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Strength: The stronger you are, well, the stronger you are. This is important for anyone who relies on close range combat of any kind. Hakuda (hand to hand) and Zanjutsu (sword style), especially. This statistic starts at 8, with a modifier of -1, when you initially create your character. As you divide your starting statistics, the stat itself increases, as does its modifier. For every two points, your modifier increases by 1. A statistic of 10 or 11 makes your modifier 0. A statistic of 12 or 13 makes your modifier 1, and so on.

Agility: This determines how agile and fast your character is, as well as their hand eye coordination is. Higher dexterity is needed by everyone to increase their chances of dodging an attack. A higher number is more desired by characters that rely on ranged attacks, these being Quincy and their bows, and shinigami with long range weapons (such as Zabimaru, Abarai Renju's blade.) This statistic starts at 8, with a modifier of -1, when you initially create your character. As you divide your starting statistics, the stat itself increases, as does its modifier. For every two points, your modifier increases by 1. A statistic of 10 or 11 makes your modifier 0. A statistic of 12 or 13 makes your modifier 1, and so on.

Vitality: This represents your character's health. This is one of the most important stats, as it increases your character's hit points, which makes them more resilient in combat. The more hit points you have, the longer you live. This statistic starts at 8, with a modifier of -1, when you initially create your character. As you divide your starting statistics, the stat itself increases, as does its modifier. For every two points, your modifier increases by 1. A statistic of 10 or 11 makes your modifier 0. A statistic of 12 or 13 makes your modifier 1, and so on.

Awareness: This represents your character ability to feel their surroundings, this increases their ability to dodge an attack by increasing his reaction time. Awareness and agility are intimately related to each other since both of them are needed for the same results. Awareness also increases your characters of feeling someone's reiatsu, or listening to someone who is trying to sneak attack you from behind. This statistic starts at 8, with a modifier of -1, when you initially create your character. As you divide your starting statistics, the stat itself increases, as does its modifier. For every two points, your modifier increases by 1. A statistic of 10 or 11 makes your modifier 0. A statistic of 12 or 13 makes your modifier 1, and so on.

Intelligence: This measures your character's mental attributes, how quickly they learn, and how good they are at designing tactics, etc. Intelligence gives you bonus skill points which are very necessary for things such as using kidou skills, unlocking your shikai and bankai, and speeding yourself up when using shunpo, and other similar skills. This statistic starts at 8, with a modifier of -1, when you initially create your character. As you divide your starting statistics, the stat itself increases, as does its modifier. For every two points, your modifier increases by 1. A statistic of 10 or 11 makes your modifier 0. A statistic of 12 or 13 makes your modifier 1, and so on.

Reiatsu: This is the most 'Bleach Flavored' status. Reiatsu represents your soul power, your ability to withstand another persons reiatsu, the power of your kidou, the damage deal by a Quincy's arrow, and other powers related to reiatsu release, such as shikai abilities. Higher levels of reiatsu are needed for obtaining Bankai, and using higher level kidou. This statistic starts at 8, with a modifier of -1, when you initially create your character. As you divide your starting statistics, the stat itself increases, as does its modifier. For every two points, your modifier increases by 1. A statistic of 10 or 11 makes your modifier 0. A statistic of 12 or 13 makes your modifier 1, and so on.

Further Explanation

Statistics work as a bonus increase for the different areas of your characters development. These stats represent the physical and mental aspects of your character, and thus, increase your combat capabilities. The higher your stats, the more badass you are, to explain it most simple. Every stat will be accompanied by a modifier that can be negative, or positive. The modifier is the number used to calculate your 'bonus' in each statistic. A modifier is always your stat number, divided by 2, minus five. The other way to figure out your modifier is the way most people use, and is really very simple.

If your stat is lower than 10, your modifier is in the negatives. If your stat is above 10, it is 0 or higher. A stat of 10-11 would have a modifier of 0. A stat of 12-13 has a modifier of 1. This increases as your statistics do. Your modifier increases by one for every two additional stat points. So increasing your strength, for example, from 12 to 14, would increase your modifier to 2. Increasing it eventually from 14 to 20, would make your modifier for that stat, a 5.

If you prefer to use the actual formula for determining your modifier, you can use your computer calculator for quick mathematics. It all depends on the preference of the user. Those who have played a table top d20 based game in the past will find this a very easy part of the game.

Modifier List

The following list helps explain how modifiers work. Make certain you skim the list, as it shows the modifiers themselves, and the pattern they follow.

8-9 [-1]
10-11 [0]
12-13 [1]
14-15 [2]
16-17 [3]
18-19 [4]
20-21 [5]
22-23 [6]
24-25 [7]
And so on.

How Stats Are Used

Strength
- Increases melee attack damage.
- Increase melee attack accuracy.
- Increase the chances of successful grapple check.
- Increases the chances of bone braking attacks.

Agility
- Increases your Initiative checks.
- Increases your Dodge bonus.
- Increases your chance of successfully striking a long range attack.

Vitality
- Increases your character Hp total.
- Increases your character stamina.

Awareness
- Increases your character dodge bonus.
- Increases your ability to sense reiatsu.
- Increases your ability to sense presences in your surroundings.

Intelligence
- Increases the number of skill points earned per level.
- Increases your character metal capacities.

Reiatsu
- Increases your soul power.
- Increases the number of Rp you earn per level.
- Increases the damage dealt by all your hadou spells.
- Increases the duration of your bakudou spells.
- Increases your reiatsu pressing.
- Must have Reiatsu 30+ to achieve Shikai.
- Must have Reiatsu 60+ to achieve Bankai.

Starting Level Stats

At level 1, you're given a total of 40 extra stat points to divide between your strength, agility, vitality, awareness, intelligence and reiatsu. All of your stats start at 8. You also have a base number of 20 HP (Hit Points) and 10 RP (Reiatsu Points). Your character sheet looks something like this:

HP: 20
RP: 10

Str: 8 [-1]
Agl: 8 [-1]
Vit: 8 [-1]
Awr: 8 [-1]
Int: 8 [-1]
Rei: 8 [-1]

After dividing up your statistics and adjusting your modifiers, your sheet may look something like this:

HP: 22
RP: 12

Str: 16 [3]
Agl: 16 [3]
Vit: 14 [2]
Awr: 12 [1]
Int: 16 [3]
Rei: 14 [2]

Your HP is adjusted by adding your Vit Modifier to the base number. So 20 + 2 = 22. 22 HP to start with. RP is adjusted by adding your Rei Modifier to the base number. So 10 + 2 = 12. 12 RP to start with. This 'amount' will increase as you gain levels, and this will all be explained a little later on in the FAQ.

The uses of all these stats and how they alter other things will be explained a little further on. For the sake of examples, we'll keep these stats for the entire F.A.Q, to make things easier on everyone. We'll call this character Shinigami X.

Leveling up, where you obtain more stats, will be discussed later in this faq.

Accuracy has always seemed to be one of the most complicated things in the battle system, and for no reason at all. Here, we'll explain the system, simplified. Accuracy bonus is based on several things, depending on your class, and the weapon you use. Accuracy is based on Strength, Agility, Zanjutsu Modifiers, and Hakuda Modifiers, as well as Kidou Modifiers. Now that we've covered that base, we'll move on to actually explaining how these work together.

Your accuracy bonus represents your ability to successfully strike and wound your enemy. Your accuracy grows higher as you obtain more battle experience, and get levels. Thanks to this, an experienced opponent will be able to use more advanced combinations of techniques as they gain more attacks with their accuracy bonus increasing.

Since not everyone is as skilled with melee as they may be with ranged, and vice versa, we've divided them down into four attack bonus styles. These bonuses are as follows.

Melee Attack: 1d20 + Accuracy Mod + Strength Mod + Zanjutusu Mod.
Ranged Attack: 1d20 + Accuracy Mod + Agility Mod + Zanjutsu Mod.
Hakuda Attack: 1d20 + Accuracy Mod + Strength Mod + Hakuda Mod.
Kidou Attack: 1d20 + Accuracy Mod + Agility Mod + Kidou Mod.

The first thing that someone will ask is 'agh, what are all these modifiers?!'. This is where our stats and skills come in. We'll use Shinigami X's character sheet thus far, to explain this:

HP: 22
RP: 12

Str: 16 [3]
Agl: 16 [3]
Vit: 14 [2]
Awr: 12 [1]
Int: 16 [3]
Rei: 14 [2]

Combat Skills-
Zanjutsu: 10 (+2 Min Dmg/+4 Max Dmg, +2 Atk)
Hakuda: 5
Hohou: 5
Kidou: 0

Passive Skills-
Reiatsu Sense: 0
Reiatsu Sense Use: 0
Reiatsu Control: 8

Now, before we can actually explain how the modifiers are used to calculate accuracy/attack, we'll explain how you get new attacks, and how your accuracy bonus increases. The charts below explain in detail when you should receive a new attack.

Accuracy Bonus & Additional Attack Info for Zanpakuto

You gain one new zanpaktou attack every fifth level you gain.

01 - 1
02 - 2
03 - 3
04 - 4
05 - 5
06 - 6/1
07 - 7/2
08 - 8/3
09 - 9/4
10 - 10/5
11 - 11/6
12 - 12/7/2
13 - 13/8/3
14 - 14/9/4
15 - 15/10/5
16 - 16/11/6
17 - 17/12/7
18 - 18/13/8/3
19 - 19/14/9/4
20 - 20/15/10/5
21 - 21/16/11/6
22 - And so on...

Accuracy Bonus & Additional Attack Info for Daisho

You gain one new daisho attack every ninth level you gain. This counts only for people who use a daisho (dual weapon) style, and this is the off-hand attack. You gain attacks with your main hand as normal.

01 - 1
02 - 2
03 - 3
04 - 4
05 - 5
06 - 6
07 - 7
08 - 8
09 - 9
10 - 10/1
11 - 11/2
12 - 12/3
13 - 13/4
14 - 14/5
15 - 15/6
16 - 16/7
17 - 17/8
18 - 18/9
19 - 19/10
20 - 20/11/1
21 - And so on, etc...

Accuracy Bonus & Additional Attack Info for Hakuda

You gain one new hakuda attack every fourth level you reach.

01 - 1
02 - 2
03 - 3
04 - 4
05 - 5/1
06 - 6/2
07 - 7/3
08 - 8/4
09 - 9/5/1
10 - 10/6/2
11 - 11/7/3
12 - 12/8/4
13 - 13/9/5/1
14 - 14/10/6/2
15 - 15/11/7/3
16 - 16/12/8/4
17 - 17/13/9/5/1
18 - 18/14/10/6/2
19 - 19/15/11/7/3
20 - 20/16/12/8/4
21 - 21/17/13/9/5/1
22 - And so on...

Accuracy Bonus & Additional Attack Info for Kidou

You never gain more than one attack for Kidou skills.

01 - 1
02 - 2
03 - 3
04 - 4
05 - 5
06 - 6
07 - 7
08 - 8
09 - 9
10 - And so on...

Since Shinigami X is level 1, his accuracy bonus for everything is 1. Now, based on his stats, lets calculate his accuracy bonus. For the sake of showing people how Daisho work, we'll calculate his stats both ways -- with a normal zanpaktou, and with a daisho zanpaktou:

Attack Calculations: Daisho Zanpaktou

# of Attacks
Sword: 1/1 (Noted like this, because you have one attack with your main sword, and one attack with your second sword.)
Hand: 1
Kidou: 1

Melee Attack
Strength Mod: 3/1
Accuracy Mod: 1/1
Zanjutsu Mod: 2/2
Total: +6/+4

Ranged Attack
Agility Mod: 3/3
Accuracy Mod: 1/1
Zanjutsu Mod: 2/2
Total: +6/+6

Attack Calculations: Normal Zanpaktou

# of Attacks
Sword: 1
Hand: 1
Kidou: 1

Melee Attack
Strength Mod: 3
Accuracy Mod: 1
Zanjutsu Mod: 2
Total: +6

Ranged Attack
Agility Mod: 3
Accuracy Mod: 1
Zanjutsu Mod: 2
Total: +6

Hakuda Attack
Strength Mod: 3
Accuracy Mod: 1
Hakuda Mod: 0
Total: +4

Kidou Attack
Agility Mod: 3
Accuracy Mod: 1
Kidou Mod: 0
Total: +4

With the simplified format for attack bonus formulations, it lets you see exactly what adds up to give you your bonuses. Makes it much simpler, yes? And, you can see what stats we used where.

When rolled according to the battle system, it will be 1d20 + Attack Bonus. Say you roll a 10. Your total attack bonus, if attacking with a normal weapon, will be 10 + 6 = 16. If someone's dodge is higher than your attack, it misses. If their dodge is lower, you hit. In the case of a tie, the attack misses. This concludes this part of our faq.

Many people find damage a hard stat to calculate, but we're going to break it down simply for you here. We'll start with zanpaktou damage. Yes, we're once again going to be using Shinigami X's stats for this, so let's post the character sheet now, so you can see what we have.

Name: Shinigami X

HP: 22
RP: 12

Str: 16 [3]
Agl: 16 [3]
Vit: 14 [2]
Awr: 12 [1]
Int: 16 [3]
Rei: 14 [2]

Combat Skills-
Zanjutsu: 10 (+2 Min Dmg/+4 Max Dmg, +2 Atk)
Hakuda: 5
Hohou: 5
Kidou: 0

Okay, now that we have the stats established, lets go ahead and see the equations for damage calculation.

According to the battle system, damage is calculated by generating random numbers with the random number feature. This can be found when first posting, one of the advantages of Gaia. We'll use Shinigami X's standard one handed zanpakuto damage as our example for it.

Note: It should be noted that numbers are considered from x to x, not x minus x. Also, when calculating your damage, remember to add straight down the column on either side. This produces your two numbers to calculate damage from. So, as with the Zanpakuto One Handed Damage, the equations are 1+3+2=6, and 10+3+4=17. This gives us the numbers 6-17. These are the random numbers we use in generation. So you do a minimum of 6 damage, and a maximum of 17 damage.

Zanpakuto Damage

Standard Damage One Handed: 1 - 10 + Str Mod "Min and Max damage"

Standard Damage Two Handed: 1 - 10 + Double Str Modifier "Min and Max damage"

Standard Damage Daisho: 1 - 10 + Str Mod "One Handed" 1 - 10 + Half Str mod "Off hand"

These phrases often confuse someone, so we'll break it down. You should also note that the term 'Half Str' is half your strength, which is calculated as your strength modifier divided by 2. If your strength is three, and half is 1.5, you round it down to 1. Simple, yes?

Zanpakuto One Handed Damage:
Base Damage: 1-10
Strength Mod: 3-3
Zanjutsu Mod: 2-4
Total Damage: 6-17

Zanpakuto Two Handed Damage:
Base Damage: 1-10
Strength Mod: 6-6
Zanjutsu Mod: 2-4
Total Damage: 9-20

Zanpakuto Daisho Damage:
Base Damage: 1-10 / 1-10
Strength Mod: 3-3 / 1-1
Zanjutsu Mod: 2-4 / 2-4
Total Damage: 6-17 / 4-14
Dual Damage: 10-31

Daisho damage is calculated a little differently, obviously, as you calculate damage for both attacks, and in the case that both attacks hit, you add the damage together to calculate a total random number. This is demonstrated above.

Shikai Damage

This is done in formula that are almost identical to above, the only difference being that they add another stat - as Shikai is a reiatsu style release, we add a Reiatsu Modifier to the damage. As your reiatsu modifier should be at least 10 by the time you have Shikai unlocked, this adds quite a bit of damage. Additionally, your strength is doubled for Shikai. This means that someone using a two handed style will use double their strength, example: 3 becomes 6. And then double that. So 6 becomes 12. We'll use Shinigami X's stats, even though the poor guy has no shikai.

Standard Shikai Damage One Handed: 1 - 10 + Str Mod "Min and Max damage" + Reiatsu Modifier.

Standard Shikai Damage Two Handed: 1 - 10 + Double Str Modifier "Min and Max damage" + Reiatsu modifier.

Standard Shikai Damage Daisho: 1 - 10 + Str Mod "One Handed" 1 - 10 + Half Str mod "Off hand" + Reiatsu Modifier.

Shikai One Handed Damage:
Base Damage: 1-10
Strength Mod: 6-6
Zanjutsu Mod: 2-4
Reiatsu Mod: 2-2
Total Damage: 11-22

Shikai Two Handed Damage:
Base Damage: 1-10
Strength Mod: 12-12
Zanjutsu Mod: 2-4
Reiatsu Mod: 2-2
Total Damage: 17-28

Shikai Daisho Damage:
Base Damage: 1-10 / 1-10
Strength Mod: 6-6 / 2-2
Zanjutsu Mod: 2-4 / 2-4
Reiatsu Mod: 2-2 / 2-2
Total Damage: 11-22 / 7-18
Dual Damage: 18-40

Hakuda Damage

When the calculations are broken down so simply, it's much easier to understand the damage, and how exactly it is calculated. We have one more type of damage to calculate, and that's hakuda. Unfortunately, until the Kidou system is completed, we won't be able to demonstrate that type of damage calculation. Once the battle system is finished, we'll be doing a revamp to explain a few things -- kidou damage being one of them. Because of the fact that the kidou system isn't really finished yet, we kind of wing it.

Anyway, on to Hakuda!

Hakuda Damage:
Base Damage: 1-4
Strength Mod: 3-3
Hakuda Mod: 0-0
Total Damage: 4-7

Adding 'reiatsu' to your strikes (one point per strike), can add additional damage by adding your reiatsu modifier, as demonstrated below.

Hakuda Damage:
Base Damage: 1-4
Strength Mod: 3-3
Hakuda Mod: 0-0
Reiatsu Mod: 2-2
Total Damage: 6-9

Hopefully the system for damage calculation is a little easier to grasp now. This concludes this section of our FAQ.

I don't know how to do combat!

You have no idea how many times we hear that. So, lets break down the system for combat the way we did everything else. Since I can't do a lot of dice rolls without the numbers making my head spin. I'll just use my tabletop dice, and write the numbers down here. For the sake of sanity, I'll take a random level 2 character to use the stats for. While this character is actually pulled from a journal, we'll call them Shinigami Y.

Let's first establish their stats, or rather, the stats that will be important to us here.

Shinigami X

HP: 31
RP: 16

Melee Attack +7
Dodge Bonus: +14
Zanpaktou Damage 6-17

Shinigami Y

HP: 32
RP: 18

Melee Attack +4
Dodge Bonus: +17
Zanpaktou Damage 5-15

For the sake of quick explanation, the term 1d20 represents a single 20 sided die (dice), which is used for rolling attack, rolling your dodge, and 'difficulty checks' against kidou, which will be explained, as we said, when the Kidou system is completely finished.

The way the equation works will be the first number as the 1d20 roll. The second number will be either the attack or dodge bonus, depending on what's being done.

Turn One
Shinigami X Attacks: 8 + 7 = 15
Shinigami Y Dodges: 7 + 17 = 24
Shinigami X Misses

Turn Two
Shinigami Y Attacks: 15 + 4 = 19
Shinigami X Dodges: 10 + 14 = 24
Shinigami Y Misses

Turn Three
Shinigami X Attacks: 20 + 7 = 27
Shinigami Y Dodges: 4 + 17 = 21
Shinigami X Hits

Damage Dealt: 6 to 17 = 12

Shinigami Y's HP: 32 - 12 = 20

Turn Four
Shinigami Y Attacks: 18 + 4 = 22
Shinigami X Dodges: 8 + 14 = 22
Shinigami X & Y's Rolls Tie
Shinigami Y Misses

Going through these four turns, it explains very simply how damage is dealt, how the battle system works, and how your rolls are done. I hope that everyone finds the system a little easier to understand now. If you're still stumped after all of this, it's hopeless for you. If you have a basic question, feel free to ask in the suggestion and questions thread. If it's something you think might be explained here, read through again, because moderators will usually route you back to this, if you have too many questions, because everything is covered here.