strong or standard dice depending on attack type (ranged vs melee).

Example
A Level 27 Captain focused on pistol & grenade attacks equipped with Void Legion Relic Armour (58 Arm 98% def 2 Evade) and Force Blade (+4 Acc +6 Parry +8% Auto-Block 53-72 dmg 72% pen) having 14 Quickness 6 Warrior 5 Tactics 6 Evasion has the following defence dice pools:

Whilst more dice are available for ranged defence (27 vs 20), the melee defence is more reliable due to the higher proportion of strong dice (12 vs 2).