Official Paragons Rulebook

Game Phase

Setting up the playing field

Each player owns a Combat Board that holds up to 8 mercenaries arranged 2 deep and 4 across (its Rows and Columns). The row furthest from you is the Front Line, and the row closest to you is the Back Line.

While in the Game Phase, any card you play with the Hidden keyword goes into a 'Hidden Pile' kept apart from your Combat Board. You may view your own Hidden cards whenever you wish, but never your opponent's.

In the shared play area, a D10 or a mana counter is handy for tracking each round's Mana Threshold. The Mana Threshold is the pool of mana you begin your turn with and may spend however you like before your next turn.

Also place the Neutral Mercenary Deck in the shared area and flip its top 5 cards face up, Texas Hold'em style. This is the Mercenary Pool, a shop where players can Recruit fresh mercenaries for a cost. The Mercenary Pool sits within a broader region of the play space called the Buying Pool (a distinction that may matter in later expansions).

Whenever a mercenary is Recruited from the Buying Pool during play, refill its slot with the top card of the Neutral Mercenary Deck.

Starting play

Each player begins with 20 Life, tracked however you prefer; a D20 works well. However you track it, your life should stay visible to everyone at all times, and a Life Total can never climb above 20.

To begin, every player draws the top 5 cards of their deck. Each player may Mulligan a single time: set aside any number of cards from hand, draw back up to 5, then shuffle the set-aside cards back into the deck.

Then play begins!

The play order is always Warrior → then Mage → then Ranger.

Beginning Your Turn

When your turn begins, draw until you hold 5 cards; if you already hold 5 or more, draw just 1 instead. You always draw at least 1 card, and there is no maximum hand size.

Mana is the resource used to play cards. It is a value from 1 to 10 tied to the current round (1 mana in round 1, 2 in round 2, and so on through round 10, where it caps at 10). This value is the Mana Threshold.

The mana available to you at any point can never exceed the number of rounds that have begun, which is why it's a 'threshold' you cannot surpass. The mana you actually have on hand is your Mana Total, and it carries through your opponents' turns until your next turn starts.

Keep in mind that spent mana cannot be refunded, even if a card later nullifies an effect or stops something from entering play.

Turns happen one after another, and a full cycle of turns is called the Round (Round 1 is the round where the Mana Threshold equals 1, and so on). A Round therefore opens with the Warrior, continues with the Mage, and closes with the Ranger.

Options During Your Turn (and during your opponents’)

In broad terms, Paragons offers five kinds of Voluntary Actions:

1- You may play mercenary cards at any point on your turn. Unless a card says otherwise, a mercenary can go to any space on the Combat Board. If the chosen space already holds a mercenary, that occupant may be "bumped" into any unoccupied Surrounding space (left, right, up, or down).

Mercenaries normally arrive on the Board right away, unless a spell played in response specifically states otherwise (for example, "When a mercenary would come into play, do ____ instead.").

Unless a card explicitly allows it, a mercenary cannot attack or use Voluntary Abilities on the turn it enters play. Voluntary Abilities are mercenary abilities that only happen if the player chooses to trigger them. Abilities that apply no matter what you do are Passive Abilities and take effect right away.

2- You may start a Combat at any point on your turn by declaring an attack. Attacks are made one mercenary at a time, and damage resolves afterward. A mercenary may only attack once per turn unless a card explicitly states otherwise. When attacking, you choose whether to strike the enemy player directly or to hit any valid mercenary on their Combat Board.

If you attack a player directly, that player may Defend using any one of their unexhausted mercenaries. A Defending mercenary swaps attack power and health with the attacker (the figures on the bottom left and bottom right of the card, respectively). If the player declines to Defend, they subtract the attacker's full attack power from their Life Total.

If you instead attack a mercenary, your valid targets are: any Frontline mercenary on the enemy Combat Board (as described at the start of the Game Phase section), or any 'exposed' Backline mercenary, meaning one with no allied mercenary in the Front Line of its column.

The defending player may then choose to Defend with any unexhausted Adjacent mercenary. Adjacent mercenaries are those immediately to the left or right of the one being attacked. If the player declines to Defend, the attacker and its target swap attack power and health just as described above.

A mercenary that survives combat stays damaged until the start of the next player's turn, when its health resets to full. If a mercenary's health drops to zero or lower, it is Destroyed. Destroyed cards go to the discard pile of the player who played them (so a card you played onto your opponent's board still returns to your own discard pile when destroyed).

Attacking makes a mercenary Exhausted, shown by turning the card 90 degrees. An Exhausted mercenary cannot attack, defend, or use Voluntary Abilities that require Exhausting it. Exhausted mercenaries Recover at the start of their controller's turn, becoming unexhausted.

Defending is a special kind of Voluntary Action that can only happen in response to a declared attack.

You may start more than one Combat in a single turn. A Combat ends once a player plays a mercenary or spell that isn't part of that Combat.

3- You may use a Mercenary's Voluntary Ability at any point on your turn unless the card states otherwise. Cards that allow their activated abilities to be used on enemy turns and/or the turn they're played always include the word 'anytime' in the ability text.

4- You may Recruit Lesser Mercenaries from the Buy Pool for 2 mana, or Greater Mercenaries for 3 mana, at any point on your turn. To Recruit, take the card from the Buy Pool into your hand.

5- You may play Spells at any point on your own or your opponents' turns, as long as you have the mana for them.

Advanced Notes on Voluntary Actions

Notes on Order of Operations

Any time a player takes a Voluntary Action, the opponent may React with any of their own permitted Voluntary Actions. This works both ways, and the guiding rule is that the last thing added to the card/action chain resolves first. Once neither player wants to add anything more, the chain resolves in the order described above.

If resolving the chain makes a later action no longer legal, control passes back to the player who took that action so they can make a different legal choice with the same card or action if one exists. If no legal choice remains, that action is rescinded.

Notes on Card Activity Besides Voluntary Actions

Special cases regarding the Beginning and Ending of turns-

The draw at the Beginning of your turn is not a Voluntary Action. Voluntary Actions are only available to you after a turn has Begun and before it Ends (obvious as that sounds, it matters for competitive players mapping out the exact limits of card abilities).

The key takeaway is that abilities which trigger at the beginning or end of a turn are not 'Voluntary' under the game's rules, even when they involve a choice. It also means abilities worded this way never open the door for enemy players to React.

Notes on Mercenary Types (Melee, Ranged, Caster)

Every mercenary has a combat type, shown in the bottom left corner of the card alongside its attack power.

A Sword means the mercenary is a Melee-type. A Melee mercenary cannot attack from the Backline while an allied mercenary stands directly in front of it (it's tough to swing a sword with a friend in the way!).

An Arrow means the mercenary is a Ranged-type. Ranged mercenaries are free of the Melee restriction. The only other difference is that Ranged mercenaries carry a built-in ability: "when this card is dealt damage by a caster-type mercenary's casting ability, it deals damage back equal to its attack power (as though in combat)."

A Staff means the mercenary is a Caster-type. A Caster has every trait of a Ranged mercenary plus its own ability: "Exhaust this card anytime on your turn to deal X damage to a mercenary, where X is this card's Base Attack Power Stat."

A Caster cannot use this ability on a turn it attacks, and it cannot attack on a turn it uses this ability, even if it somehow becomes unexhausted.

Note: A mercenary's Base Stats are the numbers physically printed on the card for its attack power and health. Buffs and other stat changes are temporary, but Base Stats are forever <3

Notes on Spell Types

Spells are usually single-use, non-mercenary cards labeled as such at the bottom of the card. You can play them from your hand or reveal them from your Hidden cards at any time once their reveal conditions are met. A spell is played, takes effect, and then is generally Destroyed once it resolves.

Some spells, called Imbuements, attach permanently to a mercenary and grant effects described on the spell. An Imbuement shares the fate of the mercenary it's attached to, becoming Destroyed if that mercenary is Bounced, Destroyed, or Banished.

Enchantment spells work like Imbuements but attach to a space on the Combat Board rather than to the mercenary in it. Once successfully played onto a space, an Enchantment stays there for the rest of the game unless a new Enchantment replaces it, which Destroys the old one (a space can only hold one Enchantment at a time).

One last note: some cards copy or duplicate your spells. These copied 'cards' are removed from the game entirely once they resolve and never go to your Discard or Reserve Pile.

Concluding the Game

A player loses if their Life Total falls to 0 or below, if they must draw from their deck but cannot, or if at any point they display remarkably poor sportsmanship (yes, really). Keep it classy, folks.

Paragons is built to be played 'best of 3' in a tournament-style, TCG-like fashion. After losing a game, that player may swap any cards from their Reserve Pile (defined in the 'Assemble Your Deck' section) into their deck to turn things around, now armed with more knowledge of the opponent's strategy. If they do, the rebuilt deck must end up at exactly 30 cards.

The 'best of 3' format isn't required, and the card balance should still make 'best of 1' fun and reasonably competitive for players short on time. For the best experience, though, we recommend 'best of 3' as the most competitive, balanced, and enjoyable way to play. If you're pressed for time, consider saving the constructed decks for your next session.

The game is also finely tuned for 1-on-1. Three-for-alls are a blast and make for a real slugfest, but the most balanced results come from 1-on-1 in a Bo3 format. As a social experience, however, little beats a casual 3-for-all on game night with friends.

For bigger gatherings, we suggest one Paragons set per pair of players so you can run a Round Robin-style tournament.