Painted Combat Effects

The battle maps already looked hand-drawn. Now the fighting does too: every blow, spell and step is painted in the same ink and watercolour as the map.

What you'll see

• Blades leave brush strokes. A slash sweeps across its target in one stroke of ink, and a critical cuts twice. Thrusts, claw rakes and heavy blows each leave their own mark.
• Blood flies away from the blow, so you can tell at a glance who hit whom.
• Spells look like their element. Fireballs burst in flame, frost shatters into shards, lightning forks from the caster to the target, and shadow bleeds like spilled ink. Holy, nature and arcane magic get their own art too.
• Blasts fill the squares they hit. The outer squares catch a beat later, so the explosion spreads outward.
• Casters ink a circle around themselves before a spell lands.
• Blink tears the map open. A violet rift swallows you and opens again where you land.
• Blocks and parries show up as wards and clashing sparks. A blow that misses only swings faintly, so a big splash always means a hit.
• Walls and zones paint themselves in. Walls of ice, fire and stone rise square by square, and fire, frost, thorns, smoke and darkness spread across the ground.

Everything fades like drying paint once it's done. On the darker table style, the same art glows instead.