I wondering if I am getting this right...

Unless the action card has it shown on the upper left corner, the default challenge die for a combat action is 0 challenge (purple) dice?

AND this would be for the social actions as well?

-ashe-

Any action that is done vs Target Defence (i.e. melee strike, ranged strike, troll feller strike) goes against a base roll of 1 purple dice and then as many black dice as the target has "defence".

A social roll will usually be an opposed check, in which case reference the chart on page 43 of the main rulebook.

For a straght skill check the diff is assigned by the GM, although thereis some debate about whether "normal difficulty" is 0 purple dice (simple) or 1 purple die (easy).

What we also do not currently know is the dflt difficulty for magic rolls or curry favor/channel power checks, some use 0d + mods from the card, others use 1d+mods from the card.

So when a combat action has a purple die in the upper left corner for difficulty, is then 2 purple dice used as the challenge and then whatever black dice needed for the opponent's defence?

-ASHE-

RAW from the rules:

Melee or Ranged attack actions have a default base difficulty of 1d <P> (pg 58)

Opposed checks (characteristic vs characteristic) have a base difficulty based on the chart of differences between the characteristics. (pg 43)

All other checks use a GM assigned base difficulty (pg 41-42)

What is on the action card is just a modifier to difficulty (pg 50), not the base difficulty

The Asgardian said:

Yep, you got it.

So the confusion about spellcasting is that the books haven't stated if 1 purple challenge die is standard and the channelling and spell cards are just added modifiers akin to the combat actions?

-ashe-

I think the confusion stems from the fact that the rule book specifically states that attacks are "easy" <P>, while only giving guidelines for all other uncontested actions.

If you read ToM it does have recommended challenge ratings for casting cantrips, which max out at Average 2<P>.

zelbone said:

So if you decided to Quick Cast a spell with a <P> modifier...you would roll 2 <P> for the Channel check and 3 <P> for the Spellcraft check? One <P> being a base difficulty of "easy"?

If the GM assigns a difficulty of <P> (Easy) for both the Channeling and Spellcraft, then you are partially correct. The Channeling attempt does not get an additional <P> for quickcasting, only the subsequent spellcast. Thus, it would be <P> for the Chanelling check and then <PP> to cast a spell that had no <P> modifier.

The "confusion" is what difficulty a GM should typically assign to a standard channeling check, and a standard spellcheck. The rulebook gives a list of difficulty levels, and then leaves it up to the GM. I am in the camp that Simple (no dice) is not appropriate for most spellcasting, since it makes it easier to cast a spell than make a non-magical attack. Others think having a "default" difficulty of <P> (Easy) makes spellcasting too difficult.

I personally am of the opinion that the "default" for anything should be average, simply because average kinda implies default. The GM or player should have a reason to adjust the difficulty one way or the other. Casting should be challenging. If it were easy everyone would be a spell caster.