Surges¶

A troubadour's battle song, a fury's building ferocity, and a shadow's patient insight can all make a hero more effective in a fight. These advantages are represented by surges, with many abilities granting heroes surges during a battle.

When you gain surges, you keep track of them on your character sheet. Surges can be used in combat to deal extra damage to your foes and increase the value of your potencies, as follows:

Whenever you deal rolled damage, you can spend up to 3 surges to deal extra damage to one creature or object targeted by the ability. Each surge you spend deals extra damage equal to your highest characteristic score.
Whenever you target one or more creatures with an ability that has a potency, you can spend 2 surges to increase the potency by 1 for one target. You can't increase a potency by more than 1 using surges, though you can spend additional surges to increase the potency for multiple targets.

You lose surges as you spend them. At the end of combat, you lose any surges you have remaining.

Source: Draw Steel: Heroes · printing 1.01b